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Tara Hardy

2018 Arc Fellow

Advocate and writer Tara Hardy explores the impact of trauma and illness on our bodies and creative selves.

Arc Fellow Tara Hardy, poet. Photo by Sunita Martini, 2018.

About the Artist

Tara Hardy is a working class, Queer, Femme, chronically ill writer, and founder of Bent, a writing institute for LGBTQ people in Seattle. Her most recent book of poems, My, My, My, My, My, won a 2017 Washington State Book Award, and explores the links between childhood trauma and chronic illness. She is a former Hugo House Writer in Residence, Seattle Poet Populist, and Hedgebrook alumna. She teaches at Richard Hugo House, Path With Art, and Gay City Arts.

Current Work

As a result of the critical success of My, My, My, My, My Tara is giving readings and workshops, all of which make space for more conversation about the impact of trauma on our bodies. Her memoir-in-progress examines the parallel between having a childhood in which she had to be hyper-vigilant and the subsequent physical responses. Additionally, Tara is finishing a book about artistic development called Healing the Artistic Wound, which links trauma theory to artistic development theory and outlines strategies for decreasing self-sabotage.


More Information

Learn more about Tara Hardy