I am a junior English Literature and Writing major and History minor at the University of Northwestern – St. Paul, and combining these two passions has turned into one of my biggest writing inspirations. My parents worked overseas in Italy for a total of five years, which proved to be the experience that most influenced my life, my personality, and now my work. Learning and maturing have become two constants for me as I realize that there will never be an end to either of them with the various bombs that life decides to drop on us, which is both thrilling and terrifying. My favorite genre to write is poetry; however I rather enjoy struggling over short fiction and personal essay, so that may show up as well.
Writing became my passion when I was eight-years-old, living in an isolated children’s camp in the mountains of southern Italy, near Caserta. At one point I ran out of books to read and decided why not start writing my own. I now have multiple unfinished manuscripts about princesses and unicorns from those years (not an exaggeration). Now, I am still trying to hold onto that determination, imagination, and child-like creativity that spurred me to write in the first place. It is surreal that almost eleven years later, I am still pursuing that sudden dream.
Since the beginning of my life I have moved eight times and counting, from country to country, city to city, so this feeling of wandering homelessness often shows up in my work. Also, I explore different historical themes quite often, and I am also experiencing a new appreciation for the simplicities of the places and people around me – I have discovered a love for writing about the smallest details of people’s expressions, weeds in ditches, tones of laughter, veins in leaves. Thank you for your interest and enjoy reading!
Ceciley Pund 