Poet Bron Bateman on writing, memory and the female body
Bron Bateman says she makes sense of the world through writing. She is an observer of her own life, absorbing every experience with all senses so she can articulate it in poetry. She’s also the ideal interviewee. She wants to answer every question put to her, no matter how difficult, because, she says, it’s only by doing this that we can truly reach each other as writers and as humans. In this podcast, we talk to Bron about her writing process in relation to her new poetry collection, Of Memory and Furniture.
Bron’s candour – about the invasive, cold procedures of the medical profession versus the love and tenderness in the act of creation, about ceding control of the body by choice versus ceding it because someone takes that choice away from us – makes for a profoundly moving podcast. By the end of the interview, the podcast team of audio technician, producer and interviewer were in states that ranged from slight shock to sniffles to sobs, and yet we felt we’d been embraced by Bron’s articulation of shared experiences.
We invite you all to spend some time with this wonderful poet but please take care. This podcast contains references to sexual violence, miscarriages and the largely unacknowledged experience of childbirth trauma. If this podcast raises any issues for you, and you are in Australia, contact Lifeline for crisis support 24 hours a day on 13 11 14.
Show notes:
Bron Bateman’s book Of Memory and Furniture is available in all good bookstores and online now. Listen to more poetry readings and say hi to Bron on Twitter @BronBateman.
Interviewer Rebecca Higgie was the inaugural winner of the Fogarty Literary Award for writers aged 18 to 35. Her winning novel, The History of Mischief, will be in stores this September.
Also mentioned in the podcast: Adrienne Rich was an award-winning American poet, essayist and feminist. Collected Poems 1950–2012 and Selected Poems 1950–2012 are both published by W.W. Norton & Co.
Music: ‘Letter to a Daughter of St George’, from the Meat Lunch EP: Songs from Floaters. Written by Alan Fyfe. Performed by Trevor Bentley (guitar and vocals – @trevormb) and Chris Parkinson (harmonica). Produced by Blake Carnaby of Nuglife studios with impresario work by Benjamin P. Newton.
Producer: Claire Miller
Mastered and edited by: Aidan d’Adhemar