Interview with Victoria Mbabazi
Victoria Mbabazi
Victoria Mbabazi’s work can be found in several literary magazines including Rejection Letters, Minola Review, and No Contact Mag. Their chapbook chapbook is available with Anstruther Press, and their double chapbook FLIP is available with Knife Fork Book. They’re currently living in Brooklyn, New York.
Manahil: This is Canthius’ s tenth issue, and the first for which we have a guest editor, Sanna Wani. Whether you’ve been a long-time reader of Canthius or are just getting introduced us, how did you come to decide what pieces you wanted to share with the magazine?
Victoria: I saw that the issue was about joy and I remembered a poem I wrote last fall where I had come to terms with my own emotions over something I was going through. I wanted to submit it because it’s still the happiest poem I have written so far this year!
Manahil: I find writing often emerges from a conversation. What conversation is happening in your work?
Victoria: My friend Blake and I were talking about Moon Song by Phoebe Bridgers and how there are always poems about the moon and no one really writes about the sun. I said I really like writing about the sun. So from that convo I wanted to write a more specific sun poem and I have this series of Island poems I write when I am thinking of my isolation in regards to an interpersonal situation and from that desire to focus on the sun’s positivity and on feeling solid with myself I wrote the poem.
Manahil: I love how your poem, “Sun Song,” explores the idea of separation not as painful but as a part of love through imagery of the sun and the moon. I love sun and moon imagery, but I find it’s also tricky to work with because of the fear of falling into clichés. How did you avoid that when writing your poem?
Victoria: I don’t avoid it. I love cliché. I don’t care if it is cheesy or not, the sun is pretty, so is the moon. I wanna write about them. I will keep doing it.
Manahil: What is something you’re working on that you’d like to share!
Victoria: I’m writing astrology house poems!! It’s been really fun!
Manahil: In closing, what is a poem, story, painting, chapbook, or book you would like to recommend others read?
Victoria: Fig by Umang Kalra!!