#34 Kelly Mullins & Larissa Fantini, writers and founders of Poetry Trapper Keeper
'The supermarket is our preferred place to labor for our craft'
Poetry Trapper Keeper is an online poetry magazine for hot people run by Kelly Mullins and Larissa Fantini. It’s a space that celebrates their tween selves, the color pink, and unprecious poetry. PTK believes that anyone can write poetry and that a run-on sentence piece about the Kardashians is just as valid as a Shakespearean soliloquy. Their motto is ‘hot people read poetry'.
Where do you write?
(L): On the floor, in the tub, from the bed, on the train… Anywhere but a desk.
(K): Same. It’s like, from cafés, from the couch, on any form of transit (including my own two feet)... but JUST. NOT. THE. DESK.
(L): Oh how original. Copycat!
What can we always find on your desk?
(L): I think desks are procrastination stations that fetishise and aestheticise space for writing/working as a craft. They’re a status symbol, like a well-curated bookshelf. They’re good for other people, but as an easily distracted neurodivergent person, I try to write wherever I can.
(K): I can relate to that. I have a desk, but I never actually use it.
(L): I have a desk, but I put it in a museum for a month.
(K): I feel like I always need a cozy space to work from. The couch is my desk. The bed is my desk. The kitchen table is my desk. Basically, anywhere in proximity to pillows or food. How Taurean of me…
(L): My brain is my desk.
(K): That’s pretentious.
(L): No, it’s not! It would be if I called it a mind palace.
Morning writer or late-night words?
(K): Neither and both.
(L): I have that time blindness in me. Have I mentioned that I’m neurodivergent?
(K): We write on a Whatsapp thread to each other at any given hour of the day. Last night, for example, I received the following text from Larissa @ 1.27 AM: ‘Idea: I got that dog in me” - my first chapbook composed of all the poems in which I’ve mentioned a dog (accidentally too many)'.
Coffee, tea, nibbles?
(K): All of the above! Our PTK writing-snack menu is generally…
(L): A chocolatey, a gummy, and a salty (like a chippy). The holy trinity of a good snack time. You also need three bevies: the warm one (usually some coffee), water, and something outrageously expensive.
(K): A kombucha! A mocktail! An Orangina!
(L): Yeah, I’m really into Italian soda. Also, a snack run is totally one of the procrastination stations that functions as a desk for us.
(K): Yes, the supermarket is our preferred place to labor for our craft.
What's your most tempting distraction?
(L): Supermarkets. I had a mental breakdown yesterday because my sister said she’s going to Costco without me. I love supermarkets!
(K): It’s TK Maxx for me. I have blacked out in there and left 200 euro poorer more times than I’m willing to admit.
(L): We’re sounding like capitalist sluts!
(K): We are.
(L): Truthfully, the worst distraction is all the admin work we need to do for PTK because I feel undeserving of focusing on 'fun work’ (writing) until I’ve done my Girlbossing (Instagram posting).
(K): Now you sound like a nepobaby celebrity who doesn’t even like their job!
(L): All jokes aside, I’m not a poet because I want to be 'known’ as a poet. I’m a poet because writing is a fun way to build a community. Sometimes I forget that to stay in this community I’ve built, I actually have to write poetry. But in reality, I’d much rather just kiki with Kelly and hang out with our hot poet friends we’re collaborating with.
(K): But you’ll still learn how to use Google Drive, right?
(L): All in good time, bestie.
(K): It’s been three years… (Larissa still writes in Pages.)
What's that we hear on the speakers?
(K): Larissa crying to 'Mine’ by Taylor Swift.
(L): You can’t mention that in every interview!
(K): Spotify thinks we want to listen to Boygenius allllllllllll the time.
(L): Yeah, maybe it’s a personal accusation of gayness.
(K): Cancel Spotify!
(L): You know you can cancel Spotify if you want.
(K): How?
(L): Delete your subscription…
Have you got any pre-writing rituals?
(L): Every Tuesday and Thursday, we have PTK 'office hours’. On Tuesdays, we plan for the week; on Thursdays, we pomodoro together; and on Wednesdays, we wear pink.
(K): Yeah, we’re into establishing rhythms as our writing rituals lately.
(L): We also have at least one crying phone call a week to discuss our traumas. We like to take Kelly Clarkson’s 'Because of You’ and change the lyrics to be customized to the people who have hurt us that week.
(K): It’s very healing. We also do whale voices sometimes.
(L): PTK has been about healing my workaholic tendencies. Like, finding new ways to structure our work around our needs rather than our needs around our work.
(K): Yeah, PTK is a pre-writing ritual in itself. The poems we send out weekly are very much real-time works in progress. Also, did I mention I’m a Taurus? I always light a scented candle.
(L): I’m a Leo, so I always text Kelly for morning compliments before I start writing.
Perfect bookshop to hide in on a rainy day?
(K): Athenaeum. It’s this iconic magazine shop in Amsterdam. They have excellent taste…
(L): You’re just saying that because they stock our zine!
(K): I’m notttttt! No, the funny thing is, I’ve been frequenting that shop on rainy days (and there are many rainy days in Amsterdam) for years. It’s where I discovered SAND, and if I hadn’t discovered SAND, I wouldn’t have discovered Crista’s workshops, and if I hadn’t discovered Crista’s workshops, I wouldn’t have met Larissa. If I hadn’t met Larissa, there wouldn’t be any PTK, and if we didn’t have PTK, we wouldn’t have made the zine with Interspect, which is NOW stocked in Athenaeum!
(L): OMG you’re so dramatic. 😒
What's your most treasured book?
(L): I’m gonna give an earnest answer for once.
(K): 🙄
(L): While living in Paris I went to an art fair… I was picking up flyers, not thinking about stuff… and I accidentally stole this book, and it’s called ‘Fragments of Existential Mathematics’. It’s like this random print, but it’s beautiful and basically poetry told through algebra/calculus. I'm not sure, I don't know math. But I like it because it comes with petty crimes. (Also, if you’re the publisher reading this, I will TOTALLY send you the 10 euros I owe you for swiping it in 2015!).
(K): I don’t like superlatives. I love all my books equally.
Favourite word in the English language?
(L): I don’t like superlatives. I love all my words equally.
(K): Well, my favorite word is—
(L): Hypocrite.
Dream writing location?
(L): Anywhere next to Kelly!
(K): Awwww. Personally, I like to be alone in a quiet, secluded place when I’m writing. Ideally, with a cat on my lap. But I’ve learned to wall ball with Larissa…
[a 10 minute argument ensues about whether or not people know what the metaphorical concept of “wall balling” is]
Three writers (dead or alive) to have dinner with?
(L): Kelly, Kelly, Kelly.
(K): Off the top of my head… Bell Hooks, Eileen Myles, and Taylor Swift (just to ask her, once and for all, if the queer flagging in her writing is intentional or not).
(L): OMG, Meg Cabot - the genius who wrote Princess Diaries AND ALL AMERICAN GIRL AND OMG, SHE'S SO PROLIFIC! Also Lucy Dacus!
(K): YES.
(L): And Kelly.
One poem that has changed your life:
(K): Larissa wrote this poem for Crista’s workshop where she used the floorplan of my apartment to fill it in and write a poem as if she were in the space. She was an ocean away, and this was during the pandemic, but at the time, it felt like she was here. I mean, she said ‘my breasts were bookends where I kept Marxist theory and Flaming Hot Cheetos’. Like, how did she understand me so well? That’s our meet-cute.
(L): Well, personally, for me, it would have to be John Giorno’s…
(K): WHO?
(L:) GIORNO! LIKE THE FROZEN PIZZA!
(K:) Oh…
(L): ANYWAY, the poem is called “Thanx 4 Nothing”. And I saw it at the Palais de Tokyo during the Ugo Rondinone “I <3 John Giorno” exhibition…
(K): IT’S NOT DELIVERY…
(L:) SHUT UP! That video was the first time I ever interacted with poetry. And realized that it wasn’t something that had to be confined to the page.
(K): That’s cute. It’s like, ‘it’s not poetry. It’s Piorno!!’
(L): What?
(K): It’s a poetry joke! Like, ‘It's not delivery, it’s…'
*Editor’s note: The girlies are still fighting about Piorno…
Thank you for having us!! We love this poetry thing (and that poetry thing) !