playish words

writing is my first love.

the first freedom I ever found in the world, I found on the empty waiting page

even after years and miles of exploration through other expressive mediums, the power of story is still what pulls and calls to me

I am always following some kind of narrative thread

and I have come to believe that this is due to one simple, inescapable fact:

the world itself runs on stories

fiction is the first home I built inside myself, creating entire worlds for me to escape into

and in recent years, it’s something I’ve learned to love to do collaboratively:

• as a ghostwriter working in the serialized/scrolling fantasy fiction format. the creation process is a partnership between reader, editor and myself. stories flex and flow with input from each of us

• I’ve created a substack specifically as a place to welcome and encourage group writing. called “roll for narrative!” my newsletters is a semi-regular expedition into collaborative expression. I start the story, and then readers pick it up and carry it down the line

• my own writing continues to deeply satisfy and challenge me, as the best relationships always do. I make note of it as it comes out into the world on the instagram I share with a few other artists from the collective.

poetry is its own animal

something I have learned to follow, slowly

there have been times in my life when fiction escaped me. when stories no longer came easily to my hand

in those times, it was poetry that remained, an affinity for the feel and the flow of language, the inutterable delicacy of a simple pause

taking my poetry out into the world usually involves a table, a typewriter and a simple little sign:

“pop-up poetry”

at bookstores and art fests, on a corner downtown on a tuesday afternoon. poetry moves me out into the world with a shockingly fearless vulnerability that always surprises me

I share some of this writing and post about these events when they happen on my instagram

reach out for pop up poetry installations, or to start a conversation, at oddcreekart@gmail.com