Scholar-poet Tanya Shirley is currently on a hot streak. She made her way on to the Style Observer’s Most RSVP’d list for the Yuletide season and, more recently, also made the cut for the paper’s coveted Ones to Watch list for 2015. Even more importantly, she just launched her second collection of poetry, The Merchant of Feathers (Peepal Tree Press), earlier this month, to a capacity crowd at the Faculty of Medical Sciences lecture theatre 3, after her critically acclaimed 2009 debut, She Who Sleeps With Bones, which has been hailed as an “insightful collection of poetry that brims with self-deprecating honesty and sexual frankness, themes of spirituality and gender relations”.

Shirley’s new book is receiving favourable notices, too. It is thematically diverse, making it difficult to be typified; however, reviewers have been describing it as a collection that speaks to “contemporary Jamaica in all its exuberance and brokenness”.

Intrigued, Bookends went behind the pages to discover the person behind the poet…

Are you working on anything at the moment?

I have a few poems that I need to revise, but I’m sure it will be a slow process because I am off from teaching for the next few months in order to complete my PhD which I’ve been working on since Whappie kill Phillup!

Everybody knows you as a poet. Is there some other genre that you’re eager to explore? Fiction, visual arts, for example?

I can’t even draw stick men and I’m pretty sure I failed art in kindergarten, but at some point I would like to try my hand at prose fiction. So far, all my stories have been awful but I hope to one day dedicate some time to working on improving my craft.

When are you at your happiest?

When there are no lizards around! Seriously though, it doesn’t take much to make me happy and since the birth of my niece Marley Rose, five years ago, just a phone call from her brightens my entire day.

What is your greatest fear?

I think I may have answered that. Let’s add to lizards, claustrophobia. I think that’s it, but I recently heard of someone who is afraid of bananas, so ask me this again in a few years! Who knows what interesting phobia I will develop.

Your poetry speaks quite a bit to your childhood memories, but which one of these memories is the most profound for you?

Many of my poems are inspired by memories and observations, but I generally allow the poems to go where they want to go so there is also a healthy dose of fiction in the poems. And memory is so subjective anyway that I am not sure I have any truly pure memories. But to answer your question, one of my first memories is of my grandfather, Carlton Beckford, sitting me in his lap and allowing me to steer his blue van down the driveway, and my grandmother, Luna Beckford, walking me back up. Of course this was no ordinary van! It had sirens, bells and whistles!

What do you dislike about yourself?

I’m a worrywart and I’m not good in a crisis. You don’t want to get stuck with me in a bad situation because I’ll immediately start shouting, “We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!”

What do you most dislike about your appearance?

Belly a front and no belly a back!

What do you most deplore in others?

Badmind! I cannot stand people who are threatened by other people’s success and therefore try to bring them down.

What’s your most treasured possession?

My passport and my visas.

What’s your favourite book?

I read so fast and so voraciously that it’s hard to remember a book 10 years down the line and I only reread books if I have to teach them, so my favourite book is usually the last book I’ve read and that would be Zadie Smith’s NW.

Which authors/poets do you enjoy most?

This list is so extensive and I’m sure I’ll forget some people, but right now I’m enjoying the most recent poetry collections by Claudia Rankine, Kei Miller, Pamela Mordecai, Lauren Alleyne and Ada Limón.

What’s your favourite film?

I’m not really a film person. I just watched the first Taken on a flight back from the UK and I’m hoping to watch more films this year so I won’t be that far behind with these sequels. It’s not a film, but I am a Scandal gladiator.

Your favourite piece of music?

I have a weakness for early 90s dancehall.

Your favourite meal?

I’m a foodie so it’s hard to choose. However, my mom, our housekeeper Marva and my beau are awesome cooks so generally I love anything prepared by them. Well, except for cow foot.

You were recently included on the Style Observer’s RSVP list as a great dinner guest. But suppose the tables were to be turned, and you were the one planning a dream dinner party of artistic/historical figures, living or dead. Who makes the cut?

The mention in that list had me cracking up because I’m such a homebody that I generally only attend functions hosted by people I adore, so I said, “Lord, please don’t let anybody feel they have to invite me anywhere.” To answer your question, though: there are many artists whose work I admire but I’ve met them and they are rude and boring, so for my dream dinner I would invite artistic figures whom I’ve met and whose work I admire: Mazola and Philip Thomas as the artists; Jacqueline Bishop as a writer/artist; Kei Miller, Patricia Powell and Tishani Doshi as the writers; Michael Bucknor, Nevada Powe, Annie Paul and Nicholas Laughlin as the critics. In my dream, I hire a jet and fly them all to Jamaica for the party. Oh, and no dead people: no one wants artistic duppies breathing down their necks!

What would the main course consist of? (Liquor, too!)

I had a lovely meal prepared by local caterer Celeste Gordon so I would leave it up to her to decide and the wine guru Christopher Reckord could suggest the wine pairings. Of course, dessert would have to be chocolate made by Nicole Shirley.

What’s the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?

If I dig deep I’m sure I can remember some things, but I focus more on the many positive things in my life and a good way to release the hold of negative remarks is to write scathing poetry about the offender. Don’t upset a poet!

You recently launched your second poetry collection to perhaps the biggest crowd ever seen at a launch party in Jamaica. It was extraordinary. What were your thoughts?

Thank you. I was truly overwhelmed. The Department of Literatures in English, UWI, Mona did an amazing job organising the launch and I could not have asked for a better evening. I truly felt the audience’s energy and the vibes were just right.

What do you think would most improve the quality of your life?

Winning the lottery!

You’re really an open book; anyone who knows your work knows quite a bit about you, like the fact that you’re a very sensual young woman, you love your new man and your grandfather was the biggest love of your life. But can you tell us something, one thing, that most people would be shocked to discover about you?

Well, my beau has been around for a couple of years now so he is not that new but he really is a God-send! In addition, he has a wonderful family and they have all enhanced the quality of my life. He is a solid man and he entered my life at a time when I needed to be reminded that there were still good, decent men in the world. As for the sensual part, I give all praise to my mother who from very early instilled in my sister and me a healthy sense of what it means to be a multifaceted woman and gave us the confidence to embrace all sides of who we are. As for the shocking part, I think I shock people every time they have a conversation with me that lasts longer than 15 minutes. I definitely have not learned the art of censorship!

Finally, Tanya, you’re a good way away from this, but when the time comes, what would you like your epitaph to read?

As I always say, no one remembers your job or the time you spent at work and no one is going to write, Here lies a poet, so what I want written is what matters: Here lies a woman who touched the world with her love, her laughter, her passion. May God forgive her for the times she erred and grant her sweet rest.

The Merchant of Feathers is available at Bookophilia and Bookland.