Author: J.A. Carter-Winward

J.A. Carter-Winward is an award-winning poet, novelist, artist, playwright, public speaker, and performer. She’s the author of five novels, two short-story collections, a stage play, and three poetry books. Her work has appeared in several online and print-copy literary journals and anthologies. Her writing has been characterized as “fierce, bold, and emotional,” but to be fair, so has she. Another nice thing someone said: “[J.A. Carter-Winward] is one of the toughest, bravest, grittiest working writers in America today…a word-slinger with enormous strength, wit, and compassion.” (I actually value that because a writer I admire said it about me, sorry for the 4th-wall break there, ) Carter-Winward's readership spans the North American coasts, the UK, Australia, and beyond, which must mean she's really, really good. Or she could be lying and pretending she's a way bigger deal than she is, but why would she do that, I often ask myself? Could she have some sort of mental problem? No way. Or no idea. Do we ever really know our online selves? Can we every truly know the online selves of others? This is true, though, below... Themes she explores: interpersonal/relationship dynamics, grief, sexuality, inequality, Mormonism/religion, socio-economics, power, the struggle to embrace (or resist) our true selves, our shared need for connection, along with the vast spectrum of human behaviors and emotions. From the author: "The purpose of this blog is to blog. I'm a writer who blogs on occasion, not a blogger who blogs every day and writes something other than a blog on occasion. Now, if that sentence makes you angry, maybe think about why, since it's not about you. Unless it is, hence the anger. Feel free to blog about it. On this blog, I'll be examining poetry/work by other poets and authors because it's a good thing to do if you do it honestly and constructively. It's not a quid pro quo, I swear, it's not. Perfect. Moving on..." (See, and now I can write as if it's really me writing about me, not me writing about HER who IS me... it's called integration.) As an artist, I feel like it's my job to present stories and artistic renditions of the human experience that will hopefully leave you with more questions than answers. Questions about you you believe you are, your beliefs about the world, and pull you from the safe place of certainty. If you dislike feeling uncomfortable, you might want to not read my work. And while examining who we are as individuals is incredibly personal. I don't have the desire nor ability to decide who you are for you or even purport to know who I am, all the way. But I trust my readers. You're all intelligent enough to come to your own conclusions, or rather, your own questions when reading my work. My work contains mature themes and language, so it's not for everyone. If you're easily offended, this isn't the place for you. Being authentically human is as exultant as it is messy. And so, I write toward the goal of authenticity, and that's a great way to subtly say that while messy, my hope is you don't feel like your own mess is such a bad thing--and you won't feel alone in this soup of a world. In her spare time, J.A. abuses straight O2, writes music and plays the piano, sings and enjoys creating visual arts of all kinds, specifically painting, photography, and film. She sleeps--unapologetically--with 4 different cats and yes, one of them is female. J.A.'s pronouns are "we, they, it, she, he, his, her, and them" but we prefer it if, while slaughtering the English language, others start agreeing with their subjects because frankly, "We are not amused" by the use and abuse of our god, The Word, to inflict pain and stupefication on the masses. The mere fact there is a "disagreement" at all is, in our mind, emblematic of the larger zeitgeist's pathology.