Ann Wallace, PhD, Writer

13/09/2024

Please join us this afternoon at 4pm EST — online or in person at The CUNY Graduate Center (365 Fifth Ave, NYC).

Finding the Words: On Language, Loss and Community in Poetry and Stories of COVID
With Ann Wallace & Lopa Basu, moderated by Nancy K. Miller

Zoom link:
https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/j/89183597064?pwd=mvigl2USSK5ruzUPY5PmzeSEXatJa4.1

Meeting ID: 891 8359 7064
Passcode: 807076

12/09/2024

Episode 16 of The WildStory: A Podcast of Poetry and Plants for the Native Plant Society of NJ is now live! (You can find us on Instagram now, by the way.)

This episode is all about the southernmost point in New Jersey—beautiful Cape May! September is migration season and the very best time to head to Cape May. Which is exactly what many of us from the Native Plant Society of New Jersey will be doing, for a special trip to Cape May the weekend of September 27th through the 29th.

Our featured poet is Penny Harter (4:00), who has lived and written in May’s Landing for the past dozen years. Penny and I spoke about memory, grief, and the everyday creatures and objects that become the imagery that fills her poetry. Penny also offers a mini-lesson on haibun, a beloved Japanese form near to her heart, a form that allows ideas to ripple and expand, like rings upon a lake.

In Ask Randi, Dr. Randi Eckel (0:32:00), a native plant expert for NPSNJ and owner of Toadshade Wildflower Farm, talks about entering fall, when the many species of goldenrod come into their glory. She clears up the confusion between goldenrod and ragweed and shares why Seaside Goldenrod, which grows along the seashore, is one of her favorites.

We then hear from naturalist (0:44:54) the Director Emeritus of the Cape May Monarch Monitoring Project. Mark has lived and worked in Cape May for more than 20 years and is the author of Watching Nature: A Mid-Atlantic Natural History. Mark talks with Kim Anello Correro about the Monarch butterfly and why its migration is unlike any other that we know of on this planet.

In our final segment, Kim and I catch up with naturalist Pat Sutton (01:09:04), who has lived and worked in the Cape May area for over 40 years. Pat shares her knowledge of Cape May Island, one of the top spots in the world to see butterfly and bird migration. She points out her favorite places to visit and tells us about her film, “The UNFOLDING of Pat Sutton’s WILDLIFE GARDEN,” which features her 1/2 acre home wildlife habitat which encompasses 202 native plants, 61 trees, shrubs, and vines, 9 grasses, 5 ferns, 213 bird species, 79 butterfly species and 113 other pollinators.

Listen here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2zWFVtjmzlUc8vrSaSznxU?si=F4IKSJZhQUaufKaEdZWyWg

10/09/2024

What a thrill to speak at The CUNY Graduate Center English Department’s Friday Forum this week, 9/13 at 4pm, alongside Lopa Basu (who will be joining via zoom from Wisconsin), and moderated by my grad school advisor Nancy K. Miller.

Please join us in person (365 Madison Ave, NYC) or on Zoom!

31/08/2024

Thank you to P.F.Anderson for this thoughtful review of Days of Grace & Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul, published in the new issue of Wordgathering.

It’s particularly meaningful that P.F. is a fellow poet and longhauler. As she writes in the beginning of the review:

“A disclaimer seems to be in order to contextualize my response to the book. Like the author, Ann E. Wallace, I am a person living with Long COVID. Like Ann, I acquired this distinction during the very earliest days of the pandemic, during March of 2020. Indeed, when reading the introduction, I realized that Ann and I have been in the same support groups, in the same Zoom rooms, at the same time. In those days, the Long COVID support world was a small one, and it should not have surprised me that we crossed paths, but still it did–and does. I’m not sure if this shared experience makes me a good reviewer for this poetry collection. I find myself unable to “answer” if these are good poems or not, because they touch me so viscerally I’m unable to examine them for shape, form, line, the punch of a choice image. Instead, reading them, I flash back, in a kind of PTSD, as if I’m watching Ann or my own self as a silent transparent spirit hovering over a shoulder. I’m probably too biased, or too near the content, in other words, to judge the book for its “quality” or “enduring value.” I can tell you that this collection resonates powerfully with me, and that in many ways it is an accurate representation of the experience of those days, at least for some–and for me. In that sense, any library collecting reflections on this pandemic should absolutely invest in a copy of this book.”

Days of Grace and Silence: A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul (Ann E. Wallace) Reviewed by P. F. Anderson Content Warning: pandemic trauma, medical trauma, financial trauma, Long COVID, chronic illness, chronic pain, caregiving Reading the title, there is a sweetness to Days of Grace and Silence tha...

06/08/2024

Thank you, Pangyrus, for giving such a lovely home to In the Arbor!

New poem "In the Arbor" by Ann Wallace:

"We saw the boy in the dark
green-leaved trees, climbing
from one trunk to the next
with ease and a laugh."

Read the poem and the story behind it - pangyrus.com

Image by Blake Lemmons on flickr.com, licensed under CC 2.0.

01/08/2024

Thank you Harness Magazine for interviewing me about my work! It’s an honor to be asked such thoughtful questions.

Ann Wallace is a writer, poet, and long-haul COVID-19 survivor whose words have touched and inspired many. Her journey through the pandemic, from her daughter’s early symptoms to her own intense battle with the virus and its lingering effects, has been a testament to resilience, hope, and the powe...

30/07/2024

Today is the International Day of Friendship, as designated by the U.N. to promote and encourage peace, happiness, and unity worldwide. I’ve been hosting a fundraiser this month for HuntersWorld, a peer to peer mentoring program created in honor of Hunter Reinholt, which culminates today on Friendship Day.

It is fitting that my poem “In the Arbor,” written about Hunter, was published today in Pangyrus. Here’s part of the origin note I wrote about the poem:

“Hunter was a spirited athletic boy who seemed most free outdoors, running, climbing, laughing, always laughing. I have one particular memory of Hunter perched in a tree — I think it was a cherry and he must have been six or seven years old — at a picnic in Liberty State Park. He sat in the nook of a branch, like a woodland sprite, inviting other children to join him. Soon the small copse of trees was filled with children. Hunter’s family and friends were shattered by his death, yet we pulled together closer in our mourning, and his mother formed a peer mentoring organization HuntersWorld in his name so that teens might build the tools to support each other and feel less alone.

Two years after his passing, and a year into the pandemic, I had a dream of Hunter leaping from tree to tree, beckoning us to follow; these trees were taller, darker than the ones in the park from so long ago, and Hunter — true to life — wouldn’t stay still long enough for us to keep up. Though the dream was haunting, it also brought me peace. Hunter was filled with joy and with life. I wrote this poem the next day in one sitting, needing to capture the image of this beautiful yet elusive boy and the community that has held together in his absence.”

In celebration of the friendships in your life and the impact friendships have all over the world, please help us support these teens!! Today is the final day of our campaign and we are so close to our goal, please considering making a donation to HuntersWorld today at https://www.facebook.com/donate/3824565727777221/?fundraiser_source=external_url ❣️

https://www.pangyrus.com/poetry/arbor-dream/

18/07/2024

I am moved by Lopamudra Basu’s beautiful review of Days of Grace and Silence in World Literature Review. Thank you Lopa for taking such care with my work. It is always a special gratification when you can tell that someone really gets your work—this is one of those times.

“Even though her collection is an intimate personal portrait of her struggles with the effects of long Covid, it is also a celebration of her community, its spirit of solidarity in supporting her slow and fledgling recovery.”

25/05/2024

Thank you Nadia Arioli of Thimble Literary Magazine for interviewing me about Days of Grace and Silence, as well as The WildStory podcast and upcoming projects!

Congrats on your new book! You wrote a book about Long COVID. I imagine the experience must have been terrifying and alienating. When and how did you decide to write about it? Was it triggering to revisit?

21/05/2024

Massachusetts friends, I’m doing a reading from Days of Grace and Silence at the Mattapoisett Library on Saturday, June 1 at 2pm!

I’m really looking forward to this event and would LOVE if you could be there (and maybe we can go for a drink or bite at the Mattapoisett Inn after 😊).

18/05/2024

Tomorrow afternoon in NYC—I’m looking forward to this reading by Kelsay Books authors!

13/05/2024

Feeling profound gratitude for Sarah Stern, for her beautiful book review of Days of Grace and Silence in Compulsive Reader. She writes:

“Days of Grace And Silence, Ann E. Wallace’s profoundly moving and necessary poetry collection on living through Long Covid, makes us remember the things we may want to forget. And how important it is not to forget, as she writes, I fight to remember the story/ of me. Even though each of our stories are different, Wallace’s poems shed light on our own. Her collection bears witness to this terrible, terrible time, and yet, in these poems she asks us to find the beauty too.” (Read more at the link)

Book Reviews, Poetry Reviews A review of Days of Grace and Silence by Ann E. Wallace May 12, 2024 Reviewed by Sarah Stern Days of Grace and Silence, A Chronicle of COVID’s Long Haul By Ann E. Wallace Kelsay Books ISBN: 9781639805143, March 2024, paperback, $23, 119 pages Days of Grace And Silence,...