Brut Elegies

My current project, Brut Elegies, is a full-length collection of poetry that biographies institutionalized contributors to the outsider art/art brut movement and responds to their work via ekphrasis, narrative poetry, and formal verse. With the rise of COVID cases in Canada in 2020, my partner was relegated to working from our home office, which, in turn, relegated my research and creative writing to our kitchen table. Every day, I made a concerted effort to churn out another draft of a poem, or generate another full page of notes, before heading out for a run and then pivoting to various other academic obligations. It was at our kitchen table where I met virtually with advisors, narrowed my research interests, and ultimately put the finishing touches on 163 pages of original scholarship and creative writing. Although this was by no means an ideal arrangement - our kitchen is consistently cold, cramped, and dimly lit - I will look fondly back on the months and years I dedicated to this project.