Julie Ann Otis' poetry rings with the crazy wisdom, wild freedom, and Buddhist soul of the old beat poets. Her gaze is aimed at the sorrows and joys of this world, and in her detailing of the present moment she reveals the shimmer of transcendence which resides beneath the surface of the mundane.
- Alexander Weinstein, Director
Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing
"...evocative, probing, sweet, and crystalline."
- John Koch, Artist and former Critic and Editor, Boston Phoenix and Boston Globe
"I've been an editor on various magazines throughout the last five years, and more often than not, the submissions are filled with melancholy and a heavy dose of psychic pain. Julie's work, however, is light in the best sense of the word. It's concerned with the levity of simply being, and so, is celebration of being alive. That's rare in poetry - American poetry at least - and personally, I want to see more work like hers in the world. It could only do us some good."
- Keith Leonard, former Poetry Editor, Indiana Review
ACCOLADES
Hemera Tending Space Artist Fellow, 2017
Art of Resistance: Counter-Inaugural Events 2017
One of WBUR The Artery's Top 15 Public Art Projects of 2016
Scout Somerville "Winner" 2016
Artist Fellowship, Interdisciplinary Arts, Somervlle Arts Council, 2016
A Poet Who Feeds the Mind, Body, and Spirit - Boston Area Small Press & Poetry Scene, 2015
Somerville is throwing a "Pity Party," 2015
Artist Residency, Art Farm, Marquette, Nebraska, 2015
Arts in Union Project Award, Somerville Arts Council, 2015
Opus Affair Artist of the Year Award, 2014
Scholarship Award, Martha's Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, 2014
Full Scholarship, Noepe Center for Literary Arts, 2014