Dispatch 005: The Porous Studio
Notes on mentorship and one-on-one work.
It is early February and the light in the studio is shifting again.
The six-week workshop has begun, and we are well underway, moving through the syntax of survival and the porousness of the page. The energy of that group is specific and focused. The workshop will return for a new cohort later in 2026.
Meanwhile, the studio door is ajar in other ways.
André Aciman once wrote that the “pernicious thing” about exile is the “impossibility of ever not being away.” He noted how small, everyday things become dramatic tokens of dislocation. In the drawing above, I am re-labeling those small things: the watch (reloj), the water (vaso de agua), the medicine (remedios).
I am deep in my own book draft right now: a project about poetry and exile. It feels right to offer one-on-one space as a parallel to that work. The deep attention I give to a consultation, and the creative conversations we have, helps keep the mise en place of my practice steady.
For those who have been asking about working together, I am opening my Creative & Manuscript Consultations for February and March. This is where we do the deep work of shaping projects that feel alive and true.
The Manuscript Consult is for when you have a body of work that needs a second set of eyes, a sequence, or stakes.
The Creative Consult is for working through a packet of pages for a specific submission, navigating the space between projects, or perhaps just beginning to “choose” a new direction.
La puerta del estudio sigue abierta, pero de a uno por ahora. The studio door remains open, but one-on-one for now.
You can find the details and booking link here: Creative & Manuscript Consults
Field Notes from the Path
A question for your studio: If you were to re-label three objects on your desk today - not by what they are, but by what they provide (e.g., “Refuge,” “Witness,” “Patience”) - what would they be?
Listening: I’m still thinking about young Tracy Chapman at the Mandela tribute, filling in and stunning the world with a decision to “leave tonight or live and die this way”.
On the mesa de luz: I’m returning to bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress as I hold space for this new workshop group.
See you on the path,
Oliver