In 11th grade, Antawn had a poetry class where he “had to write poems and thought it was really cool.” His passion only increased since then, propelling him to write more and more. "Then I got here,” he says, “three lines per poems—haikus." He is particularly fond of haikus because they're "a lot of information" condensed "into a little bit."
Unlike most writers, Antawn is inspired by movies rather than books. “I really enjoy They Live." "There’s so much in this story. It doesn’t need a prequel and that’s really cool. I think that’s a good example of what I want to do, but you know, even smaller—in writing.”
When asked about his inspiration behind “A Collection of Philosophical Haikus,” Antawn states, “I take a lot of philosophy classes; I’m a philosophy minor, so I’m interested in philosophy, so philosophical haikus, especially existentialism.” However, his other published poem, “Duality of Day and Night,” is a personification of nature.
The most helpful writing advice Antawn receives is through his classes. He feels his "teachers have a lot of important information to give out" and "when somebody's there to give you information," you should "soak it up." Antawn stresses he doesn’t read much, but what he reads for his classes is thoroughly enjoyable.
Antawn winds down from work and school by watching movies and shows. “I really want to sit here and tell you that I spend all my time writing, that I get home and I write." Antawn doesn't spend much time writing, explaining that "most of the ideas are up here in my head until I know what I want to write about. I kinda got the beginning of what I want to do, but most of it is like brainstorming and writer’s block.”
Antawn also writes short stories, prose, and screenplays. In addition, he has a Youtube channel called yungmanray. His channel focuses on news articles discussing "a lot of weird stuff that's going on in the world" like "Man Farts Loudly And Gets Arrested!" He finds this "really cool" and swears being a Youtuber is "a cool hobby to do."
Another fun fact about Antawn is he has a cat named Ms. Tiddles. “Yeah I’m a cat person not a dog person," Antawn says. "We get into staring contests sometimes. And, I don’t know, that’s what I do sometimes with my cat." He jokes, "Don’t judge me!”
Lately, Antwan has been reading the Twilight of the Idols (by Friedrich Nietzsche). He had it for class once and became hooked after reading a few pages from it. He finds Nietzsche "really interesting" and is "thinking of reading more of him." Despite not being a fan of written fiction like "fairy tales," Antawn says he likes "to read an interesting piece of work."
After Antawn gets his Bachelor’s, he plans to get a Master’s in Creative Writing or Philosphy, and, later, a Doctorate’s. He hopes to become a professor and work at a college somewhere.
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