Welcome, new readers, and thanks to everyone who signed up at the National Opera Association conference in Boston in January! If you missed me there and want to meet up, I’ll be a NATS in San Antonio in July; I’m delighted to be joining the NATS mentoring team to offer lyric-writing guidance as part of the Mentoring Program for Composers! I’m also always happy to chat over Zoom—just email me to set up a time.

Opera

I’ve been awarded a month-long residency at Yaddo from April-May to work on COMMON ROOM, my new chamber opera with composer Jessica Rudman. COMMON ROOM draws on the oral histories of people who attended women’s colleges in the 1920s and 1930s, the show Queer Eye, and Jessica’s and my own lived experiences as autistic, non-binary, disabled, and/or queer artists. COMMON ROOM is an original story about a group of young women and non-binary people exploring their identities and finding community. Our initial inspiration came from Marlen Komar’s article “The Feminist History of the Cardigan,” which led us to understand fashion as a vehicle for empowerment. In the opera, a frustrating shopping trip causes a college student to reveal feelings of not really being a girl—or a boy—and finds unexpected acceptance.

PROTECTRESS, by Jessica Rudman and me, got great workshop performances from Opera Contempo in November. I’ll post video as soon as I have it! PROTECTRESS is for 10 women or nonbinary performers, and runs about 2 hours. Jessica and I would love to get a full production, so if you’re interested, please do reach out!

THIS IS JANE progresses apace! Composer Angela Elizabeth Slater has completed several scenes, which we hope to present in semi-staged versions with Opera Contempo at the 2026 Salt Lake City Fringe Festival and in concert with New Wave Opera in Portland, OR in 2027. We’re also meeting with other organizations and institutions about full productions, and we have an aria for mezzo-soprano and piano available for concert performance, which you can download here. Please let me know if you perform it!

As some of you know, a private donor covered the full commission fees for Angela and me, but we still need help with other costs of putting JANE on the map. If you’re interested in helping out, let me know and I’ll connect you with one of our non-profit partners!

SWEET ANNA, which I adapted from Dezső Kosztolányi’s novel Anna Édes and has music by Kathryn Woodard, will get a performance of arias in early 2027 with Prismatic Arts Ensemble in Philadelphia. This project is seeking a commission and partners for completion of the score and a production.

Composer Jessi Harvey and I are working on TOADS & TARDIGRADES for a 2027 premiere. This all-ages opera looks at the Anthropocene extinction and celebrates conservation. We provide resource info for anyone who wants to stage it so they can share it with audiences who feel inspired by the opera to get involved with protecting the environment.

Song

If you were at NOA, maybe you got a chance to pick up a copy of WHERE IT’S SAFE, my abortion-rights song with Jessica Rudman. If you didn’t, grab a download here. It’s free to perform—and please let us know if you do!

On February 22, composer Shane Cook and I will have the premiere of our work OCEANS performed by Choral Arts Initiative, and I have two songs that will get premieres in March by Next Ensemble, one with music by Jessica Rudman and one with music by Clifford King.

You can view my entire catalogue of works on my site, and I’m always interested in new collaborations! Feel free to email me or reach out through this Google Form.

Poetry

My poem “Four Ophelias” is included in the anthology The Haunting of English Laureate,” available now here.

Book Reviews

Here are my top titles from 2025, which include fiction from Laila Lalami, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Emily Yu-Xuan Qin, Katherine Addison, Maria Zoccola, Alma Katsu, Angeline Boulley, and Janet Rich Edwards; and non-fiction by Victoria Amelina, Huda Fahmy, Dolly Jørgensen, and Mariana Enriquez. You can find new book reviews every 6-8 weeks on my site by searching for “reviews.”

Dogs

Here are Noodles (black) ad Wisp (white). They loved the cool weather we had in January and have been all puppyish and happy to run around.

Thanks for reading!

Kendra