Interview with Lauren Martin

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I am happy to welcome psychotherapist and poet Lauren Martin. Today, Lauren shares interesting facts about her creative journey and her new poetry collection, Night of the Hawk

Interview

What was your inspiration for this book?

I had always written without submitting until I was injured and bedridden for most of the last decade. I was inspired to try to communicate what it is like to feel different or isolated from others and what makes us all universally bonded.

Which authors have inspired you?

Poets: William Stafford, Joy Harjo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Leila Chatti, Yolanda Wisher

What is your favorite quote?

My all-time favorite poem is William Stafford’s Ask Me because I think it captures the meaning of life and the way the composite of our experiences forms a life.

Any advice for aspiring writers?

Baby steps. I think making yourself begin with writing twenty minutes a few times a week prevents it from feeling overwhelming. Then you end up getting more comfortable with it and craving more time to write.

What are you working on next?

I have a new collection of poetry I am currently submitting and a psychological essay book for which I am also seeking representation.

Blurb

Ifá. Nature. Illness. Love. Loss. Misogyny. Aging. Africa. Our wounded planet. In this sweeping yet intensely personal collection, Lauren Martin tells the untold stories of the marginalized, the abused, the ill, the disabled—the different. Inspired by her life’s experiences, including the isolation she has suffered as a result both of living with chronic illness and having devoted herself to a religion outside the mainstream, these poems explore with raw vulnerability and unflinching honesty what it is to live apart—even as one yearns for connection.

But Night of the Hawk is no lament; it is powerful, reverential, sometimes humorous, often defiant— “Oh heat me and fill me / I rise above lines”—and full of wisdom. Visceral and stirring, the poems in this collection touch on vastly disparate subjects but are ultimately unified in a singular quest: to inspire those who read them toward kindness, compassion, and questioning.

Excerpt

A SEA OF KISSES

One kiss to
Make me stay
Two to
Start the day
Three and
I’m on my way.

Author Bio and Links

Lauren Martin is a psychotherapist, poet, and a devoted Ìyânífá. Born in Boston and spending many years in New York and Paris, she currently lives in Oakland, California. Lauren studied psychology, photography and poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. She spent years writing without submitting her work due to a long shamanic journey, which led her to both Ifá, and to the writing of several books (including this collection of poems.) The upcoming publication of Night of the Hawk (SheWrites Press, 2024), reflects a deeply personal experience of illness, isolation and true shamanism.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon Buy Link

Giveaway

Lauren Martin will be awarding a $10 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Find out more here.

Follow Lauren on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

34 responses to “Interview with Lauren Martin”

  1. Lauren, your book is simply incredible. I just read it. Haunting and intuitive and filled with wisdom.

    I have 2 questions. (well, 10 really, but it sounds like you’re busy)

    1. Antonio Porchai [the Argentinian poet] said: “I know what I have given you, I do not know what you have received.” Do you trust your readers?

    2. What can we, as readers, do to help you get your next book of poems published? How can we become your street team?

    — Hanna C.

    Reply

    • omg Hanna! This is great. Thank you so much. ☺️

      I would say…I do trust my readers. I think publishers get swayed by trends but I think readers are hungry for realness. I know I am. I love movies and stories and books. Ones that have a strong voice and not the same voice.

      street team!! I need one. Follow me on social. Give me reviews. Then I think publishers listen. I have some other books that are ready to go. Thank you so so much. This is very flattering.

      Reply

      • Is there like a magic number of reviews a book needs on Amazon to be on their radar? It seems to me like all those places that work with algorithms have some kind of magic formula for “products” to be featured. Do you know? And is that the most useful forum? Other useful places for us to wave the Lauren flag? (PS — I already wrote one!)

        — Hanna C.

    • my favorite poem in life is “Ask Me” by William Stafford. I love Sandra Cisneros and her bold voice. Do you have favorites?

      Reply

    • lol. From bed (a csf requires you lie down to allow spinal fluid to go back up around your brain). But….I do love a window with sky if possible. Birds. They are so graceful and it just relaxes my mind.

      Reply

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