My interview with Tim is here .

It was the first such interview I'd done, and so is very much a beginner's piece on my part. I swotted up on Tim's work, read everything I could find, and was greatly helped by Tim's kindness to a novice. Since then I have interviewed Alison Brackenbury here and have just finished interviewing John Whitworth for the forthcoming Chimaera (due online later in September). When that is done I will start work on an interview with the Australian formalist poet Stephen Edgar for the January '09 Chimaera, and after that, English poet Ann Drysdale for the May '09 issue.

In each case I get hold of everything by the author that I can find, either through books I already have, or books sent me by the poet, or by his or her publisher (thanks, Harry Chambers!) or purchased by me from internet booksellers, particularly abebooks.com. (Alas! Not a tax deduction because it's not for purposes of income.)

The process of reading the poet's work, thinking about it, preparing questions, then follow-on questions, is very rewarding for me. Communing on a personal level with these three very different writers and personalities-- Tim, Alison and John -- has been most pleasant, enriching, and educational. I've really enjoyed getting to know them better, and learnt a great deal about poetry from these accomplished practitioners. And I hope I am getting better at my end of the job as I go on.

By the way, I don't have anything against the kind of interview Michael participated in at Bekki's blog, where a pre-set bank of questions are answered. It's just a different text type, with a different purpose. In fact I've been inspired by Michael and sent my own set of answers off to Bekki, which was great fun. And of course I rarely miss an opportunity such as that interview to promote the three-headed beast and the Creek. I did a similar interview a while ago for Nic Sebastian, here .