As I’ve previously shared, in late 2024 through earlier this year I was unemployed and struggled through the job hunting process. Mentally I was a mess, and I was constantly fighting off negative thoughts and feeling generally worthless.
In early January I saw an ad on FB for a poetry writing challenge with a small publisher. The challenge was to write a poem a day for a month. I wrote a lot of poetry during college as an English Lit major, so I thought I’d give it a try and at the very least it would be a good outlet for my emotions.
Going through the process of writing every day completely transformed my mental state. I was able to work through difficult emotions, focus on topics I enjoyed, and be creative without any rules. I’ve been writing every day since starting the challenge, both poetry and prose. I’ve even started a new novel, after giving up on a previous idea a few years ago.
This morning I learned that not only will my poems from the challenge be published in my own book next month, but it won an award from the publisher. I’ll share more information as I learn more, but for now I wanted to tell everyone this exciting news. My poetry collection, Beneath the Palms, will be available sometime in May!
Thanks for reading this, and I’ll keep you updated!