“cave mouth tongue loose”The Head & The Hand Press, 2024 – art by Nora E Luks

‍ * ‍ Reach out via “Contact” if you’re interested in a copy

An improvised creative conversation between visual artist Nora E Luks and writer Mary Zhou, inspired by Surrealist games. Their drawings, poems, and prophetic questions range anywhere from Greek mythology, the Cultural Revolution, and ancient Chinese divination to YouTube watch histories, psychedelics, and modern dating. At its core, the book explores the role of fortune, good or ill, and how it shapes our relationship to self, lovers, and lineage.

“Kudzu” Black Warrior Review, Spring/Summer 2026

“[Hunan, 1978, for my grandmother]”, “2000000,” “House Ant,” and “And how” Waxwing, Winter 2026

[And perhaps / she of startling sight]swamp pink, Winter 2026

“MISTAKE PARTY”at what cost, Fall 2025

“Bell Canto in S” A Poem is a Garden, Vol. 2, Fall 2025

“Dear small old brother”Michigan Quarterly Review, Spring 2025

“Oracle Portraits”Fence, Fall 2024

“13 and a half attempts to kiss you”The Los Angeles Review, Summer 2024

“Lamb’s Ear”Foglifter, Spring 2024

“2/10/24”A Year in Philly, Winter 2024

“(red by other names)”Postcard, Winter 2024

“Summer Barbeque” Oversound, Fall 2022

“Old heart new tricks”Healing Verse Poetry Line, Fall 2022

“A Patient Record”ANMLY, Fall 2022 (Pushcart Prize nominee)

“Past Medical History” (excerpt from “A Patient Record”) Voicemail Poems, Winter 2024

“Free postcard from the saint shrine”Philadelphia Stories, Summer 2022

“Not just pain, but also immense power”loves me | loves me not, Spring 2021

“eat / shit” The Kingfisher Magazine, Summer 2024

“Red Thread” The Offing, Spring 2024

PRINT SCREEN, Icebox Project Space, Summer 2023 (Group Exhibition)

“Signs I Want to Wear on My Forehead (an aroace diary)” The Rumpus, Fall 2022

“Cord of Fate” The Divine: Beyond the Bounds of Queerness, Nepantla Cultural Arts Gallery, Summer 2021 (Group Exhibition)

“House House” Summer 2021 – Poetry & narration by Mary Zhou; visual art by Kristen Mitchell.

From Living Marks Stories, a collective centering narrative and text in group creative practice through cyborg poetry, collective somatic processing, and secondary lucid dream performance.

Here is an example of cyborg poetry, in which a human narrative is systematically mapped to numbers, colors, words, shapes and phrases. These are reassembled mathematically according to machine selected numerical orders, providing new insight and proposing questions of form and meaning.

Kemper Live – Traverse ‍ Kemper Art Museum, April 2026 she was she did
An improvised dance performance invoking folk ritual, matrilineal legacies, and spiritual ties across generations, set to a self-composed sound/poetry piece. Presented in tribute to Zhou’s late paternal grandmother and drawing from her region’s mythology, Zhou explores circularity – as ghostly symbol, as surname, as familial repetition, and as sound/movement pattern. When we quiet and attune our senses, what stories and demands do our ghosts share? In our movement between time and cultures, what new, haunting resonances are produced?

‍Voice performer in composer/artist Monika Weiss' Lethe-Medusa, 2023-2026

‍

PAPA Ensemble: Gather Together in Their Name‍ ‍ Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, Asian Arts Initiative, November 2022 Gather Together in Their Name Facilitators: Jungwoong Kim and Shavon Norris How do we honor the grief, joy, and mutual aid that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for the Asian community? An ensemble performance of poetry, theatre, and improvised dance by femme Asian American artists.

‍

UMA SHOWS UP Urban Movement Arts, Fringe Arts, May 2022 House Dance Showcase Choreographer: Ricky “Glytch” Evans