—background 

In 2025, I was named the poet laureate of Tompkins County and in 2026 I was named an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow in which I was funded for this project-– Home - Water. 

Home - Water is a three part project that includes poetry workshops throughout Tompkins County & beyond, the publication of an anthology whose sales will support local causes, and an anthology launch party.

  • The anthology will be sold to support efforts to stop the TeraWulf Inc A.I. Data Center from being built on Cayuga Lake and toward an educational environmental organization. 

    My passion for this project comes from my reverence for water and for my beliefs of the importance of resisting technological advancement without regard for the environment and for humanity. What the state allows to happen to the earth, the state allows to happen to our bodies. Data centers and the use of AI are inextricably tied to surveillance, the police state, colonialism, militarization, distracting the masses, flattening our ability to organize, ecocide, racism, genocide and on & on.

    I go to Cayuga Lake daily, regardless of season, and consider it a familiar. I also grew up near the Susquehanna, a river endlessly polluted by industry. The continuous pollution of my own homewater (and nearly every waterway in Pennsylvania) continues through every iteration of industrial “progress”. I never swam in the Susquehanna River, it’s not safe to where my family is from, and I doubt I ever will.

phase one —  guided creative writing classes

This class is for both teens and adults. Think of the 75 minute class as on a tour around the county! Choose one to come to.

Sunday 10/11 Lansing on the lake* 4:00 PM *

Wednesday 10/21 Groton Public Library 6:00 PM

Tuesday 10/27 Ulysses Philomathic Library Trumansburg 5:30 PM

Saturday 11/7 Southworth Library Dryden 12:00 PM

Wednesday 11/11 Tompkins County Public Library 6:00 PM

Thursday 11/19 Newfield Public Library 6:00 PM

Wednesday 12/2 on Zoom 7:00 PM EST *

All library classes are drop in. **To attend the class on the lake or the class on Zoom (open to anyone), preregistration is required.

Beginning with the general concept of water, we will consider prompts that explore our homewaters, the first water of our memory. We will acknowledge the long history of our local waterways and Cayuga Lake beginning before colonization and even human inhabitants. I then will guide students through creative questions that investigate their thoughts and feelings on the strain and stress data centers, AI, ecocide will have on our environment including the planned data center would have on Cayuga Lake. 

The class on Zoom will be considerate of those who cannot attend in person, who are former residents of Tompkins County, who are in the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ diaspora, or anyone who is passionate about water and protecting our water. You do NOT need to be associated with Tompkins County to participate, you do not need to have a relationship with Cayuga Lake. Every prompt will easily expand beyond this region. This class is ALL writing so no need to fear having to share / speak out.

If you’ve never taken a class with me, here’s a little intro to my teaching style

phase two — the anthology 

In the fall of 2026, submissions will open for a poetry anthology: Home-Water, reverence and resistance, on Cayuga Lake & beyond 

Poems will be accepted on the themes of water (in every imagining of the element), Cayuga Lake, its waterways, the Finger Lakes, the very present and pressing environmental threats to our water, AI and data centers, the poetics of resistance, historical environmental incidents around water and repercussions, contamination, ecocide, etc.  Poems will be accepted from anywhere across the “United States.”

  • Workshop participants, Tompkins County residents (former and current), and anyone anywhere in the United States who wishes to submit on the topics, will be able to submit their poems to the anthology that will be printed by a press local to Tompkins County with cover art by a local artist. 

    You do not need to be a previously published poet to submit to this anthology.

    The anthology is actively seeking poems from the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ community, the wider Hodihnǫ̱hsǫ́:nih Confederacy, and all Native people of the “United States”. I am also actively looking to publish voices from across the country who are living in the wake of an active data center, other kinds of contaminated water, folks who are involved in environmental activism particularly around water, and voices who have historically been marginalized including the voices of poets living in poverty, working class poets, first generation and immigrant poets, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC poets, etc. 

    This anthology call will encourage participants to submit poems in whatever language they speak that feels most like home to them. Participants not writing in English will have the option to submit and publish their own English translation or not. 

    *More details will be available when submissions open in the coming weeks.. To be the first to hear about submissions, come to a class, or subscribe to both sides of the sun.

    Full details will be announced publicly by the end of October 2026

phase three— the anthology launch

The publication of the anthology will be celebrated through a launch party and large community gathering in the spring of 2027 in Tompkins County, NY.  More details to follow. 

Funds raised through the sale of the anthology will support No Data Center FLX and a not yet chosen environmental education program local to Tompkins County (happy to hear suggestions!!! email me). 


This program is made possible by the generous support of the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation.


All graphics and illustrations by Coralee McNee