Ezekiel – Elaina Ellis
Oct 28th, 2020 by Jack Straw
2020 Jack Straw writer Elaina Ellis’s poetry project could be described as a book-length exploration of the story of Ezekiel, but that’s just the beginning. In her conversation with curator Anastacia-Renée, they discuss bringing one’s whole self to the creative process, love-bombing, and the multiple resonances, from the erotic to the traumatic, that can be found in both sacred texts and modern life. “That is how the book of Ezekiel opened up for me this etymological rabbit hole — and then this image of an angel lifting somebody up by a lock of his hair. But it wasn’t like that story isn’t about punishment, necessarily — It’s like he gets lifted up to talk to God about something.”
Elaina is the author of Write about an Empty Birdcage (Write Bloody Publishing) and the recipient of fellowships from Lambda Literary, Tent, Vermont Studio Center, Mineral School, and Jack Straw, as well as an ArtistTrust GAP Award. She is at work on a second collection, I’m Only Praying to Believe What’s True, which responds to the text and impulses of the biblical Book of Ezekiel. She earned her MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles, and works as an editor at Copper Canyon Press.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Cultural Center as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org. Music by SassyBlack, produced as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
