Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hannah Levy. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Hannah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most meaningful project I’ve been working on is The Rebis (www.therebis.com), an annual print publication devoted to tarot, art, and creative writing. It’s an ongoing project—I released the third volume in Fall 2024 and will begin work on the next issue in Spring 2025. The Rebis is a tarot-themed literary journal: each issue brings an international group of artists and writers together to explore a single tarot card (we’ve covered The Wheel of Fortune, The Chariot, and now The Star).

The idea for the publication came to me suddenly in February 2022. I had recently stepped back from my full-time job running brand and content marketing programs for tech companies and was recovering from severe burnout. While I was grateful to have the privilege to go on sabbatical, it was a very uncomfortable experience emotionally; I had been living and breathing the hustle/girlboss culture for the previous 14 years and had internalized the fast-paced (and incredibly toxic) “grow at all costs” mentality. Moving slower, with intention, I started questioning my values and priorities and started an excruciating process of unlearning. I craved creativity and art-making, and I wanted to be in community with others who shared my values.

I had been using tarot as a method of self-inquiry for many years, and I turned to the cards more and more as I began considering big, thorny concepts like “purpose.” This is how the idea for The Rebis was born: I imagined a tapestry woven from the stories of the tarot, a place to feature creative writing and art, grounded in archetypes and symbolism. Something meaningful and beautiful, meant to be touched and savored. An antidote to doomscrolling. And ultimately, a community grounded in the anticapitalist principles of reciprocity and liberation.

I’m so proud of what we’ve built. The Rebis is committed to amplifying and centering underrepresented voices, paying artists and writers fairly for their work, and redistributing profits to social justice causes. To date, we’ve featured over 60 artists and writers from all over the world and have donated more than $8500 to social justice orgs focused on reproductive rights, reparations, and indigenous sovereignty.

There’s a famous Toni Morrison quote from an op-ed she wrote for The Nation in 2015. She writes, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Like art.”

I feel very honored (and energized) to be working on a project devoted to collective action, emergent thinking, radical care, and restorative justice.

Hannah , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Hannah Levy, a writer, editor, and poet. I like to think of myself as an editorial multidisciplinarian: I’ve held many different types of roles throughout my career, with a focus on writing, content development, and community building.

As for my backstory… I went to journalism school, took a gig as a travel writer living abroad in South America, and then served as editor-in-chief of an independent music blog in my early twenties. In 2011, I got a job working for a startup and spent the next decade-plus working for various tech companies, leading brand and content marketing teams.

Shifting gears to creative work and running a literary journal at the intersection of art and spirituality has been a profound journey for me. It’s allowed me to learn from a diverse group of people who are world re-building not only through their art, but also through the values they embody daily. In the role of editor, I see myself as a curator and steward—collaborating with artists and writers to elevate their best work.

Being in a community of creative people has inspired me and given me the confidence to put my own writing out there, too. I launched a free online publication called //understories// which features poetry and prose about intimacy and awe and the ache of living, and 2023 was the first year my poetry was featured in various publications, including Variant Literature, Sunday Mornings at the River, Rhizo Magazine, and The Spell Jar by Indie Earth Publishing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being a creative person requires a lot of self-awareness and embodiment, and I enjoy the erotic nature of having to be so deeply in touch with myself, my intuition, my dreams, my imagination. I use the word “erotic” here to mean internal power, lifeforce, that spiritual place where my art, my voice, and my creativity pulses.

In Audre Lorde’s famous essay “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” she writes, “When we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible to ourselves in the deepest sense.”

For me, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of the creative journey: it’s not just about the art or writing I produce, but also about an ever-unfolding process of self-becoming and the self-knowledge it requires.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the lessons I am still unlearning is related to perfection and the fear of failure. Last year, I read Katherine Morgan Schafler’s “The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control” and had to come to terms with how much I get in my own way, plagued by fears of rejection.

In the book, she writes, “A lot of perfectionists think they’re driven by success when what they’re really driven by is the avoidance of failure—two very different animals.” This has been very true for me.

For years, I didn’t submit my poetry to literary journals. It was difficult to see myself as a “poet,” given that I don’t have an MFA and had never taken a poetry class. But after reading Schafler’s book, and after encouragement from friends and colleagues, I started submitting my writing. When the rejections rolled in, I tried to frame it as evidence that I was trying, not as failure. Eventually, I got a few acceptance letters!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hannaheve.substack.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hnnhlvy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hnnhlvy/
• Other: The Rebis: https://www.therebis.com/
  Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hannaheve.com