We’re back with another installment of Virtual AWP! Virtual AWP in Conversation: Divine Writing—Connections between Writing Practice, Craft, and Divination explores the link between writing and divinatory practices. Participants Teresa Carmody, Megan Kaminski, Hillary Leftwich, Kristen Nelson, Hoa Nguyen, and Selah Saterstrom join to discuss their experiences at the intersection of spirituality and writing craft, with moderation from Michele Battiste. Learn from these powerful writers and practitioners about how to incorporate tarot into your writing processes.

The premiere of this Virtual AWP event will also include a live Q&A on YouTube on Thursday, September 14, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. ET. Register online to receive a reminder and a direct link to this free event and updates on future events. Registration is free, and you do not have to be a member of AWP to do so. However, to participate in the live Q&A, you must be signed in on YouTube.

Bios:

Michele Battiste is the author of three poetry collections: Ink for an Odd Cartography and Uprising--both from Black Lawrence Press--and most recently Waiting for the Wreck to Burn, which won the 2018 Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press. She has taught workshops for Gotham Writers Workshops, Teen Ink, Wichita State University, and throughout Colorado. She raises funds to save the planet.

Teresa Carmody’s writing includes fiction, creative nonfiction, inter-arts collaborations, and hybrid forms. She is the author of three books and four chapbooks, most recently The Reconception of Marie. Carmody is cofounding editor of Les Figues Press and teaches creative writing at University of Nebraska Omaha.

Megan Kaminski is a poet, essayist, and the author of three books of poetry, most recently Gentlewomen (Noemi Press, 2020). She’s also the author (w/ artist L. Ann Wheeler) of Prairie Divination (Sunseen Books, 2022), a book of illustrated essays and oracle deck that turns to the plants, animals, and geological features of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem for knowledge and inspiration as to how to live in the world. She is a professor in English and environmental studies at the University of Kansas.

Hillary Leftwich is the author of two books, Ghosts Are Just Strangers Who Know How to Knock and Aura. She teaches creative writing at the University of Denver, Colorado College, Unity College, and Lighthouse Writers, and teaches youth for Lighthouse Youth. She is the owner/founder of Alchemy Author Services & Writing Workshop and Community Coven. Her work can be found or forthcoming in The Sun, Santa Fe Writers Project, and The Rumpus. She has over twenty-five years of experience reading Tarot and Bones. She teaches Tarot and Tarot writing workshops focusing on strengthening divination abilities and writing. 

Kristen E. Nelson is the author of two books, the length of this gap and In The Away Time, and two chapbooks. She is a PhD student and teaches creative writing at UC Santa Cruz. Kristen has been studying divination for thirty years, and with Selah Saterstrom, runs Four Queens, a platform for writing and divination.

Hoa Nguyen is a poet and educator. Her books include Red Juice: Poems 1998—2008 and the Griffin Prize-nominated Violet Energy Ingots. Her latest collection of poems, A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure was a finalist for a 2021 National Book Award, the General Governor’s Literary Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.  Currently, she teaches as faculty and cochair of the discipline of writing at the Milton Avery School for Fine Arts at Bard College and as an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. She’s an Aquarius and a Fire Horse.

Selah Saterstrom is the author of the novels: Slab, The Meat and Spirit Plan, and The Pink Institution, all published by Coffee House Press. Her award-winning collection, Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics was published by Essay Press and her longform essay, Rancher, was published by Burrow Press. She teaches and lectures across the United States and is on faculty at the University of Denver. She is the cofounder of Four Queens, an online platform celebrating Divinatory Poetics, where she also teaches creative writing and divinatory arts.