More about Todd

Todd's artistic vision is to make the world more poetic. His non-traditional projects exhibit elegance of expression, simplicity of execution, accessibility, and multimedia collaborations. His work often involves development of platforms that invite collaborations, including a cross-disciplinary film company, an augmented-reality app, and a 100-college playwriting residency network.

​

​

​

Social impact is at the heart of Todd’s practice. His ventures skew toward collaborations with women and people of color, or involve tangible charitable give-back for refugee relief work, childhood literacy, disadvantaged youth travel abroad programs, or the work of the American Civil Liberties Union. 

​

Todd's shared and solo patent projects include The Laptop Strap (a minimalist adhesive that turns a laptop into a wearable device) and Limber Bows (a re-curved shoulder-height alternative to hiking poles).

​

His public artworks include a train-based VR "thrill ride", a building projection, a river installation, and an AR spirit-guided nature tour — projects that have attracted major grants, awards, and sponsors such as The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The Northern Spark Arts Festival, The University of Minnesota Medical School, The Poetry Foundation, Volkswagen of America, and the Clinton White House.

 

Todd's four poetry collections are published by W. W. Norton & Co. He has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Alaska-Anchorage. Todd's poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, National Public Radio, The London Times, American Poetry Review, Georgia Review, New England Review, The Sun, Best American Poetry, and many anthologies. His poetry has been recognized with Prairie Schooner's Glenna Luschei Prize, Virginia Quarterly Review's Balch Prize, the Minnesota Book Award, the Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award, various fellowships, and eleven Pushcart nominations.

 

His practice of writing poems on private commission evolved into an award-winning podcast called There's a Poem in That, in which he helps strangers discover the poetry in their most intimate stories — now available on all platforms. The podcast has spun off a mobile pop-up Poetry Therapy Clinic and the world's first poetry commissioning agency.
 

His lyrics for choir and solo voice have been performed at Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and around the world. Recognitions include features on two Grammy nominated albums, a regional Emmy, and many high-profile commissions. 

​

He has worked with 150 filmmakers, and Pulitzer-winning and early-career poets alike, on poetry films that have been presented in Cannes, London, Dublin, New York, LA and elsewhere. His film company, Motionpoems, has been recognized with two regional Emmys and by the National Book Foundation's "Innovations in Reading" Award, and received a $125,000 Knight Arts Challenge, among dozens of awards, citations, and festival laurels.

​

His first children's book, The Boy Who Said Wow, was published by Simon & Schuster's Beach Lane imprint.

​

​

​

​

 

Todd grew up on an 80-acre cattle farm near Fall Creek, Wisconsin, and attended St. Olaf College and the University of Alaska–Anchorage. In 2018, he sold all his possessions and gave up a permanent address. A nomad for the next six years, he circled the globe on a series of 30 consecutive house-sits, plus dozens of short term rentals, most recently in Austin, Long Beach, Bozeman, Lisbon, Asheville, and New Orleans. He's written an essay about his nomadic lifestyle here. He now lives in Austin, Texas, with his life-partner, multi-Grammy-winning soprano Hila Plitmann.

You can find Todd's headshot here and access his CV here.

​

​

​