A Year in Review
Lisa and I have said before that one of the best aspects of creating The Notebooks Collective is that we are front and center to amazing conversations and creatives. Given that, I wanted to share with you some of the best moments or takeaways from this past year (or three).
2024 started with a brief hiatus. Lisa and I both work full-time and between work, home life, and travel, we didn’t kick off our events until April.
Reading for Palestine
However, we started with a first for us: a collective reading of all of our previous and upcoming guests. We had 15 readers in addition to Lisa and I. What made this event particularly special to us was that it was used to raise funds for Gaza. We picked three fundraisers to split amongst the donations we received. We were able to raise more than $600, thanks to our generous readers and guests.
Pop Culture
We hosted Leah Umansky and Melissa Fite Johnson in May and the two of them brought joy and levity when we really needed it. I loved how they both read each other’s poems or requested poems, demonstrating what it really means to fall in love with someone else’s art. Love of pop culture is something that resonates with them. While they discussed it, I thought about how Sweet Valley High, 90210 and Reality Bites impacted me more than I would have expected given what weight we usually assign to culture.
I was also reminded once again that writers use different tools. Leah talks into her phone all the time and takes notes whereas Melissa schedules one afternoon a week where she has dedicated writing time. The takeaway: you don’t have to write everyday or, if it works for you, you can write everyday; it’s the writing that’s important.
Memoir-Poets
In June we hosted two memorist-poets: Jessica E. Johnson and Tyler Mills. What I took away from this conversation was how a poet’s observational skills, which they transform words into poetry, have the same power in memoir. In fact I think they both were able to make some really amazing connections between environmental destruction and family breakdowns between the lure of scientific discovery and what its impact can be. I loved learning that Jessica wrote her book length poem Metabolics within the writing phase of her memoir project: being constrained in one genre allowed her to burst forth in another.
Self Persona
Eugenia Leigh and Diannely Antigua visited us in July. I came away from that event with the euphoria of the first date that went well. Diannely uses her past diaries to create found poems. I was intrigued by the idea of exploring my own journal entries and diaries for language and emotional fodder for poems. I learned how difficult it is to be that vulnerable with oneself and how the creation of a second self can give you the tools to explore these areas of our lives with just enough distance.
Ekphrasis
In August, Karen Rigby and Danika Stegeman blew us away because of their attention to detail and interest in art and their relationship: Karen was Danika’s mentor. It’s amazing how they have both grown in their writing careers. I also was reminded how we use art in all its forms (from Hieronymous Bosch to The Love Boat) to make meaning through our writing.
Narrative vs Speculative
In September, I came away from our conversation knowing the joy of creating a community and the wonder of long-term creative partnerships. Marcus and Rivka met in grad school, founded Bear Review together, and are still collaborating and sharing work with each other even while their work goes in very different directions; Marcus’ is more narrative style and Rivka’s is more lyrical and bodily speculative.
Celebrating Saara
And we closed 2024 with the celebration of late poet Saara Myrene Raappana. Her husband Eric Doise and poets Haley Cotton and Lauren K. Carlson read from Saara’s award-winning book Chamber after Chamber. Interspersed between poems were anecdotes about Saara and her impact on everyone who knew her. I still cry when I think about this event because our poems are our voices and to read Saara’s poems was to have her breath with us in spirit.
Support Writers!
You can purchase any of the books from this past year (or the upcoming season…) through our bookshop storefront. Support these wonderful poets and writers by buying their books!
Classes!
We also branched out and offered a few classes this year taught by past Notebooks guests Jessica E. Johnson, Eileen Cleary, Sara Moore Wagner, and Pauletta Hansel. These classes brought students to learn about organic/inorganic forms with Jessica, creating our own folklore with Sara, all the wonderful tools for revision with Eileen, and two different workshops from Pauletta: finding the poems in family stories and how to put together a manuscript.
Coming soon
The past few years have been amazing, from the people I’ve met to the poets we’ve worked with to the classes we have put together and we can’t wait to bring you our 2025.