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WLS / poet

portrait by Rachel Ann Kessler

WLS is a poet. Her first book, Psychogynecology, was published by Monster House Press in 2015. She is a co-editor of poetry books, ephemera, & experiences at Poiesis, SYZYGY (2020), Monster House Press & Monster House Presents (2016-2019), and Soft River (2010-2016). Her poems can be found in print and online at Poets.org, Breakwater, The Portland Review, Carolina Quarterly, W The Trees, and more. Originally from so-called Indiana she currently lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

WLS received her BFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago & her MFA in poetry from Indiana University. Awards, honors, residencies & fellowships, as well as publications and contact information can be found below.

CONTACT – WLS.poet[at]gmail.com

PUBLICATIONS

Books

Psychogynecology, Monster House Press, 2015

Anthologies

Undeniable: Writer’s Respond to Climate Change (Alternating Current Press, 2020).

Unchartable: On Environmental Unknowns, (Portland Review 2019). Volume 65.

Journals

Carolina Quarterly, “El Monte Homestead / A Sequence,” “Belle Isle Aquarium,” “Brainstone (Variation),” “The Dogcatchers Vacation at Cape Lookout,” “The Dogcatchers Before the Flood,” October 2020.

Poiesis, Vol. 1.1,“ Elegy for Hiding w/ a Line by Roethke,” July 2020.

Soundings East, Vol. 42, “Prayer to the Saint of Loss,” July 2020.

Flyway: A Journal of Writing and Environment, The Dogcatchers Discuss Fields,” “The Dogcatchers in their Apartment,” “The Dogcatchers Growing Up,” “The Dogcatchers Visit the Reservoir,” “The Dogcatchers Have a Plan,” June 2020.

Breakwater Review, Issue 25,“On the Last Day There Was Snow,” August 2019.

Up the Staircase Quarterly, Funeral for Now,” “A Greeting to a Possible Lover,” May 2019.

DeLuge Journal, “Freshet” and “Swiflet,” Fall 2018.

Poets.org, Poem in the Form of Anger,” August 2018.

Poets.org, Can I Tell You,” August 2017.

INTERVIEWS/AUDIO/PRESS

The Poets Weave, Indiana Public Media: “Elegy for Hiding with a Line by Roethke” and “An End to All Things.” / “Three Dogcatcher poems.” /  “Funeral for Now,” “On the last day there was snow,” “Prayer to the Saint of Loss,” and “Poem in the Form of Anger.” Summer, 2019.

Putty, Season 1, episode 2 w/ Monster House Press hosted by Erin K. Drew, September 13, 2017

Review of Psychogynecology by Zack Hatfield on Diagram

A look at the Soft River Reading Series and two local poets,” Nuvo Newsweekly, 2016.

WLS on dreams, poetry, and Psychogynecology,Nuvo Newsweekly, 2016

AWARDS / RESIDENCIES / FELLOWSHIPS

Katharine Bakeless Nason Scholarship, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference, 2019

Carnegie Travel Award, IU 2019

SAFTA Writer’s Coop Residency, 2019

Vera Meyer Stube Poetry Prize, 2017, 2018, honorable mention 2019.

Title VIII Fellowship, IU 2018

Guy Lemmon Award in Public Writing, IU 2018