by Jim Keaveney.
I’m talking with poet Demi Anter, who released her debut poetry collection Small Machine last year, over Zoom. We’re talking about our shared expat experiences; Anter was born to Austrian and German parents but grew up in the California desert. After spending some time in Berlin, Germany she is now based full-time in London but it was in the US at the University of California, Santa Barbara where Anter’s poetry career found its roots.
Anter had written poetry in high school, going as far as writing a pamphlet (“or ‘chapbook’ we would say”) but she was “super, super shy”. A college spoken word class changed that; “It was in school, in that class, that I discovered spoken word.”
The was class run by Kip Fulbeck, who had been a speaker at her freshman introduction to college. “I was really taken with his performance, and I thought, ‘wow’ – that’s connected with what I’d like to write, and maybe I could learn how to do that as well…that was the first time I had really gotten to experience spoken word and poetry as a performance.” She signed up with a friend. “It was just very challenging and we both really enjoyed being challenged in that way.”
The shyness Anter had felt before soon disappeared. As someone who now teaches too, she’s seen the same patterns in many of her classes; the students who come in and are shy or insecure about their work are often the ones that deliver something unexpected. “They can really unlock something big because maybe they’ve never had a chance to do that before.”
She likens performing poetry to an addiction. “It’s similar to comedians, when they describe the first time that they go on stage somewhere [and] they managed to make people laugh and how it feels like absolute ecstasy. You get really addicted to that feeling.”
Although she views her work as not particularly ‘funny’ – although her poem ‘Clear’ is incredibly sharp – it’s still an addictive feeling. “The feeling of getting to express yourself in a way that you don’t normally in real life or in day-to-day life, and people responding to it, and connecting, and telling you afterwards. ‘Oh, wow, I went through something like that, too’ – it’s just such a powerful feeling.”
That seems to be part of the attraction of what some people might describe as performance poetry. “There’s this whole art form, this whole way of expression that’s possible.” Though the shyness is gone, there are always elements of performing her poetry that remain daunting, even if it’s perhaps no longer the fundamentals of performing.
“In the beginning, you’re just getting the ropes; you’re just trying to figure out how do I write a poem? How do I memorise the text? How do I do a decent performance that connects with people and not lose my place? Or get really scared?” Those are the things Anter sees as the basic elements to start with. Then new challenges arrive.
“After a couple of years, the problems were more like, how do I write something new, that doesn’t sound like I’m just plagiarising myself!” She compares it to bands trying to stay fresh without alienating their audience. “You want to buy the next album, because they know what to expect, but also, not for it to sound exactly like the last album. So that can be really hard.”
She’s still trying to push herself though, particularly in her performances and she has recently completed Masters training in Actor and Performer Training.”[It] really opened up a lot of possibilities for how I use my body, for example, using space in a different way.”
She’s realised that there’s much more possibility than just standing in front of microphone and keeping the one position for the performance. “Merging a bit theatrical space or theatrical performance into poetry performance is very exciting to me as well.”
There is excitement too in performing in different settings and in different ways, whether that’s performing at Glastonbury Festival, in a gig with a live jazz band, or just in a room with a different space.
Small Machine, her debut collection, was released last year with the publisher Write Bloody. The publisher, who started in the US with Derrick C. Brown, also publish one of her first influences, Anis Mojgani. It gave gave Anter a sense of certainty about working with them; “I just had this feeling of ‘you know what, I think that would be the right place for the book.’” Anter a sense of certainty about working with them; “I just had this feeling of ‘you know what, I think that would be the right place for the book.’”
“[The book] is about the five, six years that I spent in Berlin with some journeys to other places as well while I was there, but mostly, it’s really about Berlin and my experience.” It’s a coming-of-age collection, in a way, and about “rubbing up against the rough edges of a city, which is quite rough and quite difficult to live in.” Rory MacLean, who Anter is performing with soon, described the collection as “poems that grasp for the truest words and bring joy into the world.”
She will be celebrating the one year anniversary of the publication with a special online event next month, with an extended reading from the collection.
As well as publishing her work and performing live, she’s also been using Patreon as a way to connect with her audience, and is now a Patreon Ambassador. She had been considering how she could do something, with a feeling that there needed to be something physical involved. She decided upon postcards.
“They have a poem, usually a full poem, or sometimes excerpt excerpts of poems, and a photo because I’m very into photography as well. It gives me a chance to come up with different projects and think creatively in a different way, not just about the writing, but also how do you present the writing? What other ways can you use poetry and connect with people who are not poets but are interested in poetry? And it’s been really, really fun.” excerpts of poems, and a photo because I’m very into photography as well. It gives me a chance to come up with different projects and think creatively in a different way, not just about the writing, but also how do you present the writing? What other ways can you use poetry and connect with people who are not poets but are interested in poetry? And it’s been really, really fun.”
And there are plenty of projects on the horizon for Anter – as well as her upcoming live shows, she’s also thinking about her next writing project. As someone who’s influenced by John Berger, she’s thinking about travel writing, marrying her love of travelling with writing. There’s also the potential of a television show she’s been working on and off on for a number of years – whatever comes next, Anter’s creativity shows no signs of slowing down.
