Krystle May Statler

After signing up two years ago and a year of deferred registration from over-training, I finally got to run in the Capital City Half Marathon with my PNW fam! 🥳🏃🏽‍♀️💨 The past four months have been a rollercoaster in training, in feeling inspired to move, in connecting to the Universe. Then I got my bib: 2221.✨(assigned at random!) As soon as I stepped over the starting line, tears came streaming down my face. The memories of not wanting to be here, of wishing to be with BJ more than anything, flooded in. With each stride, I reflected on everyday of the last seven years, how, somehow, I’ve kept going. And that somehow is love, is grief, is longing, is hugs…so many hugs—that nourish the empty spaces from the people who’ve shown me how meaningful it all can be, despite. 🌱 Even though the act of running is the same, it’s who we become each time that’s different. ❤️‍🔥

Sibling loss in our relationships look + feel different, and if connection seems possible, the paths back to one another are just as varied. Naming these relational experiences may invite you into Sibling Storytelling, where your stories can be heard, held, and seen in all of their complexities. 🪑 The grief table has enough space and our stories deserve to be told: for us, from us. 🔗 Check out the link in our bio for the next Sibling Storytelling Session or the Call for Submissions to share your story of sibling loss.

When we wonder, we begin to notice: mystery finds us and awe opens us to more. What questions linger, not needing or able to be answered, but asking to be acknowledged? What fills the space between knowing and not knowing? In this month’s collaborative session with @griefhouse_wilderings , we’ll invite memory and imagination to help us explore, share, and bear witness to the ✨wonder✨ that lives in our love and longing. This virtual space is collective care for anyone surviving sibling loss, whether through estrangement, disconnection, distance, or death. ❤️‍🩹 🔗 Click the bio link to read more or register for the session. Registration remains open until we begin. 🫶🏽➡️ If any of the above sounds like it might resonate for people you love with sibs, may you share this post? 🫂

This anthology is rooted in the belief that our stories are more powerful when supported by the collective. To reach our intended honorarium goal of $50 per contributor and cover production costs, we are actively engaging with the community in the following ways: 💸Our GoFundMe campaign invites friends, family, and supporters of the arts to invest directly in the voices of siblings. 🔗LINK IN BIO 🫶🏽To broaden our reach and share the “why” behind this project, we are building community partnerships by sharing our Call for Submissions through dedicated sibling and grief-centered networks, and pitching interview inquiries and features to storytelling platforms. By leaning on these respective communities, we aim to not only fund this project but to ensure these stories reach the hands and hearts of those who need them most. And there are so many other, meaningful ways to support, too: ➡️ SHARE: Help this story move through your personal networks and communities ↔️ CONNECT: Relationships matters deeply to us and we’d love to hear from you in response to our project ↪️ FOLLOW ALONG: Near or far, your witnessing is an act of love through time and space ✨This is our heart and soul work ✨ 🫶🏽With gratitude and care, Krystle May Statler & Grace Stopher 👁️‍🗨️To read the full project vision, submission guidelines, or submit your story, visit the Call for Submissions linked in our bio.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS—For Siblings, From Siblings! 🤍 We are gathering stories from Siblings who have or are experiencing loss and grief—through estrangement, disconnection, distance, or death—for a collection built on remembrance, reverence, and care. These submissions of creative nonfiction will result in a collaborative anthology for Siblings, from Siblings: a space to be seen, heard, and held. 🗓️ Due date to submit is Sunday, June 14, 2026, 11:59 PM PST ✍🏽 Genres accepted include Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Illustration or Comic Art 🌎 Worldwide submissions welcome ✨ Previously shared work welcome (blogs, Substack, social media), as long as it hasn’t been formally published elsewhere 👀 Visit our Call for Submissions Page, linked in our bio, for the full project description and detailed submission guidelines ✊🏽 If you’d like to support the vision of providing contributors an honorarium, visit the GoFundMe link in our bio 💌 Have questions, dear Siblings? Send us an email at [email protected]. Project by @2kay1 and @gracie.inthegarden Follow @sibstorytelling for updates! #callforsubmissions #siblings #siblinggrief #artcall #siblingstories

🤍 We welcome all definitions of sibling, affirming the vastness of connection, history, and complexity within the relationship by blood, blended family, adoption, foster care, circumstance, spirit, and beyond ♾️ Sibling stories deserve to be seen, heard, and held—the love, the grief, the responsibility, the pride, the complicated, the tender, and, and, and… More soon, dear Siblings. 💙🩵

💙 Three days before BJ’s seven-year deathiversary, I got invited to the @mccormack_writing_center summer workshop this July! 🫂 The timing and way it landed felt like a big brother hug during a milestone week; his presence longed for, his love still finding a way through the other side. ♾️ If you’d like to support in any way or want to learn more about my story, the GoFundMe link is in my bio 🙏🏽❤️‍🔥 💌 If you're able to donate and would rather the funds make it directly to me (without GoFundMe processing fees), my Venmo and PayPal handles are @KrystleMayStatler 💛

After a milestone date or maybe a random Wednesday, what does ✨tenderness✨ in your grief look like? Does everything feel a little more raw? Does every moment need a little more care? Does every breath hold a little more tightness? In this month’s collaborative offering of Sibling Storytelling with @griefhouse_wilderings ; we’ll invite memory and imagination to help us explore, share, and bear witness to our tenderness in all its shapes, colors, and forms. This virtual space is collective care for anyone surviving sibling loss, whether through estrangement, disconnection, distance, or death. ❤️‍🩹 🔗 Click the bio link to read more or register for the session; registration remains open until we begin ✨ 🫶🏽➡️ If any of the above sounds like it might resonate for people you love with sibs, may you share this post? 🫂

Today ✨Prayer for Relief✨ breathes a second life. 🌬️ Access has always been a compass for sharing this collection of poems and putting a price only felt bearable when it was done in love: 📲 $6.06—BJ’s birth-time inspired the price of the ebook 📘 $12.22—BJ’s birthday inspired the price of the paperback Meaning-making and making meaningful art far outweigh the possibility of making money. I hope this work accompanies you wherever you are. 💙 ♾️ Slink to the link my bio or send me a message and I’ll make sure you get a copy of ✨Prayer for Relief✨ one way or another 🫶🏽

Year VII; XXX Forever 🕊️💙

🫶🏽 Tonight will be my first reading of the year and it’s in celebration of 🌸World Poetry Day🌸 at @pdxartscollective between 7:00pm-8:30pm! Poetry is the life-saving art that holds it, that witnesses unflinchingly, that buoys hope and heartache. The well of anticipation fills as BJ’s seven-year deathiversary gets closer. Seven?! Seven. Seeing sunrise signals: still standing still safe still sharing smiles—sometimes swimming, singing, smelling sunflowers somewhere—serendipity still saved, sugar still sweet, sleep still savored, surprise sandwiching saudade, saying sorry—sibling struggled screamed, sighed—suddenly spirit: still somebody still someplace still something still, still, still 💙🕊️

After nearly six months of tinkering with manuscripts revised, designed, and hand-bound, we’re celebrating the newly self‑published chapbooks on Saturday, March 28 from 7-9pm from the IPRC’s Chapbook Design Program. ✨📘 Come support and bear witness to bookish dreams materialized for these miraculous graduates: ❤️ Amy Botula 🧡 Cee Chávez 💛 Choya Renata 💚 Diana Sharp 💙 Samantha Hernandez 💜 Shea Selby 😍 The books are * B E A U T I F U L * and these humans who made them are wildly talented, brilliant, tender, sweet, funny, generous. Together, they’ve nurtured an incredible creative community. Their care for one another is so pure, so real, gifting the needed reminder that art can and does bring us together. They have so much to be proud of, and I hope to see you there to honor all they’ve done and who they are. ✨