English teacher Allison Reed has been awarded the Reader’s Choice Award for Best Local Author in the Riverfront Times.
“I think it’s how you choose to use your time. Some people, they play a sport, and some people, they volunteer in their communities,” Reed said. “I think it’s because I’ve been doing English stuff for so long that it’s what I’m trained to do.”
She first got into poetry because of Ted Hughes’s poetry, which reminded her of the sounds and sights of where she grew up.
“The first class that had the assignment for creative writing we read a bunch of poems from Ted Hughes,” Reed said. “He wrote about the natural world in a way that resonated with me because of how I saw a lot of natural imagery, a lot of remote description, a lot of interaction with animals, wild and domesticated.”
Her journey has not been easy though. When she is writing, she is sharing a piece of herself with the world.
“I think for me I’ll just feel it kinda start bubbling up as a thing I have to spit out,” Reed said. “It’s really vulnerable to write because you’re like ‘these are all my secrets!’ so when you put your stuff out there, you’re like ‘I hope it is accepted well!’”
To help her write, she meets up with other local writers.
“I also have a group that I meet with. There’s three other poets who work and live in the St. Louis,” Reed said. “We meet once a month and just show each other our stuff and workshop it.”
Reed applies what she learns through writing to help her students.
“I think she is very caring towards her students,” junior Samuel Thomas said. “She makes sure everyone is on the same page, and everyone is treated like their own person… I really like that.”
Reed’s books are available at allisoncundiff.net where she has all five of her books.
