Today, Jennifer Tamayo is a full-time writer and poet living and working in New York City. But seven years ago, she was moving into a tiny room in a shared house in Baton Rouge to begin the University’s creative writing Master of Fine Arts program.
After graduating from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in Fundamental Issues in Texts, Tamayo moved to Washington, D.C., to work at a law firm.
“I hated working there,” Tamayo said. “I was making money, but I realized that a career in law wasn’t for me. But working somewhere I hated made me feel more drawn to the person I am.”
She started writing creatively in her spare time, which led to attending a creative writing class at a writing center in D.C. Tamayo said it was difficult for her to decide what to do next.
“You want to be an artist, but you don’t want to be starving,” Tamayo said. “I kept writing, and I decided to apply to 14 different MFA programs. It’s sort of stereotypical, but for me there was a sort of aura of magic around Louisiana.”
Tamayo moved to Baton Rouge without knowing much about the city or her professors.
“Definitely research what you’re getting into and who you’re going to be learning from before you decide to go somewhere for graduate school,” Tamayo said. “In my first year in Baton Rouge, I almost quit because I was so depressed about the physical space I was in and the state of my life at the time.”
That soon changed, however, when she dug into what was going on in Baton Rouge.
“I took this amazing class from [poet] Laura Mullen. She shows this love for her students. It makes you feel like you really have something to say,” Tamayo said. “I learned how important it is to play around with the subject you’re writing about, and I got really interested in concepts of gender and culture.”
While living here, Tamayo became immersed in Baton Rouge’s writing community. She honed her writing style while living and working with other local artists in writing circles around the city.
“The arts community and especially the writing community here are really strong,” Tamayo said. “I could have started in New York or Chicago, but it wouldn’t have been as nurturing and I wouldn’t be where I am now without all of the support I received from the community in Baton Rouge.”
Tamayo graduated from the University’s MFA program in 2010.
Immediately after completing the rigorous three-year program, Tamayo’s first book was published.
“After that, I sort of fell out of the habit of writing for a while,” Tamayo said. “But now I have a routine. I focus on writing every morning from 6 to 10 a.m. Sometimes it’s not all churning writing out. Sometimes I just sit and cry at my computer for an hour. But making a routine out of writing is necessary.”
Tamayo’s new poetry book, “You Da One,” was inspired by her return to Colombia, her birthplace, to meet her biological father.
“I wanted to come up with questions for when I met him. When I was on the plane to Colombia I had a list of thousands of questions. Some of them were pretty bizarre,” Tamayo said.
You can reach Tyler Fontenot on Twitter @TylerFontenot83.