Meet the Interns - Joanne

Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre is delighted to have a group of interns every year who assist with the Centre's events and projects and run projects of their own! Over the next few weeks we're introducing you to these invaluable members of our team, and this time it's the turn of Joanne Balharrie.

What are you studying at Oxford Brookes?

I’m a second-year Publishing Media with English Literature student.

Why did you want to become an intern? What do you enjoy about it?

I wanted to be an intern so I could gain some work experience in publishing whilst trying to figure out which specific area I would like to work in. I’ve enjoyed working with ignitionpress and the Poetry Centre because of the wide variety of activities they are involved in, and because of the wonderful poetry they have published.

I have attended an editorial meeting, and have helped with running different events with the centre, such as the launch of the Wretched Strangers anthology at Waterstones in Oxford. I’m currently planning an event with my fellow intern Zoe that will hopefully be interesting (once we work out a few more details…), so watch this space!

Tell us about one of your favourite poems or collections? Why do you like them?

I particularly enjoy the works of instapoets, such as Leena Norms and Rupi Kaur. Their poetry is accessible and aesthetically pleasing, and I enjoy how easy it is to dip in and out of it. 

My favourite type of poetry at the moment, though, is Dave Gorman’s ‘Found Poetry’. I recently found my collection of it the other day, and forgot how funny it was! Gorman’s work is made up of comments from news websites on different events, compiled to make a surprisingly coherent narrative on a topic. He’s performed these poems in his TV show, Modern Life is Goodish, but they’re also available as a nice little pamphlet that rivals the design of Faber. If you fancy giving his poetry a try, I recommend this one – it’s a response to the announcement that Big Ben would stop chiming for four years for maintenance (the actual poem starts at 1:22). I’ll admit it, Gorman is no Keats or Burns, but he’ll make you giggle at the very least.

You can read Joanne's review of Heath by Penelope Shuttle and John Greening here.