EMILIJA TODOROVA ~ INTERVIEW

 

NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH

Poet Of The Month

EMILIJA TODOROVA

AUGUST 2025

NILAVRONILL: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive, dear poet. I would like to know your personal views on literature or poetry in general.

EMILIJA TODOROVA: I cannot imagine my life without art in all its forms. Whether I read or write, literature/poetry aids my ongoing personal growth through learning about the world and myself, seeing different perspectives that could help develop or reframe aspects of my own thinking and broadening my horizons. It is one of the means by which I not only enrich my life, but also self-actualise.

NILAVRONILL: What are the factors that have influenced you immensely in the growing phase of your literary life. When, most probably you were not certain of your future as a poet or writer. Is there anyone in your life, influenced you personally to develop your literary skills? Or inspire you to become a poet? Do you think society as a whole is the key factor in shaping up you as a poet, or your poetry altogether?

EMILIJA TODOROVA: There are several moments in my life that had a major impact on my creative trajectory. My mother and older brother instilled in me the love and appreciation of arts and beauty. I was a curious, introverted child, immersed in reading and that exposure to books from an early age had a profound influence on my development. My teachers of language and literature encouraged me to use language creatively, while avoiding the traps of clichés and sentimentality. My formative years were during a period of world-wide tectonic shifts in poetry:  experimentation with language and form, rejection of many formal constraints such as rhymed verse and metered prosodies, all of which informed my style of writing. In my country of birth (Republic of Macedonia), long gone were the days of post-war elation and heroics – poetry turned to social commentary, exploration of folklore and tradition, identity, intimate confessions. Finally, my migration to Australia and my travels around the globe expose(d) me not only to many different cultures, but also to diverse perspectives and worldviews, which keep challenging my own. These experiences make me re-examine my thinking and myself constantly – the process and result of which are reflected in my poetry.

NilavroNill: Is it possible to put into the words everything that as a poet you wish to express literarily? If not, why?

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: Generally, yes, but literature, poetry in particular, is often about nuances, and as much as the language is elastic, it has its limitations. Emotions can be difficult to verbalise in a way that creates/evokes the same richness and intensity of the experienced feeling. Complex abstract concepts could be another example. In addition to using various poetic devices, I often create coined words when I cannot find a suitable extant word, but even that doesn’t always “fill the gap” in the imagery that I would like to create.

 

NilavroNill: Do you agree with John Keats (1795-1821) on his ardent believe, “Truth is beauty, beauty is truth”? Even if we take for instance the wars especially in Europe or the fall out of second world war in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can we manage to reconcile between those truths with beauty as promulgated by Keats?

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: In the context of Keats’s poem “Ode on the Grecian Urn”, the concluding verse: ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, —that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know’, implies that we discover truth through beauty (art) and that truth is inherently beautiful. This notion certainly presents a challenge when applied to situations that generally evoke images we strongly associate with ugliness. My view of beauty, however, is not confined to the frame of aesthetics - I see beauty in the context of morality/ethics too. One could argue that even in the truths of military conflicts: hardship, suffering and even death, one can find examples of other truths that, in turn, reveal beauty - in resisting evil, in strength and resilience, in acts of heroism/ self-sacrifice for the common good, in the bonds between people, sometimes on the opposing sides, in the deepening of the understanding of self and others, etc. On the other hand, through works of art the full gamut of human condition is brought to light, making art (beauty) not only an important vehicle of discovering the truth, but also a means of raising the bar for humanity.

 

NilavroNill: Too many writers believe imagery is an essential part of poetry. Do you agree this notion? Even if we consider Leonardo da Vinci’s words that poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: I share the view that using language to create an immersive sensory experience through imagery is one of the most effective ways to engage (with) the reader and establish a connection with their personal experiences, which, in turn, can generate strong emotional responses, augmenting the poem’s impact. I cannot think of a poem that has absolutely no imagery, although there are poems that do not rely on much or on strong imagery - for example, poems grounded in dispassionate observation, abstract concepts, philosophical deliberation and so forth. Sometimes deliberately sparse imagery can invoke a more intense sensation in the reader too.

 

NilavroNill: Do you believe, passionately falling in love with a particular language is essential to excel in poetical ventures? And is it possible to write poems in multiple languages preserving same literary quality? We would like to know your own experiences.

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: You don’t have to be madly in love with a language, but you need to know the language and its nuances well to be a poet. A rich vocabulary and mastery of the language can aid originality, the use of figurative speech, creation of evocative imagery and expression of complex concepts. Yes, it is possible to create literary works of equal or similar quality in more than one language: Kundera, Nabokov, Beckett, Gibran, Pound, Tagore and quite a few others are perfect examples. I am multilingual, but predominantly write in Macedonian (my first language) and English (my third language). While I can express myself well in both languages, I feel that my poems written in Macedonian have the edge over the ones written or translated in English. This is partly due to my lingo-stylistic choices which judiciously incorporate archaic, obsolete and colloquial words for which it is hard to find equivalent in the English language. Additionally, I am not an expert in Old and Middle English to be able to confidently use English archaisms to achieve a sense of historical authenticity or create a particular tone.

 

NilavroNill: Do you consider poetry as an emotional outbursts of poet’s personal sentiments? Or is it a long journey to realize and express the universal sentiments beyond all personal limitations? Again, we want to understand your views through your personal experiences of your literary life as a poet.

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: In my case, quite a few – if not majority- of my poems use intensely personal experiences to express or evoke universal sentiments and to make them relatable, even if the reader would respond to the same experience differently due to cultural and/or individual differences.

NilavroNill: I would like to quote T. S. Eliot, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists.  You cannot value him alone; you must set him for contrast and comparison among the dead.” We would like to know your views in details on Eliot’s comments.

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: I often remark that each of us is the product and an indelible part of the whole history of humankind. I view Eliot’s views in the same context. What is now the past, has shaped the present. Artists/poets do not exist in vacuum – the whole history of art/ literature is behind them. In the same way we are indebted to our ancestors for being born, the present poets are indebted to their predecessors for setting the foundations of, and advancing literature. We continue to build on these foundations and those who come after us will continue to do the same. This in no way prevents or negates the originality of the present and future poets, but even when the established frameworks are disrupted, the disruption would not have happened without their prior existence.

 

NilavroNill: Would you consider, it should be the goal of a poet to enlightens the readers towards much greater apprehensions as well as appreciations of life and eternity in general? Or is it better to write poems only to console the poet’s soul? Do you believe, literature can eventually help people to uplift human conscience?

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: I think poetry is broad enough to serve these purposes and more. For some poets writing poetry is therapeutic, it’s a purgatory and catharsis that helps them deal with difficult and complex issues and emotions. For others, it's a way of satisfying their creative and aesthetic enthusiasm. Then there are those poets who use their poetry as a political platform, a platform for change or social commentary. If one thinks about it, no matter what the goal of individual poets might be, poetry has the potential to connect the poet with her/his readers through creating a sense of shared experience, finding beauty, inspiring self-reflection, offering a different viewing lens, giving voice to the voiceless, augmenting reality, calling for change or being a moral compass. In a world that is more and more interconnected and yet, people are more and more detached from others and themselves and experience a lack of purpose and meaning in their lives, where critical thinking is drowned in the ocean of fake news and diversity and differences are treated as something to fear rather than as an asset to a healthy society, poetry plays the role of a connector, awakener, equalizer, value-shaper, status-quo challenger… As Percy Shelley eloquently said in his essay “A Defense of Poetry”: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

 

NilavroNill: According to Tagore, poetry is essentially something to enjoy and not to comprehend mere meanings. What are your thoughts on this regard? What do you expect from your readers, should they enjoy your poems more than comprehend the essential meanings or both?

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: A poem can be enjoyed on many different levels and for a range of reasons: its rhythm, sound, pauses/silences, language, theme, the voice it projects, originality, twists, subtlety, boldness, long-lingering questions... Different people will look for different things in a poem and will engage with the same poem differently - and I am perfectly fine with that. My only expectation is that my poems will find a way to relate to their readers and will not leave them indifferent. I’d rather my poems evoked some emotion, even a dislike, than failed to arouse any interest. I certainly don’t expect each reader to interpret or respond to the poem the same way I do. The skill of the writer is to offer the reader an onion which they can peel time and time again (hopefully), each time invoking new mental images and opening up different perspectives. And yes, sometimes it may induce tears.

 

NILAVRONILL: Humanity has suffered immensely in the past, and is still suffering around the world. We all know it well. As a poet or even as a literary person, how do you foresee the future of mankind?

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: I believe that there is much to look forward to and much to be concerned about in the future.  Advances in medicine, particularly genetics, increased global interconnectedness and cooperation, AI and robotization, space exploration, climate change, quantum computing, augmented reality – these are things that are already happening and will progress at an accelerated pace, providing many benefits and opportunities, but also raising many ethical issues and considerable apprehension. Escalation of conflicts, job displacement, existential risk of AI and nuclear wars, impact of AI on human creativity (e.g. fully outsourcing the creation of content to generative AI), loss of purpose, social isolation with ensuing mental health issues, global economic collapse, increased economic and social inequality, data privacy and safety, natural disasters, environmental migration…are some of the potential (yet very real) risks the humankind is facing. Ultimately, the choices we make and the safeguards we take will largely determine our future. I am quietly optimistic.

 

NILAVRONILL: We are almost at the end of the interview. I remain obliged to you for your participation. Now, personally I would like to know your honest opinion about Our Poetry Archive. Since April 2015 we are publishing and archiving contemporary world poetry each and every month. Thank you for sharing your views and spending much time with us.

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA: Thank you for the thought-provoking questions and the opportunity to present my views on your platform. OPA brings a wide range of poetry from poets across the globe and plays an important role in making poetry more accessible, while showcasing the amazing diversity of voices, themes and styles in contemporary poetry.

 

 

EMILIJA TODOROVA is a Macedonian Australian writer. Born in Skopje, Macedonia, in 1989 she migrated to Australia where she has held various executive managerial and leadership positions. Emilija started writing and freelancing while still living in her homeland. She has won numerous awards in Macedonia, former Yugoslavia and Australia for poetry written in the Macedonian language, as well as awards in Australia, the United States and Italy for poetry and other literary forms in English. For her collection of poems Gravity Emilija received the 2022 Stojan Hristov Award for best poetry book by an expat at one of the world’s most reputable international poetry festivals – Struga Poetry Evenings. Her poems have been published in literary magazines and periodicals, and her work included in several anthologies, almanacs and poetry selections. Emilija translates from English, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian and Bulgarian.