Welcome, and thank you for taking the time to talk with us. You and I have written ekphrastic poetry together for at least three years. Please introduce yourself and discuss your two upcoming books.
Thank you. Yes, I love that group and the work that comes out of it. As far as an introduction, I am a poet, editor, visual artist, small business owner, and mother. In my former life, I was a collegiate swimmer, a cocktail waitress, a yoga instructor, and can play the ukulele. I have my MFA degree in International Creative Writing from UNLV and have five full-length collections, a handful of chapbooks, and a children’s book that are (or will be) in the world. This year I am thrilled to have two collections forthcoming. The first, “Hortensia, in winter” won the New American Book Prize and will be published in October with New American Press.
The second is a collaboration with the poet Luke Johnson and will be in the world this fall with Harbor Editions. These books are wildly different but share a similar epistolary tone. “Hortensia, in winter” is a book of prose poems addressed to my grandfather’s great-grandmother who travelled with Joseph Smith and helped settle the town of Nauvoo, IL. When Smith was murdered and Brigham Young came into power, Hortensia abandoned the safety of everything that she knew and moved her family to Magnolia, Iowa to help settle that town. She did this to refuse polygamy and for that, I am very grateful. Those poems are, in a lot of ways, a conversation with her about desire, motherhood, and spirituality.
“A Slow Indwelling” is also epistolary, but in real time, and centers a lot on what it means to be a parent in this world today. These exchanges are charged with so much lyrical beauty and vulnerability.
