Hi, I’m Amanda. I’m a practitioner of the nonfiction arts.
A what?
A practitioner, which means I practice.
Of the nonfiction arts, which means my work is nonfiction, but the forms vary.
I write essays, community journalism pieces, blog posts, flash nonfiction, and I’m even working on a documentary.
I’m a practitioner of the nonfiction arts.
Here’s some stuff I’ve done:
Earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama.
Wrote many improvisational timed writing pieces as an inaugural member of LA Writers Group (dot com).
Created Dream Beyond Debt, a blog about paying off $48,000 of student loan debt in 14 months.
Served as Founding Director of the Flyover Library at Wild Goose Creative, a collection of books and literary events by and about Midwestern writers.
Planned and produced Packard’s Columbus, a tour (and accompanying essay) of Frank Packard architecture throughout downtown Columbus, Ohio.
Told the audience about the time I saved John Travolta’s life and about the time I turned to a room of 300 Catholics and said, “God was wrong,” as a Featured Storyteller on the Columbus Arts Festival Word is Art Stage. Now, I help book performers for the annual event.
Where did it all begin?
Scioto County, Ohio.
Where?
I was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, a city built on the banks of the Ohio River.
My dad says we’re “a good spit from Kentucky,” because that’s what we see when we face south. It’s nice to look south over the river when you’re out climbing one of the many, many foothills of the Appalachian mountains that my hometown was built in between. Among. Sometimes on.
I was a lonely kid in a river town, so I spent a lot of time with my head in a book or my hand in a journal.
I learned to record my thoughts.
I learned to process my life through writing.
I observed the very distinct place I was in and I wrote it down.
And I’ve been doing it ever since.
I write about places and the people who make them.
I like to examine what a place is and what a place means.
Hence, the community journalism.
Hence, The Columbus Anthology.
Hence, most of the stuff you’ll see in my portfolio.
