C. R. Grimmer
About
C. R. Grimmer (she/they) is a poet, public scholar, and teacher living in Seattle, WA. They are the author of The Lyme Letters (Texas Tech University Press, Winner of the Walt McDonald First Book Award) and O–(ezekiel's wife), a chapbook and audiobook collaboration from GASHER Journal and Press, and The Poetry Vlog: Critical Edition, forthcoming as a peer-reviewed, mixed media, and open access eBook with University of Michigan Press. They created and host teaching series such as The Poetry Vlog (TPV), have poems in journals such as Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, FENCE Magazine, and [PANK], and have research in journals such as The Comparatist. Their poetry, research, and teaching has been made possible with support from fellowships and grants, including the Harlan Hahn Disability Studies fellowship, The Simpson Center's Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Public Scholarship fellowship, the Vermont Studio Center residency fellowship, and Project for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy fellowship. They have taught in higher education for over 10 years at universities such as Portland State University, University of Washington, and Seattle University.
BOOKS
Selected by Series Editor Rachel Mennies as the recipient of the Walt McDonald First Book Award, The Lyme Letters is epistolary verse that spells out a memoir. R, a non-binary femme character, narrates their experience of disease and recovery through recurrent letters to doctors, pets, family members, lovers, and a "Master." R, in letter form and repurposed religious texts, also explores the paradoxical experiences of queer non-reproductivity, chronic illness and disability, and the healing that can be found in the liminal spaces between.
"An epistolary novel in verse, The Lyme Letters is a correspondence between bodies both inhabited and desired, as full and vital as the spaces where river water breaks against stones, churning with life. There is an effervescence to this poetry that replenishes the imagination and revitalizes language in extraordinary ways. 'I said all this while waves coiled back,' writes C. R. Grimmer, and 'sing my song for the reeds.'" – D. A. Powell, author of Chronic
The Lyme Letters
O–(ezekiel's wife)
The print edition features a visual art series by Colleen Burner, which is titled: "Hewn Fruit."
The audio edition is a collaboration with Digital Sound Artist Judy Twedt. It features digital soundscapes accompanying poetry readings and guest voices by Abi Pollokoff, Katelyn Oppegard, Woogee Bae.
About the Poems:
O’s (they/them or she/her) story comes out of a network. Their smallest start branches out of a series in The Lyme Letters that sort through nonbinary, queer, crip, and femme experiences in Biblical master narratives across Judeo-Christian texts. First and foremost, then, this start comes out of the unnamed, “marked ungrievable” spouse of the prophet Ezekiel, who inspired the character O.
The Poetry Vlog (TPV) is a teaching YouTube and Podcast series dedicated to building social justice coalitions through arts and scholarship dialogues. It is currently in its 4th Season. It remains a free, open access resource through support by The Simpson Center for the Humanities Mellon Foundation Public Scholarship fellowship program, Jack Straw Cultural Center, and community contributions.
A peer-reviewed Critical Edition is forthcoming from University of Michigan Press, Fulcrum.
The Poetry Vlog (TPV)