photo by Jupp Mueller, who takes the best pictures of my braids, and me in general

I acknowledge that I am writing and creating on traditional Chumash land.

Ever since we moved to California in October 2017, I have been shedding skins. Like a snake. Itching to get to the core of what fulfills me. I knew it in 8th grade, but have done too well at forgetting and neglecting it. Three years in which my inner landscape has been shaped by the land, I remembered. I am a writer and a maker and sharing my poems and other creations with the world is the next step. Pebble River Writings shall be a space where I get to unravel my own story.

When we first moved to California, I felt lost. Homesick for a place that was less vast and not as exposed to the sun, I longed for forests where mosses and mushrooms reside. For rivers that rumble. For water and shade. But I knew that dwelling in the search for something that cannot be found, I needed to connect to the land in other ways to overcome my homesickness. Slowly but steadily, the stones on local beaches and the native plants of California brought me home to my creativity.

So here I am. Writing poetry and the occasional story. Poetry that honors mountains and the shore, forests and the desert as animate beings. Poetry that connects to the wild woman archetype who speaks the language of birds, the river and the soil. Grieving my mother, whom I lost in a car accident when I was 4.5 years old. And making; my creativity expressed through stone jewelry, botanical dyeing, sewing and knitting.