About Milla van der Have
Milla van der Have (1975) is a Dutch poet exploring the places where myth meets the surreal and the everyday begins to shift. Her poetry has crossed borders—from the US to Medellín—appearing in journals and festivals worldwide. She is the author of three chapbooks, most recently Ox and Mandarin | Wayfaring Strangers (2024). She lives in Utrecht, always inventing new ways for poetry to misbehave.
A Profile of the Author
Notes on “The Hare Queen”
The Hare Queen is one of those poems that defy my grasp, as in: I know where I was when I thought about it, but it seemed to come into being of its own volition more than through my design. I had the first line for a while and then, somehow, when I found myself on a street in Germany (my partner likes to photograph street-art and I have found it quite inspiring for my poetry to tag along) the poem just began to form itself in my mind. Hares have been popping up in my poems more often (perhaps are pet rabbits are influencing me more than I think 😉 ) and I enjoy their trickster-like quality. Especially in this poem, because it also carries a note of dark femininity.
Music, Food, Booze, Tattoos, Kittens, etc.
Well, those rabbits I mentioned in the previous answer bring me a lot of joy. We lost one of them in September and because they need to have a mate, we now have a young, black, energetic new boy who keeps our old(er) female rabbit company. They have quite some room in our garden, to jump about – and to start unsanctioned digging projects – and we enjoy watching them. I also spend quite a lot of time playing Dungeons and Dragons, having been roped in to my third group… It lights a fire under my creativity, especially the group that I run, with a story of my own design. What really strikes me is the co-creation of it. I think up something for the adventure but the players bring it alive with their characters and how they respond. And that in turn gives me new ideas to further the story.
