When I was younger, teachers and parents used to emphasize the power of words. “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all” was a common saying. “Words can hurt” was another simpler version. As kids, we were taught that words were powerful, yes, but in a negative way. The potentialContinue reading “Healing Powers of Poetry”
Author Archives: Amanda Karch
Spotlight: Poetry Out Loud
In tandem with the Instagram spotlight series, I wanted to take the time to introduce a few other notable organizations and people within the literary world that I came across in my research for Poetic Potential. This week, we focus on Poetry Out Loud. Poetry Out Loud: A Mission to Build Self-Confidence Poetry Out LoudContinue reading “Spotlight: Poetry Out Loud”
Poetry’s Unexpected Savior: Social Media
Books and social media – the two seem antithetical, an unlikely pairing. Whereas I spent my entire childhood devouring books like candy, kids nowadays grow up on iPads and phone apps. It seems like a myth to say that social media contributed to the revival of poetry’s popularity and readership, but it is the truth.Continue reading “Poetry’s Unexpected Savior: Social Media”
My Self-Publishing Journey as a Poet
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, I didn’t even know that self-publishing existed. I lived in a world where authors had agents, where traditional publishing was borderline impossible unless you were famous or you had a brilliant, new idea, and where rejection after rejection after rejection was the norm. I don’tContinue reading “My Self-Publishing Journey as a Poet”
3 Life Lessons Learned From Publishing Two Books
One year ago, I published her favorite color was sunshine yellow, my debut poetry book. This was the day I finally fulfilled my dream of becoming an author, years in the making. One day ago, I received an email from my proofreader, letting me know that my debut nonfiction book, Poetic Potential: Sparking Change &Continue reading “3 Life Lessons Learned From Publishing Two Books”
The Story of Poetic Potential
The one piece of writing advice that I have heard repeated over and over again is simple. “Write what you know.” It was usually a dismissive thought because, of course, it’s easy to write about topics you are familiar with. But I never realized how important that simple writing could be until Poetic Potential cameContinue reading “The Story of Poetic Potential”
Importance of Poetry
Being a poet isn’t seen as a glamorous title – more of a struggle-to-pay-the-bills, get-a-real-job kind of title. In the face of global crises, however, it is very obvious that poetry has been resurfacing as an important part of people’s lives. For myself, I’ve realized that poetry has four main functions that I know areContinue reading “Importance of Poetry”
Self Doubt in Writing
Do you ever get the feeling when you look at a word and you know it’s spelled right, and that it’s a word, but it just doesn’t look right to you after staring at it a million times? That’s like the self doubt that creeps in when I start to read over my work again.Continue reading “Self Doubt in Writing”
Words For Change
Something that I have always loved about words is how they have the power to create these powerful images that you can see almost as clearly as if they are right in front of you. That’s something that drew me to poetry – having the ability to string words together like stars in a constellationContinue reading “Words For Change”
How I Stopped Being Afraid
Writing has consumed my life for its entirety. I can’t even begin to tell you how many different notebooks I have gone through – a new one for each story idea, of course. I fell in love with world-building and meeting characters that appeared to me out of thin air. At some point, poetry enteredContinue reading “How I Stopped Being Afraid”
Amanda Karch 