Meet Kaitlin Oster

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaitlin Oster.

Hi Kaitlin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today. 
I’m originally from New York, born and raised, but I have never felt more at home than I do in Grand Rapids. I had a ton of aspirations in undergrad; I wanted to be an English professor. I spent the summer before my senior year studying at Oxford University and had the opportunity to return in 2012 for grad school, but I lost my mom to alcoholism September of 2011, two weeks into my senior year. That rocked me to my core. I spent the next decade in grief, questioning why I wanted to be a writer, what good my story would be to others, and ultimately trying to find my independence after living the first twenty years of my life trying to give my mom a reason to want to be here. A year into COVID, I started applying to grad school. I was at a point in my life where I didn’t see myself having much to purpose and only ever found love in writing, so I used some of my savings to send out applications. I was honestly surprised to be accepted into the David Lynch MFA program for screenwriting through Maharishi International University, having written my first screenplay ever as part of the admission process. An academic environment breathed much-needed life into me, but during my second semester, I had a freak medical event that once again had me questioning a lot of myself. I remember thinking, “I’m 31 now. I’m as old as my mom was when she had me. If I knew I only had twenty years left to live, how would I live my life?” I made a split decision and quit my job, got rid of most of my belongings, and drove with my dog and my plants to Grand Rapids to live with one of my MFA classmates and focus entirely on writing. 

Since coming to Michigan, I wrote and sold the Letters to Loretta series, a narrative WW2 story based on my grandparents’ love letters, as well as pursued professional copywriting and editing with local businesses. I also started a free grief support group that runs monthly, where I facilitate a peer-led discussion with the help of my dog. Since coming to Grand Rapids, I’ve learned that my purpose is writing and storytelling entirely, and I’ll continue to use that to bring people together through written and spoken word. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It definitely has not been a smooth road, but the only truly linear part of life is that we get older, and that’s something I try to remind myself of whenever I feel like I’m not doing enough or life is “taking too long” to catch up to my dreams. I never thought I’d lose my mom the way I did, but I also never thought I’d have the strength to trust myself and move halfway across the country to a city where I only knew one person to pursue art. After my mom died, I spent several years in a place of mental and emotional darkness, where I felt I was losing vital years of my own life, but now, at 33, that dark place helped me find my true writing voice and encouraged me to believe in myself. It’s unfortunate that I spent the first couple of decades waiting on the acceptance or approval of outside forces before making important decisions for myself, but learning to trust myself entirely now has given me the ability to discern who I can turn to in times of need. Sure, I’ve had financial struggles (still do. Millenials, right?), and I’ve had my emotional ups and downs, but that’s life. It’s entropy, and when I stopped fighting to control it, it began to flow beautifully for me. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a self-appointed word nerd. I was the kid who would write the alphabet over and over before the elementary school year started. I loved journals, diaries, and new pencils. I loved (and still do) the smell of a new notebook. That’s, of course, evolved, and I’ve been published in several genres, including poetry, non-fiction, and fantasy. My longest-running project came shortly after moving to Grand Rapids, which is the Letters to Loretta Series, a narrative WW2 story that ran for about 40 weeks with a non-partisan military magazine called Sandboxx News. In a four-month span between 2018 and 2019, I lost my family dog, my maternal grandfather, and went through a break-up, and found that creeping darkness of grief come over me. I didn’t want to lose myself again like I did with my mom and chose to transmute my grief into love stories through writing using my maternal grandfather’s letters that he wrote to my grandmother during his imprisonment in a German camp for Airmen. Letters to Loretta was born, and I’ve spent the last several years editing, serializing, and re-publishing the works while also turning the series into a feature film that was submitted as my final thesis in grad school. All of my love for writing and storytelling has kept me afloat these last couple of years, and I’m happy to say I also circled back to my dream of being an English Professor. I start teaching in January here in Grand Rapids. 

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
If you’re in school or like the academia route, keep in touch with your professors. I still speak to my high school AP English teacher back in New York and keep him updated on my life, and vice versa. If you aren’t huge into college or schooling, that’s fine, too. I think it’s just important to surround yourself with like-minded people who enjoy the same kinds of creative expressions. I heard a quote in 2013 or 2014, “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” While that’s not an entirely tried and true piece of advice, I think it’s absolutely crucial to surround yourself with people who lift you up, encourage you, and root for your success. I’m not on Facebook, but Instagram has helped me tremendously in networking with other local creatives and artists. Community groups, your local library, COFFEE SHOPS. If I had a dollar for every time, I met another creative in a coffee shop… As a narrative writer and a screenwriter, I have sat in on countless symposiums and talks from producers, writers, authors, and agents, and managers. One of the most common things I hear is, “Just keep writing. Write because you love to write. Put your work out there, and it’ll get picked up.” As flat as that can sound at points, it really isn’t wrong. I started a blog, put my Letters to Loretta series on it, and just kept writing. I wrote because I literally have no other choice but to write sometimes, and my path has kind of appeared before me as a result. 

Contact Info:

• Website: kaitlinoster.com
• Instagram: roller_kosters
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/kaitlinoster
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtKA4GgzkLY
• Other: https://thehours.press