Current Events
Residency: I'm at the VCCA - France as a 2025 creative writing resident in Auvillar, France, July - August 2026.
Healing facilitation: In 2026 I am offering energy work and intuitive healing sessions in Wellington, NZ. Remote sessions via Zoom are possible. More info and bookings here.
April 2026: Are you an Early Career Researcher in Oceania working in the environmental humanities, literature, and related fields? Join the ASLEC-ANZ reading group I'm facilitating in 2026. Contact me for info.
February 2026: Join me for Artist Talks at The Performance Arcade 2026, on the waterfront in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, February 24 - March 1 2026.
December 2025: Offering "Manaakitanga as Creative Practice" with a stellar lineup of mana whenua and tauiwi creative practitioners in the 2025 ADSA conference, 1-5 December 2025 in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, NZ.
Residency: I'm at the Oak Springs Garden Foundation as a 2025 creative writing resident at Oak Springs, Virginia in August 2025.
Healing facilitation: In 2025 I am offering energy work sessions both online and in person at Level 1/ 82 Willis Street, Zephyr House on Fridays. Book here.
Writing workshop: In August - September 2024 I host a generative writing course online and in person. Further details are here.
Writers talk: Join me at the Wellington Writers Studio on May 1st to talk about lyric address, and the power of the second-person pronoun in cross-genre forms. Wednesday 1 May 2024, 12pm, 145 Cuba Street, Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Talk moderation: Join me for a conversation with Te Aro Pā poets Hana Buchanan and Debbie Broughton onstage for The Performance Arcade Artist Talks series. Sunday 25 February, 2024, 12 pm, on the Music Stage.
Paper presentation: "Once More with Feeling: Teaching and Creative Writing in the Late Pandemic," Thursday 4 January 2024, 1:45-3pm EST. MLA convention 2024, January 4th - 7th, Philadelphia.
Paper presentation: "A Transpacific Land-Back Poetics: from then to now" at the ASLEC-ANZ Recentring the Region conference 2023, 9:30am, Thursday July 6th, Melbourne and online.
Panel chair: Chairing and presenting work at NonfictioNOW 2021 in: "Associative Energies: the Crosswalk between Nonfiction and Poetry." Join us December 3 - 5 2021 online, or view the conference digital archive.
Paper presentation: "Animal, Mineral, Writer: Posthumanism and the Literary Arts" in the 2021 ASLEC-ANZ conference Ngā tohu o te huarere: Conversations beyond human scales, 23 - 26 November 2021. Join us online!
Visiting Scholar lecture: Presenting a public lecture as part of my Visiting Scholar role at Te Herenga Waka--Victoria University of Wellington: "Unrestrained Refrains: Race and Subjectivity in Contemporary US Black Poetics." May 27th, 12-1pm, 81 Fairlie Terrace, Room 103, on Victoria University's Kelburn Campus. All welcome.
Creating Space: Offering Reiki and He Rongoā in the Tinana /healing zone at Creating Space Aotearoa on the waterfront in Pōneke, NZ (Frank Kitts Park), all day Sunday 11th April.
Reading: Reading translations of poems by Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, and fiction by Rogelio Guedea, as part of the exhibition "De la milpa a la mesa" at Te Auaha Gallery, on April 7th, 2021. Details and tickets here.
Academic symposium!: Presenting the "What if the City was a Theater?" academic symposium on performance and public space. Read about it in Article and join us from 11-13 February 2021 on the waterfront in Pōneke/Wellington, NZ.
Past Events
Virtual Reiki for SPREAD LOVE + SHINE LIGHT: Offering virtual Reiki for Orenda Tribe's Dził Asdzáán (Mountain Woman) Command Center, a collective of Diné matriarchs providing support to the Diné indigenous community in the US. Learn more.
"Spirit-Guided Writing" workshop: Join me on Zoom for "Spirit-Guided Writing," a workshop to benefit the New York Writers Coalition at their annual Write-A-Thon. Sunday June 7th, 7:45am-8:45am EST.
Quarto Magazine Industry Panel: Speaking on a panel on the writing life, its pitfalls and possible trajectories: February 28, 2020, 8pm, 413 Dodge Hall, Columbia University's Morningside campus. Free and all welcome.
MLA 2020 conference in Seattle, WA: Panelist in: "The Space Between Creative Nonfiction and Literary Criticism: Theorizing, Writing, and Publishing Critical-Creative Hybrids," Friday, 10 January, 2020, 3:30pm, Sheraton -- Ravenna AB.
Columbia Undergraduate Creative Writing Program Faculty Reading: Reading lyric essay work on November 14, 2019, 8pm, at 413 Dodge Hall, Columbia Morningside Campus. Free and open to the public.
Creative healing sessions in NYC, Fall 2019 -- Spring 2020: Find me in fall 2019 in New York City at MINKA in Brooklyn, offering creative unblocking sessions for writers, artists, and everyone. **Please note: I'm currently not accepting new clients. Please reach out in late March to see if I have availability then.**
Quiet Lightening Reading Series: Reading at 7pm on May 6th, 2019, at Arion Press, 1802 Hays Street, Presidio, San Francisco.
Performance by Melodie Michel: Reading of my lyric essay "Oceanic Feeling" by musician and performer Melodie Michel in Santa Cruz, CA, Dec 9th 2018, 7pm.
Fish Tales: Reading in Potluck Magazine's annual ocean-themed reading in Santa Cruz, California, April 27th, 2018, 6pm.
Columbia Alumni Selects: Reading with Lacy Warner and Allan Allen at KGB bar, Manhattan, NYC, on December 7th, 2017, 7pm.
Reassembly group show, artist: Tinos Quarry Platform in Tinos, Greece. Opening July 5th, 2017.
FPP Season Finale, co-host: with Alexander Chee, Terry Blackhawk, Sonya Chung, and Deborah Emin. Tuesday May 9th, 7pm, Shrine World Music Venue, Harlem.
First Days of Spring Creative Writing Retreat, co-leader, in the Scottish Borders, Scotland, Feb 24th—26th 2017. Prose focus, co-taught with Noelle Harrison. Full details at aurorawritersretreats.com or contact me.
Lyricism, Associations, and Context: what's happening in American prose, workshop leader, organized by Writers in Stuttgart, Germany, November 12th, 2016, 3—5pm.
Creative Writing in English, workshop leader, organized by the Anglo-German Institute, Stuttgart, Germany. Wednesday November 9th, 2016, 5-8pm.
Curiosity, artist, A group show at the Tinos Cultural Foundation in Tinos, Greece. Presenting my short opera, "Duo for the World End." Runs July 2nd till October 31st, 2016.
First Person Plural Season Opener, co-host, Shrine World Music Venue, Harlem, NYC, with Daniel José Older, Desiree Cooper, Charles Taylor, Camille Rankine. September 20th, 2016, 7pm.
The Five Ages of Pistachio, Reading in Palazzolo Acreide, Sicily, Italy, as part of the Akrai Residency Arte Digeribile group show, August 19th, 2016, 7—10pm.
Short Shorts, A workshop on revolutions in short prose forms. Organized by the University of Stuttgart, hosted by Akademie Schloss Solitude. May 7th, 2016, 2—4pm, Stuttgart, Germany.
Five Rooms: A Performative Reading, reader/co-curator, Römerstraße project space, Stuttgart, Germany, 24 March, 2016. FaceBook event here.
"From the Margins: Literary Magazines Supporting Writers of Color," panelist, Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference, Los Angeles, 10.30am, Thursday 31st March, 2016, Diamond Salon 6&7, JW Marriott LA, 3rd Floor. Event page here.
The Pariah Anthology launch, SFASU Press, Los Angeles, April 2016, available on Amazon here.
First Person Plural Season Finale, co-host, Shrine World Music Venue, Harlem, NYC, 12 April 2016. Rosebud Ben-Oni, Chinelo Okparanta, Amy Fusselman. In collaboration with VIDA: Women in Literary Arts.
First Person Plural Reading Series, co-host, Shrine World Music Venue, Harlem, NYC, 7pm, 23 February 2016. Collaboration with VIDA Literary, featuring: Amy King, Hafizah Geter, Ashley Grier, and Sarah Gambito.
First Person Plural Reading Series, co-host, Shrine World Music Venue, Harlem, NYC, 7pm, 10 November 2015. Featuring: Victor La Valle, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Margo Jefferson, and Emily Raboteau.