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A: The Terry Plunket Poetry Festival was a shot in the dark, you could say. My creative writing teacher (Mrs. Hall) sent me the flyer via email the day of the deadline. So I gathered three poems up, two were love poems and one was a poem about my Uncle Roger. The love poems I felt really confident about, because that’s all I write. But the one about my Uncle–who passed away a few years ago–was just something to add in. The poem is really out of my comfort zone writing wise, so I put it in the back of my mind. The contest in general was forgotten about, because who wins those things, really? But about a month later I got an email saying I had won first place, not only that but the poem that won was the Uncle Roger one. I was so thrilled I called my mom who was at the grocery store, I couldn’t wait for her to come home.
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Q: What inspires you now?
A: Human emotions definitely inspire me, there seems to be an infinite amount of ways to explain how you feel. I no longer have a laptop in class to continuously brainstorm on, so I carry around a Moleskine notebook and I just write (sometimes doodle) constantly. My teachers probably hate it. Plus, when I’m writing in my notebook, I’m listening to music. So I’ll absentmindedly let lyrics go into my poems. Or just write them around the page. As focused on in my poem “Uncle Roger”, I’d like to think some of my inspiration comes from him. Even though I didn’t know him that well. I also find Nature fun to write about as well, or letting it be the main metaphor in my poetry.
Q: Are there writers that influence or inspire you?
A: There are not any specific writers that inspire my work, though I love hearing other Slam Poets on YouTube, and usually their style leaks into mine for a few days afterwards. Same with when I read a book, I end up writing short stories that reflect the author’s style.