Category Archives: Blog

The Glen Workshop

I almost missed this year’s Glen Workshop, and even the day before I felt like I probably shouldn’t be doing it because I desperately needed more time to plan for virtual delivery of my fall classes, but I’m so glad I did. The community I find at this workshop is always so valuable, and even though we had to be online, we still spent the week laughing, talking all things poetry, sharing new poems in workshops, generating new poems… it was a glorious and rejuvenating time! Thanks to Lisa Cockrel, Sara Arrigoni, and the rest of the Image staff who make it happen!

Natasha Oladokun was a warm and welcoming workshop leader, and her emphasis on radical revision led us into some wonderful discussions (and led me to some exciting revisions!). I just adored each person in this workshop, and I’m so thankful that I got to spend a week in their company. I hope we’ll get to be together in person some time in the future.

Stations of the Cross

If you’re looking for some artistic/interactive Stations of the Cross online today, I helped build these for my church. They’ve got some thought-provoking visual art throughout, and Stations 11 and 13 will give you prompts for writing your own poems. Station 11 also includes one of my own poems, “The Flesh Made Word” from The Gospel of the Bleeding Woman.

Blessings on you this Holy Week!

Teaching Online (or Zoom Screenshots Are the New Selfies)

In this alternate reality of COVID-19 and sheltering in place, I’m thankful that I still get to do the work I love, and I’m thankful for the ways I’ve been able to connect with my students over poetry and writing online.

When we rebooted our classes online last week, I greeted my Creative Writing: Poetry students on Zoom in my Waldo costume from a past Halloween, and I loved seeing people laugh when they arrived and I told them, “You found me!” 😀

Then last Wednesday, my lit mag workshop students were supposed to hold this semester’s major event: the Driftwood awards party, which usually means lots of pizza and creative readings, performances, and displays in our school’s rec room. The editors quickly shifted plans, and we instead hosted a Driftwood celebration on Zoom, open mic style, and it turned out to be such a fun night. 

On Saturday, I had planned to host a new “event” that I call Writers Gonna Write (a silent 3-hour writing time for students, alumni, and colleagues) in our department lounge, so I held this on Zoom instead. We did indeed keep each other in our seats writing for 3 hours, and it was wonderful to get to do our work in each other’s company.

I hope anyone reading this is also finding ways to be present with others via technology, snail mail, sidewalk chalk, or however else you can while we need to be physically distant. Love to you.

AJN blog post about “Carrying”

With all of the chaos, I’m late with sharing that the American Journal of Nursing’s managing editor, Amy M. Collins, wrote a beautiful blog post about my poem “Carrying” earlier this month. I’m so grateful for her attention and connection to my poem.

Here’s the beginning:

Good News: Forthcoming Chapbook!

River Glass Books is going to publish my chapbook of prose poems, “28,065 Nights,” in August 2020! This collection is especially dear to me. It explores storytelling and grief in poems that I wrote about/to my Granny after she died. When I got the publication news, I jumped up in excitement, ran upstairs to tell my spouse, and then sat down and cried. I’m so honored that River Glass wants to share this chapbook!

Crossing the Lines

Last week I had the privilege of participating in Crossing the Lines, an interdisciplinary diversity conference at PLNU.

In addition to presenting my own poetry from my Bible word-banking project alongside some of my incredible poetry students, I got to see presentations from other brilliant students, colleagues, and scholars. I also got to catch up with Jenn Givhan and hear her fantastic keynote address.

What an important and enjoyable conference! Thanks to Sam Powell and Maira Lopes for organizing this and including me.

Poetry Rev

In honor of National Poetry Month, I’m starting a video series called Poetry Rev. I’ll be doing 2-3 minute poetry book reviews with a sample poem each and posting the videos to YouTube. Please check out my welcome video for more details and subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Festival of Faith & Writing

Last month, I had a wonderful first time at the Festival of Faith & Writing in Grand Rapids!  (Even though I had to re-book my Sunday morning flight and get out on Saturday afternoon to escape an ice storm…) I especially loved spending time with writer friends on the plane ride there, over meals, in the hot tub, and at the One Poet, One Poem reading.

I got to present on a panel of literary journal editors called “Making Space: The Literary Journal as Witness” alongside Angela Doll Carlson (Saint Katherine Review), Nathaniel Lee Hansen (The Windhover), Daniel Bowman (Relief), and Brianna Van Dyke (Ruminate). I loved getting to represent Whale Road Review and talk about reading, writing, and editing with such wonderful company.

One of the very best parts for me was seeing my current and incoming PLNU colleagues present. Dean Nelson gave an excellent talk on interviewing (even at 8:30 in the morning), and Margarita Pintado gave a great poetry talk and reading.

Some of my other favorite sessions included a celebration of Luci Shaw and later an interview with her conducted by Madeleine L’Engle’s granddaughters, a poetry session on daughters writing mothers (with Barbara Crooker and Jeanne Murray Walker), and a session on using ancient texts (with Diane Glancy and Lauren Winner). l also loved the keynote by Edwidge Danticat, who was stunning when she read and talked about her book The Art of Death.

Another highlight for me: I was so impressed with Pádraig Ó Tuama, an Irish poet, who did an interview alongside Marie Howe and then gave a talk and reading on Friday. When I bought his book and went to his signing, I also gave him a copy of The Gospel of the Bleeding Woman because he’d talked a bit about the bleeding woman during his interview. I felt a bit like a silly fan giving him a copy of my book, but I did it anyway. When I was traveling home on Saturday, a friend texted me to say, “Did you SEE what Pádraig posted about your chapbook on Instagram?!”

This was a wonderful way to close my first trip to FFW. 🙂 I hope to be back!

Poets in Pajamas

I had so much fun being the guest poet on Poets in Pajamas on my birthday! I read a couple of favorite poems from each of my published collections, plus a couple of bonus brand new poems, and I answered questions from the live online audience. Thanks to all who tuned in and participated!

You can catch the video of my reading here: Poets in Pajamas 32: Katie Manning.