Tjawangwa Dema

""I studied in Botswana and in the classroom it was the reading of stories that drew me to language, not poetry specifically"."

""Do not ask me what I good poem is, I only know one when I see or smell it, hear it coming, or sense it scrambling off the stage or page"."

""This process of refining is everything is the goal is to write a good (read necessary, urgent) poem"."

""When my chapbook, Mandible, got published I don't believe I thought about curation very much"."

"My sister works well at the daily chore of keeping everyone alive"

""I remember seeing the sky as it scrunched its face, filling its cheeks with smoke hurling rage at every mans' door"."

""Here is a line between mana and man / and nature / man-made / as all false boundaries are"."

""One of the things I was afraid I would miss out on with a digital residency was the very local and human voice but thankfully through technology we can approximate some of what a conversation in person accomplishes"."

""My clay begins elesewhere where Okavango pours into Boteti & re appears here to watch this other water from a distance"."