Leila Tualla

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

– I am a follower of Christ, first and a mama second. I most definitely use faith – struggles, waywardness, intensity of being “in it,” and motherhood, in all its messy and beautiful glory, in all of my poems.

2, 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 go on Twitter, Instagram and FB. There is a “clean reads tweet” group I belong to on FB and I’ve gotten some exposure from people rt to their followers. I try to remember to do it everyday, but I’m really a terrible self promoter.

 

3, What projects are you working on at present?

I am working on a trilogy – possibly just finish a book and see if I want to continue with this trilogy but they’ll be stand alones just in case I change my mind, which I have a habit of doing. I haven’t written a novel in years, so this “should” be “fun.” I’m also trying to finish my full poetry collection called, the Token Asian writes. I hope to have that done by fall of this year. I’ve been submitting a poem or a chapbook series to different places each month and it’s a neat, if not stressful little motivator.

 

4, What does poetry mean to you?

Poetry has been my lifeline. It’s helped me to piece together memories of depression and grief that I had long ago buried. Poetry is incredibly therapeutic for me.

I love the life I live
I love the life I live
if I say it over and over again,
Maybe I’ll live the life I love.
Author and Poet, Leila Tualla, chronicles her pregnancy journey riddled with anxiety, a preeclampsia diagnosis, and later postpartum depression in Storm of Hope: God, Preeclampsia, Depression and me. This memoir is told in journal entries and poetry.