Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

Stephen Motika, writing of my poetry and essay collection Orange Roses, notes, “Ives’s raw material is the refreshing stuff of life, the mind and the body. The genuine is trickier territory, but I think for all her concerns with imitation and transference, this is a book about the wonder of discovering yourself as a writer in language.” As Motika eloquently observes, my writing poses questions about various kinds of artifice and mediation, from writing and visual art to contemporary technologies. I am curious about how mediation affects the ways in which we perceive, value, and share experience—and, pursuantly, the ways in which we construct personal and social histories.

While At Headlands

“One sister may conceal another,” writes poet Kenneth Koch. While at Headlands, I will be working on a novel loosely based on Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac story. Titled Loudermilk, it is the tale of two male friends who, while in college, decide to defraud a prestigious writing program by pretending to be a fictitious poet named Troy Loudermilk. When their application, submitted by the imaginary Loudermilk, is not only accepted, but garners a cash award, they decide to attend. Here two problems arise: One of the two friends is actually named Troy Loudermilk; this Troy Loudermilk is not a poet.