Writing and Mindfulness, Creative Writing Exercises (a free e-book / click to download PDF)

The book is a resource for the general public, young people, and students, as well for teachers and community outreach leaders leading writing workshops and mental health group therapy. The writing exercises promote the practice of mindfulness skills through self-guided writing prompts. It is a book to write for healing, to help process difficult experiences and emotions, and to manage living with a mental illness through the act of writing.

IT’S A MASK IT’S A VIRUS IT’S A KNEE (communal poetry collage film)

This is a collective, communal poetry film composed of poems written by Houstonians about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

All inquiries and permission requests should be addressed to the author.

I served as the 2019-2021 Houston Poet Laureate and the 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow. For one of my fellowship civic projects, I wrote a workbook on mindfulness and writing, with poetry exercises centered around writing for mental wellness and healing. The book’s content promotes the practice of mindfulness skills through self-guided writing exercises, with the goal of helping participants deal with difficult experiences, trauma, or managing emotional and mental health challenges in daily life. The free e-book serves as a resource for the general public, young people, and students, as well for teachers and community outreach leaders leading writing workshops.

The second civic project, which I curated and produced, IT’S A MASK IT’S A VIRUS IT’S A KNEE, is a collective, communal poetry video collage composed of poems written by Houstonians about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project features Houston activists, writers, and performers who lend their voices to experiences ranging from the perspectives of students to healthcare workers, to loved one’s dealing with a family member’s COVID infection, as well as people dealing with anxiety, trauma, and rage after the George Floyd murder. This poetry video debuted June 2022 at the Holocaust Museum Houston, and has a pop-up exhibit of the video in its main exhibition space. During my term as poet laureate of Houston, I also created the Bayou City Broadsides, which are one-page artistic displays of poetry excerpts from poems written by everyday Houstonians. The Houston Public Library will be working to digitally archive these broadsides for public access.

The workshop book and poetry film are made possible by the Academy of American Poets with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.