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OCA tutor Csilla Toldy's first collection of poetry, Red Roots - Orange Sky' published by Lapwing

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‘Red Roots – Orange Sky’ published thumb

‘Red Roots – Orange Sky’ published

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OCA tutor Csilla Toldy’s first collection of poetry, ‘Red Roots – Orange Sky’, was launched in Belfast at the end of June.  Student Christine Gutsell, who is currently studying Writing 2: Poetry and Form, talked to Csilla about the influences on the poems in the collection, from her childhood in socialist Hungary, to her experiences as an immigrant in Paris and her current writing life in Armagh, near the border of northern and southern Ireland.

'Red Roots - Orange Sky', Csilla Toldy's first collection of poetry, published by Lapwing
‘Red Roots – Orange Sky’,
Csilla Toldy’s first collection of poetry, published by Lapwing

Is this your first collection? Have you had other collections of poetry or poems published?
This is my first collection, but many of my poems had been published before in literary magazines and on blogs, such as ‘A New Ulster’, edited by Amos Greig, and ‘Snakeskin’, edited by George Simmers. Some of these are flourishing on the net, others were printed magazines, like ‘Fortnight in Belfast’, ‘Poetry Monthly’ edited by Martin Holroyd, and the ‘Sentinel Annual Literature Anthology’.
From a writer’s point of view, what was the starting point? Did you have one poem that began a sequence or did the idea for a collection begin more fully formed?
I have been working on a collection for many years, in which I was ordering poems according to places where I lived during my life. This collection is a distilled version of that much bigger volume of poems. The sequence ‘Ghost Ride’ feels like the spine of the collection, as it is about a turning point, when I left Hungary through the green borders at the age of eighteen.
Throughout the collection there are references to communism and ‘Uncle Lenin’ (although avuncular, the effect of this is chilling).  What is your background?
Yes, until the mentioned turning point, I lived in socialist Hungary. In ‘Ghost Ride’ I talk about Uncle Lenin. This refers to a huge statue that adorned the Place of the Heroes in Budapest and as my mother was a communist he was my ‘uncle’.
‘The Sewing Machine’ has the dedication ‘for my grandmother, the self-made woman, mother of ten children’.  How autobiographical are your poems?
Many of these poems are autobiographical. In ‘The Sewing Machine’ I wanted to celebrate my grandmother’s life, who had been a talented artist and deeply Catholic. She had studied painting as a young woman, but after she married all her artistic talent was poured into recycling clothes for her ten children and into embroidery.
The order of the poems seems to be very important.  They are in two sections ‘Red Roots’ and ‘Orange Sky’. Why did you divide the collection into two and how did you decide on the final ordering of poems within each section?
I had a group of poems about childhood memories and it made sense to put them in chronological order. So ‘Red Roots’ is about my first 19 years, growing up in Hungary and leaving – and also about the first immigrant experiences in Paris. The second part, ‘Orange Sky’ is about my present life in Northern Ireland, where the sky turns orange (around 12 July, a day of celebration for Ulster protestants, often called ‘The Glorious Twelfth or Orangemen’s Day), sometimes. These are more feminist in thematics. The final poem, ‘Danube Due’, refers back to Hungary, seeing it from here where I live, and explaining why I cannot go back.
A title for a collection has to work hard but not give everything away. How did you decide on ‘Red Roots – Orange Sky’?
These are metaphors taken from two poems in the collection.
How long did the whole writing process take?
Some of the poems are very old, written more than 15 years ago, while others are part of a newer sequence. ‘In Dream’ had about five or six drafts, and I started it in 2007.
What poetry do you enjoy and have there been any poetic influences in your work?
This list could become very long.  Early influences were the great modern Hungarian poets, of course. Endre Ady and Attila Jozsef, Laszlo Nagy, Janos Pilinszky, but I admire George Szirtes, who grew up in Britain from Hungarian origins, too.  I like the work of contemporary British women poets, Gillian Clarke, Jane Weir, Carol Ann Duffy, Wendy Cope and my most recent discovery, Frieda Hughes. I am lucky enough to live near Armagh in Northern Ireland, where at the John Hewitt Summer School I can go to readings. I am going to one this summer with Simon Armitage.
It can be very difficult to get work published. How did you find a publisher?
I came across the publisher on a poetry blog. Lapwing has been publishing poetry in Northern Ireland for the past twenty years. I trusted them from the outset, but it took about six months from initial contact to publication. We launched the book at the No Alibis bookshop in Belfast.
How did you decide on the cover artwork?
The cover started off as a black and white image of my maternal grandfather on a May Day. The image was designed by Alistair Livingstone.
‘Red Roots – Orange Sky’ is available from the publisher, Lapwing, priced £10.00 hard copy and £5.00 digital edition. 


Posted by author: Elizabeth Underwood

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