What happens when we extract ourselves from our phones and our feeds, and sit down, slow down, and correspond through the written word? Over the past year and a half, Niki Neems has explored these themes through Response: The Convergence of poetry, handwriting, and epistolary correspondence, a letterpress card series done in collaboration with many contemporary poets, including C.D. Wright, Rae Armantrout, and Robert Hass. Neems says that Response originated “with a fascination for the way life becomes art,” and is a “reaction to the slow disappearance of the handwritten mark, posted letters, and books.”A poet and avid reader herself, Neems is also the owner of r.s.v.p., Iowa City’s beloved paper and card shop, which doubles as an informal gathering space for community poetry readings throughout the year.
