Pivoting through Parenthood and Writing with Jazmine Aluma

Today Casey interviews First Words co-host and longtime friend Jazmine Aluma. Jazmine is a poet and essayist, currently working on a memoir and finishing her MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University. She has an 8-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter.

Jazmine and Casey have been a source of creative support for each other throughout their many years of friendship. Last year, when Casey’s daughter was just a few months old and before COVID vaccines, Jazmine would drive over and join them on a weekly walk, with masks, to make sure Casey was getting some adult interaction in those early, isolating days of motherhood. It was on one of those walks where Jazmine first pitched Casey the idea for this podcast, and the rest is history.

Jazmine’s website.

The first reading originally appeared in the Issue 61 of Ruminate Magazine – Beginnings and Endings.

The second reading originally appeared in I Wrote it Anyway: An Anthology of Essays, edited by Caroline Donahue and Dal Kular.

You can follow Jazmine on Instagram @jazminealumawrites and this show @firstwords.podcast