Welcome to The Poetry Kiln!
A home for anyone who loves written & audio/podcast poems, photos, and marginalia.
🪴 🌱 🪶 🪐 🍁 🪵 🍄 🌾 🌵 🍂 🐾 🥾 🍄🟫
My name is Mikaela Brewer, and I’m a Canadian multi-disciplinary published poet, writer, speaker, and researcher. I played basketball for Team Canada and Stanford University where I studied human biology (brain, behaviour, and mental health), creative writing, and science communication. I write and speak about my experiences as both a multi-suicide-attempt and multi-suicide-loss survivor, and am currently working on several writing projects that braid suicide prevention with poetry, language, storytelling, fiction, voice, and music.
My approach to writing has always been reflecting how I absorb and digest the world around me—news, art, quotes, nature, myths, poems, fiction, conversations, books, pain, experiences, travel, therapy, grief, and this list continues. I wanted to carve a cozy space to explore the fluidity of whatever happens to be in my heart each month. Chances are it’s circulating through your bloodstream, too.
With this, I wish to share the names of a few wonderful, wise people who inspire and guide both my writing work & life. There is always an ever-growing village & lineage lifting everything we do:
Pádraig Ó Tuama, Cassandra Lam, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Jedidiah Jenkins, Michael McRay, Kim Saira, Blair Imani Ali, Hitomi Mochizuki, Felicia Rose Chavez, Robert Moor, Joy Harjo, Dr. Jennifer Mullan, Tommy Rivers Puzy, Marie Beecham, Martin Shaw, Rupi Kaur, Madeline Miller, Anne Lamott, Khaled Hosseini, Lawrence Hill, Susanna Barkataki, Roxane Gay, Maria Popova, Maya C. Popa, Toni Morrison, Bryan Stevenson, Tariq Luthun, Ross Gay, Basman Derawi, Safia Elhillo, Schuyler Bailar, and many, many more.
I’m also grateful to be able to live and work on the land (colonially known as Barrie, Ontario) of the Anishinaabeg people, including the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Pottawatomi Nations (collectively known as the Three Fires Confederacy), as well as the Wendat Nation (Huron) who’ve tended to these lands long before the mid-17th century. Indigenous people in Canada continue to face the impacts of ongoing colonial violence. In the Barrie area, The Barrie Native Friendship Centre honours Indigenous history, culture, and life, by centring healing, health, and justice for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Please consider supporting their wonderful work, or research/support/uplift Indigenous people & organizations near you.
Blog & Newsletter Details …
How often will this newsletter come out & what can I expect?
A letter from me will join your inbox on the first Friday of every month. This will consist of a poem, accompanying photos from the wonderful Lida Pavlova (lidapavlova_magic) & Amy Crowder (@amyisgoingplaces), and handwritten behind-the-scenes commentary/notes/marginalia.
In addition, each Monday, there will be an episode newsletter of the interactive Braving the Waves podcast, complete with the full written version of the featured poem—only available in this newsletter! Read more about the podcast & submit to it here.
☆ AND ☆
Clouds, Attic & Hearth: A refurbished oldie from 2021, imagining evening conversations between the spirit, mind, and heart via whispered dialogue poems—perfect for bedtime.
The Poetry Woodland: Celebrating poems in the public domain with my audio reading & close-read notes, thoughts, and analysis. Every other Wednesday!
Notes: A living archive of words that feel like one-way doors.
One-Way-Doors: As they open in my life (more blog-style, sometimes flash fiction).
How can I support this work?
You’re more than welcome to donate or become a paid subscriber of this Substack. This money supports my work (and eventual PhD!), with Substack taking a small portion of subscription fees.
How can I be in touch?
Connect with me via email, at mbrewer8@alumni.stanford.edu (for anything else)! You’re also welcome to message me here on Substack. :)
Thank you for being here—for sharing your time and energy with me. Take good care.
