Meet Hannah McClendon

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah McClendon.

Hi Hannah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born and raised in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. My mother and I used to make up stories and songs together when I was younger. My mother was a Sunday school teacher and my father was a minister with a former military background. I had a strict upbringing but a very loving one. When I was eight years old, my father passed away from cancer, and this was a very challenging time for me as a developing child, but I always felt loved. I’ve always been into music and writing. I was a part of the symphonic and marching band all throughout grade school and then into college. I also took several different writing classes in high school and that’s where I truly began to enjoy the art of writing. I moved to Nashville in August of 2015 to attend Tennessee State University and began my major in Psychology with a minor in English.

During college, I joined a poetry group named “Soul Fire Poetry” and continued to write, share my work, edit my work, and perform. College was a pivotal time for me in my life, as I had many ups and downs in my personal life. In 2018, I published my first poetry novel independently titled, ‘Gold Mouth’. Since then, I have worked in the mental health rehabilitation field while working on my next poetry novel. Although I do live nine hours away from my family, I’m still very close to both my mother and sibling and talk to them almost every day.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. I would say my father’s passing was probably the biggest struggle during my childhood. During this time in my life, I had been losing a lot of family members back to back on his side of the family, so grief was a very prominent feeling for me. In high school, I had typical identity issues as far as having friends but not fitting into any type of circle. In college, my mental health began to decline. I was thankfully able to be in therapy while I was in college. I had a couple of traumatic incidents on the college campus which made me even more introverted.

After college, I began working in the mental health field as an entry-level staff. I don’t believe anything could’ve prepared me for some of the things I’ve seen just on a day-to-day basis since I do work with the highest acuity of patients. I absolutely love the work I do with my patients. I love teaching them, listening, and sharing stories, and it’s a very challenging field to work in.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize mainly in poetry but I do enjoy writing fiction as well. I’m known for my poetry novel ‘Gold Mouth’ which I published back in 2018 when I was in college. I’m most proud of my website. A few months after I published my novel and finished with the book signing and everything, I created my website from scratch and just loaded it with content. I’m really into fashion, so I uploaded all my pictures from different photoshoots I’ve done, and I used to have a page that featured a lot of my poetry for free.

The most popular thing on my website, currently, would have to be my blog. I created it not long after launching my book and it became increasingly popular over time, and now it’s thankfully starting to bring in a very steady stream of readers and engagement. I believe what sets me apart as a writer would have to be the topics/experiences I write about and the extent to which I’m able to describe them in a poetic way. I’m not afraid to go into grave detail about very dark things we can feel from time to time throughout life, such as grief, despair, hopelessness— heartbreak that you can physically feel in your chest, betrayal, loneliness, etc. I honor the “lows” in my life as much as I honor the “highs” all throughout my writing.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I’m very open to collaboration, I really enjoy working with others whenever I can. I have most of my major content and work on my website as well as both of my emails, so anyone can contact me directly! It really means the world to me when someone takes the time to check out my website, my social media, or my poetry novel.

Contact Info:

• Website:www.hdenae.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/hannah_mcclendon/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DenaeSpeaks?mibextid=LQQJ4d 

Image Credits
Kashaf Iqbal and Naidaniel Nelper