Poet | Essayist | Editor | Teacher
As a writer, I feel called to witness with an attentive eye, curious mind, and compassionate heart the complex, evolving relationship between the human and the more-than-human world. As a teacher, editor and writing coach, I try to tap into the authentic, wild voice that’s within each of us and help bring it to the page.
“Poetry is the practice of attention”
Hold Fast launched
My most recent collection Hold Fast arrived from publisher Empty Bowl a month before the pandemic. Like the title, Hold Fast, many of the poems turn out to be quite timely, though when I wrote them, none of us had an inkling of what 2020 would bring.
In the News
Exploring Wild Mind Through Meditation, Writing & Kayaking
Join us in Southeast Alaska in 2021 from August 1-7!
Join Kurt Hoelting and Holly Hughes for a week of deep immersion in Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, reconnecting with your own inner wild in a landscape of expansive outer wildness. Based at the beautiful Keene Channel Lodge, this retreat will combine daily meditation and guided writing practice with sea kayaking excursions into the heart of Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage.
Passings Receives American Book Award
What a thrill it was to travel to San Francisco in October 2017 to receive an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for my chapbook Passings from Expedition Press. I was in good company with many amazing writers, who all read from their work and had inspiring words to share. Here’s a link to the C-span video of the award ceremony.
Left to right: Bernice L. McFadden, Marc Anthony Richardson, Holly Hughes, Vaugh Rasberry, Shawna Yang Ryan, Ruth Sergel, Solmaz Sharif, Dean Wong, Alfredo Véa, Flores A. Forbes, Randa Jarrar, Adam Soldofsky (photo by Gundars Strads)