Alexis Ivy
Poet
BIO

Alexis Ivy is a 2018 recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship in Poetry. Her first poetry collection, Romance with Small-Time Crooks was published in 2013 by BlazeVOX [book] and her second collection, Taking the Homeless Census (Saturnalia Books, 2020) won the 2018 Editors Prize at Saturnalia Books. Her most recent poems have appeared in Poet Lore, Sugar House Review, Saranac Review, and Poetry East. She teaches in the PoemWorks Community in Boston.
IN THE PRESS
Ivy’s poems are sharp and unflinching…there’s a dangerous beauty in all the dangerous and dirty corners.
“
-Karen Weyant,
Rain Taxi Review of Books
“
…Ivy points to the universal human experience whenever she can, reminding us that the grittiness is not so far removed from anything or anyone else.
-Anne Champion, [PANK] Magazine
“
The poems of a survivor who sheds her delusions, poem by poem, as she investigates her life with honesty and courage and a poetic gift that comes damn close to redeeming it all—redeeming us all.
-Richard Hoffman, author of Emblem
UPCOMING READINGS
*
February 14th, 2021 3pm
Reading with Barbara Thomas
& Kirkor Der Hohannesian
ZOOM EVENT
New England Poetry Club
Arts at the Armory
191 Highland Ave, Somerville
*
February 18th, 2021 7pm
w/ Regie Gibson
Rozzie Reads Poetry Series
ZOOM EVENT
to sign up for this event please email: hguran@aol.com
SERVICES
POETRY WORKSHOP
---ALL CLASSES ARE VIRTUAL---
SIGN UP FOR WINTER/SPRING 2021
I will be offering a poetry workshop on select Tuesday evenings (7pm-9:15)
To accommodate your schedule you may choose to come to any or all workshops.
SPECIALTY WORKSHOP: PERSONA
(Second Tuesdays of the month)
SPECIALTY WORKSHOP: FORM
(begins in April 2021)
Please contact me for more information, registration and rates.
If you are interested in having me take a closer look at a group of poems or a manuscript I'm offering one-on-one sessions. For more information please contact me.
pOETRY RETREAT
poetry south
DATES TBA, 2022
SETTING
Rural. Birthplace of the blues. The Delta is known to be the most southern place on earth for its unique cultural, economic and racial history. This is a place of paradox and contrast: a place that has produced great authors yet continues to suffer from illiteracy. A place that has produced powerful political leaders, both for & against segregation. A place in which apartheid has been replaced by empowerment. We will come to understand the Delta’s heritage by studying southern poets, civil rights poets and blues poetry.
LODGING & MEALS
Shack Up Inn—we will be part of the living history found within restored sharecropper shacks. The grounds are of an original cotton gin. Corrugated tin roofs and Mississippi cypress walls will conjure visions of a bygone era. Restored only enough to accommodate 21st century expectations (indoor plumbing, air conditioning, kitchenette), the shacks provide comfort as well as authenticity. Meals will be had in the Juke Joint Chapel. Sasha Monty, a local of the delta will be cookin’, fryin’ and bakin’ some authentic southern classics with a new-timey twist.
ITINERARY OF EXCURSIONS
Greenville visiting the Cypress Swamp Preserve & Greenville Queen River Center on the banks of the Mississippi River
Dockery Farms Plantation & Sawmill, grub at Airport Grocery
Emmett Till Historic Center and Courthouse
Memphis to explore the Civil Rights Era & Avenue Sound Studio to record our poetry
Clarksdale— Delta Blues Museum, Crossroads Cultural Center & a juke joint blues club to listen to the pulse of heartbreak
INCLUDED IN RETREAT:
7 nights at The Shack Up Inn, 5 excursions, 5 classes, 5 workshops
15 meals (7 breakfasts, 3 lunches, 5 dinners)
CONTACT ME FOR MORE DETAILS