About me (and this Medium page)
A little about the writer, what this page is all about, and how to navigate it.
Who is Preston Losack?
Originally from Dallas, Texas, I graduated high school and got sent off to University to become an orchestra conductor — beginning one of many career ventures that met a dead end.
After leaving two music schools and settling on an odd life choice, I graduated from Saint Joseph Seminary College with a BA in Philosophy & Liberal Arts as part of my trial to become a Benedictine, Catholic monk at St. Joseph Abbey near Covington, Louisiana. Before full-on joining the monastery, though, it was beneficial to stop for a spell and go to grad school. First enrolling at Southeastern Louisiana University’s MA program in English, I left after one semester to pursue a Master’s degree at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven’s Higher Institute of Philosophy in Leuven, Belgium. There, I studied Phenomenology at the Husserl Archives; my thesis applied the social philosophy of Edith Stein to devise a framework for a phenomenology of friendship, a topic I’ve always cared obsessively about.
During that degree, I met my wife while we were both students; as she’s Dutch, we ended up moving to Friesland, the Netherlands, where I picked up that English master’s again at the University of Groningen. During that program, I was able to take some creative writing seminars and discovered my talent in writing poetry. In 2021, I finished my thesis on the prosody of British Modernists — Gerard Manley Hopkins, Charles Williams, and Basil Bunting — with an eye for Anglo-Saxon influence. I was published for the first time in a local literary magazine, where you can read my poem, “To Dry Feet,” comparing my migration to Europe to my newfound relationship to water. It was translated to Frisian by poet Eppie Dam under the title “Om drûge fuotten.”
To fund all this, besides a chunk of student loans, I worked as a private (Business) English teacher; I did my CELTA in Wrocław, Poland, in 2018 (pass B). I started my own company, offering English courses, freelance text work (translation and proofreading), and other rogue communications services.
In my free time, I paint in watercolour and oil. I also volunteer as a Sabre fencing coach at my local club and for the UNESCO City of Literature, Leeuwarden. I have a pitbull, bonsais, and a load of books.
What this page is all about
Like my paintings, I have a whole load of work that the world has not seen. This is a place for me to put my stuff out there for public viewing, to gauge the hive mind’s thoughts, and keep some archive of my work. I write a lot of formal poetry, and I’m dabbling in short stories. Every now and then, that philosophy background gurgles up a rant.
Medium.com is a place for me not only to do all of that, but I also want to interact with other artists. I want to receive criticism from the literary community here and help others with what I’ve learned.
How this page is organized
Originally, all of my stories had their original titles. Then, I realized, scrolling through other peoples’ stuff, I wanted something more browse-able. So, my posts will offer a very quick summary, like “Poem about the Tragic Loss of a Friend.” The original titles will be in the article.
Feel free to reach out here or via Instagram (@prestonlosack). Special thanks to Alex Boast for having introduced me here and for his encouragement along the way.
