Artist Statement
My career as a writer has been one of unexpected detours leading to life-changing discoveries and new mediums. In 2021, I shifted from writing poetry (the genre that has dominated my twenty-five-year career) and plays (the art form I embarked upon over twelve years ago) to writing a memoir. Mother Matter, the manuscript in progress, begins with my son’s rapid decline starting March 2019; it narrates my obsession with saving him and learning to cope with his self-harm, suicidal tendencies, and precarious state. While this is my first memoir, my 2017 poetry collection and 2018 play both center around themes of motherhood and matriarchies. Stylistically, I have relied upon some techniques used in theater and poetry while utilizing prose and narration to reach a broader audience. The manuscript is unique in its balance between accessibility and a literary style. The research is paraphrased in layperson’s language, and the metaphors enable me to address the ineffability of grief. Readers can find images for what they have experienced and have struggled to articulate.
First page of "Mother Matter," title chapter, published in Alaska Quarterly Review, Winter/Spring 2024. This image can be used with acknowledgment of the publication