Kusum Irene Jain

As a child, I adored stories and poems. I came into my teenage years by way of comics, mystery books and slutty romance novels. By high school, I had found Kabir, Shakespeare and a love for English Lit. My teachers encouraged me to write, but I ended up going the science and math route to become an M.D., and following that, an interior designer, a renovation project manager, an inn owner, a gallerist and a property manager.

Losing my husband in 2017 caused me to pause and take stock of my life. After many doses of counseling and as part of my ongoing “How Best to Deal with Grief” experiment, I was both the mad scientist and the guinea pig. In 2018, I luckily found my way to a Junior College poetry class in my new hometown of Sonoma. Through poetry, I found my way back to myself, to community and to a long lost love, writing.   

My work has been published in two anthologies and I have been a regular contributor to a recurring Sebastopol Center for the Arts poetry show since 2020.

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