Congratulations to Featured Client Alison Hicks! Since enrolling as a client in the spring of 2010, Alison has continued to impress us with the incredible poignancy of her language. She uses poetry to spin dreamlike narratives that are replete with unforgettably vivid imagery. By the same token, the narrators in her short fiction pieces possess a genuinely human quality, making them instantly relatable to the reader. All of this combines to establish Alison as a multi-faceted author of many talents. Read on to learn more about her writing career and experience with Writer’s Relief. Watch her short video.

In Her Own Words:

One key to getting work accepted by top literary magazines is persistence. When I was submitting work on my own, I would be overcome by anxiety and paralyzed at the thought of sending to such journals as The Paris Review or American Poetry Review. Now, when Writer’s Relief sends me labels, I figure they must know what they’re doing, so I slap them on envelopes, stuff in my poems and cover letters, and off they go. I’ve published 23 poems and one short story since I signed up with Writer’s Relief in 2010. Though I haven’t had an acceptance from The Paris Review—I keep trying thanks to Writer’s Relief.

About Alison Hicks:

Alison Hicks’s books include Kiss, a collection of poems; Falling Dreams, a chapbook; Love: A Story of Images, a novella; and Prompted, an anthology. She received the 2011 Philadelphia City Paper Poetry Prize and has twice received fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her work has appeared in Eclipse, Fifth Wednesday, Gargoyle, The Hollins Critic, Pearl, Permafrost, Quiddity, and Whiskey Island, among other journals. She leads community-based writing workshops under the name Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio. Find out more about Alison Hicks on her website!