Sema
Sema provided an evolving space for engagement and community across form, place, and time from 2018 - 2021. Initiated as a poetry-focused reading & workshop series in Boise, Idaho, Sema has also been a podcast on grief, loss, healing, & death, and a collection of micro-interviews with writers.
Podcast
1 / Loss, Being a Therapist, & Intergenerational Grief w/ Ann O’Leary Young
A conversation with Ann O’Leary Young, M.S.W., LCSW, on the early deaths of her father and brother, how grief gets passed through families, and the complex roles associated with being a therapist.
2 / Writing, Detachment, & Ritual w/ Rushi Vyas
Poet Rushi Vyas discusses his father's death by suicide, writing after loss, the wisdom of detachment, and his exploration of ritual as a tool for healing and decolonization.
3 / Boise, Friendship Loss, & Time w/ Tyler Brewington
A conversation with poet Tyler Brewington that considers place, grief rhythms, the comfort of geologic time, and the link between friendship and the formation of self.
5 / Newborn Loss, Place, & Deep Grief w/ Cedar Brant
Poet and botanist Cedar Brant on newborn loss, the role of place in her healing process, and the erasure of self that can accompany both deep grief and parenthood.
6 / Adoption, Potentiality, & the Loss of Unknowing w/ Erinrose Mager
A conversation with writer, editor, and teacher Erinrose Mager on the unknowingness associated with adoption and parental estrangement, the interplay between potentiality and failure, and ritual as a presencing practice.
7 / Ambient Loss, Having Children, & the Necessity of Storytelling w/ Camille T. Dungy
Writer and professor Camille T. Dungy on loss as an ambient presence, climate change, cross-generational relationships, and connecting individual loss with global crisis.
8 / Relationality, Embodiment, & Suicide w/ Mairead Case
A conversation with writer, teacher, and editor Mairead Case that explores relationality in life and after death, embodiment, and grieving and writing about suicide.
Readings & Events







Workshops






Micro-Interviews
Huma Aatifi
Stephanie Adams-Santos
Kristen Arnett
A. H. Jerriod Avant
Colleen Louise Barry
Tyler Brewington
Abigail Chabitnoy
Sylvia Chan
Richard Chiem
Camille T. Dungy
Cass Eddington
Shira Erlichman
Milo Gallagher
Lyd Havens
Denise Jarrott
Simone John
Adrian Kien
Cole Konopka
Erinrose Mager
Melissa Matthewson
Tony Mancus
Finn Menzies
Alicia Mountain
David Mucklow
John Myers
Lillian Ruth Nickerson
Tommy Pico
Emily Pittinos
Kylan Rice
Cedar Sigo
Emily Skillings
Sasha Steensen
Mathias Svalina
Caroline O’Connor Thomas
Fran Tirado
Stacey Tran
Rushi Vyas
Michael Joseph Walsh
Lisa Wells
Karena Youtz