I'd like to comment...on the launch of WHAT WE DO IN THE HOLLOWS

With some thoughts on collaboration

It began as a small COVID-lock-down activity, with a few poems I fit in while working way too much and not setting good boundaries that would ensure both a productive work life and a fulfilling artistic one (with some rest and relaxation—a.k.a. a personal life). I wrote poems about some well-known, and in many cases beloved, West Virginia cryptids to amuse myself, then to work out complex feelings. I guess that is what poem cycles do.

But after a while, I revised them and talked about the project with Sally Jane Brown, a visual artist friend. And our collaboration started with her asking to read them. I am always so excited when someone wants to connect with my work. It feels like a gift.

What you also need to know is just how talented Sally is: an artist who has had national and international residencies, whose work resonates with a strong feminist ethos. She is a prolific writer about art and is in conversation with others who care about the arts. If you’re on LinkedIn, she will connect you daily with so many powerful artists, and writing about art. She’s a pro in every sense of the word. Getting to work with her has been such a wonderful collaboration.

I see that word, collaboration, bandied about a lot. We see “collabs” between different brands to create different items we can choose to buy (or not). We have software that is supposed to aid teams in their efforts to collaborate. But the actual process of collaboration feels a bit more amorphous.

I see collaboration as first and foremost about trust. However, many people in the collaboration must trust one another. I think the best collaborative work happens when people like, trust, and respect one another. It makes the collaborations easier and more enriching. Most collaborative work probably breaks down at the trust phase. It’s the beating heart of any collaborative process.

For instance, Sally is gifted at reading a poem and translating it visually (I’m not the first poet she’s worked with). There was so much nuance in her work—from the drawings to the color—that gives new texture to the poems. I literally got to see my work in a whole new way because of how she responded through her work. She also handled parts of the process that I could simply say, “I trust your expertise, so let’s do what you recommend.” On my side, I think other aspects like our media kit and press releases were a few of the business-side task that I could (I hope) do the same for her. Because we trusted each other’s expertise, it made decision making a lot easier.

So, this Friday, October 4, 2024 from 6-9 PM at Morgantown’s Art Bar, you can come celebrate with us. We’ve done a limited run of the book, and will have some broadside-like pieces also for sale. And while we’d be thrilled if you bought anything, we also just want to celebrate with friends who have heard about, seen, and maybe even helped us with our collaboration. I hope it’s an evening both of fun, and also to show others what we were able to accomplish together. Plus, all throughout downtown there will be art-related places to stop and enjoy, as part of the First Fridays for the Arts as well as Zombie Walk.

One last thing—we will have door prizes, too! My books, Sally’s books…so many reasons to come by and celebrate with us.

News and Noteworthy

I have a few book recommendations for titles worth checking out or pre-ordering:

• It’s election season and if you’ve not checked out Matthew Ferrence’s I Hate It Here, Please Vote For Me, it will give you a sense of what it’s like inside a campaign. And anyone who includes poetry in their platform, as Ferrence did, gets my vote (too bad he wasn’t in my district!).

• A friend of mine from graduate school, Lori D’Angelo, has a great title for any Spooky Season enthusiasts, The Monsters Are Here. It’s described as “Kally Link meets Bram Stoker.” Availbe for pre-order, out, appropriately, October 30, 2024.

• I’ve written about her mini memoir, and Bethany Jarmul’s fist full-length collection of poetry, Lightning Is a Mother, will soon be availble for pre-order!

Music for writing? Been working away at some new writing, and enjoying the moody sensibility of Max Richter’s In A Landscape.

New recipe! from the author of the cookbook, Rustic French Cooking Made Easy (to this day, I’ll still say the “made easy” part is relative to your skills), I made a delicious summer-into-autumn recipe, Chicken Marengo. It really was delicious, and aparently, has an interesting history, too: “Chicken Marengo is a classic French dish named after the Battle of Marengo, a victory for Napoleon’s French troops in 1800” (from Pardon Your French website).