The LKMNDS Podcast

Jessica (Tyner) Mehta is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, interdisciplinary artist, multi-award-winning poet, and author of several books. Place, space, and personal ancestry inform much of her work. She’s also the owner of an award-winning small business. MehtaFor is a writing services company that offers pro bono services to Native Americans and indigenous-serving non-profits.

Her novel, The Wrong Kind of Indian, won gold at the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) and at the American Book Fest Best Book. Mehta’s Savagery won the Reader Literary Review's 2020 award for “most innovative collection of poetry.” Selected Poems: 2000 - 2020 received the 2020 Birdy Prize from Meadowlark Books. Jessica has also received numerous fellowships in recent years, including the Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington and the Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship at The British Library in London.

Alastair Huntley is currently a post-baccalaureate premedical student at Northeastern University, having previously studied at Norwich University, The Military College of Vermont, where he earned a BA in Studies in War and Peace with honors. Alastair attended the 2018 Yale Writers’ Workshop and also received the 2018 Vermonter Fellowship through the Stowe Story Labs for his feature-length screenplay, Half Shell.

Writing is breathing for Mahloli, poetry, the very air she breathes. Sometimes she questions her sanity, but she is just trying to give something to the world. She wonders what the use of life is, but she has realised we do not enjoy life for its usefulness; we enjoy life for its beauty. She is fierce, ambitious, forever young and a constant striver. 

https://www.instagram.com/ma.hloli/

Rochelle Asquith is a 22-year-old writer and artist from Wakefield, in the North of England. Her essays and artistic works have been published many times before, but she has only recently started branching out into poetry after rekindling her love for it upon the perusal of a Vera Pavlova collection.

Her website can be found at www.rochellemasquith.wordpress.com

Kendra Clevenger is a twenty-six-year-old Missouri native. She is the eldest of six children and a single mother to one young child. Her passion for art in many forms started at a very young age and has only continued to grow. She enjoys all things outdoors, animals, travelling, writing, drawing, welding and painting. She aspires to be a veterinary tech and published author. She lives on a multi-generational farm with her parents, child and four of her siblings. When she has down time, her favorite thing to do is travel or watch crime shows. She is an avid activist for many causes and has a natural talent for organizing, planning and executing protests. She is a member of the LGBTQ community and identifies as a pansexual, self-proclaimed “Punk Rock Hippie”. Her most enjoyed topics of discussion involve art, animal sciences and husbandry, activism, natural living and all things crime or horror related.

“The Taste of Fear” reminds us that we should be more proactive in embracing the emotions that we deal with daily, as it may actually help us find the beauty in this life that we live.

“Hiccups” was written by Matthew Berg. He is a renaissance man from the Midwest, a follower of Jesus, a husband, and a father who writes poetry, essays, and fiction. He lives in the South with his family and shows us that even in the midst of the most difficult times, we can still find peace and a spirit of overcoming in our quests to eradicate the hiccups of life.

You heard it here first! The LKMNDS Podcast is returning for Season 2 on September 15, 2020! This season features powerful and original poetry from poets across the world!

If you want your poem featured on our podcast, please visit our Submittable page!

The LKMNDS Podcast is produced in partnership with The Kneeland Center for Poetry, Inc. and The Elevation Review. Be sure to check out both websites for more information on the sponsoring organizations and how you can get involved today.

Visit the following websites!

www.thekneelandcenter.org

www.theelevationreview.com

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Breathe is a simple poem about living. The poetic form used in this poem is the Lune poem. It has been coined as the American Haiku by Robert Kelly (no, not R. Kelly, haha). The form is comprised of thirteen syllables; the first line contains five syllables, the second has three syllables, and the third line contains the final five syllables.

We’re Made to Love is a poem that invites a reader to not be afraid of being in love with the right person. The poetic form used in this poem is the Burmese Than-bauk form, composed of three lines with four syllables in each line. The last syllable in the first line rhymes with the third syllable of the second line and the second syllable of the third line. In this poem, chained three Than-bauk forms together.

Rules of Disengagement is a simple tricube poem that speaks on infidelity. The tricube poetic form takes on a simple structure: 3 stanzas, 3 lines per stanza, 3 syllables per line.