D. E. Kerr

Tell us about you, and your writing (themes, influences etc.)

I’m a 23 year old Australian polyamorous woman who loves everything artistic, be it words, paintings, sketches, music, or anything else like that, although I only write. I write a lot of snarky, blunt, and/or sarcastic poetry because I see a lot of happy poetry or sad poetry but not as much angry poetry, and sometimes you just need to let those kinds of thoughts out on the page. All my poetry comes from my own experiences, but I have been influenced over the years by a lot of poets who write unapologetically about what they have experienced, showing what readers need to see, not necessarily  what they want to. For example, my debut collection is all about abuse. Do people want to read about the abuse someone has sustained? Probably not. Do people need to, to understand better how prevalent it is? I think so.

What are some of the ways in which you promote your work, and do you find these add, or eat into, your time writing?

I promote on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook mainly, and also by word of mouth. I would definitely say it does at times eat into my writing time, but it is quite necessary  in order to maintain a following, especially because so many people use social media every day, so the more I promote, the more likely it is for people to see it due to different times online, which translates to better exposure.

What projects are you working on at present?

I’m currently working on another poetry collection that is currently titled “Kaleidoscope____” as I am still unsure on the complete title. It will be about the beautiful things in life and healing from trauma. I also am working on a collection that will probably end up being a chapbook called “Monochromatic” which will have poems based around the feelings of certain colours, or at least how I view them. Both of those I am planning on being released in the next 18 months, as well as an anthology I am hoping on starting planning for too, so keep an eye out for that!

What does poetry mean to you?

This is a really interesting question to me because the answer changes depending on the day, depending on my mood. Right now, poetry is the way I connect my scattered thoughts into actual coherent language. It’s how I make sense of the world and my mind. Poetry means everything to me.

Thanks for having me Katie!