The Space Where You Can Be the Most Vulnerable – Kevin Dean
Kevin Dean’s project for the 2026 Jack Straw Writers Program is a debut collection of poems that, in his own words, “explores the link between the personal and the political, as well as how places shape our identities and memories.” In his conversation with curator Claudia Castro Luna, they talk about his transition from writing fiction to writing poetry, some of the books that inspire his writing, and why water shows up as a recurring image in his poetry. “There’s this sense of achieving real solace and comfort in the beauty of water, and Seattle has so much of it. But then also how it can function as a launching point for other places. For dreams. For memories. And for possibly encompassing lives that are bigger than my own within the space of my own experience.”
Music by Star Gondola, produced through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
