Our virtual event for the GetLit Festival in Spokane is live on YouTube! We talked about glaciers, death, lineage, cartoons, and more. With @akwenstrup.bsky.social, @pataky.bsky.social, & Susanna Mishler & John Messick. #AlaskaSky
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkuz...
Book balanced on crossed legs: the cover shows textile artwork by Sonya Kelliher-Combs, from "Small Secrets:" an accumulation of finger-caps made of colorful, patterned fabric, some with hair or colored twine stitching. The background is white. Title divided into its parts and author in a grid at bottom.
![Excerpt from The Museum of Unnatural Histories HR Guide
[following text is in a box]
Policies and Procedures
IX.
When providing interpretive text for images where the subjects are not named. The Curator of the Museum of Unnatural Histories follows best practices, as outlined below:
1. Wrestle with the naming.
2. Refuse the label anonymous.
3. Ask, without irony, what's left.
4. The naming.
5. Memorize her face.
6. Remember you are a creature
7. soft and tender.
8. remember: names are only part of love.
9. Make an offering.
10. Your struggle is not the offering.
11. The only offering is tenderness.
12. Name once known by those that beheld her.
13. Make an offering.
14. Call her Precious.
15. Call her Beloved.
For further assistance please contact your mom, a close friend, or your mentor. The Department of Policies and Procedures is unavailable for assistance on this matter.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zdfxqin2sdxjsbsmrcjuqbw4/bafkreibpmmegmp7tmrdvno3dtzqpitije3jlmh4bhjhijy3gqzdezhxrca)
Excerpt from The Museum of Unnatural Histories HR Guide [following text is in a box] Policies and Procedures IX. When providing interpretive text for images where the subjects are not named. The Curator of the Museum of Unnatural Histories follows best practices, as outlined below: 1. Wrestle with the naming. 2. Refuse the label anonymous. 3. Ask, without irony, what's left. 4. The naming. 5. Memorize her face. 6. Remember you are a creature 7. soft and tender. 8. remember: names are only part of love. 9. Make an offering. 10. Your struggle is not the offering. 11. The only offering is tenderness. 12. Name once known by those that beheld her. 13. Make an offering. 14. Call her Precious. 15. Call her Beloved. For further assistance please contact your mom, a close friend, or your mentor. The Department of Policies and Procedures is unavailable for assistance on this matter.
![Self-Portrait as Jackson Pollock
You'll need a ladder to see
this one
in its entirety. One
with four steady legs.
The kind that won't
wobble when you stand
on the step below
the top one that warns
you not to step any higher.
You'll need to risk the final step
to see this one.
I don't make the rules.
I only make the mess
that's said to be art
but looks exactly
like a mess.
I have a gift for mimesis,
I've been told.
[the following is in a box and in smaller print]
Before the mind, the heart
resumes
its beating.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:zdfxqin2sdxjsbsmrcjuqbw4/bafkreicfjucjgmnf4fovxc3hohsjrnfkmqwlzyq7n5y4lxqpfp6tmu3gzq)
Self-Portrait as Jackson Pollock You'll need a ladder to see this one in its entirety. One with four steady legs. The kind that won't wobble when you stand on the step below the top one that warns you not to step any higher. You'll need to risk the final step to see this one. I don't make the rules. I only make the mess that's said to be art but looks exactly like a mess. I have a gift for mimesis, I've been told. [the following is in a box and in smaller print] Before the mind, the heart resumes its beating.
"I have a gift for mimesis / I've been told." 😊
Ha, yes!!! And what a gift! You all GOT to step into this museum & take a tour (I loved every bit of it!): The Museum of Unnatural Histories by @akwenstrup.bsky.social (@weslpress.bsky.social, 2025)
😍💖😍
#poetry 📚💙 #NationalPoetryMonth
Thank you so much Burgi 💗
I loved reading this profile of my friend and mentor Dr. Jennifer Schell @jenniferschell16.bsky.social. Sarah Manriquez does a beautiful job of capturing why Jen is a fantastic researcher and teacher: her curiosity and her commitment to seeing the world differently. www.uaf.edu/cla/news/202...
Please consider nominating poetry! I’m very excited to see poetry in the major awards right now!
💗thank you!
💗thank you Jen!
This week, Guest Editor Claudia Santos has selected “Maybe the Body” by Asa Drake as this week’s #BestDressed pick!
sundressblog.com/2026/04/08/the-wardrobes...
I read an ARC of Ibe Liebenberg’s Birds at Night (@ttupress) at the beginning of the year. How lucky to have his language as a companion all year.
M
Amber McCrary Blue Corn Tongue (@azpress) made me laugh out loud right before it made me cry multiple times. I love how the speaker’s rich interiority is mirrored by their careful observations of the more than human world.
I love that Poets and Writers editor India Lena González invited each debut poet to recommend works by other debut writers.
The gaps and reworkings/re-recordings in Abi Pollokoff’s night myths ** before the body (@redhenpress) invite the reader to linger with each poem.
More recommendations! I love that Poets and Writers editor India Lena González invited each debut poet to recommend works by other debut writers.
You can read more about Kalehua and Mele in the newest issue of Poets and Writers where she’s featured on their 10 Best Debut Poets.
I love that @poetswritersinc asked about my favorite 2025 releases. Even more, I love that India let me recommend Sarah Pape’s 2024 Forgive the Animal (@cornerstone.press). So gorgeous! Sarah’s currently selling signed copies + the beautiful totes in the final image, contact her for more details!
A woman with brown skin and glasses holds up a protest sign reading “SILENT NO MORE - MMIW - Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women - No More Stolen Sisters”
Icymi: A week before Thanksgiving, the Trump administration deleted the Federal Report on Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women
The ‘Not One More’ report recorded indigenous deaths and disappearances, and provided resources and policy suggestions to address the crisis
www.jezebel.com/trump-admin-...
Anchorage readers, this Saturday stop by and say hello! I’ll be at Title Wave from 12-3 signing copies of The Museum of Unnatural Histories.
Thank you Erin! 💚💚💚
Hi all! Nice time to support Native writers during Native American Heritage Month with 40% off my book #AlaskaNativeResilience Voices from World War II when you order through UW Press website and use the code WINTER25
Quyaana!
uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295...
Presented by ALOCASIA & Friends LINKED HEARTS Virtual Poetry Readings IN SUPPORT OF THE WESTERN ALASKA DISASTER RELIEF FUND Night Two: Nov 29th 4 PM EST Featuring: Temperance Aghamohammadi Divyasri Krishnan Mauatua Fa'ara-Reynolds Ayling Zulema Dominguez Pte San Win Little Whiteman Registration and Donation links at: https://bit.ly/linkedheartsregistration $10-25 donation suggestion
Presented by ALOCASIA & Friends LINKED HEARTS Virtual Poetry Readings IN SUPPORT OF THE WESTERN ALASKA DISASTER RELIEF FUND Night One: Nov 23rd 4 PM EST Featuring: Emily Lu Gao Exodus O. Brownlow Nate Brown Ruby Rogers Adriana Del Rio Divyasri Krishnan Ariana Matondo Mauatua Fa'ara-Reynolds Sarah-Joy Milner Registration and Donation links at: https://bit.ly/linkedheartsregistration $10-25 donation suggestion
ALOCASIA is honored to be holding two nights of virtual readings to benefit the Western Alaska Relief Fund, to support communities impacted by the recent typhoon.
There is a suggested $10-25 donation.
We hope to see you there, and hope you'll spread the word!
Find out more: bit.ly/linkedhearts...
@jenniferschell16.bsky.social
So good! Your paper and Slash/Back!
Congratulations @biidaasamose.bsky.social! So very happy for you!
Thank you Moriah and @nyswi.bsky.social for this conversation!
tinyurl.com/4fpdshab
The kids and I drove to Murphy Dome between soccer practices last night. It wasn’t quite right timing wise, but still so, so beautiful.
Thank you for making sure I saw this! 🥹💕
Native American History Month is the perfect time for non-Indigenous writers and scholars to stop referring to Indigenous belief systems and stories as “folklore” and “myth.”
Photo of Sahar Khraibani, Farid Matuk, Michelle Peñaloza, and Roque Raquel Salas Rivera.
Photo of Cameron Awkward-Rich, Jennifer Espinoza, Chet’la Sebree, and Annie Wenstrup.
February 5, 2026 | 7-9pm Cameron Awkward-Rich, @sadqueer4life.bsky.social, Chet’la Sebree, and @akwenstrup.bsky.social
February 19, 2026 | 7-9pm Sahar Khraibani, @faridmatuk.bsky.social, Michelle Peñaloza, and @roqueraquel.bsky.social
February 28, 2026 | 2-5pm 30th Showcase Community Reading
Happy to help share the news of the Literary Arts Fund launch today and to serve as its executive director. More here: literaryartsfund.org
Write a critical essay with me this Saturday! 🥰
If there was ever a time that we need Indigenous stories told in our own language & imbued with our values - that time is NOW. It is with great honor & humility that we will premiere our short #TwoOldWomen film at #HIFF45 w/ our Kanaka relatives. 🙏🏽 Mahsi’choo to author #VelmaWallis for her support!
Maybe the Body by Asa Drake, forthcoming from Tinhouse
