By Niharika Shah
If you were a woman in the 80’s, and you revealed your ambitions to become a poet or a novelist, you would be directed towards the right faculty and encouraged to find your place in literature. Of course, that came with a side of claiming a ‘secondary status’ to men, as women were strictly excluded from offices, courtrooms and other scientific professions. It is beyond ironic, how today, women (and men) are fighting for the positions of CEOs and Managing Directors, whilst those motivated purely by art and literature are slowly falling behind.
I wasn’t always open about my passion for poetry. I resorted to online forums where I was nothing more than a robot communicating with other robots, and a few close friends who knew me for who I was and where I really drew my inspirations from. Thanks to the Imposter Syndrome, it was difficult for me to share my work with an audience, but I witnessed that side of me change drastically over my years at Emory. I enrolled in my first ever Creative Writing: Intro to Poetry workshop and learnt, for the very first time, what it felt like to fall in love with a class - a system of education. I performed spoken word at one of the largest, most celebrated Symposiums on campus, organized by our very own The Pulse, and I remember feeling like I could sublime into vapor, right there as I walked off stage and the audience continued to cheer and applaud, some clicking their fingers and whispering how they felt every word of my poem in their bones.
I’d entered university with an intended major in Economics, so it came off as a huge surprise to my parents when I told them that I’d declared a double major in Economics and English & Creative Writing. I said I wanted to pursue two goals in life, not one, and was willing to put in the hours for it. I come from an ordinary, simple-minded, Indian household, with parents who have struggled to give me the life I lead now and who understand the importance of money in bringing stability to life. It’s not easy to confront that kind of family with your ambitions of making it as a writer, so I’d decided I would first make it, and then show them. Sounded easier.
I continued to better my craft, follow the guidance of my excellent professors, and developed a stronger reading habit – that’s when I discovered the works of Ocean Vuong, Fatimah Asghar and Dr. Jericho Brown and realized that the benchmark for contemporary poetry was higher than I thought but also, that I had the drive and will to surpass it. Mid-pandemic, as I went through my troughs and peaks of inspiration like any other artist, I decided it was finally time I went public with my work. June 2020, I launched my Instagram page @niharikashahpoetry to promote my poetry and share everything I love about the art. In 3 months, I hit 1000 followers and I was proud – of the work I was putting out there, of my engagement with the writers’ community on social media, and of myself, for finally stepping out of my shell and taking a leap.
A couple weeks later, I was casually scrolling through LinkedIn – the last place I’d ever expected to run into anything associated with creative writing and authorship – and I met somebody who connected me with a program that was designed to help writers achieve their dreams of getting published. ‘Become a published author!!!’ tops my bucket list, even today, but I wanted it to be legitimate. Today, you can easily get self-published on Amazon, or submit to self-published anthologies, but that doesn’t necessarily result in wide coverage or put you in the public eye. It’s rare for publishers to magically find you and offer you a contract to release a new edition of your book, if they happen to not hate it. There are some organizations on the internet that can take you for a ride whilst crushing all your dreams and ripping you off, so naturally I was pretty apprehensive about this opportunity that literally showed up at my doorstep.
But I did my research. The Creator Institute, founded by Professor Eric Koester of Georgetown University, has made hundreds of dreams come true through his Book Creators Program, that connects authors, young and old, to a team of first-class editors, marketing specialists and New Degrees Press that signs an agreement to release your book, if you meet all the required deadlines and constantly put in effort towards adding and editing your content. Moreover, it is considerably more affordable than finding individual copy editors and publishing houses that might or might not give you the platform you’re looking for. Signing with this Institute was the best decision I made in 2020. It has been a rollercoaster – drafting my manuscript, structuring its chapters, having weekly meetings with my editor, visiting and re-visiting each and every poem until it’s given the green-light, talking promotional videos, pre-sale launches and sales targets – but it’s been one of the most fulfilling journeys of all.
My debut book, Strawberries Under Skin, will be released August 2021 with New Degrees Press, and I couldn’t be more excited for all of you to read it. It is a tribute to love. A letter to the people that have helped me write it. It is testimony to change, and a haven for those who have not yet found comfort in their own skin, body and choices. Deciding to become a public figure was daunting, but as Michael Scott reiterated Wayne Gretzky’s words, “You miss 100% of all the shots you don’t take” – I took my shot.
The link to sign up for pre-orders comes out soon. I am thrilled to be celebrating this journey with the Emory community, and to be able to tell you that every artist that chooses to not believe in themselves, chooses to deprive the world of a little more art. And honestly, we could do with a whole lot of art.
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