My first book was an adult novel, 'Down Among the Gods,' published by Virago, and I've written poems as well, a slim volume of poetry.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In 1971, when I was 29, I wrote my first volume of poetry. I am a poet, and I have published four books of my poems.
I have been writing songs and poems since I was a little girl. I started writing short scripts, which evolved into the idea for a book.
The first two books that I did by myself were long stories in verse. I knew I could do that because I'd written a lot in verse. But, verse stories are hard to sell, so my editor encouraged me to try writing in prose.
I wrote a lot of poetry when I was a teenager - mostly desperate love poetry!
I was completely devoted to reading and books from the age of seven. It took until I was 18 to have the confidence to write poetry.
I want to write a book of poetry, as well as children's stories.
I entered a poem in a poetry contest around 1987, and the poem won and I received $1,000 for it. That made me realize that maybe what I was writing was worth reading to people. After that, for some reason, I turned to novels and I've written mainly novels ever since.
My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.
I have been writing poetry since 1975. My first poetry book was published in 1986.
My first book was poetry, but I didn't write it first. I wrote it third. So my first two books were prose.