PoetryChainStitch Episode 1: Moira Walsh & Wilfried Schubert

Welcome to PoetryChainStitch, wildlings! This irregular poetry interview series is the brainchild of Managing Ed Amanda McLeod. Each brief interview allows a glimpse into the mind of a poet (or poets!), and there’s a special connection–the interviewed poet gets to nominate the next interviewee, the next link in the chainstitch!

In Episode 1, we meet Moira Walsh and Wilfried Schubert, authors of collaborative poetry chapbook Do Try This at Home, available from Femme Salvé Books.

1. What pulled you to collaborative poetry?

Wilfried Schubert: Well, we were already in the habit of sharing what 
had come up in our own work. I found Moira’s comments very encouraging 
and inspiring. So, when the lockdown confined us to our homes, the 
sharing intensified.

Moira Walsh: Collaboration lets me visit friends virtually. It’s the 
next best thing to café-hopping with Wilfried! Since June 2016, I’ve had 
great conversations with him. We started sharing our writing with each 
other around 2018. We wrote our first collab (“Beloved hands”) for a 
Magma Poetry callout in 2020; it was shortlisted. Denver Quarterly ended 
up taking it. And now it’s the first section of our chapbook.

2. How did the two of you find each other?

MW: I was studying to be a priest. During my third year of study, my 
physician died, so I asked Rev. Vicke von Behr to recommend a good 
doctor. He gave me two names. I was ill and floundering, but the name 
Schubert felt comforting. My friend Chris’s dog had been named Schubert!

WS: As Moira said, she consulted with me as her doctor. Very soon the 
conversation turned to productivity and literary creation.

3. What’s the most challenging thing about writing collaboratively?

WS: Well, sometimes my writing did not meet Moira’s standards. Tough 
luck! But that kept me from issuing unkempt lines. Moira has a lot more 
discipline in her work than I have. Makes me feel sluggish at times.

MW: The hardest part for me is when one of us is eager to create new 
work and the other is busy or exhausted. We haven’t co-written anything 
this year. We’re doing book events together instead. And this interview 
right now is a collaborative effort…

4. If you could write a letter to your younger poet selves, what advice 
would you give them?

WS: Write! Write! Write! Keep the weeding-out for later. Don’t be too 
harsh towards yourself during the initial phases of the process – but be 
relentless in polishing before you give anything out of your hands.

MW: Agreed. Send your “inner censor” on vacation. Self-criticism curdles 
the creative flow. I’d also like to tell my younger self: You don’t need 
a fancy notebook, a lot of time, or a special room. Write on scraps of 
paper. Write as you ride the subway downtown. Save everything. If an 
idea floats by, write it down. Don’t let a potential poem get away!