Interview with Hannah Skinner, aka “Hannah Scribbles”

Hannah Skinner aka “Hannah Scribbles” (Instagram), was born and bred in Northern Ireland, in and around Belfast. She still lives near Belfast with her two kids, and 3 cocker spaniel dogs, just more out in the country. Working in sales by trade, Hannah juggles side projects galore; including writing a nonfiction book, scribbling down her poetry, PR/ social media marketing for her friend’s short film “ A Letter Home”. Our interview we had to cram into a 30 minute space, to fit into her busy schedule. Not that I mind. I admire someone who can get so much done in a day, when days off seem to fly by. 

Hannah’s journey into writing goes back to when she was a teenager and she enjoyed creative writing at school, writing songs or just generally scribbling things down, but she didn’t start calling her words poetry until she was older. Hannah’s currently working on a non fiction book based on her friend’s life story. Writing a book is something she has always known she wanted to do. In terms of her Instagram poetry, Hannah doesn’t have a distinct goal, she saw other people sharing their poetry on the platform and was inspired to do the same. Describing her poetry as “raw, not too flowery”, Hannah likes to incorporate wordplay and old sayings to a certain degree where possible. She gets inspiration from life in general, but also recognises that it also comes from reflecting back to specific periods of her life. As a sufferer from Insomnia,  her late night scribbles can be as late as 4am when her mind is ticking, but not always. Hannah does not sit down and actually allocate any time for writing, or she feels the finished product is unnatural and forced. Which is why she says it was harder to edit one of her already written poems to a bridged version so it can feature in her friend’s short film’s opening credits, than writing the poem in the first place.

Hannah’s idol is Beau Taplin; she even has a personalised poem from him. I love that her idol is someone non mainstream but if I’m honest I had never heard of him. So naturally I did a bit of investigation into him myself and found he is also a poetry social media sensation, and has also released 3 books ( including a “best of” book). Now having read some of his work on social media, it makes sense why she loves his stuff so much. Her work is uniquely emulating the same kind of beautiful honesty Beau Taplin creates. 

Hannah had to initially pass upon the question “If you could meet anyone dead or alive, who would it be” and come back to it. A couple days later I got my answer. Michael Collins. I would like to recognise that as Hannah is from Northern Ireland, I can understand why for her, it would be great to talk to someone who was fundamental in shaping her homeland. 

Of Course I had to ask about guilty pleasures( I love this question). Simply sitting down to read poetry is hers. Hannah admits she is one who likes to always be busy, actually taking the time to do nothing is a rarity. Hannah also mentioned the book ” Coming Home.”  by Rosemund Pilcher, where she described the book as a love story where nothing much really happens, except the war in the background. However the book is a comfort blanket of sorts, as she knows she can return to time and time again if she struggles to pick up anything new. She was once upon a time a massive Harry Potter fan but she was very candid in saying that she really wrestles and beats herself up for probably still being one; due to JK Rowling. Her dad would go at midnight on the release day to collect the pre ordered book, then she would stay up in the night to read the latest instalment. Hannah even admitted to ruining one of the books for her brother who was simultaneously reading the book through the night. Shouting to him at 6am “Dumbledore’s dead”, because she was a faster reader than he. Her brother I imagine wasn’t best pleased to receive big spoilers at the time, but I hope he sees the funny side now. Last but not least, even though we didn’t have any deep conversation about this, Hannah did mention one of her favourite authors is the crime writer Patricia Cornwell and that she has all her books. I imagine a lot of people have that one author that they can binge through all their books, including me. ( Any guesses?)

I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know Hannah a bit through my interview with her. I have another interview with another poet coming up soon but in the meantime,be sure to check out Hannah’s Instagram here, and her friend’s short film “The Letter Home” page here. 

© Megan Layley