Biography

My first book, Seedlip and Sweet Apple, was published by Milkweed Editions in 2010. My work has also appeared, or is forthcoming, in Prairie Schooner, Harper's Ferry, Spoon River Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Alimentum, Linebreak, and on Verse Daily and the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day. I have poetry reviews forthcoming with The American Poetry Journal. See the following links to see some of my work: ""Eat"" on Verse Daily: http://www.versedaily.org/2010/eat.shtml. ""Learn to Sing by Singing"" read aloud by Mali Taylor on Line Break: http://linebreak.org/poems/learn-to-sing-by-singing/. ""Mother Ann Tells Lucy What Gave Her Joy"" on Poets.org: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21427. I'm currently working on a poetry book which draws on extensive research into the pre-Christian consciousness hinted at in Old Norse sources, particularly in regard to the deified figure of Freyja. My other passion is puppetry, a comprehensive art form. My aesthetic has been shaped by working with In-the-Heart-of-the-Beast Puppet and Mask Theater in Minneapolis, MN, and Sandglass Theater in Vermont, along with learning how to carve and create wooden marionettes in Prague, CZ. I also have a precocious three-year old son named Maximillian who likes to make up songs while playing his ukulele. Favorite undergraduate moment: A lavish breakfast at the home of my Advanced Drawing professor's house, an invitation she only extended to her upper level class. I remember the lovely dishes, her strangely soft and angled face, how she pulled the cover off the eggs, the steam rising. . . I adored my life drawing classes with her, even if I never became a visual artist. Favorite moment at SVSU: Still to come. . . I am just new here. But my favorite, previously, was in my Women's Poetry class, the slow and then sudden opening to the wonders of the creative world - that shift in consciousness. Five books Arra would like with her if marooned on a deserted island: H.D.'s T