Bio
Emma-Jane started penning poetry at the age of seven, when she began filling notebooks with stories and poems. During the pandemic in 2020, she released her first poetry collection, Darkness & Light, about her journey with mental illness, which became a multiple bestseller on Amazon. She is a former primary school teacher and has a BA Honours degree in Creative Writing. You will often find her with a cup of tea and her nose in a book. She also enjoys stitching, playing guitar and ukulele and practising yoga and meditation.
All the World is a Stage
Stephen Hawking once said, “Quiet people have the loudest minds.”
I spent a lot of my time inwardly creating and analysing as a child. As a middle child, I had a lot of time to reflect. It was a busy household; I was one of four children and my mother was a childminder. I would soak up the chaos but crave stillness. My imagination was my comfort. If I didn’t live inside the fantasy worlds that I read in my favourite books, I created scenarios in my head, changed the narrative, became different variations of myself. Words were the only source of stability I had and I naturally gravitated towards them.Like most highly sensitive children, I pursued opportunities to creatively express myself. For me, it was easier to choose when I wanted to be in the spotlight and pull away when I needed solitude. I started dancing when I was six years old. Alongside my eldest sister, I enjoyed wearing sparkly costumes with matching scrunchies. Learning how to dance helped me blossom with confidence.It was when I went to high school that I started gaining a true passion for drama. It was a chance for me to be someone else, walk in another’s shoes, put on a mask and hide behind it and so my confidence grew. In hindsight, I feel that those moments embedded my love for writing. I was fascinated by stories in every medium, as I was learning the art of active storytelling and the complexities of characters and how they can be portrayed.I was the shy and sensitive child that became entranced by the spotlight. Throughout my childhood and teens, I searched for as many creative outlets as I could find to express the restlessness inside of me – singing, acting, dancing and learning musical instruments. I was still a quiet soul but I thrived on these new ways to express the loud and creative mind that pushed me forwards.I am grateful for my creative journey because it has given me prism eyes; I have seen the world through different artistic lenses and everything I learn, everything I see and experience is fuel for my muse. Storytelling is in my blood. All the world is a stage for me to walk upon but the page is the place where I truly feel at home.
