Mental illness and poetry: a discussion with Emily Harvey

We've featured work from Emily Harvey's Stop Romanticizing Mental Illness series on Peach before, in fact, it was one of our earliest posts, which feels pretty damn nostalgic. I had the absolute pleasure of discussing that series with Emily, as well as her upcoming chapbook, her thoughts on the "instapoet" phenomenon, and inspiration behind her work. Please read and follow her on Instagram (@emilyharveypoetry) for more of her amazing work!

MH: So should we just get into it?

EH: Sure!

So with your series, Stop Romanticizing Mental Illness, what made you want to start writing it? And what made you want to put that out into the world?

I started writing it because my friends and I were discussing some larger “instapoets” that were writing poems about “broken is beautiful” or other variations on that. Essentially they were romanticizing the mental illness and making it seem almost desirable, as if the only way to be strong was to have gone through a traumatic experience such as assault or mental illness, etc. I originally just wrote one poem responding to that, but then it morphed into a larger series where I either directly attack the romanticization or I try to give a more explicit and honest insight into  what it’s really like to suffer from mental illnesses

That’s incredible! How many parts are in the series as of now?

There are officially 33 parts, but there are other poems that haven’t been posted or weren’t officially labeled as part of the series. I believe I have 41 poems written for the series in total? At least that’s how long the chapbook collection of the series is.

So is your chapbook going to be your mental health series? 

Yes! It’s a mixture of things I’ve posted and things I haven’t, but I thought it’d be nice to have them all in the same place.

What’s the target date for your chapbook release? And what can we expect?

I don’t have a target date quite yet, especially since I have a debut poetry collection that’s in the final stages, but hopefully the end of this year or the beginning of next year. I will be editing all of the poems that were posted and my illustrator has already begun working on ideas for the chapbook. She and I have been looking into some interesting formats, as well as tying it back into my style (which will be shown in my collection first) it will likely resemble a diary of sorts. I'm considering dating the poems and using that for titling since that would also give an idea of the ups and downs of mental illness, but nothing is finalized yet! 

That sounds amazing! I love that! Do you have a website? Or where are you planning on selling the chapbook?

I’ll probably just be selling it through self-publishing on Amazon, but website creation or reaching out to a publisher would probably take place after the publishing of my collection.

I’ll definitely be on the lookout for it! What are your goals for the future, as far as writing goes?

I don’t have much of a futuristic outlook, it’s one of the things that has most defined my writing actually. I likely will consider to pursue writing as a hobby, and I may attempt some more novel-sequel writing in the future. honestly I'm just waiting to see what will happen. 

I do hope to grow my following here because I think that I could help people if only I could reach them.  As of now, I have spoken with people and they’ve told me that my writing has been very cathartic for them, and I just wish I could share that with more people

I completely agree, your mental health series is very impactful! Do you have a favorite poem you’ve written so far?

This one is my favorite in my series so far:

And this is my favorite in general:

I love those! 

What inspires you most to write a piece?

A lot of things inspire me! Strong emotions are probably my biggest inspiration. the kinds of feelings you get during a depressive episode or a panic attack really outline a lot of my mental health poems, a lot of my more love focused poems are derived from speaking with my friends about what emotions they’ve encountered through relationships, and then the rest of the poems are based off of the general emotions I feel everyday

That makes a lot of sense. Are there any poets you look up to?

I really look up to Dickinson and Emerson and I’m inspired by some of my current poetry friends, but I find I actually don’t like many modern poets. I'm not a fan of the “instapoetry” style and I think it really detracts from the art form. I've actually written a poem about that!

I totally understand what you mean about the "instapoets" and I agree. On that note, what would you like to see more of when it comes to poetry these days?

I wish there were more poets that didn’t solely write about love/romantic relationships. There are so many emotions in the world, so many different types of love, but a lot of poems are very standard cliche love poems. I also wish there were more poems about happiness, seeing as that’s a place where I struggle

I 100% agree with you there - all types of love are valid and should be represented!

I think that's all the questions I've got, thank you so much for your time, I'm so excited for your chapbook and to see everything you will do in the future!

Thank you, love.

/Thank you again, Emily, for this awesome discussion! I'm so excited to see your chapbook come to life

- Maddy