About Me

Elyssa (any pronouns) is a hick poet, educator, and book artist from Shasta County, CA by way of the Twin Cities, MN. She received her MFA in Poetry at Oregon State University, where he was a PRAx Art/Sci Fellow and poetry editor for 45th Parallel Magazine. She writes about grief, genderqueerness, girlhood, ecology, the body, and the rugged, fragile landscape they call home.

  • Elyssa’s writing is intrinsically informed by science and ecology. He’s passionate about the ways science can inform poetry, and, in turn, the power of storytelling to further the conservation efforts of scientists. Most recently, he has been working on a series of writings centered around the critically-endangered Shasta crayfish (California's last native crayfish), power, relationality, and resilience. How do we live so as not to crush the millions of other beings who share this world? How do we act in the face of suffering we have caused?

    Her poetry turns its unflinching gaze on both ecological and personal loss, the inevitability of anguish, but also the persistence of love and beauty. Their writing relentlessly probes the complexities and ambiguities of our life on this earth, our limits and our failures, and our ridiculous, extraordinary hope.

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Elyssa (a white person with short brown hair) leans down to examine a leaf
Zoomed-out photo of Elyssa sitting on a rock overlooking a valley

Love Songs for the Last Native Crayfish in California

Art/Science Collaboration with Spring Rivers Ecological Sciences, Centered on the Shasta Crayfish

A Shasta crayfish with a black carapace, white speckles, and brilliant orange grooves
Two people, holding pipettes and sitting at a table
Elyssa Standing in front of four books, two broadsides, and a museum description plate
Two people standing on a lawn wearing wetsuits