Isabella Mansfield
About: Isabella J Mansfield (she/her) writes about anxiety, intimacy, and body image both generally and as a woman with a disability. She has a love for stage poetry, and has taken her work around the country and across the pond, including performances at the Oberon Theater, Cambridge, MA, and Nambucca London. A two-time Pushcart nominee, and a Write Bloody McCarthy Prize Honorable Mention, Isabella is always looking for ways to bring a little humor into her deeply personal poems, and is almost never sorry to make you cry.
What I love to create: I am a poet. I love pretty notebooks and then write almost everything in my phone or on my computer (wouldn't it be a shame to spoil a beautiful, perfect notebook with a bunch of terrible drafts!?) I have published four books total and two of them are currently available at most bookstores, worldwide ("The Hollows of Bone" [Finishing Line Press, 2019] and "Lemon" [Isabella J Mansfield, 2023]).
I adore being able to share my work on stage. Reading poetry is a lovely thing, but there's nothing like hearing it spoken, the way it is intended, from the creator.
My inspiration? Why I make? Though I've been writing poetry nearly my whole life, I began writing more seriously and publishing only in the last ten years or so. I won't say writing is therapy - therapy is therapy, writing is writing :) but it can definitely help a person process and organize their feelings. I share my work with others, in my books, on social media, and on stage, because there is a sense of community that comes with sharing such personal work. Having even one person come up after a performance to say "I didn't know anyone else felt like that!," "I really connected with your work," and "I felt so seen. You made me feel like it was okay to be who I am." (that last one happened in June 2023 and will stick with me forever. THAT is my inspiration.)
What I love to create: I am a poet. I love pretty notebooks and then write almost everything in my phone or on my computer (wouldn't it be a shame to spoil a beautiful, perfect notebook with a bunch of terrible drafts!?) I have published four books total and two of them are currently available at most bookstores, worldwide ("The Hollows of Bone" [Finishing Line Press, 2019] and "Lemon" [Isabella J Mansfield, 2023]).
I adore being able to share my work on stage. Reading poetry is a lovely thing, but there's nothing like hearing it spoken, the way it is intended, from the creator.
My inspiration? Why I make? Though I've been writing poetry nearly my whole life, I began writing more seriously and publishing only in the last ten years or so. I won't say writing is therapy - therapy is therapy, writing is writing :) but it can definitely help a person process and organize their feelings. I share my work with others, in my books, on social media, and on stage, because there is a sense of community that comes with sharing such personal work. Having even one person come up after a performance to say "I didn't know anyone else felt like that!," "I really connected with your work," and "I felt so seen. You made me feel like it was okay to be who I am." (that last one happened in June 2023 and will stick with me forever. THAT is my inspiration.)
