Cecilia Knapp is a name you may or may not have heard before; but after experiencing her work it is a name you are unlikely to forget. Former Young People’s Poet Laureate, Knapp debuted her poetry collection ‘Peach Pig’ in 2022, breathing instant life into the world of poetry. Instantaneously devastating and beautiful, Knapps collection explores the confinements and altogether disappointing experiences of life in a female body, with hard-hitting takes on loss laced throughout. 

 

Earlier this year on the 13th of March, TGS Sixth Form English Literature students had the immense privilege of having Knapp herself speak on her perspectives on poetry and her life as a writer. I had the pleasure of personally speaking with her beforehand (possibly due to overzealously arriving 15 minutes early) and gathered Knapp maintains a strong connection to the subject of English literature, reminiscing on her own Sixth Form experiences, and is also incredibly modest for someone of her brilliance. 

 

As Knapp’s talk began, she outlined her refreshing takes on the ‘rules’ of poetry and of being a writer. Knapp revealed how the way she had come to write poetry may seem unorthodox, unknowingly joining a free writing group at Camden’s Roundhouse and how her enjoyment of the class grew because of how boundless it felt. She continued on to describe the ways that writing ‘should be’ to young people. In summary; therapeutic, creative and overall enjoyable. Knapp expressed a fear that writing, specifically poetry, has become inaccessible to young people who at school are only faced with one type of poem. Poetry is a medium for anyone in any form and does not have to be intellectually restricted, or even a scholarly practice at all, as was her message when acting as Young People’s Poet Laureate. 

 

‘When young people see a poem or film on YouTube or social media, it gets rid of that preconception that poetry has to be this isolated, solitary act of opening a book and reading something old fashioned.’ -Knapp for The Guardian, 2021. 

 

Knapp progressed to describe how much of her poetry and also her debut novel ‘Little Boxes’ derived from her experiences growing up in an English sea-side town. For many a holiday destination, to Knapp these represented much of her life. She detailed how enamoured she felt with the community spirit in these towns, and how fervently her experiences influenced her writing. 

 

In a conclusion to her talk, Knapp elected to read arguably the most powerful poem from her collection ‘Peach Pig’, ‘I Used To Eat KFC Zingers Without Hating Myself’. 

 

‘’ Someone I know has won an award.

I have a memory

of your love like a lodged fish bone. Before

you died, I cut your hair. ‘’

 

Knapp details the struggles of womanhood and grief whilst speaking honestly with an intimate genuinity. Love and loss are central themes in all poems, but in none are they as truthful or as disarming as in those of Knapp.