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Contributions by Alison Pelegrin:

“Feast of Banana Spiders, Starlight, and Roadkill”

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Collaborators’ Q&A

Artist Millian Pham Lien Giang: This poem captures the existential dread of my generation—of having to toil away at jobs that unnecessarily require years of experience and degrees in exchange for crappy wages. It also captures that angst of knowing you have so much potential, training, and ambition. Poet Alison Pelegrin: The house/refuge in the center of Millian’s piece is something I see differently after nearly two years of staying home. I think that the collaboration has a strong connection to the current moment as restrictions are being lifted and we begin to step tentatively out into the world. 

Millian Pham Lien Giang focuses on many modes of visual art perception in her practice. Overlapping themes of gender, class, and culture are captured through images, objects, and events in her work. Alison Pelegrin is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Our Lady of Bewilderment and Waterlines.

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“Quicksilver”

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Artist Regin Igloria: I was immediately drawn to the title for various reasons but after reading it, certain words like water, sandbags, car trips, roadkill, and long walks all resonated with my own work. It was a natural fit to me. Poet Alison Pelegrin: I had water and floods on my mind, and I thought those elements might be reflected in the artwork. I also thought I might see the color blue.

Collaborators: Poet Alison Pelegrin is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Waterlines (LSU 2016). Artist Regin Igloria maintains a multidisciplinary studio practice in Chicago. In 2010, he founded North Branch Projects, a community program to help expand the creativity of others through book arts.

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“In Livingston Parish, Dreaming of Li Po”

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Collaborators’ Q&A: Poet Alison Pelegrin: I have always thought of this poem as flippant and mildly humorous. The artist’s image allows me to reflect on the serious elements in the poem. Artist Cheryl Gross: What inspired me the most was the fact that I was able to apply artwork [I’d created before ever reading the poem] and have it fit perfectly.

Poet Alison Pelegrin is the author of Big Muddy River of Stars (University of Akron Press 2007) and The Zydeco Tablets (Word Press 2002). Artist Cheryl Gross has an MFA in New Forms from Pratt.

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