Stephanie Heit
startle reflex

                                   startle reflex              ticks              gills flex           downstroke
          cast        hexagonal quilted shoreline
                                    muskrat mating patterns          smooth surfaces I lick
                         without slivers       my tongue: mapmaker / magpie / scavenger      ink this
                                                                                                               page liminal dark

Stephanie Heit is a poet, dancer, and teacher of somatic writing, Contemplative Dance Practice, and Kundalini Yoga. She lives with bipolar disorder and is a member of the Olimpias, an international disability performance collective. The Color She Gave Gravity (The Operating System 2017) is her debut poetry collection, and her work most recently appeared in Midwestern Gothic, Typo, Streetnotes, Nerve Lantern, Queer Disability Anthology, Spoon Knife Anthology, Theatre Topics, and Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her partner and collaborator, Petra Kuppers. Find her at: stephanieheitpoetry.com.