Seela's poem "Grievances with Desperation" won first place in the June 2018 issue.
She is a junior at The Frisch School in Paramus, NJ.
This is her first entry into The Bedford Ledger.​

Tell us a little about yourself. When did you first start writing poetry?
I'll be seventeen in two weeks. I started writing poetry when I was in seventh grade for my middle school literary magazine and this past year I was poetry editor for my high school magazine - with the co-Editor-in-Chief position next year. 

Who or what inspires your love for writing/poetry?
I love poetry because it is so versatile. There are no rules, and I love the way it makes people feel and frankly how much fun I have while writing it. 
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Do you have any favorite poets or poems that you like to read or have influenced your style of writing?
I am influenced mostly by slam poets: Neil Hilborn, Kevin Kantor, Denise Frohman. Written word poets too, like Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg (with him I try to separate his words from his personality). 

Give us some background on your writing - do you only write poetry? Do you write for pleasure? Have you won any other contests?
I write a lot of poetry, especially slam poetry, but I have also been writing a book for the last couple of years that I spend a lot of time on. It currently is at the seventy page mark on Google Docs and more handwritten in a notebook. I write as often as I can. I carry my notebook around everywhere I go; it has been duct taped more time than I can count. 
I have won two Best Performance Awards and a Runner-up Best Poet at poetry slams. 
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What was the inspiration or the story behind your winning poem?
The inspiration behind this poem is the programs we have to constantly sit through about people's spiritual awakenings, they don't help me - I didn't  go through that experience and it really never impacts me. Whenever we leave those programs though you have those people who make fun of them and talk about Gd isn't real and religion is a farce. Both basically me go shut up. ​