In the Grass

Quick-Fire Q&A with Valerie Gillies

Join us as Valerie Gillies, author of When The Grass Dances, takes part in our series of quick-fire Q&As!

What is a quick-fire Q&A?

We have our interviewee pick a number at random and we ask them the general question listed next to it.

Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions, to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.

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If you could summarise your writing process in five words, what would they be?

Walking. Pencil. Notebook. Horizon. Life.

What inspired you to start writing books?

Well, I think I was inspired to write poetry at quite an early age – when I was a teenager. It was when life was speeding up, and I just started. I felt that I could express myself on the paper, whereas I wouldn't necessarily have wanted to see anything much at that age.

I found reading and writing, and reading poetry and writing poetry, always a great blessing.

What would you tell your younger self?

Just get started.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors or poets?

I have given plenty of advice over the years to young writers, because that was my main occupation. Both teaching and running creative writing groups. I always invited them to keep writing to just keep going.

Who is your favourite author?

I grew up in a generation where a poet would have answered to that question: Me.

What was your favourite book as a child?

As a child, I think it was probably the encyclopaedia because encyclopaedias were illustrated in those days, you could look at the pictures and you could turn the page to find something you didn't know anything about, which was lovely.

My dad was in the RAF, and sometimes he was away from home for a bit. When he came home, he would bring me a book of poetry, an anthology, quite old-fashioned anthologies in those days. But they did have illustrations, and they had some wonderful poems.

Where is your favourite place to write?

It is usually outdoors. But if it starts to be cold or rainy, I will scuttle for home nowadays. I didn't use to do that, but I think the combination of rain and wind would defeat most poets. So, my favourite place to write would be on the top of Amour, probably in the Southern Uplands. Also, the time of day is quite important. I like sunrise or sunset.

What are your three favourite books?

Well, I think one of them is Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book on grasses, which is called Braiding Sweetgrass. That was a book I read about three years ago. It really inspired me to think we have many of those traditions here in Scotland. The longer I thought about it, the more I was writing about the grasses in Scotland, and that's where the new collection comes from.

There's not much prose in there amongst my favourite books.

I still love Norman McCabe's collected Poems. And I love anything by John O'Donohue, especially a book of prose which he wrote that was called Eternal Echoes.

Where's your happy place?

I think it's the same bit of woodland that I described as a place to go and write. But I also have a happy place in the swimming pool when it's noisy and lots of people are diving in, including my grandchildren.

How long was this book in the works for?

Five Years.

It's been five years of research, followed by writing. When I say research, I mean field work. Going out and learning to recognise the grasses. That took quite a while. I thought I knew them, but when I looked closely, it was harder. I set out with a blade of grass and tried to find another identical one.

 If you were to summarise this book in five words, what would they be?

Scotland's wild grasses and people.

What emotional reaction do you expect people to have to the book?

I expect them to feel a sense of calm, a sense of renewal. And, at the same time, wanting to go out and spot some of these grasses that they're reading about.

I would like them to be in a mood to learn more

What was the most emotional part about writing this book?

I think there was, there is a poem about the fields where my aunt lived. After I'd written the poem, I had to read it aloud somewhere. I really felt the tears welling up because my aunt passed away. She was a microbiologist. She was a specialist in grasses and fodder for grazing animals at the agricultural college here. She was one of the first people who said to me that Scotland has wonderful grasses.

That just made me feel, yes, there's a book there.

Why did you choose the title that you did?

I think I was inspired, and I told Rebecca about this when I came home to my husband when I had been going to and from America for work for about 5 or 6 years. We had attended the powwow of different tribes at Harvard. At that panel, two boys danced the grass dance. It makes you feel what it's like to be some grass, because they start quite low and slow, and they have all kinds of ribbons and pieces of wool, with lots of grass tied on to them, they grow reaching upwards and they're dancing all the time to the sound of the drums.

That was just amazing. I found that totally inspiring. Thinking of the plains and the grasslands of

How are you planning to celebrate the publication of this book?

I'm going to Orkney to meet up with Rebecca with lots of other artists and writers to have a big party.

What do you wish you had known when you first started the writing process for this book?

I wish I could have had a glimpse of the book as it is now, because that would really have made me feel it's possible. These things, which are so beautiful and so full of life, have become a book. They are a book. And I would have had the confidence to feel that the writing is going to be a book of grasses play.