Local author, poet, musician and photographer Pamela Wagstaff has been named Arts Council Menifee's Artist of the Month.

Wagstaff, a three-year resident of Menifee, has authored two self-published books and has another on the way. She describes her writing as "dark, topical, abstract and intellectual" in nature. However, the themes of her books -- "Beneath the Door: Poetry in Abstract, Paradoxes: Parallel Dimensions of Art & Poetry" and her soon to be released book "The Still: Poetry & Art of Time & Relevance" are quite relevant to a wide audience.

Wagstaff has forged her own unique style of writing by creating her own genre. It combines the mechanics of the spoken word, unorthodox free-verse poetry, prose, with even a hint of a "slow, downbeat rap style that is indicative of The Beat movement of the 1950's".