Julie Benesh is an urban Midwesterner with working class roots. She is author of the poetry collection INITIAL CONDITIONS and the poetry chapbook "ABOUT TIME." She has been published in Tin House, Another Chicago Magazine, Florida Review, and many other places, earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College, and received an Illinois Arts Council Grant. She currently lives in Chicago and holds a PhD in human and organizational systems.
So many parts in one body; no wonder people get confused. The way my mother would bring up old boyfriends in an effort to keep me humble, that is, to keep me hers, the way my Maine Coon calico growls when anyone comes between us, then lunges, then sinks back against me, simultaneously tense and floppy, a wary baby; I’m… Read more →