Devoted to the Aftermath

In 2024 I wrote my Master of Arts thesis paper for Pacific Northwest College of Arts. I had no idea I was at the beginning of writing a creative nonfiction poetic version of my first memoir. During my time in graduate school the one thing that became most clear was my need to heal. I used the thesis topic Is meaning making an effective strategy for working with grief. Everything I did within my photographic career during this time was about processing grief, death, longlines, trauma, and the big, heavy, unpleasant aspects of life. For three months I wrote six to eight hours a day, drafting, editing, and sequencing all the feelings, all the work, all the meaning. I wrote six versions of this book before settling on the final. Now I’m working on a second addition. One that will include more of the story I suppose. The first addition is a combination of story and poetry. I wrote the things I could in the ways I could allowing myself to further process and become open to people reading about my life. always does.