Shanny Jean Maney, poet. |
Even though Shanny always had a love affair with books, she never thought that she would eventually write one. “If you asked me 8, no 5, years ago, I would have never thought that I would ever make a living writing.” Initially, Shanny’s creativity was expressed through performance. She competed in speech tournaments and performed slam poetry. According to Shanny, “Writing something that is going to be said is different than writing something that is meant to be read.”
Because
of this, the transition from spoken word to written word came with some
challenges. Shanny entered Write
Bloody’s open book contest. In the
second round she had to submit 40 poems.
During that time, Shanny quit her job as a waitress and wrote constantly
while coaching speech. When asked about
her initial writing, Shanny laughed, “It was not all good. I had a few trusted friends who I would send
my work to. Often they thought it didn’t
fit with my overall theme. It’s hard to
not take it personally, but it also gave me the opportunity to defend my work
and see what was really important and how to express that idea.”
I Love Science by Shanny Jean Maney. |
But
being published has its perks. Shanny
has traveled the country reading her work.
Most recently she presented at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to
a class that had read her book. She
expected them to hate it, proving that she is always her toughest critic, but
was met with a group of students eager to hear her read. It is no wonder. Through her writing, the reader cannot help
but feel that they have known Shanny her whole life. For aspiring writers, Shanny has these words
of wisdom, “My husband once told me that as an adult no one tells you what to
do, in college somewhat, but after you need to do it. No one is going to care if you don’t write or
create art, so you have to care.” I Love Science is meant to be read out
loud amongst friends. It can be bought
at www.ShannyJeanManey.com or on
Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment