Photo: Joëlle Matthias, Poetry Wall at ICON Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa
Nynke Salverda Passi was born and raised in the Netherlands. Her work has been published in CALYX, Gulf Coast, Poetry Breakfast, Red River Review, Ilya’s Honey, Life & Legends, among other places. Her poetry has been anthologized in Pandemic Puzzle Pieces and River of Earth & Sky (Blue Light Press), Carrying the Branch (Glass Lyre Press), and Oxygen: Parables of the Pandemic (River Paw Press). Together with Rustin Larson and Christine Schrum, she edited the poetry collection Leaves by Night, Flowers by Day. Her essay “Oom Ealse and the Swan” was one of the finalists in the 2014 Editors’ Prize of The Missouri Review , and her essay “Baby Jesus Daubed with Cologne and Crowned with Gold Paper” was a finalist in the 2022 Editors’ Prize of The Missouri Review .
Nynke has more than two decades of college and graduate teaching experience in creative writing. She is the founder and director of the MFA in Creative Writing at M.I.U., the Soul Bone℠ Literary Festival, as well as the Soul Bone℠ Literary Center, a writing center offering workshops and collaborations that explore the relationships between writing, creativity, and healing. You can read her short bio here.
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“Is there a language untouched by hate?
Who hears the apology of the rain,
the pizzicato of spider feet playing cobweb harps
up in heaven near the ceiling?
Who notices that grasshoppers pray summer sacred
or that pebbles are soft like a child’s wrist?”
The Soul Ajar
Painting: David Orme-Johnson
Through my writing center The Soul Ajar, I offer workshops, events, and collaborations that explore the relationship between writing, creativity, and healing.
Ealse & the Swan
Collage: Jitske Wadman
From the day I first told my father that I wanted to pursue a career in writing, he said, “You should write the story of my friend Ealse and the wild swan!”
Events & Readings
Event at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Here you can find out more about my recent and upcoming events and readings—mostly in Fairfield, Iowa.
