A woman's world: poet Leanne Moden talks her new collection

Beginning the poetry collection with darker feminist themes in A Little Like Drowning and then ending on the earnestly hopeful Ars Poetica felt like a full-circle moment when reading... was this, and choosing the poems in that particular order, intentional? 

When you're writing a collection, you have to think about what the order of the poems is and what kind of emotional story you're telling throughout the text. There are loads of ways to do this – you can do poems chronologically, by mood, or by feeling. 

But for this collection, I was really interested in, like you say, starting us off with some quite dark pieces, but ending on something hopeful – the idea that we start with a problem and we're ruminating over it, or something that feels insurmountable, then we find a way to not necessarily overcome it, but make peace with it – to find ways to live. I think that's the narrative arc that I was going for. There are some dark things about being a woman in the modern world, but there are also some really beautiful things.

Some of these poems date right back to 2017-2021. I’m curious about the creative process of writing those into this collection... 

There's lots of different ways that you can write a collection. You can start with a theme and then write the poems to theme. But what I tend to do is take my sweet time, often ten years or so, and find themes that are preoccupying me in that time period. 

My previous collection was about belonging and ostracisation and the dichotomy between those things. Then for this collection, I found that when I put the poems I was proud of together, this idea of womanhood and feminism and my navigating the world changing as I age was an emerging theme. I think you'll find this if you're a writer of poetry or short stories – when you come to look at them together, you will find, ‘Oh, this is what's been on my mind this entire time’ – those preoccupations are where the beauty of the collection lies. 

I also think it's the deteriorating political state of the world when it comes to how major political parties in the UK and other places are sort of turning on women and have been for the last sort of five, six, seven years or so. When I was in my early 20s, it felt like the progressive mainstream had sort of won, and it felt like we were in a position where a lot of the things that we had fought for had come to pass. I think what the last ten years or so has taught us is nothing's ever set in stone. Anything we fight for can be taken again, and that, I think, is in the back of my mind when I'm writing this kind of poetry.  

Which poem would you say you found the easiest or the most complicated to write, and which ones are your favourites? 

Hypothetically Speaking fell out of me because it’s based on a real event. At the time, people I told brushed it off as no big deal, but revisiting it twenty years later showed me how heavy it really was. Performing it now, I see how it speaks to others, especially women, who’ve likely been in similar situations. I was reticent to share it because my last collection had so many light, funny poems.

My favourite is the wild swimming poem (as a middle-aged white woman, I’m naturally drawn to it!). It brings together themes of the body, water, shedding inhibitions, and nature – all recurring in the collection. It’s a joy to perform. I’m also excited by the structure in some of these poems, like sonnets or rhyming pieces, which feel unfashionable now. Contemporary poetry often leans into free verse, but I love how form and content can challenge conventional patriarchal structures in poetry. Sometimes a poem needs strict form; other times, it thrives in freedom. Poetry should be liberating, not restrictive.

Do you ever feel a sense of maternal protectiveness when leading your writing workshops? You’re writing about these themes, and you see a lot of young female writers doing the same... 

One hundred percent. Creative writing workshops – at least the ones I’ve experienced – tend to attract the more disenfranchised young people: a lot of LGBTQ+ youth; young people who don’t quite know their place in the world. It clicks a switch. You want to go: 'I need to protect these creative, inspirational, lovely, sensitive young people from the world!’

Obviously, I can’t do that for everyone I work with, but I think there’s something valuable in giving them the tools to write their own stories. It’s not necessarily protection magic, but it’s a way to empower them to talk about their experiences and hopefully become agents for change. 

Tell us about other creative projects you’ve been involved with…

This summer, I was the artist-in-residence at the National Civil War Centre in Newark. It’s a lovely museum, I highly recommend visiting! The residency, funded by Arts Council England, involved exploring the hidden histories behind the museum’s objects. I spent four and a half months in a studio there, chatting with visitors, running workshops, and creating a piece of storytelling, poetry, and theatre based on those experiences.

I’m also a co-host for podcast We the Poets, alongside Jay Sandhu, Mark Grist, Charley Genever, and Keely Mills. We interview performance poets from across the UK about their practice, their challenges, and the small joys of the job. We’re in our third series now and hoping to secure funding for a fourth. Some standout episodes include Joelle Taylor discussing her latest projects and Harry Baker sharing.

I’m working on a project with Juno Women’s Aid in November. We’re running creative writing workshops with survivors of domestic abuse, culminating in a small anthology of their work. There’ll be a closed performance (given the sensitive nature of the group) and we’ll raise a bit of money for Juno too. It should be really special.

Ophelia of the Bathtub is available to purchase online and at selected outlets. 

@leannemodenpoet