Meet Veronica Jarboe

We were lucky to catch up with Veronica Jarboe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Veronica, 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?

That’s a great question! Personally, I’ve never given myself a choice not to be resilient. The alternative means stagnation and I’ve always felt that I owe it to myself to push through anything that comes my way. It would feel like a personal disservice if I allowed myself to break down in rough situations. I started dancing ballet at three years old and grew up training and dancing with the Sacramento Ballet, so that established a kind of resilience from an early age.

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?

At this stage, I am primarily focused on furthering my artistic career as well as non-profit work. I am working on my fourth collection of poetry as well as drafting my novel. Currently, I have three collections out, “Sweethearts and Sorrows,” “Dragon Girl,” with Bottlecap Press, and “I Tell the Finches,” with Rinky Dink Press, which garnered me a Pushcart nomination in 2022. My first publication was when I was 8 years old in the The Anthology of Young American Writers for a short story I wrote in class. I still can’t believe it all these years later! Along with my collections, I’ve had a good number of publications in literary magazines and journals, which still blows my mind. Speaking of, I’ve performed some of my work at the Crocker Art Museum in 2023, which is one of the more surreal moments I’ve ever had. Another being, was when I was admitted into LAMDA and moving to London to be 1 of 45 students to get into their International Program in 2015.

Non-profit work always remains poignant for me, even while I am actively pursuing other things. Since age 8, I was part of a volunteer group which went around to convalescent homes to dance for elderly people. Since then, I’ve since become host of Expressions, a monthly artist’s showcase to raise awareness and funds for the Middleway Health Foundation which focuses on mental health. I’ve participated in other non-profit work as well with the Turner Syndrome Foundation, WEAVE, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As of right now, I am an active board member of The Sacramento Valley Chapter of NAWBO as their NexGen Co-Chair, as well as being a poetry and prose reader for Moss Puppy Magazine. Melissa Martini, my EIC, has been the most wonderful to work with, and I am so grateful to be a part of something so special. In addition to that, I do work closely with Clemon Charles on various artistic and non-profit work. It’s always a special experience being able to work with him.

I am an artist and writer through and through, so I’d say my brand is myself!

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?

I’d say, the three things which were most impactful for me were discipline, expression, and tenacity. Looking back, these seem to be the things which I keep coming back to. Advice is tricky, but I would suggest learning as much as you can, while you can. Knowledge only gets you further, and no one can take that away from you. It’s there to rely on when things are confusing and it builds confidence as well. I’d also say to accomplish things in stages, otherwise it can easily feel overwhelming.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

My biggest area of improvement and growth has been building confidence in my abilities. I’ve focused on honing my craft as much as possible this past year, for sure.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://veronicajarboe.com/
• Instagram: @veronicajarboe

Image Credits

Jan Zeboski, Ilich Najera