Carissa “Chrissy” Taylor | Writer | Editor | Actress

So, tell us a bit about who you are and how you first got involved with Epiphany Space. 

Hi, my name is Carissa “Chrissy” Taylor! I graduated from Huntington University with a double major in Film Production and Film Studies, but I refer to it as a professional storytelling degree. 

During my last semester of college, I studied abroad in LA. I interned with Epiphany Space and that’s how I met Melissa, Cortney, and Erin. It was a very interesting internship because  Epiphany Space was moving locations, but I’m very grateful that I got to intern with them. I’m glad I was able to reconnect with Melissa and Epiphany Space a few years ago. It has helped to have that support in regards to my creative endeavors. 

Who inspires you? What creative people or creative works make you say, “I want to do that”? 

My favorite author is John Green. My favorite books by him are Turtles All the Way Down and Looking for Alaska. I admire how he doesn’t shy away from the more uncomfortable and difficult topics of the human experience. I am very honest and vulnerable in my writing, especially in my poetry. It’s important to be authentic in a world that continues to have a filter and only wants to show the more pleasant parts of life. My goal in being more authentic and realistic is that people don’t feel alone when they’re going through difficult things. 

Also, it’s not a creative person or creative work, but I am very inspired by turtles. They're my favorite animal. Turtles are very resilient. They can get hurt very badly and, with the proper care, are able to recover. They’re also able to survive on their own until they get rescued. I’ve always told myself that “slow and steady wins the race,” and I have to remember that when it comes to my creative process. 

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced along the way, and how did you deal with them? 

Speaking of being vulnerable, I had a medical malpractice surgery in 2019 that caused two of my chronic illnesses. It took years to get properly diagnosed with my chronic illnesses and have a surgery to correct the medical malpractice surgery. Being in chronic pain and not being able to treat it until getting a proper diagnosis is very traumatic. 

During that time, I isolated and had a hard time being creative. I didn’t feel like I would be able to write ever again because I was so depressed. Thankfully, I ended up writing a lot of poetry to get my feelings out, and it was very cathartic. 

I ended up self-publishing a book with 8 years' worth of poetry, from before, during, and after my healing journey that I went through. It’s called Chronic: A Healing Journey Through Poetry, and it’s available on Amazon. I am very proud that I was able to take my pain and turn it into something creative. 

Currently, I am dealing with new health issues that have come up. However, I have written more poetry regarding it, and I think I’m able to cope with it better than I did before. 

Are you working on anything cool or interesting right now? Anything you’d like to tell us about? 

Despite being chronically ill and figuring out new health stuff, I am working on putting together another poetry book. The last book took about 8 years of writing poetry, so I’m slowly gathering more poetry to add to the new book. 

I am writing a fantasy novel as well. It took over a year to work on the world-building for it. This project is very personal to me, so I’m hoping to dive into it more this year and get a lot written. 

Also, I am hoping to start making and editing videos for my YouTube channel and post more on social media. Health issues have gotten in the way of that, but I’m hoping once I get my health issues figured out, I can start building a platform. 

Where do you see your creative journey taking you? What would you like to be doing, say,  five years from now? 

That’s a really good question. I would like to publish more books, especially another poetry book. Another thing is, I would like to be consistently posting on YouTube and sharing my writing and poetry there. I’m planning on making video essays and talking about my experiences so that people don’t feel alone. It’s also important to me because hearing about other people’s experiences opened my mind to be more empathetic.  I hope other people can also be empathetic to what I’ve gone through. 

What advice would you give to other artists and creatives in your field? Any words of wisdom for those looking to follow in your footsteps? 

While I was taking screenwriting classes in college, I was constantly told to “write what you  know.” I think I was afraid of writing about my experiences because I hadn’t processed them.  Once I finished going through my healing journey, I found it much easier to talk about everything  I had gone through in my life, and it was a lot. I think it’s important to write about your experiences, but not necessarily get lost in them. Processing through them beforehand definitely helps with writing and creating art, especially if those experiences were traumatic.