Meet Kelsey Bigelow

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelsey Bigelow. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelsey below.

Kelsey, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from survival mode. I spent most of my life experiencing things no one should ever have to experience. If I was going to survive it all, I had no choice but to be resilient. There were many times I didn’t think I would make it to the next day. Most often, I didn’t want to. But I knew in my gut that I was capable of a better life, so I had to figure out how to bounce back and keep moving forward.

The way I truly discovered my resilience was through my writing. Free writing became my way of understanding what I was experiencing and feeling. Through that, I was able to uncover what I wanted in my life and how I could survive to make it happen.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
As a poet, I tackle the heavy and hopeful stuff. I would say I’m engaged in a trauma-informed conversation around mental health and overcoming odds to build an intentional life. My poetry tells the raw realities I faced while growing up and am now unpacking in adulthood. It navigates C-PTSD, dissociation, grief, depression, and disordered eating — from their sources and identifying how they feel, to learning to move forward and create hope. I don’t shy away from uncomfortable experiences, because I believe we all can grow when we share a connection. By sharing my story through poetry, others are able to approach and connect with their own stories better.

Part of telling my story is getting to tell the good side and helping others see that life does get better. I use my poetry as a conversation starter with my audiences to invite them to make decisions based on themselves rather than others. Poetry is a powerful tool that can ignite change and understanding, and I use that to inspire my audiences and get them thinking about what they can do in their own lives. This means my poetry work is a way for me to encourage others to never settle for anything less than what makes them happy – a lesson I learned through experience and can pass on through poetry.

I’ve released a couple projects that I bring with me to those audiences so they have something concrete to walk away with to. My first chapbook, “Sprig of Lilac,” was released in 2018 and is dedicated to the grieving process. That book is the culmination of the first two years of grief poetry I wrote while processing the death of my mother. Then, I released a spoken word album in 2021 called “Depression Holders and Secret Keepers.” That album scratches the surface of the mental health poetry that I often share on stage. In 2023, I released a collaborative chapbook with a local coffee shop called “The Coffee Cherry.” This multi-media book invites readers to slow down and take in the simple things that make life beautiful.

I’m thrilled to share that I am releasing my first full-length poetry collection in April of 2024. “Far From Broken” is a book that’s close to my heart and has been begging to be shared. This book represents how I unpacked my life in therapy, learned about my diagnoses, and built a full, healthy life of my own. My goal is to take readers through the nuances of healing while encouraging them to make life better and reminding them that they are not alone.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three qualities that have been the most impactful on my journey are resilience, a healthy amount of stubbornness, and balance. My advice for those on a creative journey is to take stock of your relationship with these qualities. Then work on strengthening them. They’re each important for their own reasons.

As a creative, you have to be resilient because there will be rejections, projects falling through, doubt from yourself and others, and many other hardships along the way. Your resilience will help you bounce back from the inevitable disappointments and setbacks.

Honestly, a healthy amount of stubbornness has really impacted my journey. Look, I wouldn’t be a full-time poet if I wasn’t too stubborn to return to my previous career. Another word we could swap “stubborn” out with would simply be “dedication.” There are always moments of doubt that come, like when the paycheck is uncertain or when you don’t reach a goal when you thought you would. Having just enough stubbornness to quit (or the dedication to keep going) means you will do anything you can to succeed. Which then means that you will succeed.

Finally, balance is crucial because it’s what keeps you human. Going down a creative path makes it easier to be consumed by the work and forget to take breaks. The best way to be a creative person is to be a person. Being a person looks like taking care of all of your needs. It looks like making time for your people, doing activities you enjoy for the sake of enjoying them, sitting in the slow moments, and listening to what your body needs. The work is beautiful and can be addicting. But if you balance your work time with human time, you are more likely to feel most fulfilled by your work.

So, take stock of how resilience, stubbornness (or dedication), and balance show up in your life and how you feel about them. Work on your relationship with each quality, and let them help you go the distance in your creative journey.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I’m huge believer in collaboration and partnership! We grow together, right? I find my ideal collaborators to be folks who believe in the power of sharing our truths and believe in learning from each other. I look for collaborators who believe in talking about mental health and coping through the arts and conversation.

Whether you’re a creative looking to collaborate on a project or an organization looking to partner for an event or campaign, I’m happy to connect. Feel free to reach out through my website: kelkaybpoetry.com, and we can chat!

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