As some of you might know, I’m a 2019 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, which means I get to spend a year (August 1st, 2019 to August 1st, 2020) traveling the world, conducting a big poetry writing project called “Freshwater Fish and the Poetry of Containment.” The whole conceit of this thing is a.) poems = containers for human experience of the natural world, b.) fish tanks = also containers for human experience of the natural world. I’ll be speaking to/volunteering with/working with a ton of people with their own unique personal relationships to the freshwater fish I kept in my own fish tank growing up. Biologists working in Malawi and Trinidad, fish hobbyists and breeders in Hong Kong, goldfish farmers and fisheries scientists in Shanghai, Betta fish gamblers in Chiang Mai, etc. Lots of folks to meet, lots of traveling to do, lots of writing to attempt.

Hopefully, I’ll have a solid poetry manuscript by the time I get back here to the states, and I’ll be able to send it to potential publishers/creative writing grad programs. Also got this lil budding novel in the works, and it takes place in a Southeast Asian city, and I feel like a phony trying to write a novel set in Asia when I’ve barely spent any time there, so I’m going to try and gather some firsthand experience or whatnot.

So yup, yup, this is my new website, and I’ll be keeping the blog part (this one) updated relatively often with details and notes and pics from my Watson journey. If you’re interested in reading a lil more about what I’m gonna be doing, you can check out this link from Grinnell College’s newspaper or this link from the official Watson website or even this link which is an interview with me from my high school’s paper lol. My first stop will be Kande Beach, Malawi. Will post pics and stuff, but for now, summer break. Bye!