Saving Lives Through Lit

My name is Antoinette, and I am a survivor of almost every form of abuse, starting at age 4.However, I don't look for pity, I try to be the helping hand that I wish was there for me when no one seemed to care. I try to be that voice that speaks, when someone else is too weak, or cannot find the words.

I started writing for my own therapy as an eight year old child. At that time, I had no idea that I was in fact writing poetry, nor did I believe it when my mother, and other friends and family members told me that.

I believed everyone wrote like me, and that they were just telling me that I had a "gift" to make me feel good.

It didn't work. You see, my esteem was so low, even as a child, I didn't realize it at the time, but I didn't believe in myself. And you know what they say about hindsight.

I discovered a poetry website and entered my first poetry contest ever in 2007, the Grand Prize was a Publishing Package. I was blessed to be the Grand Prize Winner of The Soul Asylum Poetry and Publishing Inc.'s Contest in Jackson's Point, Canada.

While I was overjoyed for the accomplishment, it was bittersweet since I had just loss my mother in 2006 and shortly thereafter, in 2007, I loss my dad, both to Cancer. So it is because of that reason, that I dedicated my book, which I call VICTIM! VICTORIOUS!  in honor of their love for me, mine for them, and their legacy of strength that lives on in me.