To create is human.

Writing is how I survive. While I know that writing and reading are not everyone’s “thing”, I do believe that to create is human.

I live in Ohio and have lived here most of my life. I’ve written hundreds of poems, essays, and stories: from children’s stories and fantasy, to annual celebratory obituaries, to poetry processing the grief and loss of my marriage amidst a global pandemic.

• After getting my Bachelor of Arts in English at Bowling Green State University, I worked for five years as a proofreader and quality assurance specialist in customer service.

• Once my department was outsourced, I started my seemingly never ending job-jumping, unfortunately commonplace for the economic landscape.

• From being a home health aide, to working in a grocery store, to heading the laundry room at a hotel, I made it to the pandemic times and then worked various QA positions in manufacturing.

• And then I ended up most recently at an exploitative workplace similar to the first, with people I really cared about and enjoyed and with heaping responsibilities for which I was not compensated.

No more.

The landscape has changed, and my life has changed.

I want to encourage us all to do what brings us joy or what comforts us in despair.

For me, that’s writing. Here’s to the hope that my writing can do a bit of both for you as well.

-Kim