Q&A with Author, Peter Devonald
Peter Devonald – Author Bio
Peter Devonald is widely published in magazines/anthologies including London Grip, Door Is A Jar, Bluebird Word, Metachrosis, Vipers Tongue, Visual Verse, Voidspace and the6ress. He won the Waltham Forest Poetry Prize 2022, Heart Of Heatons Poetry Award 2023 & 2021, joint winner FofHCS Poetry Award 2023, Forward Prize nomination 2023, two Best Of The Net nominations and shortlisted Saveas 2023 & Allingham 2023. He is poet in residence at Haus-a-rest. Won 50+ film awards, former senior judge/ mentor Peter Ustinov Awards (iemmys) and Children’s Bafta nominated.
Q&A
What is it about dragons that you love so much?
I have always been fascinated by dragons. Their unique power and majesty, their sense of awe, being greater than any other living being. To witness so much and live so many years, to realise the universe within an eye. Something so beguiling and attractive, there is something in the dragon spirit that really attracts me to them. A unique power in not being beholden to anyone – but also a strangeness, an “other”, exceptional.
I have written many poems about dragons, mainly trying to capture that sense of awe. I think that’s what we miss most in the modern world – that sense of profound wonder. We turn everyday miracles into yawns – so we have to create something beyond from our dreams.
Growing up I think I largely lost sight of dragons, but I am trying to grow young again.
“But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them.”
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Why do you enjoy writing about dragons?
“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.”
Ursula K. Le Guin
I write about dragons to become the best of my old self, to realise magic and dreams again, to be as free as dragons in flight again. I think there is so much to be said for living in our imagination sometimes, to explore mysteries and yearn for something greater – to better understand our own life.
“The question is always the same, with a dragon: will he talk with you or will he eat you? If you can count upon his doing the former, and not doing the latter, why then you’re a dragonlord.” The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
What are some of your favorite books to read featuring dragons?
As a child I was obsessed by The Shannara Trilogy by Terry Brooks, Wizard of Earthsea trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien. There is something so perfect, beautiful and inspiring about dragons – even when they’re written as morally ambiguous or worse. I also loved the Steve Jackson books, such a massive shame the feature never got funding. So many books and magazine got me through my troubled teenage years – white dwarf magazines and choose you own adventure type books in particular. Fantasy, freedom and an element of choice.
“Bilbo had heard tell and sing of dragon-hoards before, but the splendour, the lust, the glory of such treasure had never yet come home to him. His heart was filled and pierced with enchantment and with the desire of dwarves; and he gazed motionless, almost forgetting the frightful guardian[.]”
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
What got you into writing?
I think I always was a writer. I wrote reams as a child, forever filling out a4 pads! There was a balloon debate at school where I wrote a serious discourse for Einstein that was deadly dull – then made it funny and the school was in hysterics. Moments like that really stay with you, the power of words to change people’s lives.
Great English teachers really helped. I won story/ drama awards aged 15, 16 and 17, then was finalist in major radio and TV awards aged 18. I did a lot of theatre and poetry, then got into film. Made a lot of films and won a lot of international awards, lots of film festivals and a successes including a children’s Bafta nomination. I ran a film festival for years and was senior judge/ mentor Peter Ustinov Awards (iemmys).
But so many features/ TV series collapsed after being optioned/ commissioned / cast – it became very frustrating. There’s a terrible disconnect between having films written in your head and on paper – but not actually getting made. The last few years I have rejoined my first real love of writing poetry, finding it very freeing and fun. Literally hundreds of poems published and a few awards – made me feel far more liberated artistically again.
If there was one piece of advice you could give to other writers, what would it be?
Try not to take rejection personally. The number of people putting work in is always terrifying and so often work is not selected for reasons other than its quality. Books/ magazines have to balance the selected work in terms of tone and type. And TV/ film is even more fickle. It really isn’t personal – but it always feels very personal. Eventually you will get a wonderful opportunity/ break through – just make sure you are good enough when it happens.
Where can readers follow your writer platform?
Learn more about Peter at: Author Website | Instagram | Facebook | X