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Jesica Carson Davis is a poet and technical writer living in Denver. jesicacarsondavis.net twitter instagram

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In the Garden

I have a new poem out in Another Chicago Magazine!

https://anotherchicagomagazine.net/2019/04/17/in-the-garden-by-jesica-carson-davis/

(apologies for the inconsistent type sizing in screenshots below, but whatever)

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#Repost from @laliprolix A few pictures from when @collective.off performed the opening ritual for the annual Womxn of @naropau reading a few weeks ago. Wish we'd gotten all five of us in our full gear (masks, noisemakers, sequined hoods, etc.), but there is video somewhere! This was such an honor to participate in. • • • • • • Poetry in motion takes a break @ womxn of naropa, .off collective performance @__j3s__ @gabbajoy #laliprolix (at Nalanda Campus, Naropa University) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwuQNHulUXN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=biy1fjbdzd88

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Just got a copy of the new @pilgrimage_press issue! It contains my poem "Lament of the Preschool Teacher's Wife" which won the inaugural Tarantula Prize for Poetry, as well as a lot of gorgeous work by finalists and other writers on the theme of Flora, Fauna, and Lore. It's a great #Colorado #literaryjournal and #press, check it out :) (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvpDhGOlCAI/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1as1qlwi8meel

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Denver! The @invertedsyntax print issue launch party is this Friday, March 15. I'll be reading a few poems alongside some really talented people. Did I mention it's free, with drinks and snacks? The venue is a really cool gallery that used to be a record exchange, all the vinyl is still there an you can play it on their turntable :) . . See below for details or ping me with any questions. Hope to see you there! . . . #Repost • • • • • • Extraordinary humans are gathering to read to us, to wash us with words, to cleanse us, wake and restore us to the art form we are meant to be. @invertedsyntax presents its Launch Reading event and party… Featuring readings by : ANDREA REXILIUS | ERIC BAUS | KATHY FISH | JEANINE PFEIFFER | JESICA CARSON DAVIS And the one and only @levinoetic will emcee! Come soak up Music, Drinks, Appetizers, and All the Words @dikeoucollection Pop-Up Colfax 6:00- 8:30pm It’s FREE and OPEN to the public! Print cover art by @kvuletich #invertedsyntax (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu6YoNWl5Hp/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=66li5euawxo7

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I'm participating in a reading this Sunday evening for the new issue of @staindarts, in which I have three poems. Come check it out of you're in Denver! (at Whittier Cafe) https://www.instagram.com/p/BueKpGrFume/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=x2tggbaskmwi

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love love love #notawinepillow (at Denver's Union Station) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuXrT0jFpdx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1cviue3sgvrjn

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I have a poem in the new issue of TIMBER! I wrote it in 2006 while living in Berlin, so it's lovely to see it out in the world today. https://www.colorado.edu/timberjournal/2019/01/31/burden-jesica-carson-davis (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/BteAMzQlglj/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1unolnipkdb9m

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I have a poem "A Holiday Is a Point on a Calendar, Which Is a Cycle" in the new issue of Rogue Agent Journal. Check it out! https://www.instagram.com/p/BtWRKbSF7AP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=47315mralzb5

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training: day 3 #informationtyping (at Lakewood, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsvXHe7FxEo/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=lzivgmpwa072

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I have three #poems in the new Blood issue of @staindarts magazine! "Souvenirs of Interplanetary Travel," "Creating Distance Where There Was None Before," and "Transfusion." (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsoCZd6lZNU/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=w444xrfqilqb

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2018 poetry roundup

Tallying up my poetry (and a few essays) submissions for 2018: 

-- 113 submissions  -- 100 rejections (I hit my goal on the nose!)  -- 7 acceptances (several of which included multiple poems) 

It was my best year yet, not because of publications but because I tried so damn much.

I also wrote 179 new poems in 2018, a couple dozen of which I actually liked. Sometimes poetry feels like both a craft and a numbers game.

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Everything I read in 2018

I read the following books in 2018, in chronological order.

Books with an asterisk(*) particularly affected me. My top five-ish are: Alice Notley -- The Descent of Alette, Rachel Blau DuPlessis -- Interstices, Kiki Petrosino -- Witch Wife, Terrance Hayes -- American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, Selah Saterstrom -- Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics, and Ottessa Moshfegh -- My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

This year, I also read a lot for Inverted Syntax, a new literary journal for which I’m an editor.

See jesicacarsondavis.net for previous years.

Full list ——————————

Arundhati Roy -- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness Barbara Mauriello -- Making Memory Boxes Richard McGuire -- Here Tana French -- The Secret Place Dylan Krieger -- Giving Godhead Roberto Bolaño -- The Savage Detectives Renee Gladman -- Newcomer Can’t Swim Melissa Kwasny -- Toward the Open Field: Poets on the Art of Poetry 1800-1950 Philip K. Dick -- Ubik Paula Hawkins -- Into the Water Jean Valentine -- Shirt in Heaven Alex Lemon -- Feverland Sawnie Morris -- Her, Infinite Don Delillo -- White Noise *Selah Saterstrom -- Ideal Suggestions: Essays in Divinatory Poetics Gregory Dowling -- Ascension Elizabeth Robinson -- Rumor CAConrad -- While Standing in Line for Death Renee Gladman -- Prose Architectures Ellen Bryant Voigt -- Headwaters CAConrad -- YOU DON'T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE MY NEMESIS Tana French -- The Trespasser Donna Tartt -- The Little Friend *Rachel Cusk -- Outline Taisia Kitaiskaia -- Literary Witches Tara Nolan -- Raised Bed Revolution Sarah Waters -- The Little Stranger Halle Butler -- Jillian Meg Wolitzer -- The Wife Michelle Tea -- Modern Tarot Courtney Weber -- Tarot for One Bethany C. Morrow -- Mem *Samantha Hunt -- The Seas Rosalie Knecht -- Who Is Vera Kelly? *jamie mortara -- some planet Christina Dalcher -- Vox Jennifer Egan -- Look at Me Peter Frase -- Four Futures: Life After Capitalism Carmen Maria Machado -- Her Body and Other Parties Fatimah Asghar -- If They Come for Us Laura Lippman -- Every Secret Thing Allison E. Joseph -- Corporal Muse Jessica Knoll -- Luckiest Girl Alive Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English -- Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers Alexander Chee -- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel Ilene Rosen -- Saladish *Kiki Petrosino -- Witch Wife Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett -- Good Omens *Terese Marie Mailhot -- Heart Berries Dorothea Lasky -- Milk *Rebecca Makkai -- The Great Believers Timothy Snyder -- On Tyranny Lawrence Ferlinghetti -- Poetry as Insurgent Art Monica McClure -- Tender Data *Alice Notley -- The Descent of Alette J. T. Ellison -- Lie to Me Yoel Hoffmann (Ed.) -- Japanese Death Poems *Ottessa Moshfegh -- My Year of Rest and Relaxation Sherwin Bitsui -- Dissolve *Rachel Blau DuPlessis -- Interstices Diane di Prima -- The Poetry Deal Megan Abbott -- The Fever Karen Auvinen -- Rough Beauty: Forty Seasons of Mountain Living *Modern Women -- Many Moons 2018 Vol 2: July - December Nicolai Houm -- The Gradual Disappearance of Jane Ashland *Terrance Hayes -- American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin

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magic https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq2mlPGlWFR/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1dhlsfx96a5u7

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I wrote for @invertedsyntax about how a regular creative practice can help shape your identity. Link in bio! #amwriting #creativity #practice #makesomething (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqc5Tk3l_ku/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1e6pd2bt2eswn

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This weekend I bound my first signatures in 15 years! They're definitely messy, but it felt good to do some #bookbinding, which I used to love. . . Thinking of acts as practice or drafts helps take the pressure off, and projects feel more like play. . . Thank you @mae__dae for the help and company 💜 (at Virginia Village, Denver) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpzltO0lurG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=dbe1udvj5r7l

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I have a new poem called "State of Change" in the first @invertedsyntax online issue! Link in bio. . . . #poetry #literaryjournal #dishwasher #stateofchange #thisistobecome (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/BppO5QalIai/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=szs0sl60czw7

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The first online issue of @invertedsyntax is now live! @nawaln, our awesome EIC, the other editors, and I have been working on this for months, plumbing the possibilities of what language can do when you explode boundaries. Please take a look! . . . Also, I have a poem in it, "State of Change." . . . Enjoy! . . . #Repost @invertedsyntax • • • For the past two months, the editorial staff have been busy curating the inaugural online issue for you. “These are the works joining Manet at the ‘Salon des Refusés’, works that are brilliant and necessary, always uplifting and mercurial, speaking from the future — a medley of ‘re-fused’ works, for us, the Inverted camp celebrating those members of the Refusés. The works in Inverted Syntax inaugural online issue, including The Art of the Postcard series, are a meditation on what Ada Limón asks, about how we live, how we live in the world, amongst inevitable loss and suffering. Each piece, a fearless creation ubiquitously resisting conformity and complacency, takes memorable, haunting approaches to art and language that turn us inside out and convey novel insights into the human experience. Once you let yourself enter this space, your senses start reaching outside the imposed language lines and you start allowing yourself to experience language, including art, viscerally, on your terms.” Read the editorial blog post linked in bio. . . . #inauguralissue #literarywork #invertedsyntax #newwork #newkidontheblock #InSynartofthepostcard #salondesrefusés #art #writing #crossgenre #hybridwriting #readus #talentedpeople (at Denver, Colorado) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpkQ3R8FnPe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=kmtkymrxe7c2