Theo Poling

they/he

Primary Genres: poetry, short stories, TV pilots, long-form novels

What do you like about writing?

This is one of those questions that I almost hate to answer because it's so cliche. I asked my mom to teach me how to write before I entered preschool. By the end of the day, I'd written my own short story complete with a beginning, middle, end, and social message about a purple cow among white cows escaping from the pasture. It is some kind of essential, deep-as-breathing expression for me. I feel depleted without it and fulfilled by it.

What might you like people to know about you as a writer?

Almost everything I write is either accidentally or purposefully a love letter to Ypsilanti. I like to leave easter eggs and references to local geography, history, and beloved cafes, in most of what I write. As a person, I'm unashamedly a lover of my hometown and my home state. That's not to say there aren't any problems with where I'm from, but rather that I think the people here are deeply committed to addressing those problems, and that's beautiful.