Who are you?

An artist and writer living in Philadelphia.

What is your book about?

Doll life, having feelings for a friend, longing for spring and jokes!

Could you tell us a bit about the process of writing this book?

I hadn’t written any poems in almost five years, and then these poems came pouring out of me in the winter of 2023. I was writing sometimes two a day. I took a little break to work on something else and then I wrote for another month in spring, writing sometimes three poems a day. It was honestly the most fun I’d ever have writing, and I look back on it fondly!

What are some books you’ve read and enjoyed lately and/or books that influenced the writing in your submitted work?

I love talking about other art! Sam Jones – The Soul Society. Donald Byrd – Byrd Blows On Beacon Hill. Tommy Flanagan – Overseas. Dexter Gordon – One Flight Up. I was reading Lyn Hejinian’s My Life, and right now I’m reading The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. Oh, and weirdly enough, I was watching Mark Suciui’s Verso part a lot while writing the book!

How would you describe your book using emojis only?

🩰🤣

EXCERPT

Please Wait for Me

I want to feel the way life feels

I had to pee for twenty-eight blocks

for years my metaphysics was remorse

my heart spun like a barber pole

you have to be funnier than your worst experience

the night moaning in its half-assed child’s pose

I only like lifelong effects

the autumn trees when they look like Carrie covered in movie blood

the remains of euphoria aren’t euphoria

I miss smelling Hoora’s braids

the sunset so purple it had an aftertaste

life is longer but less sexy when you understand yourself

I influenced the way the flowers looked

I was going for Tarkovsky meets When Harry Met Sally

if you talk about god in public you scare people

I talk about god in public

everyone’s as lonely as their thoughts

I want to get better at taking baths

the horizon looks like a shut laptop

I sat with a mirror and kept changing the distance of my face

my pain was wider than time

the air doted on me

I liked the color the grass was pretending to be

there was a gate your portion of love kept coming through

I could hear it opening like a Pringles can

I constantly have to rationalize my discomfort of paradise

if that’s not a sad lemon meringue tart

it’s at least sad lemon meringue tart-like

I wanna get so close to beauty

that it feels closer to me than I am to it