Quintessential Listening: Poetry

Bio I was born in Folsom, CA. My childhood was filled with running with the cross-country team through the suburban neighborhoods, trampolining in the backyard, and lots of road trips to LA county. I started writing narrative stories when I was 10 years old. They always told of a tragic hero who died in the heat of action. My poetry started blossoming as a senior in college when I took Poetry 101. The group critique sessions were a place of freedom for me to share my imagination through zany and erratic imagery. My professor urged me to reign in my ideas. Provide a stable field for the reader, she told me. I gained a more precise ear for pleasing phrases by listening intently to my classmates' offerings. Poetry continues to poke in and out of my life. I believe in not holding a knife to my own throat to produce a defined sort of writing. Instead, I allow my writing to wander from poetry to short stories to song lyrics. I want to cherish this explorative phase, allowing a wide range of voices to so