Today we’d like to introduce you to Fanicia Howard.
Fanicia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been writing and reading poetry since I was nine years old. I grew up in Chicago, Illinois and come from a family of both creative writers as well as educators, so having an appreciation for literature and creative expression was not a foreign concept to me. I’ve always felt connected to words and the emotions words evoke even at a young age. Writing has always been my gift as well as my release when other mediums used to communicate didn’t suffice. When I was in elementary school, I was a part of a group in my fourth-grade classroom called Young Authors and it was then that my teacher pointed out how exceptional my poetry was and encouraged my mother to put me in any contest or club that existed in the city. I considered myself extroverted for the most part, but I was shy when it came to showing my work at times because I was unsure of how it would be received.
By the time I reached high school, I had entered and placed in a few different contests in our school’s district and began to build more confidence in my artistry. I remember my junior year of high school my high school counselor sat me down and asked me about my future and what I wanted to be and pursue after I graduated. When I told her about my passion in pursuing creative writing, her response was that I needed to focus on something more practical for a career and that, “every poet would not be the next Maya Angelou.” I was hurt because she was someone I trusted and up until then thought believed in the gift I possessed. Her words echoed in my head even when I went off to college.
While I attended Clark Atlanta University, I majored in English, under the guise that I wanted to be a teacher because that was a practical goal, but deep in my heart, I knew that was not what I wanted. I excelled in the subject of English and that’s why I stuck with the major, but looking forward to my future, I knew I needed to find a way to merge my passion with my skills and degree. By junior year, I took on an internship as a writer and transcriber with an online magazine called INSPIRE. It was a great learning experience being surrounded by a team of other like-minded and talented writers and it was also a way to build a portfolio and showcase my writing abilities. I convinced the Executive Editor and CEO, Christopher”BlackIce” Bell to let me add some of my poetry pieces to the creative writing section. He didn’t hesitate to give me a shot at it. The end result was me having several of my poems featured in about five issues and a way to have my work published.
In the two years, I interned I gained great relationships networking, got some poetry published and even to this day, I have an amazing rapport with Black Ice and the rest of the team. I spent the next three years looking for creative writing opportunities within Atlanta and I had applied for numerous writing jobs around the city but nothing was really through. I ended up working with children in education because I had the degree and experience but it wasn’t my passion. My life was slowly becoming the infamous “I got to do what I got to do in order to survive” story and slowly but surely my time for anything besides work began to diminish. I became depressed. It seemed like my peers were progressing in their respective careers and personal lives and here I was : living from paycheck to paycheck, stressed out from work, and not even sure who I was or what my purpose was anymore. It was a scary place to be in. I hit my “rock bottom” in January of 2017 when I had to stay on a good friend’s couch while I was in between places waiting to hear back from apartment complexes. It was at that moment where I had an epiphany. I had to tell myself, “Fanicia, what’s stopping you from releasing a book? God forbid you are called home tomorrow what would your legacy be? That you were just a nice person? You could die with a gift inside of you and no one would ever know.
You don’t have anything to lose by sharing your gift and you don’t know how God could use you in a might way because your fear of looking stupid is holding you back!” It clicked after that for me. I literally took a group of poems I wrote in a diary from roughly 2012 up until right after New Years of 2017 and Letters to an Anonymous Heart was born in less than two months of the epiphany. I published the book in late April 2017 and released it publicly on Amazon in early May of that same year. The initial reception was amazing. I hosted a couple of book signings and readings, did a couple of podcasts and online interviews and participated in a popular Author Expo this past summer. Sometimes, I get emotional when I think about how far I’ve come and how so much can change for the better in such a short amount of time because I was willing to take chance and bet on myself. That has been the greatest lesson and continues to carry me.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but the road hasn’t also been jacked up with potholes. I think because I released a book in my late twenties instead of my early twenties-which I initially intended to do- made all the difference. I had time to go through some things and really process what happened and mature into who I am now so my perception is different and the way I handle struggles are different- in a positive way. I guess an obvious struggle would be that I am a self-published author which carries a slight stigma in the writing community.
Over the years, it has become more accepted, but the self-publishing market and the respect that comes with it has a long way to go with progressing. I come out of pocket for just about all of the cost associated with my book. I have to buy my books out of pocket, I buy the supplies for my events and any fees associated with it, and I often pay for my own promo and ads on my social media pages. It is also challenging to build relationships and get copies of your books put in more notable bookstores. The good thing is, libraries will generally accept your books if you donate some and there are quite a few independent bookstores in Atlanta that support independent and self-published authors. Honestly, some of the obstacles I face are more internal than external- like dealing with rejection. No one is a stranger to that, right? It hurts when people don’t support me or show up to events even if I have stuck your neck out there for them. It hurts that more than often popularity is the common denominator over talent- even when my talent works hard.
Letters to an Anonymous Heart – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I’m a self-published author and a content creator. My second chapbook is currently underway and plans to be released in 2019.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment was when I received the proof for my book before it was even released. I cried like a baby. It was a cathartic moment for me because I was physically holding in my hands everything that scared me, everything I loved, everything I dreamed of since I was that little girl in fourth grade, everything I dreamed of when my high school counselor told me to be practical instead of pursuing a writing career and everything that helped keep me together when I thought I lost my purpose. I was proud that I didn’t give in to what other people projected on me and that I got out of the way of my own self and how people have been inspired by my words and send me personal messages thanking me for being vulnerable and courageous.
Contact Info:
- Email: faniciahoward@gmail.com
- Instagram: book page @letters2anonymousheart
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ltaah/
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Heart-Fanicia-M-Howard/dp/1544210442/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544128127&sr=8-1&keywords=letters+to+an+anonymous+heart
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
