Profile of Caroline Morris

Caroline Morris, a Catholic University English major, is finishing her final year with a bang, winning the Honorable Mention of the O’Hagan Poetry Prize. Her winning poem, "Holden & Your Hair,"  is a poem she wrote in high school about a crush, something that everyone can relate to. While it was originally written as a spoken word poem, it has barely changed: "the poem just sprang to life in my brain and I speed-typed the entire thing out on my phone in about 15 minutes, and I edited a few lines slightly last year, but it has primarily remained the same since that first draft." Writing before she could even hold a pencil, Caroline used to dictate stories to her mother that she wrote down. She attributes her jumpstart in writing to her Creative Writing class she took senior year of high school. She continues to strive for her audience to feel her words and aims to truly affect her audience in a long-lasting way: “I would just let the writing flow from the well of emotion.” She then applied the technique that she learned through her English classes at Catholic University. She urges aspiring poets to trust their instincts and be brave in their creative journeys: “I have never read an exceedingly honest poem for which I have not held great respect.”

Make sure to read "Holden & Your Hair" in Vermilion's first edition, out December 1, 2021.