Visiting Creative Writing professor Emily Carr is holding an online book launch for her novel, Name Your Bird Without a Gun: A Tarot Romance. The Zoom meeting will take place on September 16 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The event is a short poetry reading and panel with Dr. Nicholas Clarkson and Dr. Avni Vyas in dialogue with writing processes, storytelling in relation to the Tarot. Its main focus is for audiences to engage in their own provocations and learn more about astrology. 

Emily Carr’s book was released about four months ago under Spork publication based in Tucson, Arizona. Carr spoke about how she uses the flexibility of the Tarot in her own writing practice. 

“I am really interested in systems that I create,” Carr said. “For me that really resonates with the Tarot because it’s an intentional but flexible framework. So, I don’t write stand alone poems. I create book lead projects where I start with some complex structure.” 

Carr’s writing process took ten years because she enjoyed the writing process so much. 

“Once I started using the Tarot and got to know my protagonist, whose name is Liberty, I did not want to leave,” Carr said. “I wanted to stay there forever. I have a lengthy revision process and I love it.”

Carr hopes that guests leave with astrological and poetic gifts to help inform their writing process—no matter how long the editing takes.