About

I’m Stacia Fleegal, and this blog is about how I write, mother, and try.

I’m a poet, essayist, editor, online writing instructor, intersectional feminist, nature lover, music freak, child of the 90s, unsophisticated foodie, solo mama of a happy little kindergartner named Jax, synesthete, Taurus, Aries rising, INFJ…but wait, there’s more.

I’m a domestic violence survivor. Sometimes I go there, and I use content warnings so you can bookmark and read when you’re ready.

I’m always learning, listening, and trying to be a better citizen, because systemic oppression is real and the world is broken and I want it to be better for everyone, including the son I’m raising. I’m into mindfulness and self-care, but I’m also into direct action and advocacy. He is #NotMyPresident.

I write to make, to make sense, to make pretty, to make connections, to make silence less silent.

My entire life is saying whatever the hell I want, then feeling anxious about it later. I will never not say whatever the hell I want. I hope someday to not be anxious about it.

Present obsessions: memoir, seeing how many plants I can fit into my tiny house, political resistance on a local level, baking, #yogaeverydamnday, snake symbolism, and trying to keep up with Jax on our bikes.

Forever obsessions: poetry, farmer’s markets, leather, walks in the woods, Jax’s curls, sarcasm, Basil Hayden’s, driving fast with the windows down, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Pearl Jam.

I’ve published two full-length and four chapbook poetry collections, most recently Dear Hollow (dancing girl press, 2019). My poems have appeared in North American Review, Barn Owl Review, Fourth River, UCity Review, decomP‘s Best of 10 Years anthology, Crab Creek Review, Knockout, Best of the Net 2011, NELLE, Menacing Hedge, Literary Mama, Memoir Mixtapes, and more; and were recently nominated for Best of the Net 2017. My nonfiction has appeared at Salon, Bustle, Scary Mommy, ESME (Empowering Solo Moms Everywhere), Quaint Magazine, Hold the Line, Delirious Hem, and Blood+Milk Magazine. I’m more proud of being named on the Shitty Women of Lit list than of my three Pushcart Prize nominations. I am director of the Center for Creative Writing. In 2006, I co-founded Blood Lotus with Teneice Durrant and we ran it for 10 years. I also work for the Peace & Conflict Studies program at a small, private liberal arts college in the woodsy central PA hometown I’ve grown to adore. I’m writing a memoir. Like, right this second, I’m probably writing some part of a memoir in my head or on scraps of old bills. There are also poems, blog posts, essay pitches, and notes to my kid’s teacher.