M. I edit and, until recently, worked for. Currently I work in home care and labor organizing and start law school in the fall to become a public defender. I value the programs that offers, and am excited at the prospect of taking this class with ynn. Interruption is a poetic technique that I use frequently, that I would like to be able to hone and expand. In general, I find my poetry is often stuck in a space that results from unwieldy uses of techniques I love, and think this class will help with that.
A bit about me: I was previously selected as a Fellowship Finalist for your which I attended virtually (and enjoyed!). Beyond that, I graduated from S I'm interested in this program because I feel I have the beginnings of a vision of what type of poet I am: I write love poetry, because I believe that love and desire are at the cross-section of what is personal and what is universal. I use language to convey intensity, making up and reshaping words to describe hard feelings. However, I want to work to hone my voice and form a clearer narrative in my poems in order to help me build the collection I have been envisioning these past few years. To me, being a poet is about taking what is deep inside of you and bringing it out into the open. So much of writing is about community, and part of the reason I want to be a part of this program is because I seek that.
I think there’s a difference between a novel being good and it being fun to talk about - and the literature that stays etched in my brain is often the latter. I could really hate a book and think about it far more than something I enjoyed but felt was forgettable. And it’s that thinking that leads me to analysis - my favorite part of reading. Good analysis always goes beyond what makes a novel “good” or “bad”, purely subjective terms, and brings it into a space of what makes it what it is. What is the author trying to say here? How are they using motif, metaphor, figurative language to support the narrative? When I edit, I look to analyze the piece in front of me as if I were in a classroom reading it, as I was taught (and fully believe!) that genuine analysis can strengthen creative writing.
I consider myself to be an odist of sorts, and mainly compose love poetry directed towards a single person. At Juniper, I hope to continue to work on a chapbook/collection I started last year entitled LIMERENCE, which examines the cross-sections between desire, love, obsession, and identity. As a nonbinary, low-income person, I am really fascinated by how our identities shape our love, and this theme is a huge part of LIMERENCE. Composing LIMERENCE has been a source of joy in a year of relative hardship and I am excited for the chance to share space with other writers, receive feedback, and grow community. Being a part of a community of writers is invaluable to me, as it creates a safety net of sorts that allows me to take risks with my writing, because I know I have people I can trust to encourage me or reign me in as needed.
I am interested in attending NYU because I want to continue to nurture my own creative talents through the support of an engaged literary community. I believe strongly in literary citizenship, and am excited by the prospect of reading and supporting the work of other emerging writers. I also enjoy the work of so many recent NYU alumni such as Raven Leilani, Coco Mellors, and Isabel Kaplan, and would feel honored and privileged to join their ranks. NYU has an incredible fiction writing faculty, and I have spoken to alumni who speak highly of the program’s resources. I also would love the chance to study fiction in New York City, a beacon of the literary world.