Dearest Andra, Your website is fantastic!! I am so proud of you. xx
What a brilliant and masterful performance you gave in Glasgow this evening. I was moved and inspired and completely captivated. So happy to have found your work and now looking forward to spending more time with it. Thank you.
Dear Andra. It was a pleasure to meet you, listen to you read, and hear about what inspires you as a writer during the Poetry Salon at 1:54 Forum. Your choice to centre and share extracts from Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury” was perfectly judged for that session, and I was also deeply moved by the tidalectics of the “dark Atlantic,” coupled with references to your grandmother’s beach-scape walks conveyed in your own piece, “Counting Stones.” Listening to you, Phoebe, Lakwena and Ray all share such heartfelt responses to Omar’s provocation about ‘interrupting’ racism during the discussion phase of that event was very poignant. Each comment resonated and drew me back to an insightful line from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ work (We Were Eight Years in Power) about willing our lived experiences of Blackness in the West to always mean so much more than “the losing end of racism.” I’m so grateful for your contributions, your candour and your generosity of spirit. I will continue to read your work, with admiration. Kind regards, Carol.
Thank you so much Carol Ann, I really appreciate your message. So often I can labour over the construction of words never knowing how others may take them on. It’s an honour that you listened and took our words that evening to heart. Please stay in touch, hopefully we’ll cross paths in the creative sphere again. Best, Andra.
Hi Andra! Leah here from The Lead. We’ve asked the folks at Copy Press about publishing some extracts from Turtlemen alongside some of the photos on our site – with a link to where people can buy a copy. We’d also like to, in the nearish future, host some cultural events featuring poetry and performance. Vit said they’d send you our proposal but we haven’t heard anything from them for a couple of weeks and we were wondering if everything was in hand for you. Always happy to jump on a call. Thanks! Leah
Hello Leah,
Lovely to hear from you. I sent you an email on January 20th (pasted below) you must of not received it.
It would be lovely to chat with you some time soon.
Best,
Andra
**********************************
Dear Leah,
I hope you’re well.
I hope you don’t mind Vit passed on your email as permission to reprint my poems lies with me.
Thank you so much for wanting to highlight and publish segments of Turtlemen.
I just want to confirm the form of the poems republished remain intact insuring their integrity.
I don’t mind the cropped family photos.
Were there any other concerns on your end or information you may need?
Andra Simons 
Dearest Andra, Your website is fantastic!! I am so proud of you. xx
What a brilliant and masterful performance you gave in Glasgow this evening. I was moved and inspired and completely captivated. So happy to have found your work and now looking forward to spending more time with it. Thank you.
Dear Andra. It was a pleasure to meet you, listen to you read, and hear about what inspires you as a writer during the Poetry Salon at 1:54 Forum. Your choice to centre and share extracts from Audre Lorde’s “Poetry is Not a Luxury” was perfectly judged for that session, and I was also deeply moved by the tidalectics of the “dark Atlantic,” coupled with references to your grandmother’s beach-scape walks conveyed in your own piece, “Counting Stones.” Listening to you, Phoebe, Lakwena and Ray all share such heartfelt responses to Omar’s provocation about ‘interrupting’ racism during the discussion phase of that event was very poignant. Each comment resonated and drew me back to an insightful line from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ work (We Were Eight Years in Power) about willing our lived experiences of Blackness in the West to always mean so much more than “the losing end of racism.” I’m so grateful for your contributions, your candour and your generosity of spirit. I will continue to read your work, with admiration. Kind regards, Carol.
Thank you so much Carol Ann, I really appreciate your message. So often I can labour over the construction of words never knowing how others may take them on. It’s an honour that you listened and took our words that evening to heart. Please stay in touch, hopefully we’ll cross paths in the creative sphere again. Best, Andra.
Hi Andra! Leah here from The Lead. We’ve asked the folks at Copy Press about publishing some extracts from Turtlemen alongside some of the photos on our site – with a link to where people can buy a copy. We’d also like to, in the nearish future, host some cultural events featuring poetry and performance. Vit said they’d send you our proposal but we haven’t heard anything from them for a couple of weeks and we were wondering if everything was in hand for you. Always happy to jump on a call. Thanks! Leah
Hello Leah,
Lovely to hear from you. I sent you an email on January 20th (pasted below) you must of not received it.
It would be lovely to chat with you some time soon.
Best,
Andra
**********************************
Dear Leah,
I hope you’re well.
I hope you don’t mind Vit passed on your email as permission to reprint my poems lies with me.
Thank you so much for wanting to highlight and publish segments of Turtlemen.
I just want to confirm the form of the poems republished remain intact insuring their integrity.
I don’t mind the cropped family photos.
Were there any other concerns on your end or information you may need?
Many thanks,
Andra