author

  • This Place I Call Home

    This Place I Call Home

    My name is Jess and I publish poetry as J.L. Fizzell – a pen name I picked out when I was nine or so to honour female writers like L.M. Montgomery during eras where women were barred or discouraged from writing or forced to conceal their gender by using their initials. My poetry is inspired…

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  • The Power of Poetry

    The Power of Poetry

    I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I published by first book, exactly four years and one month ago. It seems like yesterday, and at the same time, a lifetime ago. With four years having past since the year I wrote and published three poetry books in a year (yeah,…

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  • How to Haiku

    How to Haiku

    As you may already know, my favourite style of poetry is free verse. I’ve never been very good at following rules, so naturally as a writer I drifted towards a style that allowed me the creative freedom I needed to express myself. With that being said, I do try and push myself to write other…

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  • Mind Your Mind.

    Mind Your Mind.

    We all have bad days. Maybe something exceptionally terrible happened, or maybe you’re facing a mountain of minuscule frustrations. Maybe it’s something completely different. What you’re facing, however, is irrelevant. I don’t mean this in the sense that your experiences aren’t difficult. What I’m saying is that your perception of the experience is far more…

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  • How Adversity Birthed an Author

    With my third book, North of Dreams released today, I thought it was time to tell you a story. I won’t lie. This piece was easy enough to write, but it wasn’t at all easy to share. I may be a poet spilling my soul for your eyes, but overall I tend to be fairly…

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