CULTURES OF ART, POETRY & STORIES

Who Do I Write For—and Why That Audience Matters I have asked myself this question more times than I can count, and the answer has never stayed the same. It evolves as I evolve. What I know now is that I don’t write to fill space or chase approval—I write to make sense of what I carry. Early Challenges: Uncertainty Early on, one of the hardest challenges I faced was uncertainty. I wrote without knowing who was listening, if anyone was listening at all. I questioned whether my voice was too heavy, too quiet, too honest. That uncertainty made feedback feel personal, even when it was well‑intentioned. The Challenge of Feedback Asking for feedback required a level of vulnerability I wasn’t always prepared for. Some responses sharpened me. Others bruised me. There were moments when feedback felt less like guidance and more like dismissal, as if the soul of the work had been skimmed rather than understood. I learned quickly that not all feedback is equal. Some people re...

First My Story: #Inflection Prose by Nelly Vee As I stand here looking at the picture above the mantel, a stranger I once knew from a time long ago, she was so different. I do not recognize her now. How could she do this to me? She promised that she would never change, no matter the situation, circumstances, or scenes. But she did; she deceived me. I’m not sure if we will ever be one again, not now, not ever, not anytime soon. Maybe it was me who had changed. Was it? But, I am standing here now, at this moment, a real live soul. And she, the woman in that picture, is nowhere to be found. She is just a picture, a shadow of that stranger without a soul. I do not want to become her; this was never in my dreams. Besides, I am only thirteen. As I stand here looking at the picture above the mantel, a stranger I once knew from a time long ago, she was so different. I do not recognize her now. How could she do this to me? That stranger is me. Why did you kill me? ...