Pseudonymous UTA Student Author Amaranthe Ivory Violeta Published Globally by Short Edition

Author's professional headshot

by Library News
July 27 2021

Amaranthe Ivory Violeta pushes her long bangs out of her eyes as I set up my recorder and MacBook on the fourth floor of Central Library. The floor is still closed and being reset for fall 2021, so it’s eerily empty but for us. She holds an orange pencil—blunt from all the writing she has done this week—and a green leatherette journal in her lap, the matching ribbon bookmark draped lazily across her high-waisted shirt.

“It’s a neat concept,” she says, describing Short Edition in a quiet voice. The French publisher has recently selected her poem, “Lunar Love,” for publication in its novel dispensers, which provide readers with randomized stories and poetry at one-, three-, and five-minute lengths. The dispensers are available across five continents and will now all provide Violeta’s poem as one of their offerings.

The sophomore studying forensic biology first heard about Short Edition in her creative writing class with Dr. Laura Kopchick last year, who shared an invitation to submit for the Long Story Short competition. Violeta then began submitting directly to Short Edition, which was how her poem was selected for distribution via Short Circuit, a quarterly review assembled by a board of Short Edition editors.

“I started submitting out of curiosity,” she says.

Violeta has been writing poetry since she was eleven years old, drawing inspiration from masters like Frost and Poe and Eliot and Plath.

“Much of my childhood was spent in free time reading books, writing and playing outside,” she says. “I realized I had a desire to write because I read, so I guess it started there.”

She starts our interview with many of these qualifications, but as she talks about her writing and the assurance it gave her throughout her childhood, her posture shifts so she is more upright and her voice gains volume and steadiness.

“Writing was and still is my way of trying to understand reality and to untangle my emotions, which often felt stifled,” she says. “I was neglected from my own sense of privacy as a girl, and so it was a way for me to express in a way which was wholly mine.”

As Violeta grew, her poetry grew, too.

“I have discovered with time and experience, the infinite potential of creation through the use and power of words, and this has inspired me in recent years to work toward the development of my poetry,” she says, gesturing with her hands as if maneuvering invisible stanzas or phrases in the air in front of us. “I enjoy playing with and giving form through words—to me, it is a way to weave the music of the universe and to explore both myself and the external world. Even now, I am a completely different person from who I was when I wrote, ‘Lunar Love’ over a year ago.”

When I ask her about the inspiration for the work selected for publication by Short Edition, at first she doesn’t remember which poem it is—“is that crazy?”—but she quickly recalls “Lunar Love” and its grounding force.

“As a science major, I am drawn to logic and rational thinking, but I am similarly as creative minded and rather expansive,” she says. “This comes out in my writing and one of my favorite ways to balance the two is to intertwine abstract concepts to physics, biology, and chemistry.

“[‘Lunar Love’] was inspired by elements that I had gathered from both within and in observations of external stimulus. I will keep the name of the one whose presence helped me muse it into life, to myself. I enjoy imagining humans as celestial bodies, floating across the cosmos.”

Her cool demeanor when discussing her poem’s content carried over into her discussion of how she felt when she found out about her publication acceptance.

“I felt excitement, but I didn't and still don't have any particular expectations when it comes to my writing,” she says. “I write because it feels correct; it is a part of me, which becomes apart from me. I did begin submitting my work to expand and propel myself past my boundaries of comfort.”

The publication might have been the first submission attempt, but it’s had a profound effect on Violeta’s relationship with her writing.

“It changes the dynamic that I have with my writing, pulling me outside of myself to an observer point of view where I recognize that I have an opportunity to express not just for my own fulfillment but also for others,’” she says. “I no longer view it as merely a purging and instead, I see it as an art of expression to which I could potentially bring clarity, joy, or inspiration to someone else and their reality. I am inspired to continue developing my voice.”

Violeta is working on many projects now— mining raw material from her journals for more concrete pieces, a project inspired by The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and a complex short story cycle/novel contending with the reliability of perspective and narrative.

“I believe that there are truths within each of use that as a collective, we find difficulty facing within ourselves because we are focused on the external world and the perceptions of others,” she says. “We have conditioned by our previous experiences on how to think, act and feel. If my writing could plant a seed that would one day help at least one human being to break free from these constructs, this would bring me immense joy and gratitude.”

Violeta plans to continue working with Short Edition and recommends the process for others who are just starting out as creative writers.

“The editors that I have had the pleasure of speaking with have been friendly and encouraging—I am grateful to them for publishing my work and for helping me to bring life to something that can be shared with others,” she says. “Aspiring authors should consider that you create for a reason. Your desire to do so, sparks from a wealth of rich experience that could be shared.

“Is a bottle of wine not enjoyed more in the company of others? So, when you ask yourself why you should submit your work and you think yourself incorrectly as insignificant or small, my advice is this: why not?”

Her advice-giving makes her even more philosophical. We talk about writing more generally and its value in our lives.

“I love that I can write anywhere that I am,” she says. “And if without a notebook in hand, I can nurture the thoughts and emotions in my mind space until I arrive again at pen and paper.”

As we end our interview, she politely declines to be photographed. When I ask her why she elected to write under a pseudonym, she considers it for a moment before answering.

“I do have this desire, however my writing proceeds, to be an invisible voice,” she says. “I like that idea.”

Before she leaves, we visit the dispenser on the second floor of Central Library, and she prints one of each length of story, joyfully tucking them into her backpack, before disappearing into the hot summer day.


UTA Libraries is proud to partner with Short Edition, a French publishing house of short stories, poetry, and flash fiction. Our Short Edition dispenser is located on the second floor of Central Library, to the right of the market. Submit your stories year-round on Short Edition’s website and follow us on social media to be the first to know when our next writing contest launches.

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