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 the time I reached high school, I had found Kabir and Shakespeare. I loved English Lit as well as my teacher and she loved my writing and me but I went the biology, chemistry 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 caused me to pause and take stock of my life. In 2018, after many doses of counseling and as part of my ongoing “How Best to Deal with Grief” experiment, where I was both the mad scientist and the guinea pig, I stumbled onto a senior’s poetry class in my new hometown of Sonoma. Through poetry, I found my way back to my self and to a past love, writing.