Desert Split Open
Created by Susan Rukeyser in 2019, the Desert Split Open encourages and amplifies literary work that is feminist, queer, or “otherwise radical.” It continues the conversation started by this book, Feckless Cunt: A Feminist Anthology. We host open mics as well as special community events for LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Banned Books Week. Sometimes we present readings and interviews with local and visiting authors, with a focus on feminist writers of extraordinary prose.
ON HIATUS AS OF NOVEMBER 2025
Click here to read The Desert Split Open Mic: Pause to Celebrate, December 2024
March 2026
While technically on hiatus since last Fall’s celebration of Banned Books Week, the Desert Split Open shows up for what matters. We are thrilled to be part of the Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest (March 20-22). The Desert Split Open Revival will take place on Sunday, March 22, 1 PM, at the Shops at Corner 62: 73552 29 Palms Hwy, Twentynine Palms, California.
Joining host Susan Rukeyser are four outstanding local writers: Eleanor Whitney, K. Andrew Turner, Jessica Leigh Studd, and Francene Kaplan. They write in a variety of genres — poetry, fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction. Each has a distinct voice, style, and point of view that is aligned with our guiding themes: feminist, queer, and “otherwise” radical.
For five years, the Desert Split Open Mic offered regular opportunities for the hi-dez community to share poetry and prose that might be discouraged, elsewhere. Throughout, we also gathered small groups of local writers to perform at festivals, including the Bombay Beach Lit Fest. That was organized by the same amazing group of writers behind the Hi-Desert Lo-Fi Lit Fest.
We hope your spirit is moved to join us at the Desert Split Open Revival. Can we get an Amen for poetry and prose that confronts and confesses, connecting us even as it disrupts our comfort? How about some praise for that sentence or stanza that surprises: Yes, you are understood. No, you are not alone.
Come get healed, if not saved.
Blessed be.
October 2025
This year, the Desert Split Open celebrated #BannedBooksWeek by gathering like-minded writers to share their queer, rebellious work. Many thanks to Featured Readers Eleanor C. Whitney (Riot Woman), Gay Douglas (Blue Poire Tango Bar & Sapphic Theme Hotel), and to the Flamingo Heights Community Center for having us. 🙏✊🎤
February 2025
✨ What a beautiful afternoon this was! The Desert Split Open presented Hannah Eko and her new book, Honey Is the Knife. We opened with gorgeous, evocative poems by Angelus that naturally connected with Hannah’s themes, as I knew they would. Hannah read to us from a chapter called, “Black Madonna of the Fretful Heart,” and explained a little about how memoir is woven together with social commentary and self-help practices drawn from a variety of sources. A thoroughly modern book, it is infused with the divine feminine and especially Yoruba goddess Osun. Hannah is a remarkable person you will definitely see more of! 💜🤩 Huge thanks to Liz Lapp of Hi Desert Times for her notable support of writers and books. And a big thank you to Galaxy Pies, who delivered the most delicious Nigerian meatless meat pies, chocolate cake & ice cream! We hung out and snacked and chatted for quite a while afterwards. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this sun drenched, glorious afternoon of feminine literary power. ✨
October 2024
The Desert Split Open is on hiatus for a while. Turns out, our last Banned Books Week event was the 53rd Desert Split Open event hosted by Susan Rukeyser since January 2019! That breaks down as: 36 Open Mics; 4 Pride Month Events; 7 Special Author Events – including with acclaimed novelists Ivy Pochoda and Vanessa Veselka; 3 Group Performances at Hi-Desert Fringe and the Bombay Beach Lit Fest; and 3 Banned Books Week celebrations.
It has been an incredible 5 years, but now Susan must refocus her attention and energy on her own work, including promotion for her new novel, The Worst Kind of Girl. She hopes to still host and certainly participate in some local events, especially if they are feminist and queer!
Thanks to everyone who came to one or some or most of the Desert Split Open’s events. Each of you made an impact. We will be collecting our thoughts (and photographs) and will post some memories soon(ish).
Be well and keep writing – and, for the love of everything we did together, vote BLUE up and down the ballot this November.
September 2024
Thank you to everyone who came out for the Desert Split Open Mic’s celebration of Banned Books Week! We had a great group of writers reading from powerful books like Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson; The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath; Tim and Pete by James Robert Baker; The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch; plus a variety of original work addressing themes often challenged by book banners.
Last year, a record number of titles were targeted for removal or restricted access in school and public libraries. The American Library Association says, “Groups and individuals demanding the censorship of multiple titles, often dozens or hundreds at a time, drove this surge. Titles by and about BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people made up almost half of those targeted.”
(FYI, Project 2025, Trump’s “Presidential Transition Project” includes language that broadly equates LGBTQ+ material with pornography, which, they say, “…has no claim to First Amendment protection.” It also demonizes critical race theory, which will result in continued attacks on BIPOC books. In case you needed another reason to vote blue.)
August 2024
Author Ivy Pochoda came by the Desert Split Open and treated us to a fabulous reading from both her latest novel, Sing Her Down (now out in paperback), and Jackrabbit Skin, an Amazon Original Story available on Kindle and Audible, set right here in the hi-dez. 🔥🖤 This was followed by a brief discussion of her work and lots of fun, writerly chat. The audience included some of our most dedicated local writers, making it a dream evening for those of us who geek out on words (not to mention plotting skills and innovative explorations of genres and themes.) Many thanks to Ivy and everyone who came out for this.
Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, These Women, which was a New York Times best thriller of 2020, and Sing Her Down, which just won an LA Times Book Prize. For many years, Pochoda taught creative writing at Studio 526 in Los Angeles’s Skid Row. She is a professor of creative writing in the low-residency MFA program at University of California Riverside, Palm Desert.
June 2024
The Desert Split Open’s celebration of Pride ‘24 was a warm, fun, empowering afternoon. Special Guest Flint Del Sol opened the show with remarks that were funny, intimate, and wise. Follow him on IG and TikTok (@justflintisfine) and keep an eye out for his forthcoming book and well-deserved rising star! barb morrison, Ruh Nolan, and Susan Rukeyser each read from their work, demonstrating the different ways, across different genres, they “queer” the literary landscape. After a notably excellent open mic, where 11 local writers shared their words, we were treated to a performance by Lady Chilane, reminding us that joy is also a form of resistance. Happy Pride, everyone! 🌈✨
March 2024
We had the best time at the 2nd annual Bombay Beach Lit Fest. The writers organizing this festival embrace the DIY spirit of the desert, encouraging an awareness of and respect for the surrounding residential community. They also have a knack for drawing just the right writer-folks together for panel discussions, workshops, and performances. We were honored to be among them, closing out the festival with a collaborative performance with Red Light Lit. The Desert Split Open is a literary open mic that encourages work that is feminist, queer, or otherwise radical. Red Light Lit is a curated performance series set to a live score, focused on themes of love, relationships, and sexuality. 6 terrific hi-dez writers, active in our increasingly vibrant literary community, gave two performances: one, without music, on themes aligned with the Desert Split Open; then, accompanied by live guitar by DW, we performed material well suited to Red Light Lit. It was an absolute blast. Huge thanks to the writers who drove out to Bombay Beach and delivered their powerful work so beautifully: Angelus, Jennifer Lewis, Alexandra Martinez, Linda Ravenswood, Susan Rukeyser, Jessica Leigh Studd. Thank you for being part of this. ✊🔥💖
January 2024
The Desert Split Open Mic celebrated its 5th birthday the best way we know how: with powerful words from writer friends old and new – and cupcakes! The quality of work shared was remarked upon by several attendees. What a talented group of writers we have living in this area. Many thanks to everyone who joined us, whether you read or just listened and heard. We were impressed with how each reader delivered their work with strength and vulnerability. We loved taking a look back at how we’ve evolved since January 2019, but we are especially excited about where we go from here. Hope you will be part of it.
October 2023
What a perfect literary evening in the high dez: local poet and library worker Alexandra Martinez came to the Desert Split Open to introduce her latest, prize-winning collection, Our Lady of Perpetual Desert (Inlandia). She gave a beautiful reading, which we enjoyed while gazing out at an expansive view of the desert, pinking up for sunset. Alexandra then sat down with writer/DSO host Susan Rukeyser, who asked her questions about metaphorical and literal cages; inclusive, intersectional feminism; (mis)perceptions of identity and speaking on one’s own behalf; and how these poems came to win the 2021 Regional Hillary Gravendyk Prize. Afterward, we all hung out and ate and drank and bought books and talked about poetry and other stuff, while we watched the desert go dark. Many thanks to The Firehouse for use of the space and the kind and generous help. Get yourself a copy of Alexandra’s book if you haven’t already! 📚🌵✨
October 2023
This year we felt a particular urgency in planning our #BannedBooksWeek event with Space Cowboy Books. The shocking increase in attempts to restrict and remove books from school and public libraries was obviously driven by the larger, so called “anti-woke” movement. They targeted bold, bestselling, award winning books, overwhelmingly written by and about members of the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. It is a blatantly racist, transphobic, and homophobic attempt to silence voices and stories from outside the mainstream, anything that challenges the old cishet, white, patriarchal narrative. We gathered on a clear afternoon that grew chilly, reading passages from these books that highlighted what makes them beautiful and important. We were reminded of how critical it is to see and hear ourselves in the books we read. We were reminded that we don’t want a small-minded, prudish minority making decisions for the rest of us. I am so grateful to the members of our local writing community who came out and participated, and especially Space Cowboy Books for hosting us. Don’t forget that you can buy any of the books you heard last night – or any others – on bookshop.org and support your local independent bookstore.
June 2023
What is it about Pride that makes everything sparkle? Our celebration of Hi-Desert Pride 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈was a special one. We read surrounded by the “Queerated” group art show, life and color filling the space. Check out the fantastic Aaron Sheppard piece we had as backdrop! 😍 We were treated to readings by friends old and new, with lots of folks just there to listen. What a great, engaged audience. Thank you to everyone who made time in their Pride celebrations to be part of it. 🌈📚✨ The Desert Split Open Mic will not meet in July or August, but we will return to the Beatnik Lounge (61597 29 Palms Hwy, Joshua Tree, CA) in September. Contact Susan at worldsplitopenpress@gmail.com to join the mailing list. Have a happy summer, if you can. Be proud and loud. And write a LOT, will ya? See you soon. ❤️🧡💛🌵💙💜
May 2023
Poet Justine Chan visited Joshua Tree to present her book, Should You Lose All Reason(s), just published by Chin Music Press. Many thanks to everyone who came out to The Firehouse on a glorious, golden evening in Joshua Tree. 🧡 This was a special literary event. We’re thrilled that so many people got to know this beautiful book. What's better than gathering writers and readers who appreciate the art and music of language? It was pretty magical, that view of the desert, while listening to poetry and then, two talented writers discussing themes and craft. We are grateful to Justine and Chin Music Press, and of course Annie for asking the most thoughtful questions, and The Firehouse for lending us the perfect space for an evening we won’t soon forget. 🤎
April 2023
Well, the Desert Split Open had an absolute blast at the Bombay Beach Lit Fest! Set within the Bombay Beach Biennale, with art installations throughout town, on the beach, and in the water, the Bombay Beach Lit Fest was just our vibe: down to earth, soaked in art, with friendly, feminist writer-people chatting about their work - how they do it and why. What’s hard about it. It was a full, miniature writer’s festival, with some workshops held in a converted shipping container. Headliners read at the Legion Hall. Reading on behalf of the Desert Split Open were Susan Abbott, R Gurley, lalo kikiriki, Alex Maceda, Susan Rukeyser, Cindy Weinstein. We were in the Theater, a garage of sorts with a gravel floor, bathed in red light from the shade cloth hung to block sun and wind. Bombay Beach and Joshua Tree may not be sisters, but we are some kind of cousins. It felt right for us to be there, and we were honored by the appreciative audience. Many thanks to Gina Frangello and the small group of volunteer organizers who pulled off a 4-day feat from afar that would impress anyone who’s ever tried to organize a literary event. In short: that was fun! 💖🌴
