Tessa Micaela (tehs-sah mee-kai-eh-la) is a poet and writer from Philadelphia, PA. Tessa is the author of Where Bells Begin (Rescue Press), there are boxes and there is wanting (Trembling Pillow Press), which was selected by Laura Mullen for the 2015 Bob Kaufman Prize, and the chapbook Crude Matter (ypolita press, 2016). Tessa’s writing has appeared in make/shift magazine, jubilat, Dusie, ELDERLY, and more. Tessa holds an MFA from Mills College, where Tessa attended as the first recipient of the Community Poetics Project Fellowship.
Tessa has taught somatic practice and writing workshops at universities, community organizations, youth programs and city jails. Tessa collaborates widely with other writers, organizers, community healers, magic makers and artists.
Born and raised on the Lenni-Lenape territory of Philadelphia, Tessa currently lives and writes on the unceded Abenaki lands of central Vermont.
In addition to writing and teaching, Tessa practices community + clinical herbal medicine, generative care, and is a Certified Professional Midwife. For more information about Tessa’s holistic care practice visit Threshold Apothecary and Threshold Community Midwives for information about home birth and insemination (IUI) in Vermont.
To reach Tessa, write to tessamicaela at gmail dot com.