Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Ellis.
Hi Kelly , please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
The seeds of our literary nonprofit were sown informally when my friend and fellow poet Tina Cardona and I began throwing poetry events celebrating the summer and winter solstices. We wanted to encourage poets to write passionately and find joy even during difficult times, so we asked the ones attending these parties to bring new poems responding to the theme “heat.” Their responses could be literal or metaphorical–as in, weather, food, passion, politics–and we always had a fire where we burned the poems after we read them. Our name “hotpoet” originated from this tradition, a feast of creativity and community, not to mention the excellent food and drink that we shared. We believed, and still do, that a “hot poet” is anyone who writes passionately on subjects they are passionate about, and we throw these celebrations to this day, twelve years later.
At some point in these twelve years, we turned our attention to social issues, branched out from our informal gatherings, and began hosting fundraisers and benefits for organizations and causes we supported. In 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, we lost one of our beloved poets, Glynn Monroe Irby, whose will left us some funds to be used in the interest of poetry and the poetry community. With this endowment, we completed the paperwork, filed for 403B status, and started our literary nonprofit hotpoet, Inc. Thus, our informal arrangement became a formal arrangement with three board members (also serving as officers): Tina Cardona, Jack Kendall, and myself.
The first thing we did as a nonprofit was to publish a posthumous collection of Glynn’s poems, which we called “Letters Sent Inland.” It was a labor of love accomplished with a committee of Glynn’s friends, and we hope it adequately honors his legacy of being an accomplished poet, remarkable visual artist, and dear friend.
Next, we decided to start an online journal, Equinox, with the help of my daughter, Madeleine Castator, who undertook this project as Managing Editor for the first two issues. She suggested that since our solstice celebrations were centered on ideas of passion and joyful extremes, Equinox should be a balanced, curated collection, even as the literal equinox is a time when day and night are equally balanced–although it also signals change. Thus, the theme of our first issue, launched in the fall of 2021, was “A Change in the Weather,” It included prose, poetry, and art and gave a $100 prize in each category, with volunteer judges recruited from our local arts scene.
On our 9th issue four years later, to date we have awarded over $2,500 in prizes, and our journal has included creatives ranging geographically from Texas to as far away as Australia. This year, we began publishing issues for purchase in print, although the online version is still free to the public and plays a vital role in our work as a literary nonprofit. The deadline to publish each issue is always the biannual equinox, so we publish two issues per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. These issues still have an open-ended theme and are curated to include literary and visual arts.
After the first year, Madeleine left us to pursue other goals and passed the torch to Vanessa Zimmer-Powell, who became our art director, with Tina Cardona still in charge of solstice events, and me serving as managing editor of Equinox. It is a lot of work for four people to manage, so we greatly appreciate our guest editors and volunteer judges, as well as our supporters who donate financially to help us to remain sustainable and fulfill our mission to support writers and artists and to build community.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We have faced financial challenges, as there are many hidden costs in publishing even an online journal. These expenses include maintaining a website, having subscriptions to Submittable and ZOOM, throwing launch events, and participating in festivals and conferences to promote our projects. Sometimes we get a little low on funds, but then an unexpected donation pulls us through, or one of our friends throws a fundraiser for us, and we can carry on.
Another big challenge has been managing the workload. We have two submission periods per year, one in the winter and one in the summer, followed by a period of reading, selecting, sequencing–all of the work that goes into creating a cohesive and aesthetically pleasing collection. Then we have to communicate with submitters, solicit judges, pair art and prose, do the page design, plan launch events, update our website–handle all the moving parts–until it feels like we can’t come up for air.
Vanessa and I handle most of these tasks, working together in a tight timeframe with a hard deadline, the equinox. We don’t procrastinate, since we can’t change the rotation of the planets! So far, we have made this deadline each time, and the result of our efforts is a stunning issue that showcases the work of our contributors and reflects the effort we have put into it. It’s always fun to throw the launch events, but when we are in the throes of hammering out an issue, it feels never-ending.
The last challenge is that we find it hard to do our own creative work when we spend so much time using the analytical side of our brain for editing and designing. It is difficult to switch gears into creative mode or have the time and energy for our own pursuits.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
While I have been primarily a poet, with one published collection so far (The Hungry Ghost Diner, from Lamar University Literary Press). I also write fiction and creative nonfiction and have a couple of projects in the works. I suppose I’m most known for my participation in Houston’s poetry scene: being one of the hosts for First Fridays Reading series, the cofounder of hotpoet, and the managing editor of Equinox. But the thing people seem to know me for most is my sociable nature: bringing people together, introducing them to each other, making them feel included, and throwing fun parties. That, and my sense of humor.
Aside from founding and keeping Equinox going, the thing I’m most proud of is the chapbook project I did yearly with my students at Spring Early College Academy. Every year in April, all of my students would write a poem a day, with the poetry club I mentored generating the prompts. Then, we would create a chapbook of their poetry, again, with the poetry club in charge of choosing the poems to be included, the theme for the book, and the cover art. My friend Glynn helped us by formatting the book, but we put it together in-house with the students folding and stapling pages by hand. Then, before school was out, I threw a book launch for them with a guest poet speaking, followed by a student-led open mic and opportunities to autograph their poems featured in the book. It became a part of our school culture, and up until the last year that I did this project, the school did not give me a dime to make it happen. It was all out of pocket because I really, really love poetry and believe in its power to help us move through the world with empathy and kindness. Finally, the last year I taught, the school decided that we could use the district’s facilities to have our chapbook printed and bound, but to be honest, the students and I kind of missed all the folding and stapling we used to do!
I am not only proud of that project, but of the outspoken and socially aware citizens these students seem to have become, at least the ones I keep up with. I like to think that the influence of poetry in my classroom environment helped them develop these traits, Whether or not that is the case, the chapbook project it is what I think has comprised the most meaningful work that I have done as a teacher.
As a parent, I raised four daughters who are pretty amazing and deserve a shout-out, too, whether because or in spite of me!
How do you define success?
I believe that success means developing meaningful relationships to enrich your your life, acquiring knowledge and exploring ideas, having as many fulfilling experiences as you can during your time on this planet, and doing what you love in order to contribute in some small way to the betterment of life, not just for yourself, but for others. None of this has anything to do with money or status.
Pricing:
- The Hungry Ghost Diner (my book available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and kellyannellis.com for $17
- Letters Sent Inland, available at hotpoet.org, $20
- Is It Hot Enough for You? Available at hotpoet.org for $25
- Honey Locust by Kimberly Hall, available at hotpoet.org for $12
- Equinox journals 2-9 available in print at MagCloud (via hotpoet.org) for various prices
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kellyannellis.com/
- Instagram: hot_poet_org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/898876757930487/
- Other: https://www.hotpoet.org/
Image Credits
James Ellis-Equinox covers Vol. 6-9 and The Hungry Ghost Diner cover
