What steps did you take to become a writer?
I wrote every day, not because anyone was making me, but because I wanted to. Persistence and craft are both essential to getting your writing out in the world. Submit to magazines you like, then prepare yourself for rejection because you will experience a lot of it. Keep writing, keep submitting, keep learning.
When I started at Concordia, I had no interest in writing and minimal interest in reading. A class with Tim McNamara changed that. I started to love reading, poetry in particular, then I started to write. My first book just came out, Slow War, and I'm grateful to everyone at Concordia who taught me to respect the written word.