I am a poet and a writer.

My poetry has been influenced by Maya Angelou, e.e. cummings, Erika Meitner, Peter Gizzi, Eileen Myles, Kim Addonizio, and Carol Ann Duffy. As a young adult, I was nurtured by teachers (Tracy Justice and Judith Geduldig, in particular) as well as the poets and instructors I encountered during the California State Summer School of the Arts (CSSSA) at the California Institute for the Arts in 2001 and 2002. My studies in the Creative Writing programme at UC Santa Cruz focused on narrative and serial poetry, under the teachings of Charles Atkinson and Nathaniel Mackey. During my undergrad, I served as Editor-in-Chief of Kresge Town Krier, Poetry Editor for Matchbox Magazine, and Assistant Editor for Turnstile. The work I produced during my study aboard programme at NUI Galway thematically reflected my travels and first experience of transatlantic living. In Galway, Ireland, I was fortunate enough to study with poet Moya Cannon and share workshop experience with storyteller and writer Clare Muireann Murphy.

Because of my academic research, I have been delighted to accept various blogging opportunities through which to share my love and passion for books in these areas. Generally, I enjoy talking and writing books or acting as your local lesbrarian whenever possible!

A note on writing influences: My writing is indebted to my experience as a writer and desk editor for UC Santa Cruz’s acclaimed City on the Hill Press, the supervision of Conn Hallinan, and the journalists I met there. I am also grateful to Feminist Theories 100 as taught by Anjali Arondekar in Autumn 2004 for teaching me what a concise and convincing argument looks like, and to Julia Hiser, Farnaz Fatemi, Paul Skenazy, and Veronica Kirk-Clausen for their feedback and creative inspiration.

Blogging

• MalindaLo.com – author’s website and blog
  • An Introduction to LGBT Young Adult Fiction in the United Kingdom
• Once Upon a Bookcase – UK-based YA and fantasy review blog
  • 6 LGBT Young Adult Novels with a Twist
• The Lesbrary – a lesbian book review blog
  • Adaptation by Malinda Lo
  • Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
  • Love Song for Baby X by Cheryl Dumesnil
  • Bobby Blanchard, Lesbian Gym Teacher by Monica Nolan
• IBBY Congress 2012 Blog – official blog for the IBBY Congress 2012 in London, UK
  • Arts, Entertainment, Politics & Authors
  • Humour in Translation – Second Day of the Congress (reprinted in IBBYLink 35)
  • Universal Reading – Shaun Tan at the IBBY Congress
• Picture Book Palette – a picture book review blog
  • NaPoWriMo, or Why Poetry for Children Inspires
  • Mommy, Mama, Daddy, Papa
  • No Good, Very Bad Days
• A Bicycle Built For Two – a real wedding inspiration blog for lesbians, queers, and everyone else
  • Part 1: England
  • Part 2: California
  • Part 3: London
• So You’re EnGAYged – a gay wedding blog (no longer available online). For two years I wrote about planning our two weddings–one in the UK and one in California.
  
  • Meet My Wife
  • California Country Kitsch Love Fest
  • Getting Hitched All Over Again

 

Poetry

• ‘This Poem Wants to Be a Lesbian Country Song So Bad’, Screams and Silences, edited by Leone Ross, Fincham Press, 2015
• ‘The Boots’ and ‘Rootings: “The Roots and the Rain”‘, Matchbox Magazine, Poetry Editor, UC Santa Cruz, Issue 1, 2007
• ‘Rootings: “Seeds”, “In the Beginning”, “Take My Hand”‘, Chinquapin: A Journal of Literature and Arts, UC Santa Cruz, Issue 28, 2007
• ‘Clothes in Teal Water’, Red Wheelbarrow, UC Santa Cruz, 2007
• ‘Contractor’s Daughter, or a Poem for my Father’, Limited Edition, Writer’s Society Literary Competition (Runner Up), NUI Galway, 2006
• ‘Finding Mary’, Criterion, Literary and Debating Society, NUI Galway, 2006
• ‘Re: water-melon(coly)’ (Cover Art) and ‘Clothes in Teal Water’, The Sharp Review, NUI Galway, February 2006
• ‘Inheritance’ and ‘Lit 1: Literary Interpretation’, The Sharp Review, NUI Galway, January 2006
• ‘Fuck Me Like B.A.R.T.’, Turnstile, UC Santa Cruz, 2005
• ‘Fracasada’, Turnstile, Assistant Editor, UC Santa Cruz, 2004

Self-published

• Flourish, Erica Gillingham, December 2007
• In the Telling of a Love Story, Erica Gillingham, Senior Thesis, Literature (Creative Writing), June 2007
• testing theories, Erica Gillingham, August 2005
• At that Age, Erica Gillingham, May 2003 (Yreka High School Senior Project)
• Highways and Anchors – personal poetry blog, 2008-2011

 

Journalism

Editor-in-Chief, Kresge Town Krier, Kresge College, University of California-Santa Cruz (2004-2005)

Sports Desk Editor, City on the Hill Press, University of California-Santa Cruz (Fall 2004)

Sports Desk Writer, City on the Hill Press, University of California- Santa Cruz (Spring – Fall 2004)

Feature Writer, City on the Hill Press, University of California- Santa Cruz (Spring – Fall 2004)

 

Travel Writing

j&e travelers – a travel blog written with poet & friend julia about our trip to Thailand, January 2008