As I drive towards Big Sur, the air smells cleaner, and there’s electricity in the towering pines that populate the road. A primordial and wonderful sense of peace like I’ve never experienced before surrounds me. I feel how the chaos of nature can bring comfort to those of us who suffer from deep introspection. Because allowing your mind to dominate every encounter with another human can drive you towards a manic state. It’s a mental place I am very familiar with, where I am at my happiest and where I feel my lowest, most insignificant.
Gessy Alvarez is a writer, editor, and publisher who loves literature, art, and this dysfunctional world. She writes stories, poems, and essays about the middle of things. Her prose has appeared in Hobart, Asteri(x), Lunch Ticket, Volume One Brooklyn, and other publications. She shares her love of art and culture as well as some of her offbeat observations on her podcast, Digging Through with Gessy Alvarez. She also interviews creative folks who are bringing much-needed light to our dark world. Gessy earned her MFA from Columbia University and is the recipient of scholarships from Columbia University, the Fine Arts Work Center, and the Aspen Writers’ Foundation, as well as, artist residencies at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and the Millay Colony for the Arts, where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow.
She splits her time between New York and New Jersey. She is editor-in-chief of the literary and arts journal, Digging Through The Fat, and publisher at Digging Press, LLC.
(Gessy like Jesse…not Guessy.)
