Love Letters to the Cosmos book launch & art exhibit

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Date and Time for this Past Event

• Sunday, Aug 23, 2026  2pm

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Love Letters to the Cosmos, by Ingrid Keir Feather Press, 2026 New Poetry and Art Collection Maps Interdimensional Lovers Across  Lifetimes, From the Electric Pull of First Encounters to the Lineage Written in the Bones PETALUMA, CA — August 2, 2026 — Feather Press announces the launch of Love Letters to the Cosmos, poet Ingrid Keir's new collection featuring original paintings by artist Tom Batchelder reproduced throughout. This poetry and art collection moves through desire, heartbreak, and lineage, writing lovers as constellations and bodies drawn together like planets in orbit. The poems pulse with celestial longing, eros, and earthly hunger. Weaving imagery from eclipses, standing stones, and thermal waters, Keir excavates her Scottish heritage and the lineage written in her bones, a thread running the length of the collection as a matter of lineage and ancestral reverence.Batchelder's paintings are abstract, built from texture and color, and drawn from spiritual experience and personal growth. Their tones move the way the soul moves. The two have been a source of creative inspiration to one another, and some of the work featured in the book will be hanging in his studio for the release. Keir is an energy healer as well as a poet, and the book moves through its landscapes without separating the two. "My healing practice and my poems come from the same listening, paying attention to what is already there, in this life and in the ones before it," she says. Love Letters to the Cosmos is an incantation for anyone who has mythologized love, written poems in the infinite sky, and claimed their wildness as birthright. Books will be available for purchase at the release event and through Feather Press. Book Release Party & Reading: Sunday, August 23, 2026 at 2:00pm, at Tom Batchelder's studio, ICB Arts Building, 480 Gate 5 Road, 2nd Floor, Sausalito, CA 94965. Featuring a reading, book signing, and a showing of paintings from the book. One of the last gatherings to be held in the studio before it closes at the end of the month. About the Author Ingrid Keir is a poet based in Sonoma County and the founder of Feather Press. A longtime curator of the literary community, she has spent years creating spaces for writers to gather and grow through workshops and readings that center creative abundance and intentional care. Her poetry collections include Toward the Light and The Choreography of Nests, and she edits the anthology series Tender Hearts Club. Her work has appeared widely, and she has been a featured reader at Litquake, Kitchen Sink Radio, de Young Museum, among other venues. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from SFSU, where she taught, and offers poetry coaching, editing services, and workshops that weave healing and wellness into her students' craft. You can find out more about Ingrid Keir at: Website: ingridkeir.com Instagram: @ingridkeir Facebook Page: Ingrid Keir Poet About the Artist Tom Batchelder is a painter working in the historic ICB Arts building in Sausalito, California. Inspired by texture, color, spiritual experiences, and personal growth, he works from themes both personal and collective, making art meant to elicit strong feeling and new thought. A student of Dzogchen Buddhism and transformational life coaching, he released his first collection publicly in August 2025. You can find out more about Tom Batchelder at: Website: thomasbatchelder.com Instagram: @thomasbatchelder About Feather Press Feather Press is an independent literary press dedicated to uplifting the voices of local poets, writers, and artists. We believe in creative abundance — that every individual carries a deep well of story, history, and lineage waiting to be expressed. Guided by a commitment to cultural and racial diversity, we support both emerging and established voices with care and intention. Through publications and community gatherings, Feather Press creates space for connection, celebration, and the shared power of story. We publish work that is honest, radiant, and real — work that refuses to shrink in a world asking us to harden.