Since she was very young, Madeleine Snook has been intrigued by languages – and that passion has taken the Central Coast woman to various corners of the world.
“As a child one of my biggest heroes was JRR Tolkien, who wrote the Lord of the Rings series,” Snook said.
“I would print off 200-page course books on his constructed languages and take them on family holidays to read in the tent.
“I’ve always been fascinated by different modes of communication, writing styles, language structures and ways of phrasing things.
“It’s an insight into how the human mind works.”
After completing her schooling at Narara Valley High School, where she was part of a now defunct accelerated learning program, Snook went on to complete an Honors degree in Linguistics, attending the University of Edinburgh for a time on a student exchange along the way.
“In 2019 I decided I’d like to teach English as a second language abroad and secured a position in South Korea,” she said.
“But pretty much as soon as I arrived there in late February 2020 the country went into lockdown (along with much of the world) due to COVID-19.
“When the school did re-open we were teaching virtually over Zoom.
“I didn’t get to teach a single child in person while I was there.”
Returning to Australia in 2021, Snook decided to do a Master’s degree and was accepted by Cambridge University in England.
She completed her Master’s degree in Linguistics in 2022 and her most recent accomplishment is having a book of her poetry, Poems from a Stagecoach, published.
“In January this year I started writing a poem each day as a New Year’s resolution,” she said.
“While living in South Korea I did a painting every day.
“With the pandemic making that one of the worst years of my life, the painting became therapy for me.
“I found capturing my mood and thoughts for the day in paintings very cathartic and that’s how I got through that year.
“So coming into 2023 I wanted to do something like that again and settled on poetry.
“I was still living in Cambridge and the best job I could get, despite my Master’s degree, was in minimum wage retail.
“Winter in England is dismal and gloomy.
“There is no light when you get up or when you get home from work.
“I was always cold and on my feet for hours.
“The I came across a competition being run by BookLeaf Publishing.
“You had to write a poem each day for 21 days with a possibility of being published.
“I was already doing that, so I entered the competition.
“Some days I would just write a three-line haiku; other days I would write 20-30 lines.
“It really got my creative juices flowing.”
The name of the collection was inspired by Snook’s daily commute to work on the Stagecoach bus service.
“Every day the bus ticket would include a random word and I decided to use that word to inspire my poems,” she said.
“There seems to be a seasonal depression every winter in the UK, so many of the themes are quite dark – loneliness, sleepiness, death – but there are also some fun ones to provide a lighter note.
“Some were inspired by random things – my favourite animals, the bus being late, a favourite pair of boots – and one was inspired by our family pet on the Central Coast Nana, a 10-year-old Newfoundland who passed away just last month.
“Nana will also feature in an illustrated children’s book I intend to write next.”
Snook’s book of poetry is now available at bookstores in the UK and online worldwide through Amazon.
“It’s so exciting that my creative work is out there for people to read,” she said.
“If someone finds solace or meaning in the book my job as a poet is done.”
For Snook, who is 28, the next adventure will be teaching English in Spain.
“I have a job lined up in Seville to start in October,” she said.
“I wanted to go somewhere very different to South Korea and the UK.
“Spanish is certainly a lot easier to learn than Korean and Spain has a totally different culture – they work to live, not live to work.
“Eventually I’ll come back to the Central Coast to check in with family and friends and then I’ll go on to do a PhD – maybe in Australia, maybe in Europe.”
Now proficient in English, Spanish, French and Korean, Snook said her eventual goal was to become a professor of linguistics.
Poems from a Stagecoach can be ordered at https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Stagecoach-Madeleine-Snook/dp/9357440895
Terry Collins