About

This is what my “About” page used to say:

Nicolette Bethel’s Blog, in which she shares essays, links, some academic work, a little poetry, and a whole lot of opinion.

When I was a child and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would invariably answer “A writer”. So here I am, all grown up, and my answer is still the same. Writing is a hobby, and not a profession, of mine. Part of that is because I have to make a living, and I choose to live in a country where the only kind of writing that pays is journalistic, and reporting is a far cry from the poems and plays that have taken up my adult life, or the stories and novels that occupied my adolescence. And part of it is that writing is a very jealous hobby, and all too often it demands far more time that I can honestly give it. But I write a weekly column for the Nassau Guardian, so maybe it’s more than a hobby after all.

But just recently I had a visit from a student that made me rethink what I want this page to say. I’ve been writing professionally (i.e. getting paid for my writing) for some time now. I can’t live off the money I get, but with gas and other things like they are, it helps pay some bills. And people have been publishing my creative work (poems mostly) for prestige, which lasts longer than money sometimes, so maybe, just maybe, I can now say this:

When I was a child and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would invariably answer “A writer”. And here I am, all grown up, and that’s what I’ve become.

Want to know more about me? Go here.