Daunte Gaiter is a senior majoring in Marine Biology from Dallas, Texas who describes himself as “a scientist by day and a writer by night.” Daunte’s passion is writing and reading among other things. He feels that poetry is a comfortable place to express his thoughts. Daunte’s work has appeared in the Windward Review.
During the interview Daunte described the connections between word choices, word connotations, and the influence of his own personal feelings in the moment to create poems that carry themes that range from “uplifting” to “sorrowful.” Daunte noted about his writing process that:
“I feel there’s a heavy emphasis on emotion. Whatever I write, it’s going to be highly emotional, in either a positive direction or a negative direction. So, emotion would be a theme for me.”
When asked to discuss any challenges or obstacles he had faced as a poetry author Daunte described the common tendency for writers to lack confidence in their writing. He recommended that writers cultivate the mindset of fearless self-expression to continuously develop their unique writing “voice” and refine their writing at the same time. Daunte also touched on the addictive quality of the creative process once writers overcome their fear and start working beyond poetic forms and structures:
“If you’re afraid to share your poems, no one’s going to see that so you can be someone’s favorite poet. But that person will never find you if you never write, or you never submit anything. And so, you’re preventing someone from loving poetry by not writing it, you know? That’s why I say, just be fearless and do the best you possibly can to get the audience to understand what you’re feeling and that raw emotion.
Watch the rest of the interview with Daunte here.
