I was born into photography. My grandfather, with whom my mother, grandmother and I lived, was an amateur photographer. He loved photography and had many cameras. He mostly just took snapshots of family, but he also was friends with the Siegfried’s, who had a professional photography studio in Jamestown, where we lived. He had them photograph himself, me, and other family members. I was one year-old when I sat for my first formal portrait. One of my first memories is from when I was three years-old, sitting for Mrs. Siegfried. She used a large-format camera, similar to the one I used in graduate school 25 years later.

Photography led me on a path of discovery and I trusted the process enough to follow. Now I use photography to make sense of all the big questions in my life. I feel incredibly lucky that people relate to my work, but it illustrates the old idea that the more specific you are, the more general you will be.

I think of myself as an artist who uses images and language to open discussion about the senses, what it is to live, what it is to feel. I would say that that's who I am outside of my work too and that’s how I was as I child too. I have my very first memories, I remember so clearly sitting in a treehouse with blossom falling on me, and that is an image that has stayed with me all through my adult life.

I think that that is who I am, this idea of senses of living the everyday with eyes wide open with appreciation. I believe that optimism and beauty are powerful tools to live a life, to also foster conversation and to repair. I think these are things-- Originally, I came into the art world through photography. Really as we just touched on, it's not just image-based now for me, it is also through language. It's just about this idea of the senses and connection.

Tell me a bit about your cultural background and how it informed and inspired your art?

I was born and raised in Lebanon. My parents were originally Palestinian. My mother died when I was three years old so I grew up just me and my father for many years, and that probably has some role in my work. I also grew up during the Lebanese Civil War. I started my college years in Beirut at the American University, studying architecture.

Tell us about A Fish Growing Lungs! How did you decide on this format (which I love, by the way) to tell your story?

I knew from the get-go that I wanted this to be an essay collection. Aside from a few moments where I got frustrated and threatened my advisor that I'd just turn it into a novel, it's always how I've thought of Fish. The braided essays (like "Dog-Brain") came first; I like the form a lot and it works well with the way that I think naturally. I may have also threatened to write a collection of braided essays at one point? But as I kept drafting I wanted more variety in approach, so while some shapes were more organic ("Withdrawal") others were structured with the intention of including something different as part of the collection ("Wellness Index").

Can you describe who you are beyond what you do; how you move through the world?

I think I always saw myself as an observer; always felt my job is to be a witness. You know, I’m not a full Arab, I’m not a full American, I always felt like I was a little bit on the sidelines but I was in a spot where I had a good view, and I could see what others did. I could watch, and could observe and put pieces together that made sense to me. I liked that kind of position, too. I’ve often felt my role in life was to an observer, an appreciator. When people say “what job would have had if you weren’t a poet?” I might say, a cook, but I also really like connecting people! So maybe a fan girl agent, for other people. What could be better than introducing people that need to know one another?

Rachel Eliza is a poet, visual artist and novelist

Can you describe who you are beyond what you do; how you move through the world?

Well, I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma. I think there is always some part of me that is a little girl from Oklahoma that ended up in the big world out there. There’s a part of me who is always discovering things, and always surprised that I’m here. And I’m a mother, and I’m a person in evolution.

These are a few of my favorite things…

Book: I love so many books! Books that I return to feel like home to me. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou feels like a wonderful friend. James Baldwin’s Giovanni's Room (I love it from beginning to end). William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow. I think those three books guide me when I don’t know what to do, they feel like they’re gently helping me go along.

What approaches do you pull on to take care of yourself and well-being?

It was years before I had realized I had been traumatized. For me the greatest cure, the thing that pulls you out of it, is doing something for others outside yourself and focusing on others. And committing yourself to something that is beyond the self. So the self doesn’t have a chance to get so much in control, and so dominant…