I have identified as a writer for just about as long as I can remember. I started writing when I was a kid, technically. I wrote my first book -- by which I mean a six-page story about a cat detective named Carruthers -- when I was eight years old. Because my dad is also a writer and a PR guy, I ended up selling the book at a children's bookstore in Santa Fe, where my family was living at the time. My folks like to remind me that I got to keep all the profits from the venture (that is, $1/book). That experience -- plus genetics -- must've worked for me because I kept writing.

 

For a few years, I churned out the overwrought, angst-filled drivel typical of your average, tortured adolescent. I had a few poems published in my high school literary magazine. A few years later, my college literary magazine published some of my work. I edited the magazine for a couple years as its senior editor. Following graduation, I worked for my alma mater and submitted some more work. Some was accepted -- and rewritten prior to publication, which still lights my ass on fire some 13 years later -- and some was summarily rejected. C'est la vie, I suppose.

 

I'm happy to say that my writing started to get better when I got to college and took some courses in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. After years of identifying as a poet, I discovered a deep love for creative nonfiction and now spend more time writing prose than poetry. Following school and working for my dad's public relations and marketing firm, I've found some success as a freelance writer. To date, my work has appeared in The Huffington Post and The Body Is Not An Apology. Locally, I blogged for NUVO for about a year and currently contribute work to Sky Blue Window. I look forward to future writing projects and seeing where my interests, talent, and luck take me.

 

In terms of visual art, I'm still getting my footing, much like a drunk duckling. I have always liked to draw and doodle, but I've begun to pursue the creation of art as something that I actually share with people and (hope to) sell. I've made a few sales and I'm ever cultivating the courage to continue doing what I love for fun (and, ideally, profit). I like the new territory that I'm exploring. It's fascinating and terrifying and humbling and gratifying. I certainly enjoy getting more comfortable identifying as a visual artist as well as a writer.