About Arianne True
Please do not copy this long chunk of text for events. A short bio for that is below; scroll down.
Arianne True is a poet and excitable human based in Tacoma, WA, and from the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. She grew up in the Seattle writing community, nurtured by YouthSpeaks and the Richard Hugo House, and as an adult, has (to her delight) gotten to return and work with young writers in both spaces. She's taught with Writers in the Schools, mentored with the Seattle Youth Poet Laureate program and Hugo House's Young Writers Cohort, been a guest lecturer at the University of Washington, and enjoys picking up a range of other gigs. Currently, she is the 2023-2025 Washington State Poet Laureate.
Arianne is involved in other Seattle arts communities as well, including performative mythology and Appalachian folk traditions. She's also queer, food-oriented, and passionate about her PNW home.
Arianne was a 2020 Jack Straw Writer and a 2020-21 Hugo Fellow, and is a proud alum of Hedgebrook and of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. For Pride 2021, she was part of the Pride Poets Hotline, writing custom poems for strangers over the phone. She was the inaugural Native Artist-in-Residence at Seattle Repertory Theater (2021-22 season) and received the 2022 Vadon Foundation Fellowship for Native Artists from Artist Trust. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in dozens of journals, anthologies, installations, and zines, and she loves collaborative or weird art.
You can follow Arianne on Instragram at @ariannetrue. For event and media requests, please fill out the forms here. Full contact info is here.
photo credit Libby Lewis
Communities Statement
I come from a lot of marginalized and politicized groups of people, and it's really important to me to be visible as part of those groups, and also to do advocacy and education around ways our needs go unmet, especially in arts spaces. There is a lot of work to keep doing to make our arts and literary spaces inclusive and beautiful places for everyone.
I am Native/indigenous (Choctaw and Chickasaw), queer (lesbian, acespec, and some femme gender fun), and poor/working class, both growing up and as an adult.
I have a number of chronic illnesses and disabilities (including POTS, EDS, post-viral illness, and severe MCS), and am neurodivergent (autistic + ADHD). I'm a millennial in my early 30s, so I'm also young + disabled/ill, which is a whole thing too. I believe in the social model of disability, and constantly experience that changing physical setups and human attitudes are both needed to make our spaces more accessible.
To sum up, I'm a punk-ass sick neurospicy indigiqueer.
Looking for a bio for a reading or other event? Use this:
Arianne True (Choctaw, Chickasaw) is a queer poet and teaching artist from Seattle, and has spent most of her work time working with youth. She’s received fellowships and residencies from Jack Straw, the Hugo House, Artist Trust, and the Seattle Repertory Theater, and is a proud alum of Hedgebrook and of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She lives near the Salish Sea with her cat. Arianne is the 2023-2025 Washington State Poet Laureate.
Current Projects
exhibits
exhibits is a collection of experimental poems that bring you through a museum exhibition, and the poems are reading you as much as you're reading them. This museum engages with how the experience of childhood trauma doesn't end when you turn eighteen, and the effects ripple, even for decades, finding new ways to manifest and asking to be healed. Given the history of Natives and American museums, the museum form is also a perfect place to repatriate a stolen body, and the artist in the book hopes to do just that across the course of the work.
If you're curious about this work-in-progress, feel free to email me or check out what's out in the world so far: it has a special section on my Published work page.
Update: exhibits is complete! I'm submitting the manuscript to various presses and contests. Wish me luck in finding it a good home! And still feel free to make inquiries.
Pepper Gecko Editing: freelance work!
I spent a year or two training in a professional program for editors and copyeditors, and am now a freelance copyeditor and proofreader! If you're curious about the editing side of my life, or are interested in contracting me for a project, you can visit Pepper Gecko Editing.
The dream someday is to work as an editor for comics and graphic novels, though I'm happy to take on all sorts of projects right now. I love helping people find clarity of expression in their writing, and prioritize that and the experience of the reader when I'm editing.