Wait! Who Are You?!

Hello! I think it’s time for some surprises. In starting this blog, I want to design a new place for you to join me — somewhere a little less chaotic than social media. A place where longer conversations are possible, with the same mix of public and personal, text and visuals, compassion and curmudgeonizing, humor and love. If there’s anything you want to see more of, or have a question about or an opinion on, drop a line here in the comments and let me know. This is, as we all are, a work in progress.

But for those who’ve never heard of me, my name is Molly Fisk (Mary Elizabeth on the birth certificate). For the last 25 years I’ve worked as a poet and writing teacher. I’ve written two full length poetry collections, one collaborative chapbook, and a hand-bound letterpress volume with a fish vertebra stitched to its spine. I’ve won grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and some other national poetry prizes. More about all that here.

I also write commentary for radio, which people listen to in my town of Nevada City, CA on KVMR, as well as in Rifle, CO, Random Lake, WI, and…

somewhere in IL. I’m on NPR once in a while, too. Here’s a photo of our lovely new building.

I’ve published two books of commentary under the titles Blow-Drying a Chicken and Using Your Turn Signal Promotes World Peace. There’s a third, as-yet-untitled volume in the pipeline. I’m patiently waiting for them to go viral and support me — since they’re funny, a good small size, and seem to charm everyone who reads them — but that hasn’t started yet. Meanwhile, I get fan mail from book store owners, software engineers, and one philosophy professor emeritus at Harvard. People on Facebook post every possible chicken meme to my wall. This is one of my favorites (I was a sweater designer before I began writing.)

Speaking of Facebook, I’m quite fond of that crazy planet. It’s helped me feel more connected to my neighbors and fellow townspersons (especially the kids) as well as people from different parts of my past. It’s also a poet’s and a writer’s clubhouse, where I’ve been able to meet and interact with authors I’ve admired for years like Jane Smiley and Robert Wrigley.

I think we need another photograph, and since landscape and place are important to me, here’s what it looks like near Truckee today, which is an hour by car and 3500 feet in elevation from my house. This is the northern end of the Sierra Nevada, if you’d like to go look at a map.

Big love.