Jack Straw Writer Shontina Vernon‘s piece in the 2016 Jack Straw Writers Anthology is inspired by her youth in rural Texas and subsequent departure to the big city to attend a performing arts school. She talks with curator Karen Finneyfrock about this experience, her current work with youth through 4Culture’s Creative Justice program, and the importance of being able to tell your own story honestly: “If you haven’t really explored your own narrative, your own sense of what is true for you internally, I think it’s really hard to do it for your characters on the page.”

Music by Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.