Life is a collection of happy, sad and confused moments that all combine to build your personality. Breaking down the building blocks of the human experience and repackaging complex emotions into more easily understood prose is the aim of the poetic form.

For Sara Castañeda, this task is achieved with humour and heart in mind, crafting pieces that inspire new readers and embrace the insecurities, fears and dreams of our everyday lives.

With the release of Underdog Bet this Thursday, we spoke with Sara about her love and admiration for poetry, her preferred topic to explore through her writing and how self-describing as an Underdog can help you achieve greatness.

We have just marked World Poetry Day, celebrating a literary form which deserves much more care and attention than it currently has. Starting with a grand existential question: what changes has reading poetry made to your life?

I think reading poetry, in the beginning, I was looking for meaning within myself. How did it relate to me in this world? I was looking for myself, my meaning through the heightened senses that are poetry. I think that’s a wonderful way to begin. But I think as you read more poetry it goes beyond the sense of self. It becomes something bigger than yourself. It becomes about the world around you. The universe, the Earth, people and so forth. How do we all connect? What are our histories? How have we grown? How have we depleted? Why are we here? What is the importance of our everyday that effects the whole. I sound really philosophical now. It’s very enlightening. It makes the world more alive to me. I feel like the door to the World and more has opened and it’s beautiful to be an active participant. Life is in Technicolor now.

You’ve previously shared with us that being curious is your main source of inspiration – observing things that go on around you or exploring the internal mysteries of your mind. Do you have a particular area or topic that you find yourself regularly returning to?

I think I’m always curious about the emotional undercurrents in many situations. The “what’s not being said.” I find that more truthful than what the person says out loud. The truth of someone is when they are alone - when no one is looking. The why and what they are about. Also, facing truths, truths past the polite conversations and exchanges usually made. Small talk is never small talk for me. When I ask “Where are you from?” I then ask follow up questions. Did you like it? What was your first job? Did you have brothers and sisters? What is one of your funniest memories. It drives my husband crazy. But I honestly want to know what makes you, tick. What makes you, You.

Blending humour and humanity in your writing has made this collection accessible to all readers, not just poetry lovers. Are there any artists or poets who you drew particular inspiration from? For lovers of your work, who would you recommend they read next?

Well, I would say, and I know people will roll their eyes because everyone says this book: Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. It is so vulnerable, about a young poet reaching out to this idol of his for advice on how to be great. Trying to find his footing. He discovers through Rilke’s letters that Rilke is vulnerable as well. But Rilke is older. Has more experience. He does have words of wisdom to help this young poet, but he can never provide answers, the young poet must find his own way. It’s raw and deep and reflective and humorous and honest.

For reading a collection of poetry, I would say anything by Ada Limon and Louise Gluck. E. E. Cummings has such wit and fun with form and language and is also very sensual and beautiful. Auden is another favourite of mine. If you want to go a little esoteric, I love Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities which is an absolute masterpiece, a beautiful read.

“But to win with an underdog… brings a much higher reward.” Taken from the titular poem of your collection, do these lines encapsulate the purpose of this collection – to champion your underdog mentality for a greater outcome? Why did you choose Underdog Bet as your title?

I’m always a champion for the Underdog. The footnote in the story rather than the main subject. I find them much more fascinating. No one asks about the unsaid, the footnote, the oddball, until they become the star of the story. I root for them the most because they quietly work their way up and boom! They’re deemed an overnight success. But they’re not. They’ve been there the whole time working their way up to become the star. Remember, even the star was once the Underdog. Maybe, I want to get to know them before they become the star. Being a star doesn’t mean being famous. It means finding fulfilment, being whole, overcoming. That’s the journey I want to travel with them. That is the throughline of all those portrayed in this book. They are all Underdogs looking for their place, to be understood, to be accepted as they are. I am an Underdog by writing this book.

As an experienced writer but a debut poet, what does the future look like for you, creatively speaking? Where is your curiosity leading you next?

I’ve been writing a lot in a variety of forms lately. I love form. It really does focus your writing and shapes the words into ways you never thought of. It also focuses the importance and real estate of each word in a poem. I don’t know that I have an idea yet for a collection, but I’ll know it when it starts forming. I’ve had more poems being published in lit magazines and working on my publishing coaching certificate. I have a podcast coming out in May called Underdog Bet that gives people a platform to talk about their journeys to where they are now. Editors, writers, poets, artists, entrepreneurs. I’ve had essays published and am writing prose. I’m still actively involved in Authortunities. I’ve been working on collaborative pieces which is very exciting. It sounds like a lot. But I love exploring and creating in different ways. I think it would be incredibly boring to not evolve, to not learn, to not grow. I am happy with what I’ve accomplished so far, but I have so much more to do. That’s the beauty of life and curiosity. Every day is a new possibility for a million things. Which things will it be today?

Underdog Bet is available Thursday 27th March.