Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome back writer, poet, photographer and artist Rachael Ikins with “Composition of a Woman.” This memoir piece is part essay, part free-verse poem, meditating on sketches Rachael made in her art practice over time. These episodes tell the story of a woman struggling to be who she is against the currents of society and familial expectation and tenaciously prevailing. It is unusual and breathtakingly vulnerable. Sketches prove more personal and fraught with emotion than photographs, and the layering of memory creates depth while also supplying distance and time.
Experience this highly charged and empowering work in Synkroniciti’s “Ritual” issue, Vol. 4, No. 1, available now. Subscribe or purchase the individual issue here.
Rachael Ikins is a multiple Pushcart nominee and 2018 Independent Book Award winner. She has been a finalist and semi-finalist in the William Faulkner/William Wisdom Writing Competition and the Vinnie Ream Competition (NLAPW) and a 2021 Best of the Net Nominee. She has published 6 chapbooks, as well as full-length collections, fantasy and memoir. Her prize-winning artworks are on book and journal covers worldwide. Rachael lives in a tiny wood with her animal family. They often walk near a small lake. She loves to ride her bike and to garden. Dragons fly by.
Find Rachael @rzikins.author.artist on Instagram, @nestl493 on Twitter, at Rachael Ikins Books and Poetry on Facebook and Ask the Girl Arts.