Persephone’s Daughters are Survivors

Persephone’s Daughters are Survivors

Interview with Meggie Royer

Megan Otto 

Can you share how you’d like to introduce yourself? 

Meggie Royer 

I am a 25-year-old female triplet, writer, and artist living in the Midwest. I have been writing poetry and creating mixed-media art since I was 17, and am the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Persephone’s Daughters, a journal for survivors. After experiencing intimate partner sexual violence, I began working in the domestic violence field full-time four years ago; I specialize in youth work, healthcare responses to domestic violence, and domestic violence homicide. Poetry is one of the great loves of my life. 

Megan Otto 

You run a literary magazine similar to Awakened Voices called Persephone’s Daughters, and it’s dedicated to sharing survivor stories. What inspired you to create Persephone’s Daughters? 

Meggie Royer 

As a college student in 2013 and 2014, I experienced multiple acts of intimate partner sexual violence that led to multiple suicide attempts, several of which were near-fatal. I had already been writing at that point since I was a teenager, but it wasn’t until experiencing the violence that I began to truly see, and react to, poetry as a lifeline. My writing blog was the only place I felt comfortable sharing my writing about my experiences; I was unable to find any literary journals that had made a specific commitment to or focus on domestic and sexual violence. As writers, many of us view journals as “homes” for our poems, and despite so much searching, I just couldn’t find one that I felt would house and respond to my poems in a way that was trauma-sensitive or specific. I began wondering if other writer-survivors felt the same, and to be quite honest, it was then on a whim that I created the journal from the ground-up – to fill what I felt was a gap in the literary community. I created Persephone’s Daughters in 2015, several years before the #MeToo movement, and I have been so thrilled to see other similar venues for survivors pop up in the time since. 

Megan Otto 

You’re both a writer and an editor. Can you talk a little bit about which came first, and what the relationship is between those two identities for you?

Meggie Royer 

I became a writer first, as a senior in high school, though I suppose my answer should really be that I have been a writer since I was a young child, as I did once write a poetry “book” in elementary school! When I started Persephone’s Daughters, I was very unfamiliar with the role of editing or curating anyone else’s work but my own. Anyone who knows me knows that my relationship with editing my own work is a very contentious one – it’s not something I enjoy, and often my “editing” process for my own work consists of a cursory glance-through for any glaring spelling or grammar mistakes. I rarely let my poems marinate; most often I sit down and write them straight through from beginning to finish no matter how long it takes. After becoming an editor for my journal, I’ve had to let my preconceived notions about editing soften. I also imagine I take a less restrictive approach to editing than others might. As my journal is composed of writing from abuse survivors, I always make it clear that any suggested edits are entirely optional. I never want to exact control over writers in the way that an abusive partner or family member might. If a survivor does not want to edit their work, I’m not going to take their publication offer away from them. That’s just one of my principles. 

Megan Otto 

I love that Persephone’s Daughters includes Girls Don’t Cry, a home for short films by survivors. What do you think that visual medium of storytelling brings to the magazine, and what has been your experience running this segment? 

Meggie Royer 

Thank you! The film segment was actually something my friend and fellow Persephone’s Daughters staff member Eli put together as a surprise for me. One day he sent me a message with a link in it, told me it was a surprise he’d been working on, and I opened it and saw an entire online film festival called Girls Don’t Cry! Eli is an actor and writer who is intricately familiar with the world of filmmaking, far more than I ever could be. His expertise has been invaluable in co-running the film division. 

I think that there is beauty and importance in art and writing about abuse, but also so important to lift those things into “3D.” Watching film submissions has been such an immersive experience. It’s akin to visiting a movie theater and having the edges of your visual field narrow only to the screen in front of you, and forgetting where you are entirely. It’s like being transported into someone else’s world, especially someone else whom you connect with, grieve with, root for, and admire.  

Many of the films we’ve published through the film division over the years have been about abusive marriages, and most of those films were created by artists with personal ties to the subject. None of it is glamorized or romanticized; it’s real and raw. Oftentimes you read about films about abuse and violence through which the directors had to engage in extensive research prior to the creation of the films. It’s a different matter entirely for the film submissions we’ve received; for many of these directors the personal experience is the research. 

Megan Otto 

When writing and reading about difficult topics connected to sexual violence, is there something that helps you take care of yourself?

Meggie Royer 

Perhaps it sounds strange, but writing and reading about difficult topics is actually a way that I take care of myself. Yes, it can be painful at times, but I actually find it to be a practice of self-care in some odd sense. Providing a space for abuse survivors, and writing my way out of my own abuse, are such a significant passion in my life and I find that oftentimes they’re one of my primary routes to accessing the kind of healing that I need, or something close to it. If it ever does get to be “too much,” I do step away, take a break, and come back to the writing or the reading the next day with fresh eyes. Even when I am reading content that is particularly reminiscent of my own abuse and therefore the most painful to get through, I am just grateful to be doing so for the opportunity for another survivor to be able to share their story with the world. 

Megan Otto 

What do you hope your audience will take away from both your own writing and your magazine? 

Meggie Royer 

I hope my audience will take away the notion that they have a truth, that truth exists, and their truth is the only thing that matters. So many abuse survivors have been extensively gaslighted. I want survivors to recognize the enormity of their truth and its physical presence, and to carry it around in the world like a light instead of a weight.  

Megan Otto 

What are you working on right now? What’s next for you? 

Meggie Royer 

Last year, I went through a period where I became very disconnected from writing, partially due to a resurgence of trauma symptoms and partially due to just simply becoming busier with life! I wrote very little last year, which felt so strange. This year, I am focusing much more on inviting writing and the passion I have for it back to me. I’ve been creating more, submitting to more journals, and making more of an effort to send work about my trauma into the world. My publications with Awakening have been part of that! I am also toying with the idea of putting together a manuscript and submitting to a chapbook contest later this year. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done that, too! Part of me is interested in crafting a manuscript that actually isn’t centered around my trauma from sexual violence – this year, I want to understand better who I am apart from my trauma. What is the essence of my identity separate from what was done to me? 

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Meggie Royer is a Midwestern writer, domestic violence advocate, and the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Persephone’s Daughters, a literary and arts journal for abuse survivors. She has won numerous awards for her work and has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize. She thinks there is nothing better in this world than a finished poem.

Learn more about Persephone’s Daughters.
Find more of Meggie Royer’s writing on her blog, Writings for Winter.