Mudhouse Residency
Agios Ioannis, Crete
Poet Fellow
Willa spent an idyllic two weeks at the Mudhouse Residency in Agios Ioannis, Crete with other artists working in a variety of genres: painting, animation, choreography, composition and photography. Agios Ioannis is a tiny hilly village where houses share walls with ruins, and at one end is a taverna and the other, a bar.
Down the path
Cottage Tour
This video shows the modest house where she worked on her poetry manuscript and made major headway. Below is a poem she revised there, which was published by The Journal of Psychohistory.
YELLOW HALO
Bloomingdale Asylum, New York, 1846
I plead, and they answer crooked, especially
Superintendent Pliny Earle. I birth curiosities so unique
and wondrous that they belong in the Peale Museum
next to fossilized mastodon teeth and the prong-horned antelope.
One at a time in my mind I hold a marvel just so,
until it emerges through a slit in my back that opens
and closes and disappears when God whispers.
Conical shells, nails, shank bones, horseshoes, passbooks
from Nick Biddle’s bank, brass door knobs
slide out, and wasps exit and circle
above my head. They are my halo,
wear yellow jackets and are tender.
Although free to roam they choose to dwell
in this cell with me, and no longer
habit their hate-sting.
Against the attendants they are my shield,
whose voices are thunder, fingers lightning bolts
forged to strike my forceps-marked face.
House Photos
View of mountains and Mediterranean from Willa’s balcony
Work table
House with blue doors.
Reading at Bar 55
Willa reading at Bar 55
Audience at bar
Route to Final Exhibition
This video shows a tour of the village leading to the former schoolhouse where the final exhibition and performances of artists works, including Willa’s, took place.
White House
Preparing for Exhibition
House with Grapevines
Poet in Residence
Willa was invited by the Liza Nepalbhasa Poetry Forum, a branch of the Nepalbhasa Literary Council of Kathmandu to be a poet-in-residence for 10 days in Feb. 2018. She received a Professional Development Grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, (RACC) to cover travel expenses.
Poetry’s precise, musical, metaphor-infused language can get to that place beyond the illusion of the objective, to “true” words.
Willa Schneberg was interviewed by Bruce Parker for the Oregon Poetry Association about her time in Kathmandu and why she writes poetry. To read the full interview click here
Her essay entitled: “Where Guests Are Gods: A Poet’s Sojourn in Kathmandu” was just published in the Summer/Fall, Vol. 30 no. 3 issue of Calyx: A Journal of Art & Literature by Women: To Learn more click here
Talk - “Translating Poetry: The Art of Preserving Essence,” Nepal Academy
She spoke to students, writers and critics about poetry translation at the Nepal Academy, an institute for the promotion of the languages, literature and culture.
At the (NAFA) Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, she talked about the interface between poetry and sculpture.
Slide Show Presentation - "Between Two Arts: Poetry & Ceramic Sculpture," Nepal Academy of Fine Arts
Dialogue and Writing Opportunity: “Writing the Political Poem,” Institute of Advanced Communication, Education & Research
She discussed political poetry with graduate students in English and philosophy at the (IACER) Institute of Advanced Communication, Education & Research.
She spoke to a group of Newari writers, sponsored by their organization Nepalbhasa Parishad, which sponsors the promotion of works in the Newari language, Nepal Bhasa.
She read to members of Gunjan, a Nepalese women’s writers’ organization that has been in existence for more than 20 years.
She spoke about American Buddhist Poetry at the Dharmakirti Vihar Monastery.
Poetry Reading and Interaction Program with Members of Nepalbhasa Parishad
Following Reading and Interaction Program with Gunjan Members