LIZ ASCH

LIZ ASCH IS A writer, Artist, psilocybin facilitator, and acupuncturist

investigating creative expression, lyricism, ecofeminism, and embodiment. 

Liz Asch teaches creative embodiment practices and methods of presence as a consultant, assistant, writer, collaborator, and acupuncturist. Working with the premise that the body is a renewable resource for the life of the mind, Liz is dedicated to discovering ways in which we can live more comfortably in our bodies and in the world.

She holds a BA from Vassar, an MFA from Eastern Oregon University and a Masters in Acupuncture and herbal medicine from OCOM. She got her Psilocybin Facilitator license in 2024 and can work with clients in-person in Portland, Oregon at a service center.

BODY LAND METAPHOR MEDICINE is a dreamy archive of guided meditations informed by surrealist art, pre-modern medicine, and somatic methods of embodiment, which help listeners center, self-regulate, and cultivate qi (giving the sensation of acupuncture without the needles). It is free on Apple podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, and directly on her Night Sky Acupuncture website.) Body Land is 5 seasons and still going. Season 5 is all in Spanish. Season 4 will pick back up with more Insomnia visualizations in English soon. Read more on the About section of Body Land on your podcast app.

 RECTO/VERSO is a collection of interviews in which Liz and guest artists of all genres dig deep into the unseen aspects of creative process and the ways they continue to make art and grow as people. R/V will debut in August 2025. Catch it wherever you listen to podcasts.

 Your Salt on My Lips: (Mostly) Queer Literary Erotica (Cleis Press 2021), a celebration of eros across the spectrum of sexuality, with an emphasis on radical communication of desire and consent, and the healing powers of self permission. Buy the e-book online or get edition 1 (pink cover) or edition 2 (grey cover) at your local bookstore.

 Liz was born in North Carolina in 1976. She studied realism with oils at a young age and fell in love with modern art. At Vassar College, she created stop-motion 16 mm films, studied literature, and wrote analytically about contemporary art and conceptual poetry. She apprenticed the bookbinder Claudia Cohen, learned printmaking from Bill Kelly and Michele Burgess of Brighton Press, and worked for Grenfell Press in New York City. Liz was a studio assistant to Barry Moser, Roberta Smith, Carroll Dunham, Joan Grubin, and the late Frank Moore. 

Liz is informed by her life experience growing up in the South as a Jewish girl in the shadow of the Holocaust, and coming of age queer during the AIDS crisis. She has long been an activist for human rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, environmentalism, antiracism, and social justice.

A 2018 Pushcart nominee, Liz is the recipient of the 2017 Willamette Writer's Kay Snow Award for First Place in Nonfiction (judged by Elizabeth Lyons), the winner of the 2017 Phoebe Creative Nonfiction Contest (judged by Elena Passarello), and she received honorable mention from the 2018 Pigeon Pages Essay Contest, judged by Garrard Conley, the 2016 Montana Book Festival’s Regional Emerging Writers Contest and the 2016 Calyx’s Margarita Donnelly Prize. Liz is the grateful recipient of 2022 and 2024 RACC grants and was in the 2022-2023 Art/Lab cohort of Jewish Portland artists. She is the grateful recipient of residencies at Centrum, Playa, and Catwalk.

Her publications include The Rumpus, BUST Magazine, Sinister Wisdom, Brain Mill Press, Phoebe, MUTHA Magazine, Nailed Magazine, The Collagist, theEEEL, Atticus Review, Entropy, Perceptions, Oregon East, Gertrude Press, Four and Twenty, The North Coast Squid, The Manifest Station, the poetry anthology Step Lightly, The Dream Closet (a collection of writing on childhood spaces from Secretary Press), and The Untold Gaze (a book of writing paired with the paintings of Stephen O'Donnell). Liz has exhibited in group art shows including Siren Nation and Reed Off the Clock. Her 16 mm animated short, "The Loveseat," showed in gay and lesbian film festivals across the US and in Canada from 1998-2000. At EOU, Liz got her MFA in Creative Nonfiction under the guidance of Lidia Yuknavitch and Justin Hocking.

Liz has read at a variety of literary events over the past fifteen years, including the Dangerous Writers at Burnt Tongue, the Foul Weather Writers, at Words We Love, Grief Writes, Songbook, and Portland at Heart. She has performed storytelling with The Mystery Box and at Tales of Uncertainty. She has taught classes in creativity and embodiment at Portland Underground Graduate School, Corporeal Writing, the NW Narrative Medicine Collaborative Community Practicum, and guest taught at MFA programs. She loves to talk about any of the topics she writes about and to ask artists questions about how they craft a life and how they make their art. Hit her up for an interview!

Liz is seeking publication for two complete manuscripts: Art Becoming Becoming Art is a hybrid creative nonfiction book that explores processes of art-making as metaphors for discovery and self-acceptance. Metaphor Medicine is a guided visualization instructional based on her podcast. A third book, a memoir on personal ghosts and how they can haunt and heal us, is in the works.