via Unsplash

How can we make art when we feel exhausted, sad, and overwhelmed? (The short answer: Sometimes we don’t.) I’m back on the Down to Art podcast this week, talking with my friend Kristy Gordon about how we manage our creative, emotional, and physical energy. 

You can listen anywhere you get your podcasts, or click here. 

Me and the ocean, on the radio

 

via Unsplash

Here's something wonderful: this weekend I'll be on public radio's Living on Earth, interviewing the ocean. (Yes, the ocean.)

Listen online or find your local station and air times here. 

A podcast appearance

 

via Unsplash

I'm on the very first episode of the Down to Art podcast, talking with my friend Kristy Gordon about the creative process, making room for the muse, and my new solution for self-loathing. You can listen here. 

Meet Me in the Woods

 

David Hurley on Unsplash

A very cool thing: this past weekend, my work and voice were part of an installation called "If trees were lone women what would they sound like" in the Dark Skies Park in Galloway Forest in Scotland. To learn more about the project, click here. You can watch and listen to moments of the installation on the project's Twitter page.

One Serious Poem and Two Goofy Appearances

 

Tristan Gassert on Unsplash

My latest monster poem is out now in Rogue Agent. 

And: somehow I got roped into this Ever Given moment. You can find me being very brave here and here. 

Recent Features

 

Photo by Gabriel on Unsplash

Here are a few more places I've turned up this year:

The Open Notebook, Cross-Pollination: What Happens When Science Journalists Pursue the Creative Arts

DC Science Writers Association, In Conversation About Inclusive Writing

The Open Notebook, Gut Check: Working with a Sensitivity Reader

Halloween Reading

Update (10/30): Scratch that. No reading for me. The pandemic wins again.

New England friends: want to come play on Halloween? I'll be reading my Wednesday Addams poem as part of the Portland Public Library's Halloween Showcase in Congress Park. 

More information is here.

Upcoming Panel Discussion

 

Photo by Alex H. Pflaum

Want to learn more about inclusive writing? Join me, Ebonye Gussine Wilkins, and deandre a. miles-hercules for a free panel discussion moderated by Tiên Nguyễn and hosted by the D.C. Science Writers Association.

Wednesday, August 26
6:30 p.m. ET
register here
read more here

Interview with blood orange

Photo: Luca Iaconelli via Unsplash

Later this spring, one of my tiny poems will appear as part of blood orange's extraordinary poetry tarot. I spoke with blood orange editor katie o'brien about reading (both books and cards), writing, and that most stressful of questions: What are you working on now?

Read the interview here.

New Course at Hugo House

photo: Jp Valery via Unsplash

Sickly,
but somehow the chrysanthemum
is budding.

(Bashō, tr. Robert Hass)


This summer I'm leading a one-day workshop on writing illness and disability at Hugo House in Seattle. We'll practice expressing what feels inexpressible and examine the way great writers from Virginia Woolf to Ada Limón have pulled it off. We'll navigate the web and history of ableist language. We'll talk about rest as revolutionary action. We'll rest.

Want to join us? Details are here.

New Q&A in Luna Luna

"Cloaked" by Rebecca Chaperon

Q. What's something that surprised you recently?

A. How powerful I've felt.

New this week: Joanna Valente asked me some excellent questions in Luna Luna Magazine. 

Read the rest of the interview here.

[Image description: Painting of a peaceful blue nighttime scene; a woman stands on a rock in a dark body of water. The woman is nude save for her pointy hat and black cloak. She is holding a wand and raising her hands to cast a spell. High above her, the moon is distant but immaculately bright.]

Two Recent Features

detail from Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party

Thanks very much to Maudlin House for including me as a featured writer this month. 

Thanks, too, to the Phillips Collection, for highlighting my poem on The Luncheon of the Boating Party.

I wish the poem's themes of gaslighting and harassment were less relevant right now. But they're not, and so I'll add my voice to the chorus:

me too.

Unrequited

Some more welcome news: two of my space poems will appear in the book Unrequited: An Anthology of Love Poems About Inanimate Objects. It's a terrific collection, and I'm really happy to be a part of it.

I'll be reading both poems at the book launch party on Friday, June 17 at 7 p.m. at Upshur Street Books in D.C. Come say hi, eat some snacks, and hear some poems. Maybe buy a book. If that's not a good way to spend a Friday night, I don't know what is.

More details are here.

Tomorrow Night!

Get your tickets while you still can! The show is almost sold out.

Blessed From Head to Toe (Finally, Some News!)

I'll be reading my poetry in the Tiber Creek Cabaret at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Sidney Harman Hall on September 3. Tickets go on sale July 1. Click here for more information.

Hope to see you there.


"Light Crown" by Kelly Vivanco

Next Year in Cannon Beach

Cassandra Barney and I will not be appearing at the Spring Unveiling in Cannon Beach, Oregon this year. Ernst & Ernst Collectors Gallery, our host from last year, has closed its doors. However, Cass has parlayed her relationship with nearby Bronze Coast Gallery into plans for next year.

So! Next year, in Cannon Beach! And with all this time to collaborate, you had better believe we're going to put together something fierce.

Well, Jiminy Cricket!

Ever been to a face-melting-ly wonderful poetry reading? Now's your chance. Come join me at The Torch Club at Waverly Place in Greenwich Village, this Friday, December 5 at 6pm. I'll be reading a few of my more recent works, as will six other students in NYU's SCPS writing program.

October 25th: Tree of Life/Men and Angels

To those of you in the New York City and Connecticut area*:



Come say hello! There will be art, and book signing, and Cass, and Emily, and James, and me! It's sure to be a fantastic show.


*The gallery is about an hour outside of the city, convenient to train stations, and you really have no excuse.

Cannon Beach

The gallery show in Oregon was a tremendous success. After a dramatic unveiling (apparently that's how they do it in Oregon) Cass sold nearly all of her paintings. The gallery owner was so pleased with the results of our collaboration that he has invited me back for next year's show, where he wants to have a full-scale poetry reading and offer hand-bound books of my poetry and Cass' drawings for sale.

I am adrift in a sea of thankfulness.

For several years I studied Japanese tea ceremony, an intricate process that facilitates the most wonderful stillness I've ever experienced. Many of the steps of the ceremony involve bowing: to the host of the ceremony to thank her for having you, to the guest who drank before you to thank her for showing you the way, and to the guest who will drink after you to thank her for allowing you to drink first.

"And now," said my ancient sensei every time, "is making the one more bow: thank you to whole universe."

Thank you, to whole universe.


Now that the show has been Officially Unveiled I'll be posting the backlog of poetry...once I finish all this work that piled up while I was skipping down the Oregon coastline. You can check out Cass and I waxing ridiculous on collaboration on Youtube.

For anyone who will be in the Portland, Oregon area next weekend: Ernst & Ernst Collectors Gallery in Cannon Beach is hosting a three-day show of Cassandra Barney's new paintings, several of which are accompanied by my new poetry. Cass and I will be there--stop in, see the Pacific Ocean, say hi. We'd love to see you.

For more details click here.