A.A. McCartney often goes by Ada. She is an artist, sensitive human, woman working (and resting) in service of poetry and freedom. She was raised on Wind in the Willows and Beatrix Potter by artisans in the (sort of) wild woods of Michigan. She can often be found tending a guild of seedling fruit trees and populating the little free libraries of her Sonoran neighborhood with zines.

In 2021 Ada earned MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. She is a member of the Wisdom Body Collective and co-founded Laughing Pig Theatre.

Her practices take root in yoga (uniting mind and body) while the media she works in range from poetry to performance art to materials bound for the trash. Ada has performed her work on street corners and stages from Kalamazoo to West Philadelphia to L.A. to Tokyo. Some of her favorites are “Tongue of a Bird” at Kalamazoo College Festival Playhouse; The Extreme Future Festival 2012 w/ musician Sid Redlin; “Survival Skills” with Laughing Pig Theatre; and the “Inherent Worth and Dignity” Exhibit Opening at Arts Intersection Gallery in Gilbert AZ.

Ada’s writing has appeared in More Revolutionary Letters: A Diane di Prima Tribute. Patchwork Lit Mag, Plants and Poetry Journal, The Smoking Poet, North Central Review, The Cauldron, Phoenix Dance Observer.