In this intimate conversation, MaKshya Tolbert shares the "why" behind writing Shade is a place; explores loss, as a structure to see grief; the (devastating) consequences of wanting shade; and being invited into yourself.

MaKshya practices poetry and placemaking in Virginia, where her grandmother raised her.
She was the 2025 Art in Library Spaces Artist-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, 2024 New City Arts Fellowship Guest Curator, and serves on the Charlottesville Tree Commission (2022-present), including as 2024 Chair.

Her debut book of poems, Shade is a place (winner of the 2024 National Poetry Series), meanders east-west along the City's Downtown Mall, seeking a sense of place amid the flux of the Mall's turning trees, landscape design, and one's inner life.

She has received recent fellowship and residency support from Cave Canem, New City Arts, Lead to Life, the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts' Long-Term Ecological Reflections program (2024-26 Fireline Fellow), Community of Writers, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, the University of Virginia, and the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission. Her recent poetry and prose can be found at Poem-a-Day, Emergence Magazine, Nightboat Books, and more. She is the 2025-2030 Associate Editor in Poetry for Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE), published quarterly by Oxford University Press.

In her free time, she is elsewhere—a place Eddie S. Glaude Jr. calls, "that physical or metaphorical place that affords the space to breathe."

You can connect with MaKshya at @processdaily on Instagram.

You may purchase Shade is a place, Penguin 2025, wherever books are sold.

-------

Get Lauren's 10-Min Meditation for Grief to support you on your journey!

This meditation is for you if you're looking to: Lower Stress, Increase your Peace, Connect to your Heart, and Give your energy back to Joy

You can connect with Lauren on Instagram via @lauren.samay and @mymourningroutinepodcast, on Facebook @lauren.samay.coaching or through www.laurensamay.com

If you are tuning in and finding value in these episodes, please take a moment to rate and review My Mourning Routine on Apple Podcasts-- it means so much and helps make a bigger, connecting splash in the podcasting pond!