Bearlodge Writers

Amanda Blake

Get to know Amanda

 

 

Quote

 

Amanda Blake Bio

Learning, loving and laughing: three things I try to sprinkle throughout each day. My mom sparked my passion for education by unschooling my brothers and me until college. This freedom allowed me to cultivate creativity of all kinds. Visits from the Bookmobile left me with laundry baskets overflowing with novels. My insatiable thirst for reading soon expanded into a desire to write words of my own-my first novel attempt, at age seven or eight. At the same time, artistic desires tugged at me and surfaced in bright yellow and pink drawings of my twin characters (and their "waterfall of strawberry blonde curls"-oh dear). At age twelve, many hours were spent bent over a keyboard, feverishly writing until I finally gave in to the call for supper.

When I was sixteen, I earned my GED and enrolled at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD. After beginning with a declared English major and no clear idea of where I wanted to end up, I am now 22 and happily camping out in Woodburn Hall as a senior art major (sociology minor). Writing will always be my first love, but sometimes words aren't enough. Now I'm learning how to blend two worlds: colorful poetry and prose; poetic lines of paint; fragmented sentences; flowing mosaics and digital fine art photography. It's been a good day if my hands are inkstained and my jeans are stiff with gel medium and splashes of color.

Publication Credits

In the Shadow of the Bear Lodge, Many Kites Press, 2006
Christian Science Sentinel
The New Green Bowl Review
Best of College Photography Annual 2005

Awards:
March '03, 1st Place, Stewart Bellman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate
Writing
March '03, 2nd Place, New Talent Poetry contest, ByLine magazine
January '06, Honorable Mention, Personal Essay contest, ByLine magazine
August '06, 3rd Place, Children's Poem

Excerpt of Writing

Friday Night Street Fair

four feet, two inches of concentration
he curves over potter's wheel
oblivious to the curious crowd

his lean boy-body is relaxed, yet
ready to move
he doesn't ask "teacher, is this right?"
"did I do it wrong?"

instead, calm confidence radiates
he belongs here, his hands know
the perfect shape
they guide and lift the turning tower

his part done for now, he leans away
stretches in a backwards C
earth-covered hands return to hips
to rest on
two dried handprints

don't wash out
please
keep this day

the wet smooth smell of clay
the way his hands fit exactly
around the spinning earth, the way
he creates for nobody but himself
for nothing but joy

--This poem won 3rd place in ByLine's August '06 Children's Poem contest.