Abby Armstrong
The Blood, the Love, and the Uninterpretable is a spectrum of emotions. Each section explores a variety of comfortable and uncomfortable aspects of life, all of them leaning into the uncanny. The first section, “the Blood”, focuses on the “dirtier” parts of life, beginning with the poem titled, “Mud”—which presents the state of dirtiness as a positive rather than a negative. The second section, “the Love”, is much like a series of love letters where every verse seeks honesty and passion. The final section, “the Uninterpretable”, focuses on exactly that– the parts of life that are incapable of being interpreted or explained. Overall, this poetry book seeks to challenge typical patterns of thought and embrace the weird (and sometimes uncomfortable) emotions in life.
Abby Armstrong was born and raised in Dothan, Alabama. She has enjoyed writing ever since she learned how to read and write. As a child, she was obsessed with The Hunger Games series and the Percy Jackson series. During her sophomore year as a Biology major at The University of Alabama, she realized that she wanted to use her passion for writing to pursue a career as an author. Some of her favorite authors include Leigh Bardugo, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Adrienne Rich. Her writing is often inspired by the natural world, artwork, and films. She is an avid horror fan, and she loves incorporating aspects of horror media in her writing. Her poetry’s confessional style has been, in part, inspired by some of her favorite horror films that delve into the uncomfortable parts of reality. A couple of her favorite directors are Mike Flanagan and Ari Aster.
She is also the proud mom of her cat, Taro (named after the beverage), who she found one hot summer day on the side of the road. Taro’s favorite pastime is helping his mom type on her computer. On the flipside, when she’s not writing, she enjoys running, hiking, and listening to music.
Her writing process requires a cup of coffee (preferably an iced caramel macchiato) and a couch. She also likes to listen to music to “keep the focus”. She enjoys writing short stories and longer works, but poetry has always been her favorite form of writing. Part of her decision to change her major was due to a poetry class she decided to take as an elective during her sophomore year. That same year, she was awarded the Ruth Larcom Scholarship by The University of Alabama. She hopes to not only become an accomplished writer, but a professor as well. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she plans to enter an MFA program in Creative Writing.