Deviant Art Name- archelyxs
Real Name- Megan Towey
Location– Hudson River Valley / Jersey Shore
Brief biography – I am a student of poetry and classics at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. My writing has been published in numerous professional and student literary magazines, newspapers and blogs. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember, and intend to keep writing for as far as I can see into the future. My non-writing interests include philology, the Pre-Socratic philosophers, espresso, baseball and sabermetrics, astronomy, and nature.
Personal motto or quote- “Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” –Rumi
Media of choice – Writing 
Tools of trade- Usually TextEdit on my laptop, but sometimes notebooks, scraps of paper, cell phone, etc.
Who or what inspires you to create? I do. I know there is a longer answer to that question, but I have not found it yet.
Who or what has been your greatest artistic influence? My greatest life influence, and by extension my greatest artistic influence, is the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I read Emerson for the first time at age 15, and I read from my volume of his essays and poems almost every day.
When did you first start in your artistic field…and why? I’ve been writing fiction for as long as I can remember. I began to write poetry and nonfiction, journalistic and personal, at around the same time, my junior/senior years of high school, so about two years ago. I had an abundant imagination as a child and the world did not contain it; my twin sister and I would start creating these elaborate stories, writing independent and collaborative novels since we were eight years old. We’ve been working on one collaborative novel with the same core group of characters for seven years now, but we keep it private because it’s just for fun. I went to a magnet high school for communications, which got me into journalism. Like many others, Whitman is responsible for getting me into poetry; I read the deathbed 
edition of Leaves of Grass front to back my sophomore year of high school. I’m not sure how to answer why because I’ve never felt that I had a choice in the matter.
What do you want your viewers or readers to take with them? I have no expectations, but the greatest compliment is being a source of inspiration. I want you to create your own work after experiencing mine. I don’t care what else you take from it. I hope that you don’t try to take too much; I hope you use it as a springboard for your own beautiful thoughts.
If you could have been a student of a great artist, writer, artisan or photographer, who would it be and why? Oh goodness. Here at Bard College I missed John Ashbery by a couple of years (he taught here until 2008) and I have lots of regret over that. I suppose I would choose Anne Carson. She’s a poet and a classicist; why can’t I be her?
What advice do you have for beginners in your field? Just write. Those thoughts that try to get away: don’t let them. Write down everything. Read all you can find. And, more than anything, enjoy it.
Artsmith 