WritersnReadersII: January 2017

Alexis, can you please tell us a little about yourself for the benefit of those not
acquainted with your work. How would you describe yourself?

I’d define myself as a Los Angeles-based, confessional poet who takes photos. I’m the author of three books of poetry; How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen & other heart-stab poems (Sybaritic Press, 2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies (KYSO Flash Press, 2015), and Enter Here, (KYSO Flash Press, coming in March, 2017). Since 2013 I’ve been published in over 100 literary magazines and journals, including Rattle, Hobart, and Best American Poetry, 2016, and in over thirty anthologies. My photos have been published worldwide, including spreads in River Styx, and the covers of Witness, Chiron Review, and Heyday Magazine. I’m poetry editor of Cultural Weekly, where I also publish a monthly photo essay, The Poet’s Eye, about my on-going love affair with Los Angeles.

Of what accomplishments--as an artist, poet, human being--are you most proud? Are there divisions for you among those parts that make you up? If so, please elaborate.

As an artist, I am most proud of my work as a documentary photographer. I have photographed more than 100 Los Angeles poets over the past 4 years. A coffee table book is in the works! As a poet, my best moments are those of connection - when someone comes up to me after a reading, and shares a story from their own life, or tells me my words have moved them. I love to receive emails from people who share how my poems have landed. As a human, I’m proudest of my 14-year marriage to the finest man I know. And I’d like to think I was a good mother.

Has there been a thematic or other shift for you in the last year or so, influenced perhaps by the crises inspired by the recent political election and its results? If so, can you cite an example or two that pertains to your work.

I’ve always been interested in photographing people on the street. When I lived on the beach, it was a pastime. But when I moved to downtown Los Angeles in 2013, it became an obsession! My DTLA street photos have been published all over the world. I especially want to put a human face on the homeless population of my city. I always ask permission, and pay people for their photographs. When someone feels they have value, their entire demeanor changes. I’ve always considered myself “political.” The recent political climate has only made me more so. I often use sex as a metaphor for power in my poems. Here’s a recent one, inspired by “he who shall not be named.”

I PREFER PUSSY ( a little city-kitty ditty)

I prefer pussy, as in cat

as in willow

as in chases a rat

as in raised on a pillow.

I prefer pussy, as in riot

as in foots

as in pussycat doll

as in puss-in-boots

I prefer pussy, as a twat

it is not, nor

is it a beaver,