We were lucky to catch up with Rian Jenkins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I knew as early as sixth grade in 1992 that I had a gift for using words to capture an audience. Along with writing poetry, I would write short stories and novellas that my friends would pass around during seventh and eighth grade. I treasure that time of entertaining my peers in middle school because it would come full circle later. Nevertheless, I never considered publishing until 2003 after performing two years at various open mics on my college campus, Winthrop University and Charlotte, NC. Nevertheless, I was scared of the dollar amount my writing coach, Jeanette Gregory offered to help me publish. As I laugh at that price point now, I also remember allowing the criticism of a professor from a short story course in college to question my ability to write any novels or short stories around 2001 or 2002. I legit took the constructive criticism as banishment from the writing world. As result, I quit writing fiction and didn’t start writing it again, which includes my first novel, until 2014. I sought the self publishing route for years and even considered finding a writing agent. I went back and with the decision to self publish or get an literary agent. Would I be more successful as a self published author versus a published author? Is the cost worth being a self published author? Is my work good enough? Which pieces should be included in the poetry anthology? Along with these questions and hiccups in the process, it took 18 years to finally be able to add self published author to my list of titles. I have two poetry anthologies and will soon debut three more anthologies and a novel by the end of 2023.

Rian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Ironically, my life professionally took on a different path than expected when I was eleven. When I was sitting in a sixth grade ELA classroom at Alice Drive Middle in Sumter, SC, I wrote my first poem, which was a roses are red, violets are blue poem. I remember it because I got in trouble for writing the poem rather than completing my work. I remember my teacher ostracizing me in front of the entire class. Nevertheless, I didn’t allow that embarrassment to keep me from utilizing my pen and pencil to capture my thoughts. While I kept writing poems about social issues, family, and friends, I started writing fiction with my friends in seventh grade. We would pass notebooks finishing each other stories. Ironically, one of those friends is a published author now. As a result of us writing stories back and forth, I wrote my first novel in that same year. It was numerous sheets of notebook paper in a two-prong yellow folder. Writing novels that my friends would pass around that would eventually be confiscated due to inappropriate content brought me joy that could not be contained. Despite getting in trouble, I kept writing.

By my junior year of high school at Ridge View in Columbia, SC, I wrote for the school’s newspaper, yearbook, and anthology along with a multi-county newspaper for teens. Because I decided I wasn’t going to be an engineer like my father or a lawyer who seemingly made just as much money, I graduated from RV knowing I would eventually be a top-notch journalist who would start at Essence magazine and eventually be Editor-in-Chief.

God had other plans in mind because I couldn’t ignore this passion to work with children. I scoffed at my mom, Barbara Jenkins, a now-retired educator, proposing education as a career. Today I have been an educator for almost twenty years.

Whether it was short stories or poems, it was safe to say that storytelling was in my blood. Passed down from generations before me, the art of verbally crafting stories to perfection came effortlessly for me. My grandmothers, the late Mary Jenkins-Dent and the late Viola Mungin, would intrigue my young ears as I sat at their feet to hear stories full of wisdom and foresight. It didn’t dawn on me until college that my gift was an inherited blessing from my mother who is also a curator of words.

As a pursued a career in education, I kept writing poetry. As a poet, I evolved into a spoken word artist who has performed at numerous events and venues starting with events on Winthrop University’s campus between 2000-2003. During that time, I adopted the nickname Anointed Misfit, which explains my motto: I am purposed by God to speak words that edify and motivate while tearing down myths that will prohibit anyone from living their best self.

Sadly, I ignored the fiction or novelist in me for years due to the critique I received from a professor in a fiction writing course. Instead of taking it as constructive criticism, I viewed the critiques as banishment from the fiction writing world. It would take running into peers from middle school at a high school ten year reunion to remind me of God told me between 2000-2002. I am called to write any and everything, which includes fiction. As a result, I started writing various fiction pieces and potential novels.

Although I spent most of my nineteen years of teaching as an ELA middle school teacher and eventually an AVID site coordinator and elective teacher, I am currently a high school English and AVID elective teacher. During my teaching career, I have facilitated numerous writing workshops with students in my classroom, summer camps and guest speaking appearances. For a few years, I was the advisor and writing coach for a poetry club at a previous middle school called Poetry Nation.

While teaching, I developed a love for mentoring young ladies, which has grown into a school mentoring program, ROSES (Respecting OurSelves and Each Other through Sisterhood). The program helps females matriculate through middle school and eventually high school. They seek to create leaders of today who strive to maximize their potential, which includes academic excellence and community service. I am the CEO of what is also known as Crown Her along with being the program director, and mentor who plans out the yearly calendar and leads the sessions with the young ladies.

In 2021, I was finally able to add a self-published author to the list of careers after I released two poetry anthologies, A Queen’s Heart and a Queen’s Anthem. This year I plan to release at least two more poetry anthologies along with my first middle grades novel entitled Reverse at the end of 2023 or early 2024. The publishing of those first two books is the beginning to a long career that will definitely include doing author visits and workshops.

Within the last two years, I have performed at countless venues as a spoken word feature, open mic artist, and entertainment for a birthday party or events like empowerment teas or church special programs where I wrote custom pieces for the audience.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

FIVERR is a company I was informed about but didn’t understand the magnitude of services I could receive while driving down the cost of producing my first two books. Although I do believe in supporting other businesses in my process, it became very costly and would sometimes pause the process due to limited funds. Nevertheless, I will definitely utilize FIVERR until I am able to compensate vendors without sweating it. FIVERR can help with book cover designs, editing, formatting, and logos. I would have saved $1000’s of dollars if I would have used FIVERR for formatting and my book cover designs.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love inspiring people to believe in the good or greatness they possess. I love reenergizing people to believe in themselves again. I love speaking a truth that will expose darkness and hypocrisy while hopefully igniting change. It never fails I assume I didn’t do my best then someone comes up to celebrate my gift or elated to share how it encouraged them. I want people to know their worth, how beautiful, powerful, and dope they are. When we operate in our true calling and purpose, this world becomes better.

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