Dr. Yen Verhoeven
What’s your genre?
Nonfiction education
Are you published?
Indie press publisher
What inspired you to become a writer?
I’ve always used writing as a way to process my thoughts. I’m also a forgetful person, so writing things down is how I remember ideas without keeping them all in my head. About a decade ago, I suffered from chronic migraines — the kind of migraines that put you in darkness and make you do practically anything to make them stop. Writing saved me from the times I wanted to commit suicide. I could escape, and I created worlds in my head where I didn’t have to focus on pain. Fortunately, I found ways to control my migraines. My writing continued, but I’ve learned that writing can also be insightful for others. I see the benefit to others when I share the things that I’m going through.
What author do you admire and how have they inspired your writing?
Helene Cixious is a French philosopher, poststructuralist, and writer. Her essay, “The Laugh of Medusa” was a call to action for women to write themselves into the spaces that at first, did not exist. Cixious talked about writing as women’s way of creating and of discovering who we are. In this piece, she says, “And why don’t you write? Write! Writing is for you, you are for you; your body is yours, take it.” It spoke to me, and how I used to keep my writing secret. As a feminist myself, I’ve spent my life as an educator who empowers students. But as a woman, I know that there are still spaces where we are “lesser than.” It is in those spaces that we must write into—write ourselves into existence.
Name three of your favorite books and their authors
Teaching to Transcend, by bell hooks. She gave words to the things I was feeling and thinking.
Home by Toni Morrison. I could read a passage and just sit there, savoring the beautiful art that is her writing.
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. This book changed my life.
What one piece of advice would you give to a budding writer?
Don’t write alone. You need a community to make your writing better—whether it’s a close friend who reads your work, a writing group, an editor, beta readers, etc., but people get the writing out of your head so that you can communicate what you really mean, and so that people can understand you. Plus, you need people who keep you going. Find the people who believe in you, because you’ll need them during those times when you stop believing in yourself.
Author bio
Dr. Yen Verhoeven is the president and founder of Qi Learning Research Group, a groundbreaking ed tech company revolutionizing how we approach teaching and learning. Yen has over 23 years of teaching experience and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with certifications in program evaluation and online instructional design. She is an award-winning speaker, the author of the book, REBEL Teaching, and sits on the Governor’s STEM North Central Regional Advisory board. She lives with her husband, two sons, a dozen chickens, several fish, and a psychotic dog. Click here to visit her.
