In 2025, ARTWIFE Magazine is teaming up with The Inner Loop to bring you interviews with DC-area authors! In March, April, and May, then again in September, October, and November, join us on the third Tuesday of the month to hear from recently-published novelists, memoirists, and poets in the DMV. Today we meet Michele Evans. Michele Evans, a fifth-generation Washingtonian (D.C.), is the author of purl (Finishing Line Press, 2025), a contemporary poetry collection inspired by Homer's Odyssey and the verses of Phillis Wheatley Peters. Nominated for the 2025 Maya Angelou Book Award, purl reimagines feminine forces from Greek mythology and American history in today's world to celebrate the resilience of women bound by universal traumas threaded through life and literature. This Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee studied at Smith College, King's College-London, and the Graduate School at the University of Maryland. Her poems have appeared in print and online in Artemis, The ASP Bulletin, Maryland Literary Review, Mid-Atlantic Review, Yellow Arrow Journal, Welter Magazine, WWPH Writes, Zora's Den, and elsewhere. Michele currently teaches English and Creative Writing in Northern Virginia and serves as the adviser of Unbound, a nationally recognized and award-winning high school literary magazine. You can find her online at www.awordsmithie.com.

Buy Michele's book: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/purl-by-michele-evans/

Listen to the purl playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3AyhWN4uT3HmT7Ibr4Q8N5?si=zpdja7dZR92KFAlcHirr1w&nd=1&dlsi=fe4d895b137f4165

The Inner Loop creates inclusive and accessible opportunities for our diverse network of both emerging and established writers to connect with each other, to connect to their community, and to transform the written word into a shared experience through the act of reading aloud. They put on monthly readings in Washington, DC, market writers who published with small- to medium-sized presses, host writing retreats and residencies, and provide other special programming throughout the year. Check out upcoming events at theinnerlooplit.org.

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Join us Tuesday evenings for the ARTWIFE Creative Hour: https://www.artwifemag.com/the-creative-hour