For their video poem, director John Lavin selected visuals suggestive of Carolyn Hembree’s “Raven Spell,” including handcrafted environments, bird murals, the poet’s photos of Appalachia, and outer space. The film depicts the poet creating a three-dimensional environment with her own hands, one that she can interact with and incorporate into her sorcery. “Raven Spell” is included in Hembree’s second collection, Rigging a Chevy into a Time Machine and Other Ways to Escape a Plague, winner of the 2015 Trio Award and the 2015 Rochelle Ratner Memorial Award (Trio House Press, 2016).
Carolyn Hembree was born in Bristol, Tennessee. Her debut poetry collection, Skinny, came out from Kore Press in 2012. In 2016, Trio House Books published her second collection, Rigging a Chevy into a Time Machine and Other Ways to Escape a Plague, winner of the 2015 Trio Award and the 2015 Rochelle Ratner Memorial Award. Her work has appeared in Colorado Review, Drunken Boat, The Journal, Poetry Daily, and other publications. She has received grants and fellowships from PEN, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, and the Southern Arts Federation. An assistant professor at the University of New Orleans, Carolyn teaches writing and serves as poetry editor of Bayou Magazine.
Award-winning filmmaker John Lavin began his career as an editor in Los Angeles working primarily in unscripted and documentary entertainment. Lavin has directed and edited music videos, commercials, corporate videos, sizzle reels, web series and short films over the last decade. He created the show Three Dads and a House for HGTV and Backflip and Restored for DIY Network. His feature documentary, Hollywood to Dollywood, has played at over 50 film festivals, receiving 25 awards. He enjoys architecture and design, travel, cold beer, American cinema, historical fiction, the outdoors and epic times with friends and family.
