excerpts from “holly”
grace (ge) gilbert
Art & Hybrid Forms
8 November, 2023
Artist statement: grace (ge) gilbert is a hybrid storyteller and collage researcher. their practice involves using what they have to create image:text experiments that deal with family archives and the body. these collage experiments come from grace's manuscript, holly, which is a hybrid collection about grace's paternal grandmother who was murdered in 1976. the collection uses family archives, Emily Dickinson poems, studies on parental homicide, and newspaper clippings to create a space where the author can commune with their grandmother, who they never met, and their father, who has long been absent.
Editor's note: “First to Know” (collage 3) was first published by Guesthouse.
grace (ge) gilbert is a hybrid writer based in Pittsburgh. they received their MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022, where they now teach. they are the author of 3 chapbooks: the closeted diaries: essays (Porkbelly Press 2022), NOTIFICATIONS IN THE DARK (Antenna Books 2023), and today is an unholy suite (forthcoming; Barrelhouse 2023). their work can be found in 2023's Best of the Net Anthology, the Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, the Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. They teach hybrid collage and poetics courses at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and they are a 2023 Visiting Teaching Artist at the Poetry Foundation. they are passionate about making the hybrid arts accessible to all. find course offerings and more at gracegegilbert.com.