Moments of Divine Inspiration: An Interview with Séamus Isaac Fey by Evangeline Lim
I’ll be honest, I’ve never been particularly drawn to poetry. I’ve always just gravitated more towards prose. That changed when I read Séamus Isaac Fey’s “Tove’s Cento: Youth.” It was one of the first poems that truly spoke to me, and I was hooked beginning to end. It felt like reading a diary—real and raw. Not only does it capture a complex, emotional journey of youth, but it also introduced me to the concept of a cento—a poem constructed from a patchwork of existing verses. If you have yet to read this piece, I highly recommend it.
So, when I had the opportunity to interview the writer himself, I knew I couldn’t pass it up.
Séamus Isaac Fey (he/him) is a Trans writer from Chicagoland. Currently, he is the poetry editor at Hooligan Magazine and co-creative director at Rock Pocket Productions. His debut poetry collection, decompose, is out with Not a Cult Media. He has an essay in Dopamine Press’s Witch anthology (2025), edited by Michelle Tea. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Offing, Sonora Review, and others. Find him online @sfeycreates.
Oh, and fun fact: Séamus loves beating his friends at Mario Party. So, obviously, my first question had to be about his go-to character.
Séamus Isaac Fey: Thank you so much for this pertinent question. It largely depends on which Mario Party we’re playing—if Drybones is available, he’s my guy. My most frequent pick is Waluigi, as he’s available in all of the different Mario Party games. It is a widely agreed-upon truth (amongst my friends) that I have Waluigi energy. Do you play Mario Party? Who’s your character?
Evangeline Lim: Ouu, those are both good picks! I feel like Drybones is pretty underrated, honestly. I am all about Mario Party—and anything Mario adjacent, quite frankly. My first pick for Mario Party is Daisy. As a kid, I would always choose the characters that resembled me the most, so Daisy was the natural choice, and she’s never let me down. I would say in all other Mario games, though, I tend to go for Kirby.
SIF: I have nothing but love and respect for both Daisy and Kirby. Great choices. How do you feel about the new character, Pauline? My niece and I actually just unlocked Daisy in Mario Kart World, and she yelled, “SHE’S MY FAVORITE PRINCESS,” so it would appear that you are both in agreement there.
EL: Thank you, thank you. That’s just the normal reaction to Daisy! Great minds think alike. As for Pauline, I haven’t played her enough to form a solid opinion yet, so let me get back to you on that.
Switching gears, I can’t extend enough praise for your piece, “Tove’s Cento: Youth.” It was actually one of the first poems I read when I began interning at Split Lip, and it has continued to stick with me for all the right reasons. What inspired you to construct this piece?
SIF: I was so deeply impacted by Tove Ditlevsen’s The Copenhagen Trilogy that I decided halfway through Childhood I’d write a series of centos. The inspiration was so striking and lucid that I got right to work. I think each cento took about 72 hours, not including the time it took to read each part of the trilogy. I find a cento is a way to collaborate with an author, and Tove’s and my voices shake hands in so many ways. My second manuscript is about the nuclear family, childhood trauma, and many of the themes that The Copenhagen Trilogy dances with.
EL: That sounds lovely! Your time, care, and inspiration definitely shine through the poem. Furthermore, the poem ends with a glimmer of “indefinable hope” and a desire to be alone with it. Do you see this ending as hopeful, resigned, or something in between?
SIF: I see the ending as hopefully, for sure. In Youth, there’s more hope and freedom than in childhood. The speaker is older, has a glimmer of what it might look like to be out of an abusive childhood home and into the air of freedom.
EL: Got it. And circling back to the second manuscript you mentioned earlier. I’m curious, is that separate from the centos? Could you tell me more about it—it sounds incredibly intriguing.
SIF: Actually, the centos are in it! They’re a recurring form. There are a few other centos as well, aside from the three Tove’s centos. The manuscript is called Nuclear, and it explores the nuclear family, the Chernobyl exclusionary zone, and childhood trauma. Some of the poems have been published, but most of them have not. I’m getting closer to finishing it and should be working on ordering it later this year. It’s not a continuation of decompose by any means, it’s very new, but I think decompose needed to be written so that I could find my way here. The tarot card for decompose is the death card, and Nuclear’s tarot card is the tower. Very different iconography and meaning there.
EL: Ahh got it. I can’t wait to read it once it comes out! And I love your incorporation of tarot cards.
Let’s jump back in time and discuss your debut book and poetry collection, decompose, which has been out for over a year now. How has the experience been for you? Could you walk me through the writing process behind one of your favorite pieces in the collection?
SIF: The experience overall is hard to pinpoint to any one emotion. I’d say it opened a whole world in my life. It was my first collection, so naturally, there were a lot of nerves in the beginning. I kept trying to “do it right.” I’ve calmed down a lot since then, and I’ve released the book, spiritually, so that it can go do its own thing. We’re operating like very independent partners now.
What comes to mind immediately is the poem “dinosaur spine.” I like to think that we’re always writing, as in we’re always collecting pieces of poems, like pieces of a puzzle. I write about this in a craft essay I have called “Tablework.” Anyway, dinosaur spine hit me out of the blue as a moment of inspiration, and I wrote it in five minutes. I only changed one word in the editing process. It’s moments of divine inspiration like that that made Plato call us poets “god’s mouthpiece.” He thought we don’t really write anything, we only channel the divine. I write about that in a new poem I have. Poems like that are so rare for me, only one or two a year, so I recall how special that moment was. Normally, my poems take a lot longer and have a longer editing process.
EL: I love that. When inspiration strikes, you’ve got to follow it. Are there any topics or themes you haven’t explored yet but would like to write about when the inspiration hits?
SIF: Yes! I actually have my next TV Pilot, Feature film script, and novel planned out. They’re all really different from anything I’ve done before. I’m currently working on a novel and my second poetry collection (Nuclear, as mentioned). Of the novel and my last TV pilot, I would say the common themes are grief, childhood, and ghosts. Those seem to be recurring for me. I’m really excited about the next projects, but keeping them under wraps in order to focus on the great undertakings that I already have underway. Two of the next projects are loose adaptations of other works that I love—and I am so looking forward to that.
EL: I love seeing how those themes echo in your published work already, so I’m excited to see it in your upcoming projects as well! I want to know, between music, filmmaking, and writing, what would you say is your favorite form of creative expression?
SIF: Writing. I say this because I think it encompasses all of them. Screenwriting, poetry, fiction. Those are my three main focuses. I pull from my playwriting background a lot and have a lot of fun making music, yet the writing is what moves me the most.
EL: What about as a viewer or audience member—do you prefer listening to music, watching films, or reading? Which form of media do you most enjoy consuming? And do you have a favorite piece of media right now?
SIF: Good question, as I could never choose between those options. I think right now they are important at different times, and I oscillate between a dominant form of media. I’ll say that I only allow video games after my writing is done for the day, however, I’ll watch a film or read for inspiration. Music is essential for my creativity. I have playlists I write to, and I have playlists associated with each project for the most part. I also make playlists as a creative outlet, right now I’m working on a series that I call “The Club - _____” and then a corresponding era. Each playlist is what I would want to hear at the club during that decade. I think my current favorite is “The Club - 70’s” because the main character of my novel lives and breathes 70’s music. I’ve been doing a lot of research. Also, imagine dancing in the club in the 70s, and ABBA comes on? LIFE MADE. All of this to say, they’re all essential in different ways. If I had to pick one, I’d pick reading. I care more about being a good reader than anything, and in turn, if I’m not reading, I’m usually not writing.
If you like playlists or you’re curious, here are the playlists in the series that are finished (as much as anything ever is): “The Club - 70’s”, “The Club - 80’s”, “The Club - 90’s”
EL: I also love making playlists. I typically center them around a certain mood or era of my life! I’ll be checking out yours for sure!
Finally, I want to know: If you were allowed to put one sentence from anything you’ve ever written on a T-shirt or a mug, what would it be and why?
SIF: This is a good question. I think it’s difficult to answer because I could really go serious or sad, or funny here. Each one would be such a different energy. I think I’ll give you three answers, one from my new manuscript and two from decompose.
From a currently unpublished poem called Estranged in Nuclear (my new manuscript’s title): “Fault is a weightless currency.”
From decompose, my poem called potential: “does your boyfriend do it for you, really” or maybe one of the refrains from the end of my poem unclean: “There will be a day where I don’t hear you in every soft melody, man.”
I say all of this to say, I’d be much more interested in what other people would choose in terms of putting my work on a T-shirt or mug. The reader always surprises me in terms of what they resonate with. What line would you pick from “Tove’s Cento: Youth”?
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Evangeline Lim (@ev.angline) is currently pursuing English and Media Studies at the University of California Berkeley. She is an intern at Split Lip Magazine and a weekender staff-writer at The Daily Californian. Outside of reading and writing, she loves trying new restaurants, watching romcoms, and her pet turtle, Murdtle.