Communication graduate wins international poetry award
"Transparent Garden", a garden full of nostalgia, magical and natural beings, a metaphorical place in which the relationship between people and nature is explored and told. This garden, expressed through poems and lots of ink, was created by Camila Peña, communicator, poet, dancer, lover of books and, above all, dreamer.
The poet, a graduate of the School of Communication of the University of Azuay, won the II Francisco Ruiz Udiel Prize for Hispano-American Poetry, where she captivated the entire jury with her first collection of poems, which will be available the first semester of 2021. The interview focused on the inspiration behind this work and on the woman who gave life to a magical new garden.
Could you tell us a little about what Jardín Transparente is about?
Transparent Garden is a collection of poems that explores the relationship of the body with the different natural elements such as flowers, birds, the earth; and the earth as such is a metaphorical place on memory. The collection of poems talks a lot about nostalgia, it is the feeling and the basic sensation, the nostalgia for childhood, the nostalgia for the world and the intense primary feelings, without any contamination of the real world in which we live, that's what I tried create in Transparent Garden.
Who inspired you to become a writer?
I do not think that it is much about who inspires you as such, but it is a matter of training, it is the same as a doctor, he has that vocation for medicine, while others are born with a vocation for letters. So I think that having a family that likes to read and since she was a child was related to books influenced a lot.
I have always written from a very young age, my mother bought me all the children's books that there were, and I did not stop reading, I have never stopped reading, it makes me happy, well ... I don't know if happy as such, but it is a necessary place to me.
How does being able to express all your thoughts and feelings in writing make you feel?
It depends a lot on the work you want to create, but if we talk about Transparent Garden as such, I had to do a lot of research about nostalgia, because I like to deal with feelings a lot.
I wanted there to be a uniform feeling in the book, for that I had to understand very well what the image of a garden is like, I read a lot about how other writers relate to their gardens such as Virginia Wolf or Monet's garden and I learned ... it was like consulting a bibliography. When you write there is a first impulse that is full of emotion, but I always say that for me, personally, that first impulse does not work so much, yes it is fine, but that first text that comes out has to be worked and worked until we see where goes and if you have salvation.
What motivated and prompted you to submit your poems to the contest?
I think that first having worked a lot on the book is what I always say, having put a lot of effort into creating this work. Second to feel that it is consolidated, that it has a balance. And the third thing was to send some people to read, I think it is very important that they tell us what others think so I send my poems to Natalia García, Agustín Molina, my advanced poetry teacher at the School of Writers, and each one gave me their observations, their emotions, what the book made them feel as such ... and I said: there are two people that I consider very important and who have helped me grow so much and the book made them feel something, so maybe it's time to launch it into the world to see what happens.
And to you, how does your collection of poems make you feel?
It scares me, sometimes it scares me a little, but it is a place that is so special to me, that garden is already part of me. I have so much affection for the different voices that speak there, for these beings. I would like to know these enormous and carnivorous plants, I would like to be friends with those wolves.
How did you feel when you found out that you won the first prize?
Surprised, I didn't think the resolution was going to be so quick, I thought they were going to announce it in January so I was calm, and I didn't even know I was among the finalists. The truth is that I feel happy and very grateful that my work is published, I think it is very difficult when you have a first book you do not know how to launch it to the publishing world so yes, it is a total thanks and all the support that I am having.
Do you think women have gained strength in the literary field?
I believe that women have always been strong in the literary field, but their voices have been silenced by certain systems. I always say that if I have a voice now it is not because my work is an individual accomplishment, the same Virginia Wolf said in A Room of Her Own.
Every work is a collective accomplishment because others set up a very difficult path so that today I can be talking to you, so that today I can publish this book, so that they can read it. I think that Ecuadorian authors like Mónica Ojeda, María Fernanda Ampuero, Gabriela Ponce, are having the place they deserve, nothing more.
What advice could you give young writers?
Let them work, the truth is that I am still a young writer who is just beginning, so I would tell you that what helps me is trying to be as organized as possible, accept criticism, let others read me, tell me honestly what who think and try to improve and not give up in the search to find my own voice.
