My poetry is interested in the idea of the self, and questions of logic, dreams, memories, reality, consciousness, and meaning. I am currently writing a set of poems that narrates my own experiences in relation to my family's long history of mental illness, and looks at the relationship between our minds and the world. I have come to believe the world is not one thing, but many things at the same time, multiple perspectives existing simultaneously, opposite things happening at once, memories that are real and also false, and people that are both there and not there. So much happens in the world, including tragedy and loss, and we must make sense of it within ourselves. How can the inside hold so much outside? Does this mean the person is bigger than the country? These are questions I go on asking.

I am very grateful to receive this fellowship because poetry is full of meaning for me. I am grateful that I get to follow these lines of thought and find out where some of them will lead me, in conversation with so many other writers who are also thinking and feeling deeply. I did not study poetry for my undergraduate or graduate degrees, and so it feels particularly helpful to receive an opportunity like this which will allow me to learn more and try more. Whatever form my future with poetry takes, I am very happy that it is a part of my life.