with Jason Conway:
Q1: When did you start writing and first influences?
Jason: I started writing poetry seriously in the summer of 2016. My Earliest influences date back to the ’80s when Pam Ayres was a national celebrity in the UK. Also, John Hegley.
Q2: Who are your biggest influences today?
Jason: Z D Dicks, the Gloucestershire Poet Laureate and Anna Saunders of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, both in the UK.
Q3: Any pivotal moment when you knew you wanted to be a writer?
Jason: I experienced an epiphany whilst swimming in the sea in Woolacombe, Devon, the UK in 2016 which compelled me to write my first serious poem. In October that year, I was invited to join a new poetry group by a friend and within a month, I was hooked!
Q4: Who has helped you most with writing?
Jason: Both Z D Dicks and Anna Saunders have been a huge help to my writing through mentoring and workshops.
Q5: Where did you grow up and how did that influence your writing & did any travels away from home influence your work?
Jason: I grew up in Newcastle Under Lyme in Staffordshire, the UK and those early years exploring my local wild spaces, helped to form my passion for nature and creative expression.
Q6: What do you consider your most meaningful work you’ve done creatively so far to you?
Jason: Great question! I’ve been published in leading poetry magazines but my most meaningful and ongoing creative work is setting up my indie arts magazine, Steel jackdaw which promotes all forms of creative expression that promotes positive action, with a percentage of profits donated to charity.
Q7: Favorite activities to relax?
Jason: Natural Mindfulness – escaping into nature to recharge and be inspired. Plus, wild swimming, writing and reading poetry and creating art.
Q8: What is a favorite line/stanza from a poem/writing of yours or others?
Jason:
‘Along an unkempt path, I wandered,
passing crippled bushes
arched in obedience to harsh winds,
like lepers longing for a warming touch,
a sun that seldom visits’
Q9: Any recent or forthcoming projects that you’d like to promote?
Jason:
Edition 4 of Steel Jackdaw Magazine will be published on the 25th of October and I am part of a forthcoming collaborative arts project called PoArtry in the UK. For that, I’m creating a 3D abstract artwork based on a poets recent work. I start an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University this October and that will create a large body of new work and a finished manuscript, which I really looking forward to!
Here are my links to promote:
My social accounts:
www.facebook.com/jasonconwaypoetry
www.twitter.com/daydreamacademy
www.instagram.com/jasonleeconway
https://amzn.to/3zFnJuj Amazon link to book!
Fevers of the Mind 