After spending much of last year obsessing over the return of The X Files, I wanted to put my encyclopedic knowledge of the show to good use and write about it through a faith lens. The result is my article, "Agents, Aliens and Angels: Salvation in The X Files," which the website Christ and Pop Culture published. You can check it out there!
A poem of mine in M.A.M.A. issue 30
Mom Egg Review decided to feature my poem, "Taking the Baby to See Rothko at the National Gallery," as part of their "Mothers Are Making Art" issue 30, which is a collaboration between ProCreate Project, the Museum of Motherhood and Mom Egg Review. Check out the poem and the work of visual artist Ching Ching Cheng at their sites.
Moms, Marchers and Managers: One Poem's Journey
When a friend tells me a poem I wrote was an inspiration to them in some way, it's a feeling as good or better than publication.
And when a friend tells you that not only did your poem inspire them, but they actually hauled off and wrote something of their own because of what you wrote? Well, that's the cherry on every imaginable literary sundae! My friend Matthew Kaemingk is a theologian who had some ideas sparked by my poem, "To the Women Marching, From a Mother at Home," which I shared widely online the day of the Women's March 2017 (and which will be in print this coming fall in an anthology from Sixteen Rivers Press).
Dr. Kaemingk's article for Fuller Studio, "Moms, Marchers and Managers: Priests all three," develops and enriches many of the ideas underlying my poem. It is a tremendous joy to see the creative work I do making a meaningful impact on theological thought as well. I hope you'll check out his piece!
"What Bears the Light," Pilgrimage Journal
Pilgrimage, a journal based in Pueblo, Colorado, published one of my poems, "What Bears the Light," in their most recent issue. They're also doing a wonderful project having writers read their work aloud and sharing those through video. Here's my clip.
And now for something entirely different...
I recently had the opportunity to share my thoughts about two of the TV shows that most captured my imagination this past year. After the season opener of The X Files (of which I am a devoted longtime fan), I pitched an article to The Mary Sue, looking at the way The X Files deploys a common sci fi / dystopian trope in comparison to the way The Handmaid's Tale (a show I was riveted by last spring) does. You can check my piece out here:
The X Files and The Handmaid's Tale: How We Talk When We Talk About Rape
One Year Later
It has been almost a year since I shared this story, and in the meantime, the poem has been shared and quoted in many places. I look forward to seeing it in print with Sixteen Rivers Press this coming fall.
"On the day of the international Women’s March, I wrote a poem. I shared it with a number of Facebook groups I’m a part of, as well as on Twitter and a number of other venues. I don’t usually shared unpublished work of mine so widely, but it was such a timely thing, I wanted to get it out and share it. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt the urgency of a poem at that level before.
The poem was liked and shared hundreds of times, and eventually an excerpt appeared in an article by Cindy Brandt in Sojourners magazine, “Dear Donald Trump: Now We’re All Activists” "