Oh, hi, were you waiting for something? Because I probably didn't.
Interview published! News coming out! Video art! Cool pictures! And I need a theater :)
TL;DR — v. v. busy. Interview posted at Water~Stone Review. North News feature coming soon. Art is happening in the distance.
Odds are, somebody will unsubscribe upon receiving this. Because people hate photos? Or they expect something different from a newsletter called “Davi Gray’s Writing News”? Really, stick around, read the news, look at the pretty pictures. Even if you don’t care, I can be pretty damn funny sometimes 😉.
If you were paying attention — which you may in fact have been, you valuable and worthy reader, you (because you’re a person! not because you’re reading my newsletter!) — you saw I posted a video of my poem, “To the Transphobes Insisting I’m a Man Because I Was Born Unpussied.” There are more where that came from, poems on video just waiting to go up (more art videos, too). They will arrive at some point. Probably one by one. Probably soon. At least in the cosmological sense.
I’m intolerably busy at the moment, which is my own fault — a manifestation of that problem wherein Davi-2024 thought that Davi-2025 would have so, so much time on her hands, and needed a lot of things to stay occupied:
Here, Davi, have a grant review panel. Here’s a stack of required reading 📚. Don’t forget the writing! 📝 And sign up for a class. Wait, here’s another one, let’s do that, too. And some toys! 🧸 New things to learn are wonderful. Oooooh, look at that shiny thing! ✨ Put it on the stack! And let’s buy some tickets to a bunch of events while we’re at it. 🎫 What could possibly go wrong?
Nothing, Davi-2024, you darling creature, you.
But you know what? I am learning. I have signed up for Less Things in the second half of this year. Because I really need to do some more actual writing (and by “writing” I also mean “revising,” yes, ominously leaning tower of folders full of revisions, I see you there 🗼👀). My goal for this year was, OK, one of my several goals for this year, none of which I have abandoned, actually 😅, was to put together a book-length hybrid memoir. I have…a couple of essays. Lots of poetry, of course! But I have not gotten very far, yet, and won’t be able to work on it more until July-ish. Oh, and my play — my first play, “This Body, This Fruit” — I need to polish that some more, too; I’m looking for a theater I can use for a week-long run. These times are desperately well-suited for a poetical play on the complexities and pains and joys of being trans. Any leads? (I am on the waitlist for Minnesota Fringe — two waitlists, actually — but pretty far down. I’m not holding my breath.)
Having said all that, if you’re looking for a poet / performer / speaker / workshop leader, please reach out! I do need to keep working on things like “eating” and “sleeping indoors,” and paid gigs are really helpful for those 😉.
And then there’s the visual art. (I’m a painter, woodcarver, collagist.) The media art. And trying to breathe despite everything in the world. (The art of breathing?)
It’s a lot.
My poem “Caravan of Wounds” was published in Water~Stone Review: Love by Abandonment, v.27 (2024), which you can buy for $25. (There is so much good writing in it, y’all! And some gorgeous photography.) They also interviewed me about my poem — you can read the interview here: In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Davi Gray.
And I hear rumors of a story featuring the actual Davi Gray (me!) in a very local newspaper near and dear to my heart, North News. You’ll probably be able to pick up a copy Real Soon if you’re around the Northside 😁.
I hope you’re taking care of yourself out there. Here’s a flower:
🫶🏽 hope you’re taking care of yourself as well! will definitely keep you in mind for any paid gigs ✨