In The Swirl

 In the Swirl: A Celebration of an Online Poetry Community

  Sunday, December 6, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.

Since March 2020, poets from Vancouver to Dubai and Katmandu have been convening, corresponding and exchanging poems by e-mail through generative marathons coordinated by Taos poet-editor, Lise Goett. Five alums out of the more than 150 participants in this online community will read a sampling of the work they have generated through these workshops.  The poets are  Clare Chu, Karen S. Córdova, Catherine Strisik and Lise Goett.

Clare Chu was raised in Malta and England, and now lives in Palm Springs, CA. She has worked as an Asian art consultant for over 40 years. Clare's debut collection, The Sand Dune Teacher, was published by UnCollected Press in June, 2020. A chapbook, Objects Heavy In This Life was published in June 2022 by Finishing Line Press. Clare’s third book, How to Love a Fisherwoman, will be published this year. Clare is also an editor of the Comstock Review and is the poet-in-residence at Jim Budman Studio, Palm Springs. She was recently appointed the inaugural Poet Laureate of Cathedral City, CA.

Karen S. Córdova is a writer and businesswoman who lives in Southern California but has deep roots in Colorado and New Mexico. Much of her writing reflects love of her heritage. Her work has been featured in many publications and has been featured in many formal poetry readings. Karen has curated and participated in ekphrasis events throughout the U.S. Her first book, Farolito, published in 2015 by 3: A Taos Press, was a finalist for the 2016 New Mexico Book Award for Poetry. Karen will be featured in Alexis Rhone Fancher’s book of Southern California poets, A Picture Is Worth a Poet’s Words: A Collection of Poets’ Portraits, to be released in February 2027.

Catherine Strisik, poet, teacher, editor is author of three poetry collections: Goat, Goddess, Moon (Holy Cow! Press, September 2025, currently longlisted for Mass Poetry Book Award); The Mistress (3: A Taos Press, 2016, awarded New Mexico/AZ Book Award for Poetry 2017); Thousand-Cricket Song (Plain View Press, 2010, second edition 2016); and chapbook: Insectum Gravitis (Main Street Rag, 2019, finalist New Mexico/AZ Book Award 2020). She is co-founder and editor of Taos Journal of Poetry (www.taosjournalofpoetry.com), former poet laureate of Taos, New Mexico. Currently she divides her time between Cape Ann, MA and Taos, N.M.,  where she offers both live and online editorial consultations for essayists and poets and facilitates private and small group poetry workshops.

Lise Goett’s third collection The Radiant (Tupelo Press, 2024) came out on Christmas Eve 2024 and was a finalist for the 2025 New Mexico Book Award. In addition to facilitating generative poetry marathons, she edits manuscripts, over 26 either accepted for publication or published in the last 16 months.  Her awards include The Paris Review Discovery Award, The Pen Southwest Book Award in Poetry, The Robert Winner Prize from the Poetry Society of America, and a grant from NM Writers, Her work has appeared in such journals as Ploughshares, The Antioch Review, and Lana Turner. She is a core faculty member for Tupelo Press conferences and a contributor to Poems Talking to Poems, How to Make your Manuscript Stand Out in a Crowd (Tupelo Press, 2026).

                   Clare Chu                                                              Karen S. Cordova                                          Catherine Strisik

Lise Goett