Life & Work with Lamar West

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lamar West.

Hi Lamar, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up an average kid in Chester, Virginia. A kid who loved music, sports, my friends and the small things in life. I had a strong support system in my mom, dad and older brother & sister. Although I had a typical upbringing, internally I always felt different. At the age of 16, I found God and my life from then on changed forever. I was wholeheartedly dedicated to knowing God deeper and giving out all the wisdom he was bestowing upon me. I was super young and excited to be on this new path. For years I searched for fulfillment and I had finally found it. Growing up as a young Black man in the south, racism was a real-life issue for me. I grew up seeing confederate flags everyday as if it was normal. So my two passions became God and dealing with Black issues. During my college years, I started to face mental health battles. For the first time, I started to feel depression, anxiety and addiction. This stayed throughout my entire college career, which led me to deep digging into myself and my journey. I found many holes within myself that I tried to fill with unhealthy things such as woman, partying, etc.

Upon graduation, I dedicated myself to healing. It was the most difficult process I’ve endured, but it was worth it. The healing, peace, love and joy that I found was heavenly. It almost made the struggles worth going through. After this healing, I released my second book “The Sinning Saint.” This was a poetry book about my healing journey. Each page has a poem which represents me speaking to God; each page also has a Bible scripture representing him replying to me, making this a poetic conversation between him and I. I published the book under my own book publishing company entitled HDP Writings LLC. Within 24 hours the book debuted at #1 on Amazon’s Christian Poetry Charts. As a young Black author, this was my biggest accomplishment yet. The book also went viral, with my poems being tagged in dozens of posts gaining over a total of 400,000 likes. The book was also nominated for Virginia Book of The Year Award. This wasn’t my first book, as I actually published my debut book “Disciple In America” at the age of 18 under HDP Writings. This book did well, winning two NAACP Literature Awards and the Corretta Scott King Award. Being a full-time author is challenging, so after a few months I decided to get a job. I worked here for months and was miserable. It was tough knowing this wasn’t my love or calling. So in 2020, I decided to bank on myself and God and go back to being a full-time author. I wrote a prayer list of things I wanted, everything I put on the list came to fruition. Everything on the list was so big that I’d need God’s help. One of those things was to move to Los Angeles.

Nevertheless, in August I moved here. Bringing all of my rich wisdom, talent and skills to the West Coast. Here I’m learning a lot about myself. I used to question why I was such a different type of Christian. I don’t fully fit in Church culture, but I don’t fully fit in the rest of the world. But I’ve learned that I’ve been handcrafted this way so that I can maneuver in many different environments. Rather I’m discussing God, or mental health, or Black issues… any room that I enter, I can talk and make people understand my perspective. I feel like that is challenging for many Christians, but not me. I’m currently using those skills at my new job with Louis Vuitton. Being here is exciting, I’m looking to expand my network and brand to talk about these issues on an even larger scale. I’ve had success on the east coast, now it’s time to make my presence felt over here. The thing I was to highlight the most in this story is the healing, happiness and peace that I now have. I want this to be a story of victory. I am legit the happiest I’ve ever been in life, I truly have joy. I don’t want to dwell on the depression and anxiety, I want to focus on the amount of happiness I have now and how the suffering I faced was worth it because of what was on the other side of it.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Getting a book published is hard. Getting sales is super hard. I’ve been blessed to have book offers and I’ve been blessed to have my own publishing company. I don’t think people understand the difficulty of selling books. Pouring your heart and soul into a book is already very challenging. Then I came up with marketing plans. I was declined by dozens of publishers who said it’s too hard to market a Black Poetry book. So that was discouraging, but that’s also why it was such a relief to make the charts. I felt like I proved myself. Although I’m a multifaceted human, it’s also difficult image-wise because I don’t look or talk like the typical Christian. I’m an anomaly. I’m well versed in many different areas.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
An award-winning and best-selling author of two books. My books are about faith, mental health, love, Black issues, etc. I’m most proud of being a successful independent Black author by the age of 25. I’m proud of being about to positively inspire and influence people. I’m proud that I can write in a way which relates to people. I think what sets me apart is my age, race and how deep I am in my words. I genuinely believe my book is the most honest, intimate and transparent book of 2019.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
My relationship with God makes me happy. That is everything to me. He saved me, healed me, rescued me, forgave me, etc. Being good with him makes me happy. My family makes me happy. I love my mom, dad, brother and sister. Helping people makes me happy. Being able to have a voice and speak to people’s minds, hearts and spirits make me happy.

Pricing:

• 11.99

Contact Info:

• Email: Hdpwritings@gmail.com
• Instagram: @lxwest

Image Credits:
Samantha Tieng