Today we’d like to introduce you to Prudence Brooks.

Hi Prudence , we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?

I wish I remembered my first poem, but I don’t. I just recall being around nine years old and feeling such relief from putting pen to paper. So I kept doing it. I performed my poetry in coffee shops and founded a writing club in my high school. I was published for the first time at eighteen and wrote poetry throughout the years, though much of it wasn’t shared with anyone. I started taking writing classes at a community college in 2020 and began consistently sharing my work on Instagram in 2021. Since then, my writing has improved drastically. It’s inspiring to have people actively rooting for you, and being surrounded by other writers has only helped me with my craft. Poetry is more than a job or a hobby for me. It goes beyond purpose even. It feels as though poetry flows through my lungs, like I might suffocate without it. Maybe the hyper-fixation is sometimes unhealthy, but writing is the love of my life. I treat it as such.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

No road is entirely smooth. That road doesn’t exist literally or figuratively. I have faced a lot of the same obstacles that people in every profession or hobby face, namely poverty. For example, there was a lapse in my submitting to publications for a few years in my early adulthood. I was battling untreated mental illness, undiagnosed pain, 65-hour workweeks, and at a certain point, I was experiencing homelessness. There’s little opportunity to achieve your creative or professional goals when you are eating sleep for supper and you have no computer besides the library for 15 minutes a day. Most of us have been working ourselves to the bone until we have no energy for anything else, and worse, it’s necessary to do so in order to live. Capitalism leaves no room for the artists from poor backgrounds, it leaves no room for exploration of new ideas and imagination. Poverty has been a hindrance to not only my health and my happiness, but my creative endeavors as well. That’s why so many of my poems address generational poverty, elitism, the rural struggle in America, and other political topics. Art is incomplete unless it’s informed by real feeling and lived experience, and no one can tell a poor person’s story better than they can. I just wish we all had the opportunity. I feel so lucky to have more time to write and to have my basic needs cared for at the moment. It’s a feeling I’ve never known before and I want that for all poor, disabled, nonwhite writers. We all have so much to say and no time or energy to say it. That’s been my biggest struggle, and I believe most poor writers would tell you that.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

As I said previously, my poetry has persistent themes of class struggle, but I write about much more than that. I think I am best known for grief. I was in foster care intermittently as a young child, and my mother died after losing custody permanently. I use poetry as a way not only to process my feelings but to show others that they aren’t alone. Orphanhood and poverty are isolating. If I can write something that resonates with others, I feel a poem was successful. Even if it’s not my best poem and needs more editing, the rawness often touches people who are experiencing or have experienced similar things to me.

As for my projects, I have a book coming out on January 2nd, 2025 called TRUCE and I run a Patreon page. TRUCE is a reckoning with my notions of attachment and trust, and a time capsule of my relationship with my husband in all our messiness. It’s my debut collection and I’m quite proud of it. I spent so much time on it and look forward to sharing it with the world. My Patreon offers many benefits, which I won’t go into here, but some of the perks include exclusive poems, newsletters, writing prompts, and free edits from me every month. I love my patrons and am immensely grateful that people care enough about my work to pay me monthly.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?

I live in Portland, Oregon, and couldn’t ask for anything better. I love it here. There’s a grime to it that matches my personality and upbringing, but it’s also very charming. The poetry scene is excellent; there are so many people to meet. Everyone always has a lighter if you need one and they’re always willing to share a cigarette. I think those simple acts of kindness and community are what make me love this city so much. In general, people are generous in Portland, and as a lover of humans, I find it to be a source of joy for me. Every city on Earth has its issues, but I love Portland enough to keep trying to help my neighbors make it a better place.

Pricing:

• TRUCE paperback – $12.oo
• TRUCE e-book – $4.99
• Patreon – $3.oo, $6.00, $12.00

Contact Info:

• Website: https://overusedmetaphor.com
• Instagram: @prudence.writes