Interview with Leni King by Waid Books

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR LENI KING

Leni (short for Eleni) King is a British-Greek Lesbian writer who has produced several poetry collections and short stories.  King’s work has been acclaimed for it’s in-depth erotic insights into lesbian life as well as powerful and evocative imagery.  In her collection of poetry, Lesbian Juices, readers will find both hot and steamy erotic poetry as well as thought-provoking, romantic and spiritual poems.

Question 1:  Which do you find drives you more as an artist, your head or your heart?

I would have to say my heart.  Since my poems are about lesbian love, they are driven by the love of women and a desire to express myself in the poetic form.  Sales and ambition are about the head, but it’s the desire for freedom of expression that gives me a buzz – and poetry can go beyond what prose or other forms of art can offer.  As a lesbian, this expression is especially important since our world has been such a taboo subject until recent years.

Question 2:  How does your poetry reflect who you are as a person?

My poems are fictional, but inevitably some are loosely based on my own experience.  For example, Brighton Belle was written after a one night stand.  At the time I felt rejected that the girl did not want to continue things.  However, with time I realized that this experience was a turning point in breaking away from my painful past.   Here is a sample:

You were my warming
My universe calling

I couldn’t comprehend
Or cope just then
To find
The joy
Of the Divine
Within
Every 
Living
Thing

Question 3:  Where do you see yourself (literature-wise) in 5 years?  Do you envision turning any of your work into stage plays or movies?

Wow, Waid Books – that’s an exciting idea – stage plays or movies?  Perhaps when I finally publish my novel, but it’s harder to adapt poetry for the big screen!  In five years time it would be great to have a novel published and some more poetry collections on the shelves and to have reached a wider audience and continued to get great feedback.

Question 4:  Who are some other authors that inspire your poetry?

Black feminist poet Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992) was an outspoken lesbian that I admire. Her poetry was highly political and she saw verse as an important medium to challenge all forms of discrimination and injustice.  I Agree with her sentiment:

“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.  The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”

To see the rest of the interview please go to
http://www.waidbooks.blogspot.gr/2013/06/newsletter-june-1-2013.html