Introducing Lyndsay Krisel
Lyndsay Krisel is a published author living in Boston, working toward blending her poetry and art to help people heal from their trauma and make real, lasting, personal growth. In 2021, she published her first-ever collection of poetry, Loving Me to Pieces, which is currently available on Amazon. It is a beautiful evolution/memoir-style anthology centered around learning to love herself in all of her broken pieces. It touches upon difficult topics, such as mental health, grief, trauma, abuse, and the struggle to understand your identity as part of the human experience.
Lyndsay’s words and artwork exemplify very intricate and beautiful aspects of life that often go unnoticed, and she is searching for more opportunities to speak on these issues. She has between two to four ideas for books and is currently working on a project entitled Something More along with a Guided Journal counterpart called Something to Believe In. This project will deal with the triumphs and failures of finding purpose and passion and discovering “something more” in her own life.
Lyndsay’s upcoming guided journal concept would be a collection of guided reflections to help others discover their own “more” in life. Essentially, the goal is to help people figure out their deep core values and the things they personally believe in. She hopes this will foster their sense of purpose and motivate them to take action with their passions. The titles of her books either come to her while writing about something personal, putting together a new collection or poem, or are simply inspired by words, ideas, and emotions that recur throughout her writing process. She is inspired by strong emotions but usually has to sit with and process them first. Sometimes, words will just pop into her mind at very random times, and other times she needs to force herself to sit down at a blank page and see what spills out. Music is also a big inspiration for the emotions she struggles to connect with. Once she can connect with them, then she can find the words to express them. Small pieces of prose usually take longer to form, and she’ll choose to include them in a larger project later on.
Lyndsay has always been a writer, and she has dabbled in many types of writing. She studied English Literature and Memoir Writing in college and went on to go into journalism. She always knew she wanted to write a book about her life, but she had not fully healed herself enough to do so back then. She started writing poetry and little lyrics or quotes sometime after college to try and make sense of her trauma and figure out who she was and wanted to be in life. In her late twenties, she lost her father, who was very abusive and narcissistic, and after this traumatic event, she struggled immensely with her mental health, career choices, and life as a whole. This is what sparked a more consistent flow of writing, sharing, and connecting with poetry as a means to cope and heal from her deeply-rooted wounds, along with therapy. She does most of her writing in her bedroom when it’s quiet, or even in the middle of the night when she struggles to sleep. It’s a lot easier when she can be alone with her thoughts.
The most difficult aspect of writing for Lyndsay would be reflecting on her past emotional history and trauma, as a lot of her writing is focused on these powerful feelings. Coming to terms with new and difficult emotions is always the hardest part of creating beautiful, lasting, and inspiring work for her. There is a mix of old and new grief related to her relationships and her family conflict that transpires through her writing. At times, it’s hard for her to separate her emotions and writing, but she reminds herself that they don’t always need to be completely accurate, they just need to be thought of in a new way. She makes sure to take breaks from writing to process this.
Lyndsay writes whenever she feels inspired. Sometimes it’s daily, other times it’s just a couple of moments a week. She always lets her life guide and dictate the stories that she creates and she never tries to force what doesn’t flow naturally. Typically, writing will both energize and rejuvenate her; she never felt like she had a strong enough voice growing up, nor did she feel truly heard or seen. She finds it difficult to walk through life feeling as though she needs to constantly redeem herself because of what others might think of her, or the mistakes she’s made. Writing reminds her and others that she is here and deserves to take up space. She deserves to be seen and heard for who she is. Lyndsay enjoys reading poetry collections written by other authors, and the last book she read was one of Atticus’s new books. In fact, Atticus would be her dream mentor! She is also particularly inspired by the work of Topher Kearby, Kristina Mahr, Courtney Peppernell, and Chloe Frayne.
Poetry and non-fiction are her favorite book genres, but she isn’t quite fond of fiction. Her favorite poems from her own collection are “People Are Made of Magic, Too” and “Lost Love”, the latter of which is tattooed on her arm. When Lyndsay is not reading or writing, she likes to spend time with her friends and family, explore nature with her dog, listen to music, go to coffee shops, and lift some weights at the gym.
Literary success for Lyndsay means sharing her work and having it resonate with those who have struggled in their lives or can relate to her words. For new writers, her advice would be to just write as much as possible. It doesn’t have to be perfect at the beginning, but you need to start to have it go anywhere. For the longest time, she procrastinated on putting together a manuscript and sharing her work, but she only grew more love for herself and her writing once she began. You can find Lyndsay Krisel at https://linktr.ee/L.t.poetics_, on Instagram as @l.t.poetics_, on Facebook as Lyndsay Taylor, or email her at Lyndsay.Krisel@gmail.com