Today we’d like to introduce you to Darren Edwards.
Darren, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started writing poetry and short stories in 3rd grade. My teacher, Mr. Durant, noticed that I actually focused when we’d do creative writing assignments, and he encouraged and supported that interest. Every year, even when he wasn’t my teacher, he’d make sure that I got signed up to go to the BYU young writers conference. That early love for writing never faded. In college, I found myself switching my major over and over the first couple of years, I started out in archeology, then political science, then history.
Eventually, I noticed the common thread between all of these fields, was that I wanted to write about all of them, so I changed my major one more time to English with an emphasis on creative writing. Over the years, I’ve found that my favorite writing (both to read and to try to do) is writing that uses beautiful language to explore complex ideas. While I love to do this with poetry, I’ve found the genre I feel most at home in is creative nonfiction. I tell my students that creative nonfiction is the art of writing about the little t’s (factual truths) as a way to explore the bit T’s (those bigger than life, universal truths). As for photography, it started in a dark room back in high school in the 90s, and it’s really tied into my teenage love of skating. Pre-videophone (and actually pre-digital camera in general) firing off a roll of film during a skate session was nearly as big a part of the day as the skating itself.
Photography remained a hobby until publishers started wanting photos to accompany my writing. At that point, I decided to up my skills and move into the professional level of photography. I do all kinds of photography, but I really ended up falling in love with portraiture. One of my favorite things is to capture a piece of someone, maybe even a piece they have a hard time seeing themselves, in a photograph. I find a key to getting a subject to open up for the camera is getting them to open up for me in conversation. I don’t like to tell a client to smile; I like to get them talking about something that makes them smile. In that way, interviewing someone for an essay or article is similar to sitting someone for a portrait session.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
A little bit of both, but the struggles have provided a lot more growth. I firmly believe all writers need one or two soul-crushing moments where you have to step back and reevaluate yourself, your writing, and why you do it. I sailed through most of my general ed courses in college in part because teachers liked my writing, but none of them were writing teachers. Chris Cokinos, who would eventually become my first real mentor as a writer, provided my first soul-crushing moment as a writer. During a student conference in his intro to creative nonfiction class, Chris sat me down and basically said, “you’re not a very talented writer, but you want it, and you know how to learn, so if you work for it you can become a great writer.” I was crushed. I thought I was this talented writer. It was my gift, that made me special. But that “struggle” opened the door for more growth as a writer than any other event in my life.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think the thing that stands apart when you look at my writing is how deliberating my voice is. I’m always investigating ideas, looking to understand all the angles of things. I love questions. Questions, especially HOW and WHY questions are the most important elements of my writing. More than description. More than sound. While description and sound are important and I’m always trying to master those skills above all else I’ve worked to develop a sincere reflective voice as a writer.
I think that’s why I love research-based creative nonfiction so much. You just find a topic that interests you, something you feel has some depth to it, some metaphoric or philosophic potential, and you throw yourself into it. You try to do the topic justice. You hope to explore what that topic can teach us about the human experience.
Any big plans?
I’m really into mixing my writing and photography together right now. I have two projects I’m working on that do this really well. The first deals with the housing crisis in southern Utah. The second is a reinterpretation and modernization of the 22 major arcana tarot cards. I’m also pitching around my next book which will explore the philosophical side of standup comedy.
Lastly, my new book, Supernatural Lore of Southern Utah, comes out on September 12th. It’ll be available from my publisher www.arcadiapublishing.com, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and any other online bookseller.
Pricing:
- $225 hr
Contact Info:
- Website: darrenmedwards.com
- Instagram: dme_Utah
- Facebook: facebook.com/DMEcreativeservices
