Cleave: Bay Area Women Writers

This month’s line up:

Alexandra Mattraw is a fifth generation native of Northern California. Her three chapbooks can be found at Dancing Girl Press, Beard of Bees, and Achiote Press. Alexandra’s poems and reviews have appeared in journals including 1913 Journal of Forms, American Letters and Commentary, Denver Quarterly, Thethepoetry, alice blue, Seneca Review, Word For/Word, Cultural Society, RealPoetik, Shampoo, Diagram, VOLT, and Verse. Her work has also been featured in several art shows and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her first manuscript, honest as any treeless place, has been named a finalist in three separate competitions through Nightboat Books, 1913 Press, and the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. Her second book, Inside the Mind’s Hotel, was a finalist for the 2013 Colorado Prize for Poetry. A former Vermont Studio Center resident, Alexandra lives in Oakland, where she and her partner curate an eclectic writing, reading, and art series called Lone Glen.

Kelly lives in Oakland, supposedly East, though she is never oriented enough to know for sure. If she had a spouse, she surely wouldn’t mention that here. She is inclined to mention the things people like least to talk about openly. She is an atheist who treasures Christmas. She has a love/hate relationship with some ants who, with the rain, have begun to invade her home. She is considering letting them stay, so long as they live in the succulents and leave her kitchen be. She studied with amazing poets at Saint Mary’s College of CA. If she had been published in any journals, or had any books, she would mention that here. But she has not.

Andrea Murphy is a fifteen year educator, who is currently on hiatus. She has taught English at both high school and community college. During this hiatus, she has decided to focus on her passion for creative writing and is developing as an emerging poet in the St. Mary’s MFA program. If asked what she plans to do with her degree, she would tell you that she intends to enjoy it. She loves the lyrical expression of language and has made it her primary intention of study as she writes about family, legacy, illness, and blackness from a “womanist” perspective.

Kathryn Gresham Lancaster is a writer living in Oakland. She has published in Recursive Angel, Slow Trains and several other journals. She has also written and performed in: plays, puppet shows and performance art pieces. This excerpt is from her novel in progress: Voices Underwater.