T H E T R A V E L I N G N O T E B O O K S
T H E Y E A R S
L A N G UA G E S I D O N O T S P E A K
The Traveling Notebooks
Merle Bachman Jaime Robles
Laurie Fader Nancy Mozur
Tiff Dressen SM Steele Chris Carreher Dale Going Sharon Coleman Michelle Murphy
Introduction
The Traveling Notebooks project emerged in December 2021 as an idea in the mind of two poet-friends one in Indiana, one in California as a way to counter the lingering isolation of pandemic and the literal darkness of winter days. Why not invite some artist and writer friends, scattered from coast to coast as well as in Canada, to collaborate in filling two notebooks with words and images? With the assent of a fantastic group of creative colleagues, we launched our project in January 2022: Merle sent out a notebook titled The Years and Jaime sent one titled Languages I Do Not Speak to the initial participants. The Years was inspired by Virginia Woolf ’ s wonderful 1937 novel by that name, in which memory, aging, time and relationships are examined in the framework of women’s lives. Languages I Do Not Speak was inspired by our interests in the linguistic lost, found, invented and translated. Participants were invited to engage with each notebook through writing or drawing or painting or pasting or making collages in it, as prompted by theme and what was already there.
As winter passed into spring and summer, the notebooks did travel, absorbing the textures and flavors of individual makers, resulting in the efflorescence of thoughtful, critical and beautiful work you see before you.
We are so grateful for the writers/artists who joined us in collaborating on the Traveling Notebooks, and we welcome you to come and see what has been created!
5
Merle & Jaime
Dale Going
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
Tiff Dressen
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
Sharon Coleman
149
150
151
152
153
Merle Bachman
154
155
156
B I O G R A P H I E S
Merle Bachman’s publications range across genres from literary criticism to poetry and from memoir to edited anthologies of neglected Jewish poets. Her most recent book is Thank You for Being (Wet Cement Press). For more information, please go to her website, merlebachman.com.
Chris Carraher has worked for thirty years in her old homestead studio in the Mojave Desert The desert as both physical and metaphysical landscape has figured prominently in both her artwork and her activism. She codirected the Wonder Valley Homestead Cabin Festival in 2008, a pivotal event in bringing the homesteads into community, social, political, and aesthetic consciousness Her artwork has appeared locally and internationally, and she blogs at magicgroove.net.
Sharon Coleman is a fifth-generation Northern Californian with a penchant for languages and their entangled word roots She recently won the Maverick award from the Ruth Weiss Foundation for her poem “ was it for this.” She co-curates the reading series Lyrics & Dirges and co-directs the Berkeley Poetry Festival and is the author of a poetry chapbook Half Circle (Finishing Line), and a book of nano-fiction, Paris Blinks (Paper Press) See her website: sharoncolemanpoetry.com
Tiff Dressen's most recently the author of Of Mineral, winner of the 2020 Nightboat Poetry Prize and previously, Songs from the Astral Bestiary (Lyric & Press, 2014). They currently live in Oakland and work in the Office of Research at UC Berkeley, and enjoy spending time with their felines, urban flâneuring, and setting type and letterpress printing.
157
Laurie Fader currently resides as a full-time practicing artist at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Fables, or cautionary tales, with narrative elements embedded in labyrinthian corridors of color, shape and form are found in her recent work. Fader has been awarded two Great Meadows Foundation awards, a Pollock-Krasner Grant, an Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Foundation award, and a Helen Winternitz Award for excellence in painting from Yale School of Art. She has shown internationally and is represented by Bonfoey Gallery in Cleveland, Pierogi flatfiles in New York, Billy Hertz Gallery and Zephyr Gallery in Louisville.
Dale Going lives in Manhattan and the Adirondack Park after a previous lifetime in Northern California Poetry books include As/Of the Whole (SFSU Chapbook Award, selected by Brenda Hillman); The View They Arrange (Kelsey St Press, Poets' Prize nomination), Leaves from a Gradual (Potes&Poets), Or Less and She Pushes With Her Hands (Em Press). Her work has been supported by Yaddo and Djerassi residencies and grants from the Fund for Poetry and California Arts Council. Poems from her current manuscript are in VOLT and forthcoming in Blood Orange Review Her work is online at poetryfoundation.org and dalegoing.com.
Nancy Mozur is an artist and writer. She was administrative director and curator of the Sam Francis painting studio and printmaking atelier, the Litho Shop, from 1971–89. Currently she serves on the board of the Sam Francis Foundation and is an art editor and contributor for Psychological Perspectives, a journal published by the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. She was assistant editor of Cobalt Blue: Selections from the writings of Sam Francis (2019). Her art and silver work have been exhibited in multiple venues nationally.
Michelle Murphy is the author of Jackknife & Light (Avec Books) and the more recent Synonym for Home (Wet Cement Press). A chapbook (portfolio) in the journal VERSE was published as a finalist for the 2015 Tomaz Salamun Prize. She lives next to the Truckee River in Reno, Nevada with her husband and cat.
158
Jaime Robles is a writer and book artist. Her poetry collections Anime Animus Anima and Hoard were published by Shearsman Books. Her most recent book was Soundtracks (Woodland Editions, 2019). She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently working on a collection of poems about fire.
Suzanne Steele is a librettist, installation artist, and scholar. She was the first poet to go to war with the Canadian army (Afghanistan) in the 100+ years of the Canadian War Civilian program. Her work is published, broadcast, exhibited, and performed widely Her war requiem, Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation (2012) with composer Jeff Ryan, will be released commercially in 2023 Her opera, Li Keur, Riel's Heart of the North will premiere in 2023 Currently, she co-leads the Red River Jig Network project.
Text and images copyright © 2023 by the individual authors and artists.
Book design and layout by Jaime Robles
159
