“The Killer Whale’s Penis” has found a home at The Awl. Read it here.
Thank you, Elizabeth Bradfield, “the naturalist” in this poem, for showing me your snapshots of adolescent whales wrestling with their 8-foot-long pink penises that I can never unsee. Thank you, Mark Bibbons at The Awl, for publishing this poem.
Profanity Hill: A Tour of Yesler Way is an art and heritage collaborative project, using community cartography to map our experiences on and memories of Seattle’s oldest path, Yesler Way, from Pioneer Square on Elliott Bay through the ID, CD, and on down to Leschi on the shore of Lake Washington.
Poetry Northwest is featuring “Backstory” in their Cinema Poetry NW series. Watch it here or here.
The poem first appeared (in print) in Poetry Northwest, Winter & Spring 2015 Issue. I wrote it while collaborating with visual artist Leo Saul Berk on a public art project that included a series of linked, looping palindromic story-poems about the Willamette River in Portland, OR. I shot this video in Seattle early one morning out walking my dog, Smudge, along Lake Washington.
Mutha Magazine published my essay, first performed at Washington Ensemble Theatre‘s Six Pack Series Celebrity-themed night (in the old space on 19th Ave E, previously the Northwest Film Forum’s Little Theater/Wiggly World where this photo happened:)
with my best lady Betsey Brock, master of sock puppets.
She took this picture of me directing her on how sock puppets interact. Betsey masterfully transformed a pink sock into a vulva puppet that night, and somehow operated 3 sock puppets with 2 hands and a foot.
Read the essay here.
This essay was commissioned by SAL on the occasion of our program featuring Judy Blume in the 2014/15 Literary Arts Series, on June 11, 2015. It was written by WITS Writer-in-Residence Rachel Kessl…
Source: From the Archive: “Are You There, Judy Blume? It’s Me, Rachel”, by Rachel Kessler
The Seattle Review of Books published this poem, “Selfies In the Wilderness,” about my teenage daughters schooling me on selfies and feminism.
Rachel Syme wrote this essay, “SELFIE: The Revolutionary Potential of Your Own Face In Seven Chapters.” Read it for a long and satisfying tour of the power my kids revealed to me.
I wrote about Imposter Syndrome, feeling like a big faker, and my desire for revolution in the May issue of City Arts Magazine.
http://cityartsonline.com/articles/fake-it-%E2%80%99til-you-make-it
I was Seattle Review of Books’ eyes on the ground at the AWP conference and bookfair in Los Angeles this year, attending readings and panels all day and into the night, then gathering all my notes and writing a blog post at 3:00 in the morning, every day. Whoo-wee!
Start here:
Rachel Kessler 