Phylum Press

Lift, Lace, Sharpen, Unpick, Ground, Play

An Interstitial Collaboration (2020 and after)

by Karla Kelsey and Nancy Kuhl

We are two poets who live in different cities that seemed relatively close to one another until pandemic lockdowns changed the shape of our world. Missing frequent, multifaceted in-person conversations, we devised a poem exchange to fill the gap. Over time, what was a straightforward sharing developed into a collaborative writing project….(read complete artists’ statement)

In 2021, our first collaborative text, “Corsetry,” was included in an online exhibition, Crevice Communities, organized by Creative Practice Circle, an arts community in Australia committed to exploring “creative practice at various points in [the] research process – creative practice as research; creative practice as an object of study; creative practice as data collection; creative practice derived from research outcomes.”

READ

Corsetry and Environment A (a raw fragment from our exchange including engagement limits, as well as a finished work) in Crevice Communities, organized by Creative Practice Circle

Paper Theater and Clutch forthcoming in the Fall 2022 issue of Conjunctions

Karla Kelsey is the author of one book of essays and four poetry collections, including Blood Feather (Tupelo 2020). She uses the lyric form to investigate the philosophical and historical. She is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Susquehanna University, Pennsylvania; Karla co-edits SplitLevel Texts. MORE about Karla Kelsey.

Nancy Kuhl’s poetry books include Granite (A Published Event 2021), Pine to Sound (Shearsman 2015), and The Birds of the Year (Grenfell Press 2017). She is Curator of Poetry for the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. nancy.kuhl@yale.edu