People Person

Abstract

The title People Person reflects the collection's subject matter in multiple ways. Poems such as "Elephant Mug" or “Kjøleskap og Magnet” resonate with the title of the collection, as the speaker is portrayed as a genuine people person capable of sentimentality and nostalgia. However, the title is also meant to be viewed with irony, as numerous poems explore an ambivalence toward human connection or societal norms. "Going to Sleep Without Your Socks On" is one of several poems that lean toward a skeptical observation of people, which becomes a central theme in my collection.

Additionally, the collection aims to challenge the idea of personhood. My poetry contains a heightened curiosity toward nonhuman creatures from nature and from myth, onto which I often project human qualities. The slug in “Sentience” and the walrus “Freya” are among the nonhuman people to be encountered in the poems, who are mourned, appreciated, and portrayed with the same level of respect that a human subject would receive. These creatures are personified for them to be viewed with empathy and appreciation by the reader.

Due to my interest in novel writing, I have a strong narrative impulse that informs my poetry. The poems “Last Christmas” or “Write As If Everyone You Know Is Dead” can be read as short stories in verse. With the collection being people-centric, character building played an integral role in the writing process, hence I gravitated towards narrative prose in the storytelling to achieve the desired characterization of the subject matter.

Another significant aspect of my writing is tone. People and relationships constitute the collection’s central theme, and the tone often determines the outcome of the speaker’s relationships with the subjects. It is through tone – whether wistful (“Pesto”) or somber (“London Pub, Oslo”) that the reader can deduce the message behind the poems. The conversational tone of poems such as “Crush!” have become a signature quality of my writing. However, as I began writing the collection I felt inclined to move away from the confessional poetry I’m used to writing, as I wanted to provide a collection with a versatile range of tones, to coincide with the speaker’s varying relationships.

Date of Award	2 Jul 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Anne Boyer (Supervisor)