{"id":94244,"date":"2021-06-26T17:10:53","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T21:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=94244"},"modified":"2021-06-26T17:11:07","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T21:11:07","slug":"introduction-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/introduction-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction &#8211; 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up in New Delhi, India, in a house and family where reading was really encouraged. Growing up, there wasn&#8217;t a free moment when I didn&#8217;t have a book in my hand. Soon enough, I began to imagine my own stories. Images became words, then sentences, then full pieces of writing. As a child, I published poems in the local school magazine, and eventually, in my adolescent years, I wrote and published several short stories and a full length novel.<\/p>\n<p>In my adulthood, it has been increasingly difficult to find the time and dedication to write &#8211; among the milestones of college, a demanding first job, and now graduate school. But whenever I do write, it never fails to elicit the sweetest of emotions. The beauty of an initial idea. The thrill of finding just the right word to fit a line. The satisfaction of looking at a finished product that I, uniquely, have created and shared with the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Poetry (Half) Marathon gives me an opportunity to collectively experience the joy of writing with a community all over the world. This is the third time I am participating and similar to last year, my boyfriend and I will be doing it together. We&#8217;re down in Paso Robles, California for the weekend, surrounded by beautiful vineyards, sunny weather, and our indispensable laptops. We&#8217;re excited to channel all our creativity and undertake this journey together, and with the rest of you.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck to everyone who is starting out now, and keep it up for those of you who have been braving this for the last 8 hours! Will see you on the other side!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I grew up in New Delhi, India, in a house and family where reading was really encouraged. Growing up, there wasn&#8217;t a free moment when I didn&#8217;t have a book in my hand. Soon enough, I began to imagine my own stories. Images became words,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":830,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-introductions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/830"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94459,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94244\/revisions\/94459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}