We were lucky to catch up with Taylor Byas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Taylor, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
For me, social media is a double-edged sword, but one that always reminds me to stay committed to my journey and to stop comparing myself to others. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in everyone else’s successes, to drown in the deluge of book deal announcements, contest wins, publications, and awards. But then I talk to writers I know in real life, and they share everything that had to happen for them to get those big career wins. We often have little to no insight into what people endure or how hard others work to get to where they are. And remembering that helps me keep going. It will be my time to share a big win, a big announcement. But I have to do the work required behind the scenes. Social media reminds me both of how it looks when you get there, and how much might have to happen before you do.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m a writer, poet in particular. I’m not only dedicated to creating my own work, but I’m also dedicated to teaching creative writing workshops in community spaces. What’s so special about being a poet, specifically right now, is we are participating in writing the counter-histories of what people will know about this moment in the future. There is what the schools and textbooks will teach, and then there are the lives on the margins. I know what it was like to be a lover of books as a little Black girl, and for all of my book’s protagonists to be little girls and boys who didn’t look like me, who weren’t living in households, neighborhoods, and family dynamics that resembled anything I knew. So I started writing the books I wish I could have read. I’m writing the books I want to read. I’m writing books in hopes that those who come after will be able to know a fuller, more expansive truth about this world and all of the diverse lives and people that populate it.
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?
One of the most important skills I have as a writer is my curiosity. I want to expose myself to a diverse range of possibilities, to know about all the ways a thing has been done so that I can do it differently, so that I can create surprise. In constantly reminding myself that there is no right or wrong way to write a poem or piece, I am also always expanding what is possible every time I show up to the page.
Another thing that has been crucial is being committed to evolving. I say evolving instead of improving because change isn’t always about “getting better,” sometimes it’s just about being able to see something differently. As writers, we can obsess over the same themes, ideas, life events, etc. for a really long time. What makes the difference, I think, is when we can look at and talk about those same things through a completely changed lens.
What has helped my career the most is adopting the mindset that discomfort and/or fear just means I’m on the edge of a breakthrough. Whenever I’ve been uncomfortable or afraid, it has been because I’m trying something I haven’t tried before. But I have all the tools I need, and even if I don’t, I know where to find them. Every time I have pushed through the discomfort and fear, better opportunities come my way.
That would be my advice for people at the beginning of their journey; stay curious, commit to constantly evolving, and work through your discomfort and fear to get to the next level.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
I’m currently working on two projects that are proving to be different than any of the books I’ve written. I have a lot of fear about failing. I feel out of my depth. I have a lot of reading and studying to do along the way. But I know that good things are on the other side of seeing these projects through. I’m looking forward to the challenge.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.taylorbyas.com/
- Instagram: @taylorbyaspoet
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taylor.byas.1
- Twitter: @TaylorByas3
Image Credits
Photo #3 of the Shutter cover – Photo Credit to Madeleine Corley
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
