Two years ago I applied for Storyknife and I’m a little emotional tonight that I’ll be driving out early in the morning. I have so much gratitude for this experience, and also for new friends. Maura Brenin, Storyknife’s Chef, is a poet with food. Lunch, dinner – each day was something brand new to me and all of it healthy, nourishing, sustaining, and lovely! I’m seriously going to have to up my game from grocery store bag salad and frozen chicken.
And Erin Coughlin Hollowell who is a poet and Executive Director which means she is not only a woman of words, but oversees all the paperwork and budgetary issues, sets the wasp traps, weeds the flowerbeds, and consults Fish & Game when dork boy moose has wild eyes, flattened ears, and runs wild circles through the yard. She has an electric drill in one hand, pen in the other, and I’m happy to call her friend, as well.
I was lucky to stay in the Peggy cabin, named for writer Peggy Shumaker. Peggy’s space is one of creativity and good sleep. It seemed only fitting to read a few poems tonight from her book, Cairn.
And thank you to Writer Dana Stabenow – at work up the hill writing her 55th novel. I enjoyed the evening she joined us for supper.
The walls are naked again and I’ve just bundled up 66 poems, friends! They are poems dabbling in stars, lust, shelter, and birds. They are of wild places and states of being. Some new, many edited and revised. I’ll take them home and hang them in an empty room for the winter. Sucker holes will light them up with sun, and through an open window, an invite – Come hither, wind. Do your work. Eventually, I’ll find a path through this writing.
Finally, my writing friends, if you have an inkling of interest in Storyknife, you can do one of two things. First, support this residency through donation. Second, APPLY. The application period for 2022 residencies opens August 1. Apply, dream, create.
Kersten Christianson, Poet 