Aimée Donnell on WE ARE ALL CREATURES OF STRUGGLE

This evocative anthology captures the essence of our inner battles, exploring themes of resilience, vulnerability and self-discovery.

This is Aimée Donnell, author of the compellingly human poetry collection, We Are All Creatures of Struggle.

Ahead of her book’s release, we spoke with Aimée about how writing from a young age has shaped her as a person, how she uses writing as an important cathartic release and how the work of Victorian authors has influenced her own.

You’ve previously shared with us that you have been writing since the age of seven. How has writing helped you grow into the person you are today?

I simply wouldn't be me if I didn't write. Even people who don't know me on a personal level, but have heard about me, have always labelled me as “that girl who lives to write.”

It has always been such a freeing passion for me, allowing me to escape and find comfort and relief through my words. Even when I am not physically writing, I'm always thinking about writing, and this is something that has just always felt naturally ingrained within me ever since I was a small child. I am constantly inspired by life experiences, travel, and the world around me and I feel like it has helped to shape me into an adult who has fortunately, never lost that childhood spark of looking for magic in the everyday mundane.

The beautiful and lyrical prose in your collection discusses dark themes of depression, chronic illness and breakdowns in relationships. Was the purpose of your writing to inform readers about these themes or to offer a cathartic release from the darkness they bring?

At first, the writing of this book was for a purely selfish motive: the desperation to navigate the turbulent emotions and darkness I was feeling in an attempt to regain control of my spiralling thoughts and life.

As mentioned earlier, I wouldn't know myself if I didn't write, and so I turned to my computer and to my love of words for comfort to try to find myself again. Pretty soon, the majority of the book just came pouring out of me. It was at this stage when I started to realise, that many of the poems tackle a universal array of relatable issues, that I feel I could have benefitted from reading myself when I was going through the worst of my internal battles.

So, I decided to pursue my childhood dream of becoming a published author, with the aim of wanting my book to unite people going through similar experiences or for my writing to become a voice for those who feel like they may have lost their own along the way. I want this collection of poetry to be a comfort blanket for those suffering, and to help them feel like they are less alone.

Your work is inspired by the work and use of language of Victorian writers, correct? What about their writing do you connect with most, and which authors do you find yourself particularly drawn to?

To some extent, yes. I have always felt particularly magnetised to writers from the Victorian Era for their respect of the craft, the skillset of their imagination, and their master word-weaving abilities.

As a lover of words, I have always admired how these writers were never cheap with their descriptions, and so, maybe some more archaic, explorative word choices have slipped their way into some stanzas in a self-conscious attempt to echo the language of the old in quite a modern collection.

I wouldn't say there is any one Victorian writer who has inspired me, but I do absolutely love Charlotte Brontë and have always related to her unwavering passion of becoming a writer.

As a complex collection, exploring many dark aspects of human life, there is something painfully perfect about your title, We Are All Creatures of Struggle. How did you settle upon this name for your collection?

The title just hit me one day as if it had fallen out of the sky, and although quite lengthy and somewhat hyperbolic, it just felt like the natural name for this collection; the more I sat with it as a working title, the more I appreciated it's bigger meaning.

When we are at our most vulnerable, we can tend to allow our thoughts to dehumanise us and make us feel “lesser than” in our own heads. This is where the idea of “creatures” came from, in an attempt to remind people from the start, that even when we feel least like ourselves, at our very core, we are all human, and can relate to one another through sharing our struggles.

Finally, as writing continues to offer you an escape and a way to process your myriad feelings, do you foresee a new collection of work in the future? Where are you headed next, creatively speaking?

My dream has always been to be a published writer, and I don't plan to stop. It would only be a disservice to myself if I didn't keep going as I'll never stop writing.

I'm currently a third of the way through my second poetry collection and have started to plan an early idea I have had for a novella. One day, I would love to write a novel but for now, my focus remains on poetry. I have a few upcoming events planned with a book launch happening in York on 20th March and I am set to perform at future poetry slams and open mics around the North of England. I will also be opening for a poet at his hometown show.

I hope to keep performing and sharing my writing to connect with as many people as I can through my words, and to always continue pursuing my dream. Bring on book two!

We Are All Creatures of Struggle is available to pre-order now in paperback.

Out March 13th.