Most of the time, we all know what we like (or what we suck at) by the end of those awkward high school years. Yeah, we go back and forth between majors and future career choices and all that, but we have a general idea of what we are good at.
For Kiley Anne Larson, this wasn’t the case. She discovered a passion and talent for writing in college that she hadn’t truly recognized before.
Larson is currently studying Creative Writing and Philosophy here at SUU. English creative writing is now her major.
“I’ve gone through phases of loving to read and hating to read. I’ve always been into forms of storytelling, whether that was movies, TV shows or books. But I didn’t discover that I had a knack for writing until college,” Larson said.
Larson explained that she discovered her talent for writing through art. Professor Anna Tillett helped her.
“She enjoyed my art and wanted me to explore my artistic side more. She introduced me to the Kolob Canyon Review, and that really got me into creative writing.”
Larson had two art pieces published in the Kolob Canyon Review last year. Currently, she is a member of the KCR staff, and serves as a part of the website committee.
Although she is a creative writing major, Larson still spends time creating art. She recently participated in something called “Inktober,” where she made an ink drawing every day during the month of October.
“I’ve always been day-dreaming and fiddling, and art was a way for me to put both of those together. I’ve found that writing is another way to do that as well.”
Larson has also found that her minor in Philosophy has helped immensely with her writing. One of her favorite books is “The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” which played a crucial role in how she discovered philosophy and writing also go hand in hand.
“I like trying to get a large range of views, it brings different ideas into storytelling. I was initially just interested in it, but I found it was affecting my writing a lot. In my favorite book, there’s a lot of weird obscure things that I found out were significant philosophical topics.”
Now that Larson has found her knack with art, writing and studying philosophy, she would like to be an editor of fiction books or literary magazines in the future. Her dream job? To get paid to read all day and write on the side.
For more information on Larson, visit her bio on the KCR website here.
Story by: Elizabeth Armstrong
accent@suunews.net
Photos by: Kiley Anne Larson
