By Morgan Updyke, Musings Editor ~
Have you heard? Ellis Stump is looking for a muse! No experience needed. Must like coffee and solitude. Be at the lamppost after 3.
But if you want to be Ellis’ muse, you’re going to have to ask her – a.m. or p.m. and which lamppost this rendezvous will take place at? Act quickly, though – she’s on a time crunch.
Photos by Ellis Stump appeared in Kalliope 2016
We chose to feature Ellis Stump’s work because her poem, “Muse Wanted” (featured in Kalliope 2016) offers a modern twist on the enduring quest for a muse or inspiration. What better way to start off Musings than by taking a minute to talk about muses? Through the ages, artists have been inspired by muses, but what if they placed personal ads for their muse? Can you imagine Leonardo da Vinci placing an ad looking for the woman in the “Mona Lisa”? We’ve seen ads searching for models for photography, but what about a model for writing? Ellis creates just that — an ad for a muse that resembles the modern dating profile, leaving the reader to wonder how the two coincide.
Thankfully, Ellis has the answer to that. “Muse Wanted” was inspired by a conversation she had with several writers. They were joking about seeking out relationships. With “clickbait” articles on her mind, the ones that you see scrolling through pages of social media, Ellis was inspired. We’ve all seen the “How to Find Love” and “I Found Love Here; You can too!” articles scattered across Facebook and maybe you’ve thought, like Ellis did, “Where do they find these people?” Look at it a different way; the writers of these articles have found a muse or their inspiration that just happens to be in the form of love. They were looking for a muse and stumbled upon love at the same time, which, according to Ellis, is great. Who doesn’t want to kill two birds with one stone? Thinking about all of this, Ellis created that rush feeling in the form of a Tinder profile – that you-don’t-know-what-you’re-going-to-get rush that comes with placing a personal ad on a site like Tinder or eHarmony.
Also seen in the 2016 edition of Kalliope are photographs that Ellis captured on a trip to India the summer before last. To Ellis, photography is a cool 
way to see the world differently than you are able to through writing. “Photography can fill in that sense that writing can not fill in,” she expressed. Fascinated and inspired by the people of India, Ellis found it awing to encounter people who she knew nothing about and could barely communicate with, yet know that they are just people with their own lives just like you and me. In one photo she captures the portrait of a man giving fortunes for a rupee. While interacting with this man she found herself communicating through eye contact and breaking down barriers of misunderstanding.
“What are you not doing right now that would make your 10-year-old self cry?” Ellis Stump recently asked herself this question and came up with an answer: writing. Each day she finds herself putting her thoughts on paper and fueling her passion with words. Ever since she was a child, Ellis has had a creative streak running through her blood, either in the form of writing or photography.
“In middle school I was really into unfinished novellas and in high school I got into poetry and short story writing,” Ellis said.
Currently a junior at Penn State University Park, Ellis is studying media studies and women’s studies. Ellis dreams of being in the writer’s room of Saturday Night Live and living in her favorite place in the world, New York City. But for now she writes for various Penn State publications such as the Daily Collegian and Penn State News along with, Elite Daily, and Thought Catalog. She also enjoys participating in a stand-up comedy club at Penn State called Second Floor. Ellis was even previously featured on Humans of Penn State. If you want to check out more of Ellis’s work, take a look at her website.
Read our featured Ellis Stump poem, “Muse Wanted.”
