The book is her fourth edition and was inspired after she fell pregnant in 2018.
During that period she received a weekly newsletter by e-mail from nappy company Huggies — a subscription she swears she didn’t sign up to.
“They kept on sending me this different info on what stage my baby was at and the things happening inside a mother’s body during certain time periods.
“It somehow piqued my interest, even though their information was generalised. I realised that every woman goes through a different experience. That’s why I started writing the book especially after my baby was born.”
With her child being the centre of attention, she struggled to do any writing. So she used the newsletters like a prompt each day.
“Eventually I got introduced to a text manipulation app that rearranged my text into a poem. It helped me feel that it was quite manageable and something I could do a little every day.”
The app glass.leaves was created by Kiwi poet, Gregory Kan and allows users to manipulate texts via an array of procedures and can be useful for analysis, critique, and deconstruction.
She says it’s been six years since her last book was published. Her current work took her five years to complete, an effort she describes as “probably longer than she was used to”.
“Parenthood really keeps you busy,” Louise says as she smiles.
Reflecting on the type of poet she recognises herself as, Louise says she thinks she is the kind of poet who likes to write about things that are happening around her — for instance about “my family and what’s happening in my life”.
“Very domestic and grounded in everyday life,” she said.
Over time she has realised her blossoming interest in women’s lives in particular, and her latest publication is an example of this — one that centres on the motherhood experience, she says.
Her personal favourites (poems) in her book include Delaying Tactics and Vessel.
The former presents a list of questions that in a way are a “means to procrastination”.
“They are kind of completely unrelated much like when women come towards the end of their pregnancy and they don’t want to think about the realities of what’s ahead,” Louise said.
“So I quite enjoyed writing it as it’s usually unusual to write a poem out of questions.”
Her latter piece is an essential fragment of what birth looks like and the early days of parenthood.
“I loved the fact that it posed a challenge as it took much longer to write than I would normally invest. It kind of incorporates bits from my own life mixed with the cerebral thought process of life and death.
“But I’m really pleased with how it turned out.”
Now residing in Dunedin. Louise grew up in Gisborne and completed her schooling here.
She recalls being an ardent lover of the English language and her parents taking her to the HB Williams Memorial Library every week.
“I used to enjoy going after school on weeknights. It’s such a cool childhood memory for me.”
She remembers having many encouraging teachers who would helped her with creative activities like music and storytelling.
In high school, although poetry wasn’t her sole focus, she felt encouraged enough to write and read a tonne of books.
When she was accepted to Victoria University in Wellington, Louise was exposed to a whole different set of writing skills — especially poetry she hadn’t experienced before.
“My interest in poetry came from there. I did take up some short writing courses
and it just went from there really,” Louise said.
To her credit, Louise is the founder and editor of Starling, an online journal for young New Zealand writers, and is also the editor for this year’s issue of Best New Zealand Poems.
Celebrate Mother’s Day by gifting Louise Wallace’s latest edition of This is a story about your mother at teherengawakapress.co.nz/this-is-a-story-about-your-mother/
