I’ve heard it said before that a first time writer will sometimes see their own experiences unintentionally coming through in their work, so that it ends up becoming a biography of sorts, or even worse, a journal or emotion dumpster. I guess it was kind of the other way round for me – my first work was too absurd to be real life and in a way, was a form of artistic escapism. Makes sense, since I do spend a good 60% of my day in my own head.
Recently though, I’ve been doing a lot more outpouring as a result of inward analysis. I’ve tried to do it as more of an exploration, rather than a pretentious soul-cleansing that really wouldn’t benefit anyone other than myself. After all, my prime motivation as a writer is to have an audience. My forthcoming poems focus on self-exploration, especially Belemnite Soup, coming out in Inclement over the summer, and a few more on understanding oneself, like in a selection to appear in Sarasvati, over July/August.
As Socrates so aptly put it: the unexamined life is not worth living. Too true!
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About Leilanie Stewart
Leilanie Stewart is an author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She has written four novels, including award-winning ghost horror, The Blue Man, as well as three poetry collections. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis of identity and create a new sense of being. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry.
In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Magazine, a creative writing literary journal with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.
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