Interview

Interview: James Lucas

James Lucas is a local resident, English Teacher at Sydney Grammar and has just put the finishing touches to his first poetry collection, ‘Rare Bird’, published by Recent Work Press.

 Can you tell us about Rare Bird?

Rare Bird was published in March this year by Recent Work Press. Most of the poems were written over the past six years, though there are a few much earlier poems I still like, even though a very different person wrote them. They are about art, parenthood, jazz, cricket, places I’ve visited, Sydney, the natural world, cross-country skiing, mortality, all sorts of things. Some of the poems rhyme. It was reviewed in the August Australian Book Review.

 Have you always written poetry?

I dabbled in poetry as a teenager, and from my late-twenties pursued it more seriously. At that point I had begun reading a lot more poetry, which is the key if you want to produce work that might hold interest for others. I published a few poems in journals, but then had a hiatus of about ten years until I had three months long service leave around 2014, when I got back into it. I’ve been writing regularly since then, but most gets done in school holidays. Usually it takes many months and drafts until I’m satisfied with a poem.

 You teach at Sydney Grammar. Tell us about your education/work background...

I did half a law degree when I left school, dropped out, and returned to an Arts degree, majoring in English, some years later. I decided that was what I was passionate about, so something would work out job-wise. By the time I was finishing the PhD I had come to realise I had no future as a university English academic, partly because the insecurity of work in that sector was already very apparent. I’d enjoyed teaching friends to rock climb, and thought I would enjoy high school teaching. I loved the classroom straight away. I get to discuss great literature with interesting colleagues and students who are often more idealistic than adults.

 Is English taught differently now to how we might remember when we were young?

Students study a much wider variety of texts these days, non-fiction and films for instance, and also learn to write in a wider variety of forms, beyond traditional essays and short stories. What hasn’t changed, I think, is that young people of all abilities want to be exposed to great literature, and are not put off by it being challenging. Teenagers don’t want to be patronised with pedestrian young adult fiction that someone has decided is more relevant to them.

 Are there particular poets you admire?

I don’t like poems that tell me something I already know or immediately agree with. I like poems that intrigue me, that demand to be reread, poems with inventive imagery, or compelling sound patterns. A poem is an experience, not a meaning. Most of the poets I like best do interesting things with poetic form: W H Auden, Don Paterson, Michael Donaghy, Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare.

 You have been a Lane Cove resident for 15 years. Where were you born, and why Lane Cove?

I grew up in Woollahra, and later lived in the inner city and inner west. My wife and I had been keen bushwalkers and moved to Lane Cove because we wanted good access to green space for our young family. I love that we are only half an hour to the CBD, that easy freeway access gets us away on holidays fast, the variety of places to eat, the bookshops, the library and pool, the unpretentious feel of this area. And most of all I love living right next to bushland with an amazing variety of birds.

 Can you recommend some more recent Australian authors we should read?

Judith Beveridge, Sarah Holland-Batt, Anthony Lawrence, Damen O’Brien, Jakob Ziguras.

 How do we find and purchase your collection?

Burns Bay Bookery stock it, as do Gleebooks. It is readily available through the website of Recent Work Press. The easiest way to buy poetry books is usually online from the publisher.