A Ten Question Interview With The Artist… Mercedes Webb-Pullman

Why do you write?

To find out what I think about things

What books do you read?

Mostly novels, now reading Elias Khoury, Gate of the Sun

What inspires you?

Usually my response to something I’ve noticed

How did you know you wanted to be a writer and when?

I’m not sure I want to be a writer. I started writing 8 years ago, during some tough times.

How Do you deal with rejection?

It makes me feel rejected for a moment but I know that editors’ tastes are all different, and the piece will probably suit someone else.

Who are some writers you admire?

The three R’s – Rumi, Rilke, Rimbaud.

Is writing the only artistic medium you do?

It is now – for thirty years, making stained glass panels was my creative outlet. Now I have elevated lead levels, and bad lungs, from not taking enough care while working.

What would be some advice you would give to your younger self?

Don’t give up!

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Don’t stop writing. Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. Write every day.

What is your writing process?

I write best in the early morning, first drafts fly out. I revise, sometimes by posting to online poetry forums or workshops, sometimes with a local workshopping group. I find there are two different processes, the flow, and the fiddling. I love the flow, and get cranky with fiddling. But it has to be done.

Mercedes Webb-Pullman graduated from IIML Victoria University Wellington with MA in Creative Writing in 2011. Her poems and short stories have appeared online and in print, in Turbine, 4th Floor, Swamp, Reconfigurations, The Electronic Bridge, poetryrepairs, Connotations, The Red Room, Otoliths, Cliterature among others, and in her books. She lives on the Kapiti Coast, New Zealand.