The third poem in the 2024 SPACE Poetry Hotline series is “Made of Meat” by Iris McCloughan. Call 207-828-5607 from February 12 to March 31, 2024, to hear Iris read the poem.
Iris McCloughan (they/them) is a writer, artist, and performance maker in New York City. Iris was the winner of the 2018 Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from American Poetry Review and was named a finalist in nonfiction for Best of the Net 2020. They are the author of three poetry chapbooks, including triptych (greying ghost, 2022) and Bones to Peaches (Seven Kitchens Press, 2021). Their writing has appeared in American Poetry Review, Prelude, Tupelo Quarterly, juked, jubilat, Gertrude, Denver Quarterly, and Queen Mob’s Teahouse, among many others.
Iris’s performance work has been presented in New York (The Poetry Project, Castelli Gallery, Ars Nova, Movement Research at Judson Church, PAGEANT), Philadelphia (Institute of Contemporary Art, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Contemporary), Chicago (Links Hall), Minneapolis (Bryant-Lake Bowl), and Detroit (Public Pool). Most recently, they directed the Off-Broadway premiere of Alex Tatarsky’s Sad Boys in Harpy Land (Playwrights Horizons). They have collaborated with many other artists and writers, including Eiko Otake, Joan Jonas, Mike Lala, Toby Altman, Jessie Young, Doug LeCours, and Julie Mayo.
The 2024 Poetry Hotline is a screenless exhibition available to anyone with access to a phone. The 2024 Poetry Hotline offers audiences a direct line to Maine-based and national poets and their visions for the future, and another medium to connect and inspire audiences with heartache, love, humor, rage, and regeneration.