Today I’m welcoming Nour Morjan to Troutie McFish Tales to talk about her forthcoming poetry chapbook, I Am the Power You Undermine, which is out on September 30th from Victorina Press.
THE POET
“Don’t tell me stories about great kings/tell me stories about great queens who ran the world/ and were never heard of/ Don’t tell me what to become/let me become what I want/ Don’t use religion against me/or threaten me with hell/Being a slave to a man is hell enough”.
Nour Morjan is a feminist Syrian immigrant living in Shropshire. Her poems express a powerful belief in a woman’s right to own her body and she questions patriarchal societies and deep-rooted religious impositions. In Nour's poetry, she explores the internal battles she faces in her continuing search to find a sense of belonging, which she lost after moving to the UK. In constant dialogue with herself, she experiences loss of identity, cultural shock, but also self-growth. Living between cultures has given her an insight into what makes her a woman.
Welcome, Nour! I must confess right away to my readers that I was the editor of I Am the Power, and therefore I feel personally invested in your collection. It struck me when I first read the poems that many of them feel as though they are a spontaneous outpouring of strong emotions. This gives them a freshness and immediacy, as though you wrote them in a very short timeframe. In reality, how long did it take you to write this debut collection and how much re-drafting did you do before you were happy to send it out into the world?
Thank you for having me here – and of course thank you for all your help with editing my pamphlet. You are spot on, the majority of my poems were written as a spontaneous outpouring of my feelings and emotions. I wrote most of them while on the bus on my daily journey to university at the time, or when I was in a new place which inspired me or helped me explore different feelings. I wrote the poems over a period of five years or so. Individually – apart from a few exceptions – most of them did not take me long to write. For some poems, I would write the initial line as a prompt, and would then leave it for a few days, weeks, or even months, until I had explored my feelings again and knew how to translate them into a poem.
Initially, I wasn’t planning on publishing a collection, but when I was told that my poems stood a good chance of being published, I started considering re-drafting them with that in mind. I completed the initial re-drafting when I did my first ever live reading during the Refugee Week – a yearly event celebrated nationally. After that, I re-visited my poems more frequently, reading them out loud sometimes to listen to how they sounded. I finally submitted them to Victorina Press and they were accepted for publication.
I Am the Power You Undermine is a very personal piece of work, exploring your experiences and challenges as an immigrant, and your search for identity. I know you describe yourself as a Muslim feminist, and that you have very strong opinions on abortion rights, the restrictions of patriarchal societies and religious impositions. Have you ever been reluctant to express these beliefs for fear of judgement, or have you always had the courage and confidence to speak out about them? And do you think your writing has helped you to get your message across?
In all truthfulness, I was reluctant for a very long time to express my views, which I knew were radical. Coming from a very conservative Muslim society, I was always anxious about how my feminism would be received, especially when it came to comparing the things men or boys were entitled to compared to the choices that I, as a girl, and later as a woman, was given. I did argue with people around me about some of these topics, and the response was always either rejection or some form of policing. This fear haunted me for a very long time, and was the very reason why I wanted to move abroad. I wanted to have the space to explore my feminism and allow myself to grow as a woman. I fought a lot of mental battles around my religion and my society, and I had to do a lot of unlearning – exploring and challenging both myself and the society around me, including some religious people. This in turn affected my mental health. At one point, these battles were so hard to fight that I lost the will to live. Some people don’t understand that feminism isn’t just about women’s rights but also about the extent of the damage that the patriarchy has inflicted on us and on society – affecting men as well as women. I had to learn how to conquer my ground and empower myself and I did that through writing and through learning more about feminism from amazing feminist activists. Writing empowered and encouraged me to face my feelings and explore the ideas that came to me.
Do you look for inspiration outside your own life as well as to your own experiences?
My poems are predominantly about my own personal journey, but I have written from other people’s viewpoints as well. I wrote about refugees and abortion even though I am not a refugee myself and I haven’t experienced abortion. I know that going through the pain of these life events is not the same as writing about them, but I wanted to shed light on important social and political issues.
I am also aware that some of my own experiences resonate with many other people. So, while most of the poems are written from my own perspective, I know that they are universally relevant.
What was your biggest challenge when writing this collection?
The biggest challenge was when I had the urge to write but had no time to do it. Writing has always been an essential way of surviving and keeping me sane in this crazy world. But as we get older, we have other pressing commitments.
What did you enjoy most about writing the collection?
When I write, I feel more myself, and I have this bond with my inner soul which brings me truth and peace. I wrote these poems without the intention of getting them published, but simply to connect with myself and just breathe through my writing.
I know you are a pharmacist and have a busy working (and home) life. Is it difficult to find the time and space to write?
Working in healthcare certainly can be tough, and with the pandemic we had even more difficult and challenging days. I also had to study for my registration exam alongside working full time and having a family to take care of.
I must say, that with my husband’s help and support, I manage to find some time to write whenever I get the impulse. When I feel words are flowing in my head then I try to write, whether I am in the car park waiting for my shift to start or before I go to bed – or even while waiting for the food to be cooked.
Your publishers, Victorina Press, believe very strongly in the principles of bibliodiversity. What does this mean to you personally and was it a factor in your decision to submit your work to them?
I knew that submitting my poetry to a publisher believing strongly in diversity would mean my work would truly be seen from the angle I wanted it to be seen. Considering that I come from an ethnic minority background, I don’t always get to be seen as I am. Immigrants are often overlooked, and their talents can be hidden under the umbrella of social and cultural barriers. It takes both parties, the person from the ethnic minority and the surrounding society, to break down those impediments and create a more integrated society. Victorina created this space for people like me to have their voice heard and to let their talent sparkle. There was a time when I felt my background was a disadvantage to my progression in life, but through my journey I learnt how to turn the disadvantage into an advantage, and I feel that being from an ethnic minority gives a special flavour to my writing.
What is next for you as a writer? Another poetry collection or something else?
I write poetry consistently, but sometimes in Arabic. I might start translating some of the poems into English. I do want to write a book, but it is very early days. I have more than one idea floating in the air and I have not settled on one yet.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today. I can’t wait to see I Am the Power in print and I really hope it all goes well for you!
It has been my pleasure.
You can pre-order Nour’s collection HERE
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