Tracey Lander-Garrett is a writer, poet and teaching artist who moved to Oil City in 2024 as an Oil Region Alliance Artist Relocation Grant Recipient. She arrived from Portland, Oregon, where she had lived “anxiously” for about two and a half years, barely producing work and feeling a distinct lack of artistic support and community.
Dedicated readers may remember Lander-Garrett as the subject of a June 10, 2024 article in the Derrick, “Artist Relocation Program helps author drawn to Oil City.” In this past year of Venango Country residence, she is pleased to report progress in fiction, poetry and teaching, all of which was made possible by ORA’s grant and the supportive environment she has found here.
She joined the Writer’s Flock fiction writers’ group, which meets the first Monday of every month at Oil City Library. Based on prompts from that group, Lander-Garrett wrote five new microfiction pieces: “Pickle,” “A Lady’s Work Is Never Done,” “Seeing Red,” “Shrinking Daisy,” and “Recovery.” One of those pieces, “A Lady’s Work…” was published in "Through the Briar Patch", a Hollow Oak Press puzzle anthology edited by Amanda Pica.
In April, Lander-Garrett attended the Poconos Writers Conference in Stroudsburg for area fiction writers. She also took part in three different author signing events, appearing at at Oil City Library’s Festival of the Book in August, at Sparrow Books in Clarion Autumn Leaf Festival Crafter’s Day in October, and an author signing and open mic at Core Goods on Oil City Artist’s Day in December. Work continues on Book 5 of her Madison Roberts supernatural suspense series, titled Riddles Bright and Dark, with 15,000 words written to date.
Lander-Garrett has also continued to expand her work in poetry, attending Bridge Literary Center writing workshops at Oil City Library and Franklin Library.
She has written multiple new poems, in addition to several new Name-Nonsense poems. She read her poetry at multiple events, including an open mic at Baked Goods from Heaven and as a featured reader for a Virtual Open Mic with Bridge Literary Center, both in March. In June, she took part in the Ekphrastic Collaboration project at the Red Brick Gallery in Foxburg, writing a new poem titled “Interplay” inspired by Jaime Hunt’s photograph “October Sunrise with Fog Rolling Downriver”, a collaboration that culminated in a reading and exhibition of the works side-by-side. She took part in another open mic in the back room at Cork & Screw Winery in September.
In November, she published three poems, “The Mallards,” “Coveting,” and “Birds of a Feather: A Villanelle,” in "Beak, Bone, and Feather", an anthology of poetry about birds for Audubon edited by Patricia Thrushart.
Lander-Garrett will be working with Thrushart and Quimby Pickford Cheshire Publishers to publish a book of poems in 2025.
As a teaching artist, Lander-Garrett feels that her work as an educator allows her to give back to the community and keeps her connected to her artistic practice. To that end, she joined the Bridge Literary Center’s Steering Committee, pitching ideas for writing workshops. She taught two classes at BridgeFest in August at Venango Campus (World Building 1: “From Sandbox to Space Station” and World Building 2: “From Flying Monkeys to Emerald Cities”). She also helped organize the Bridge’s Halloween event, “An Evening of Spirited Stories,” with spooky crafts and readings, and taught two writing workshops at Oil City Library: “Make a Monster” on Oct. 29 and “Poetry of Gratitude” on Nov. 22.
Furthermore, Lander-Garrett is collaborating with artist/maker Marcy Hall to create project-based classes that will utilize the new MakerSpace on the 5th floor at 100 Seneca Street in downtown Oil City.
Last, but not least, Lander-Garrett is thrilled to announce her participation as an ACRE Selectee for 2025. She will be working with Bridgeway Capital to learn how to be a more successful creative entrepreneur, better equipped to contribute to the richly rewarding creative community that she has found in the Oil Region over the course of this eventful year.
