Welcome to unraveling, unmoored
A publication obsessed with stopping time featuring poets and essayists on practice, healing, embodiment, alignment, presence, and living an unhurried life by Libby Walkup and collaborators.
I don't believe in mid-life crises, I believe in mid-life awakenings, but still, they can be brutal, and mine followed a global pandemic that prompted a shift away from emotional and mental chaos and burnout onto a path of more ease and peace with no clear route toward getting to, and sustaining such slowness—and most importantly, being okay living such a slow life when everything around me and old patterns inside of me insist I’m doing it wrong.
I created this space initially to share my own experiences in slow practices, but have been called to foster a collective of voices and experiences.
Hi, I’m Libby
I am a contemplative middle-aged multidisciplinary creative and woodland creature / urban hermit obsessed with stopping time.
On a more easeful, embodied path of writing, art, and mind-body-spirit practices, my works invite readers and viewers into the experience of presence or the experience of practice through poetry, lyric essay, and visual works. I hope that by spending time reading or viewing, patrons slow down with me and their nervous systems come into regulation.
I lean into the realms of embodiment, awakening, noticing, presence, in-the-moment poetic lingerings, and mind-body-spirit musings. I love mid-life changes, realizations, explorations. I prefer flora, fauna, and non-human animal engagement. I’m more interested in being inside an experience than I am in the telling of the experience.
A very short list of my loves: Mary Oliver (of course), Ada Limón, Durga Chew-Bose, Maggie Nelson (particularly Bluets).
I’ve earned an MA at Bath Spa University and an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago both in creative writing and a joint MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at UI Center for the Book and an MA in Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa.
What are your practices?
collaboration guidelines.
On Practice: I’m interested in publishing guest essays on practice in the creative world and beyond. Some examples might include: quilting, gardening, brushing your teeth, cooking, spellwork, tarot, walking, thinking, model car building, and of course painting, drawing, writing, breathing. Anything that has become a ritual or practice.
I’m drawn more to engagement with and experience of practice itself rather than the outcome of said practice. I’m more interested in personal narratives and experiences than I am into guides or how-tos.
Submit an original essay of 500-1500 words On Practice or ruminate and respond to the questions below (add, delete, or interpret the questions as you see fit. I come from art school, everything is open to interpretation). Make it juicy and flesh it out:
What is practice?
How do you practice?
What does it mean to practice?
What brings you to practice?
What keeps you coming back?
Where do you wobble?
How does it feel?
What is your aim, if any?
Poetic Musings: We’re interested in celebrating poetry and the practice of writing poetry (and lyric essays, etc.), so we’d like to feature poets (as opposed to publishing poets), some of your work, and hear a bit about your practice and inspiration.
We’re not sure what this looks like yet in practicality, but we’re very excited about forming this section with our collaborators.
Experimental options, choose one that resonates or make up your own:
Along with one to three works (just one if it’s long; previously published works preferred) write a 500-1000 word essay getting inside your poetry practice. What inspires you? What tools do you use (i.e., prompts, workshops, books)? How do you get inside a moment? How do you know when a piece has come together (does it feel a particular kind of way in your body)? Do your works come together by accident while journaling or ironing or are you more intentional?
Along with one to three works (just one if it’s long; previously published works preferred) write a 500-1000 word essay on what your poet's life looks like. Do you need solitude or to be surrounded by people? Do you need lots of rest or do you need to be active and engaged? Do you have lots of time to write or is it sequestered to five-minute spurts between crying children or demands from your boss in your fake life?
Choose one to three works (previously published preferred) and write up to 300 words showing us where each poem came from, the inspiration, where you were living, what you were reading, what your life was like, what you were watching, what you were thinking about, etc., the ticks and sparks. And potentially how your life or practice is different now.
How to submit:
Deadline: rolling.
Click the button below to send your work via email.
Subject line: SUBMISSION LAST NAME
Include: One of the previously mentioned pieces and a bio of 50 - 100 words including a link to your Substack and/or website.
What you’ll receive:
If we’re able to feature your work, you’ll receive six months’ access to the paid experience of unraveling, unmoored free.
And if you write on Substack, we will recommend your newsletter for six months and would love to be recommended in return so that we might grow together, but that is your discretion.
Payment:
I have as of yet to manifest the funds to pay myself or my collaborators, but I’m confident in a year I will. I do have about 300 consistent and loyal readers (and growing) eager to devour your words.
If you’d like to contribute to the financial security of this publication, in which you will receive exclusive writings (Paid Subscriber) and occasional collections of ephemera, poetry, and handmade books by mail (Founding Member) subscribe now.
And if you’re not ready to commit to regular patronage, send a one-time payment of your choice:
Find book art and artworks by Libby Walkup in her shop:
