Ms. Andrea Moorhead On a Writing Roll

French teacher Andrea Moorhead has three new books being published in the coming months; Terres de mémoire, Éditions de l’Atlantique, coming in 2012 and Dark Menagerie, Élise Turcotte, forthcoming, Guernica Editions, Toronto, Canada, and géocide, poèmes, à paraître, Éditions du Noroît, both coming in 2013.

Scroll: What inspired you to write your first text?

Moorhead: When I feel a certain vein has been exhausted, I gather the texts, edit them, and prepare a manuscript. I do not sit down to “write a book”; books happen and are not a starting point for me. It is the publication of a book that liberates the text, ends my intimate association with it. It becomes part of the world and makes it own way, so to speak.

Scroll: Would you say you have a specific writing style?

Moorhead: My style changes over time. I do not write now the way I did when I was 20 or 30 or even 60. I can say that narratives do not appeal to me.

Scroll: What books/poets/writers have influenced your writing most? (inspired you?)

Moorhead: I don’t believe in inspiration. I read every book of poetry I could get my hands on when I was your age–in English, in French, in Greek and Latin also. I also read many poets in translation, and have continued to do so. I tend to read a writer or a group of writers to saturation.

Scroll: What are your future projects/plans?

Moorhead: I am not doing any translation for a while. I did two long books in a row, and I don’t want that kind of intense involvement with someone else’s world right now. I am continuing my exploration of insanity, both in my English work and in French. The fragmentation of consciousness and the intrusion of multiple layers of perception in a person’s intimate psychological space fascinate me. I have been working with photos, interweaving text and image. For me, the next year or so is a time of exploration and experimentation. I’ll see what turn things take.