Today we’d like to introduce you to ML Dumars.
Hi ML, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have been a writer all my life. I was a contributor and an editor of the school newspaper in middle school. My poem, Invictus, was published in the school district’s annual anthology, Seedlings; I have been published in anthologies, and local literary magazines, including Fleur de Lit and Handbasket Zine. I have published a novel and a book of poems in my adulthood. I am known in my region as a poet and storyteller… I have works featured in an exhibition at Southern University Museum of Arts Shreveport since February. I am the winner of the 2023 Critic’s Choice Literary Arts award for Critical Mass 11, the region’s annual competition and exhibition sponsored by the Shreveport Regional Arts Council. I am writing a sci-fi novel and working on two exhibitions, one of which is a solo exhibition based on the novel I am writing.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I faced challenges along my path to fulfilling my desire to be a writer. As a career choice, writing took second place to architecture, which was my major for four years of study at Tulane University. However, I completed my bachelor’s degree in Humanities, with a heavy concentration in languages and literature of the African diaspora, from Yoruba to Haitian Creole and Caribbean to African American literature. I continued to write while working for the government. I wrote a garden column and center stories for several years for SB Magazine. In retirement, I now devote my energy to writing full-time.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My work is often a comment on prevalent social issues we usually fail to address. My characters deal with mental health, health care, homelessness, working-class poverty, gender identity, and sexuality. In other words, my characters are simple humans with common issues with which they grapple while going about their daily lives. Usually, my stories are set in small or rural environments where the interaction of people and events are often more impactful as life-changing learning opportunities.
I am known as a novelist, storyteller, and poet. Poetry allows me to respond to current social events and observations as witness. Storytelling allows me to embody the fears and lessons of rural life. Short stories and novels allow me to explore the juxtaposition and interaction of less popular ideals about how life should look. These explorations cause me the greatest joy.
I am most proud of winning the prestigious Critic’s Choice Award for Literary Arts of Critical Mass 11 in February 2023. This distinction affords me to present a solo exhibition of my work. The exhibit will be juried by professional critics from major national cities as near as Dallas and as far as Los Angeles. My work will receive national and international exposure.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I have appeared in several anthologies and magazines. People can contact me for work, collaboration, and support via email, mldumars@yahoo.com, and social media at MLDumars.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://culturalyst.com/ml_dumars
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mldumars/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ml.dumars/
