I made it to the top five!
And now we vote for the Group Finalists.
This is the last vote, which ends on Thursday. But you can vote for free every day until then.
Each finalist (first in their group) advances and only one is chosen for the grand prize, presented on August 6th by Johnny Depp.
The grand prize winner will appear in Artforum Magazine, take home $25,000, and display their work at The Art of Elysium's Salon!
Opportunities of a lifetime.
Maybe more than one lifetime.
The funds, for me, would mean funding for the teens I teach in the Juvenile system, gifting them with art kits so they can carry on, re-storying their lives.
Link to vote in comments.
@artforum @officialpeoplesartist @johnnydepp@moontidepress@ArtofElysium@unrlaketahoe @boisestateuniversity #poetrycommunity
I hope you're not tired of voting for me.
Yes. The vote is still going. This time for the finalist to compete for the grand prize.
I think it's the last vote.
The People’s Artist Award, presented by Johnny Depp on August 6th, 2026
And I can hardly believe that I've made it this far, the top 5!! And I'm first in my group.
If I win, I plan to expand the critical work I offer in the Juvenile detention center. I'd love each participant leave with an art kit of their own, a way to carry on the hard work we unpack together. A way to sustain their hearts.
You can vote every day for free.
There are two ways to vote:
1. Free Daily Vote, verified with Facebook.
2. Donation Vote, which will help support The Art of Elysium, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity.
Here's the link: https://t.co/4hnEU0Gmdc
@peoplesartists@johnnydepp@moontidepress@unrlaketahoe #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #watercolorartist #artist #healingjourney #empowerment
If you're around Sunday, June 7th, you can find me signing my books, alongside @tomasbaiza during the @artandrosesboise festival.
We'll be at the Rediscovered Booth from 12-1 pm.
@artandrosesboise is one of my favorite art events, with over 100 artists, food trucks, live music, demonstrations, and the high energy of a community that gives and gives through the arts.
I hope to see you there!
@artsboise @artsidaho @boiseweekly@rdbooks @artandrosesboise @tomasbaiza #booksigning #authorevent #poet #essayist #memoirist @visualartist
This just in and a bit about how it feels.
I'm not sure who my "average reader" might be or if I even have an "average reader."
I only know the passion I feel to unsilence the stories that have burdened my body and my life and my choices for all of time.
I only know that in this unsilencing, I hope anyone who engages with my work feels my love, my hope for healing (for others and for myself), and my deep commitment to make a difference.
Awards make one statement and this feels lovely. But more than any accolade lives the unseen interactions, an email or a stranger approaching me after a reading or someone sending along a DM and simply saying "Thank you, this helped me."
I also look at my work, once I let it go, as off in the world on their own job now. AfterBurn is burning through the world and I'm proud of any good she might bring along the way.
Much love.
@moontidepress@unrlaketahoe @boisestateuniversity #bookaward #flashessay #essayist #poet #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity
I first met @turners_lens during my graduate program residency at @unrlaketahoe in 2017. At the time, he was the director of the program. I'd completed my first MFA (creative nonfiction) and the day after I graduated, Brian and I sat outside at UNR's Lake Tahoe's campus and sketched a plan for my first semester in poetry.
Brian mentored me through two full semesters during my second MFA (poetry) and he basically witnessed and encouraged (and nudged) Tangled by Blood to life.
Tangled by Blood, my memoir in verse, nearly took me down and having someone with fierce wisdom and a gentle spirit was most likely the only way I would coax those memories out of me.
Brian is one of the most gracious and generous artists I know. He continues to encourage, support, and do the heavy lifting for others in the arts.
He gifted me this blurb for AfterBurn, and I'm still humbled. Here's the full blurb:
With AfterBurn, Rebecca Evans has braided a lyric exploration of the self, moving with fluent ease through the lessons a lifetime, where Evans wrestles “shadow-men shaped into soldiers and refugees and everyone I ever failed,” while gleaning hard-earned wisdom, essay by essay, as her pen slips in and out of time. As mother, as child, as soldier, as writer, as a soul surviving a journey through a wide arc of physical and emotional pain, AfterBurn discovers tenderness and inner strength, and in these pages we are given “the duende in the flamenco, the fire in the cello, the tears in the writer.”
~Brian Turner, NEA Fellow
Check out Brian's work, his poems, his music, his courses. He's an unstoppable force filled with kindness.
@unrlaketahoe@moontidepress@neaarts@alicejamesbooks #essays #essayist #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #bookblurbs
Ken Rodgers and myself were lucky enough to sit in conversation with poet, essayist, and educator Aaron Shurin.
I felt this huge sense of "mission," of purpose talking with Aaron as he shared his 40+ year quest pioneering the resurgence of the prose poem as a critical contemporary art form. Aaron's work, on the page and in the classroom, continues to challenge questions of gender and sexuality, lyricism and narrative, poetry and prose.
He's been a central member of the San Francisco Bay Area writing community for half a century.
A graduate himself of the storied Poetics Program at the New College of California, he is a professor emeritus and former director of the MFA Writing program at the University of San Francisco. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Gerbode Foundation, among others.
He's authored numerous books, including the poetry collections Elixir: New and Selected Poems (2025), The Blue Absolute (2020), Citizen (2011), Involuntary Lyrics (2005), The Paradise of Forms: Selected Poems (1999), a Publishers Weekly Best Book, and A’s Dream (1989). He has also published numerous essay collections, including, The Skin of Meaning: Collected Literary Essays and Talks (2016), King of Shadows (2008), and Unbound: A Book of AIDS (1997).
Our show aired on May31st, but not to worry if you missed this inspiring chat, you can still have a listen. Link in comments.
@NEHgov@usfca@CalArtsCouncil@MoonTidePress@UNRLakeTahoe@BoiseState
It's that time. First Tuesday.
No. Nope. Not Taco Tuesday, at least not right now.
It's Musings & Movement with the incredible @gaylebrandeis and myself. We gather in community and offer four writing prompts paired with four gentle movements. We share. We inspire. We laugh. Sometimes, we cry.
This. A safe and sacred space for self care.
I hope you'll join us. 11 am MT / 1 pm ET
Link to register in bio and comments.
#empowerment #healing #selfcare #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity @unrlaketahoe
'Tis the season...for campfires. Here we are at Season 12 with @themodernbar and StoryForward.
Coming up, June 14th, I host these incredible storytellers spanning the theme. LOL.
We need some laughter now more than ever.
June's event features Jodi Eichelberger, , Jessica Holmes, and Jade Hanna. I promise, you'll feel like you busted out a 40 minute core strength routine after.
I'd suggest hopping over to The Modern's website to make your seating reservations and check out the menu.
Hope to see you there.
#writingevent #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #music #performance #entertainment @storystoryboise @MoonTidePress
It’s time to vote for me again. This time for the top five for The People’s Artist Award, presented by Johnny Depp on August 6th.
Oh. That’s right. I made it to the Top 10!!!
I’d love your vote. I’d love to win and expand the work that I offer in the Juvenile detention center, send participants home with art supplies that sustain them.
You can vote every day for free.
There are two ways to vote:
1. Free Daily Vote, verified with Facebook.
2. Donation Vote, which will help support The Art of Elysium, a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity.
Here's the link: https://t.co/4hnEU0Gmdc
Here are some of my responses when I applied for this award:
What is your favorite type of art to create?
I'm drawn to loose watercolor and poetry. They feel like an opposing couple, but both require the relinquishment of control. In watercolor, you must allow the art to unfold (as it will) and sometimes, find the art as you go. In poetry, you must follow your heart and sound, more than words or language. Both of these forms release something within, offering a chance to discover something new about myself or the world around me. Sometimes, they offer healing.
Where do you find inspiration?
Every. Thing. The ladybug on my windowsill. The lone frog hiding under my oregano bush. The teen bludgeoned on the other side of the world. The new vocalist I met as she played a small gig in the corner of a diner. The splat of fat rain on my windshield. My son needing another heart surgery. A sip of chai. The memory of war and the child I failed to save. Other military veterans making art alongside me. Poetry readings. Live music. Reading by the light of a fire. Heartbreak. My mother's failings.
What would you do with $25,000?
I'm a disabled military veteran. I teach teens in the Juvenile system who are court-ordered to attend my program. I use journaling, visual art, poetic therapy, and empowerment. I purchase all the art supplies for my program, including snacks (they are starving). The funds would allow me to gift each participant better and more art supplies and perhaps a way to carry on with art once they complete my program.
@peoplesartists@MoonTidePress #WritingCommmunity #poetrycommunity #visualarts #visualartist #empowerment #healingjourney
I'm a girl with SYSTEMS and I love to share. I'm so excited to offer this workshop through @Narratively starting next week.
Across the four weeks, I'll share my greatest hits on organizing, along with my methods and concepts to help shift journals and notebooks into incredible writing tools.
Each session weaves engaging lectures with in-class activities to spark creativity and help organize and create your own system.
@MoonTidePress@BoiseState@UNRLakeTahoe