Robin Ekiss
{351} Robin Ekiss, originally uploaded by The Inadvertent Gardener.
Robin’s poetry is stunning and beautiful and amazing, but that’s not why I came to hear her read. Back in 2001, I met one of her classmates from the UC Davis poetry MFA program, Susan Borie Chambers, at a fiction residency in Johnson, Vermont.
In 2002, I came to San Francisco for my very first time, and met Susan in the city for some shopping and drinks (although, since she was pregnant with her first child, I was the only one who drank the high-octane beverages), and we met Robin at Martuni’s, and then crossed the street for dinner at Zuni Cafe. Robin and I split the chicken-under-a-brick with bread salad, because Susan was fully vegetarian at the time, and it was one of the most memorable dishes of my life, and the first moment that I thought, “Hey, I could live here.” Robin was also a Stegner Fellow, and that fact inspired me to apply. The story of how she learned her book was to be published is one of my favorites, as well, and, well, I had been waiting for it to come out and for her to go on a local tour, because I wanted to be sure to purchase my own copy at one of her events.
This was the first time I’d seen her since I moved to the Bay Area. She’s pregnant, now, with her first, and the symmetry was kind of awesome. The reading? Also awesome. And I came home with a signed copy of her book and a boost (as if I needed it) to my so-far-eternal crush on the Bay Area and what it means to live here.
365 in 2009 
She and her husband both read at the annual Chadwick Garden Poetry Reading at UCSC a couple of years ago. She’s amazing. And now pregnant? Wow. Lucky child.
Tana, she is amazing — love her poems, and now I hear she makes great cupcakes, too. Multitalented! :-)
I have seen Robin read her poetry a few times over the last 20 years, and her work always surprises and delights me.
Andy, her work is so great.