Abbey Numedahl is a teaching assistant and graduate student in creative writing at University of North Dakota. She lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota, with a Persian kitten named Costello.

In answer to our question of why she writes, Abbey responded:

“I write because writing is the best thing anyone can do to make sense of anything. In moments of skepticism and frustration, I worry that there is no order to the world. In these moments, I worry that we are all born to breed and die. But writing allows some transcendence from that existential tedium, a chance to investigate the mysterious and delicate things that make us humans and not antelopes or slugs or amoebas. I am obsessed with the place between the brain and the heart. I believe that all of us experience little stirrings that lead us to do things we do not, or at least only partially, understand. I am interested in knowing why. There is a specialness to exploring the intersection of intellect and emotion in this way, and it is hard for me to imagine a life where I couldn’t pursue these questions and ideas through writing.”

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