AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Apologies to the research-loving readers out there. Milton Avery’s Stella Seated won’t be found in a museum or on Google. I wanted to write an ekphrastic poem whose origins, I could guarantee, would not be found and the poem then had to stand on its own—in conversation with, but independent of its inspiration. So unless you’re hanging out at my parents’ house, this poem will have to do. It was much longer. It isn’t anymore.

BIO:

Katharine Johnsen studies and teaches at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, where she received the Bernice Kert Fellowship. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Birmingham Poetry Review, 32 Poems, The Journal, and elsewhere. She earned her BA from Emory University.