Fellow in Poetry.
I am a multi-genre cellist, songwriter, poet, and mother. My work aims to probe for meaning within the daily mundanities of child-rearing. Interactions with my kids are portals into big questions: How do we grapple with our lack of control? How do we make sense of our mortality? I love engaging with these questions through the lens of small moments: When one child first noticed the moon, when he called the stars her “babies,” the almost ritualistic nature of hands and knees floor-cleaning beneath the high chair. For me, writing organizes chaos within my own home and the broader world. How do I get my three-year-old into a bath? How do I talk to my seven-year-old about climate change? There are no easy answers but writing is my solid ground.

Among musicians—and writers of all stripes—motherhood is often seen as something that knocks you out of the industry, something to endure in order to return to more “significant” topics. My work aims to show that motherhood is the point, that these years are something to celebrate and probe for meaning about our collective humanity. This will be the focus of my first full-length collection of poems and short personal essays which I would work on during this fellowship.