We love big data at the Yale Digital Humanities Lab

It has been an incredibly dynamic year since Silent Anatomies was published last spring (2015) and with all that's happening, I thought I'd check in with all you dear readers with a little update. I love lists so what better way to give you the juicy bits?

So the big news is that I began my new job as the User Experience Designer at the Yale Digital Humanities Lab (DHLab). I can't tell you how exhilarating it is in one post but let's just say that being able to engage in design thinking within an experimental space that seeks to collaborate on ways to use new technology to create compelling discovery experiences of Yale's vast archives of human culture and history is quite remarkable. Digital Humanities is an emerging field and for those of you who are passionate about technology and humanities, it is a space with a lot of opportunities for innovation, especially if your creativity is embedded in a spirit of adventure.
Kore Press recently changed distributors to SPD (Small Press Distributors) and this January 2016 my book was noted on their Bestseller List at number 11.
I made a foray into digital publishing and designed a viewbook app for the Yale School of Music this past fall. It was an opportunity to explore the storytelling possibilities, not to mention the digital chemistry of text and image on mobile devices.
I started swimming this year. It's been an informative lesson in self-care. Exercising in the quiet crash of water has become a kind of physical meditation for me, a practice of swimming my life towards uncharted territories.
As a writer I've been on a mini-hiatus with all this commotion going on. But I see that as being productive as well. A practice of emptiness to whet the creative appetite.

Consolidating research and parenting into the same activities has comprised of watching lots of astronomy shows, going on dinosaur fossil outings, and planning visits to our state planetariums in the near future. It feels like planting seeds, not only for my son's curiosity but for my inner poet as well. It's a kind of resistance to this binary idea that women are either careerists or mothers, this idea that we can't be creative while child-rearing, a way of shifting from "either or" to esho-funi, which is a Japanese Buddhist term for the "oneness" of the self and environment.
I'm considering working on a digital edition of Silent Anatomies and will post updates when available.
As the weather warms and the rhythm shifts once again, I look forward to doing a residency at the Millay Colony to embark on some new work.
I'm diving into the world of Data Visualization and all its splendor. Here is a cool TED Talk that touches on some aspects of it.
I've enjoyed Skyping in to the many classrooms around the country that have been reading Silent Anatomies and always find myself so impressed and refreshed by the thoughtful conversations that I get to have with such enthusiastic students. So I just want to thank my fellow poet faculty and their classes for that honor.
Yes, there will be more readings and exhibitions, all of which are in the works.

All in all, each day has been filled to the brim with appreciation. Thank you so much for your support and interest in my creative experiments. There is much much more in store and I look forward to sharing it with you as things unfold.

Enter the Digital Humanities