Category Archives: Publication

May: The Other Journal, The Canopy Review, Guilty Pleasures, & Forms!

The end of May has found me busy preparing for things that shouldn’t overlap. I always release the summer issue of Whale Road Review during the first week of June, but my university delayed our spring semester’s start, so the first week of June is also our last week of classes. On top of that, the Popular Culture Association national conference (for which I run the Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry area) also moved this year from Boston during Easter week to a virtual platform during the first week of June. It’s absurd that these major roles I play are all colliding this coming week, but I’m as ready to rock as I can be.

Before I jump into this absurd week, here’s a look back at some lovely things from May that I didn’t get a chance to share here yet:

The Other Journal was especially good to me, re-publishing my poem “The Book of Fists” in their newest print issue and also publishing this beautiful review that Tom C. Hunley wrote about my latest chapbook, 28,065 Nights.

The Canopy Review published two of my poems in their second issue, and they’ve featured “The Book of Ear” on their website. (You can find that poem and “The Book of Ash” in the print issue.)

The “Guilty Pleasures” Crystal Field Scholarship Reading was held via Zoom on May 21, and I was honored to read a brand new poem in the company of some Kansas City poetry stars. I received the Crystal Field Scholarship 15 years ago during my time at UMKC, so it’s a special joy to thank the writers who keep this scholarship funded and to give back now.

Finally, I received the contributor copies of How to Write a Form Poem, which includes my ghazal “Time Falling” and my found poem “The Book of Class.” I’m so grateful to Tania Runyan for including my work and feel overwhelmed to have my poems in such stunning company.

Now to let these lovely things fuel me through the wild week ahead!

A Harp in the Stars

I’m so thrilled to have a micro essay (or is it a prose poem?) included in this new lyric essay anthology, A Harp in the Stars, edited by Randon Billings Noble! You can pre-order it now from University of Nebraska Press if you’re so inclined.

 

Three Poems in Limp Wrist

I’m so honored to have three poems in the new issue of Limp Wrist! My poem “In Praise of Spouse” was a finalist for the 2021 Glitter Bomb Award.

Fun fact: I wrote this poem after listening to Pádraig O’Tuama read “Bone of My Bone and Flesh of my Flesh” by Ellen Bass on the Poetry Unbound podcast. I adore that poem, but Bass so quickly dismisses my favorite public term for my love, so I had to write this poem for my spouse. 

You can also read my poems “Con Pane” (named for my favorite bakery!) and “Temporomandibular Prayer” (named for my TMJ!) in this issue. Thanks to editor Dustin Brookshire for affirming and publishing my work.

Poem in Lucky Jefferson

Lucky Jefferson is the coolest journal! Every poem in this issue riffs on the same opening and closing line. There are blank pages to respond or compose your own poem between sets, and there’s a Spotify playlist from contributor recommendations at the end. I’m so thrilled to be part of this!

I’m grateful to the editors both for the prompt that led me to create “Sometimes I Shake Too” and for the gift of this stunning issue! You can buy a copy here.


How to Write a Form Poem

I am somewhere past thrilled to have two poems, a ghazal and a found poem, included in How to Write a Form Poem (T.S. Poetry Press, 2021) by Tania Runyan. This fantastic book is now available to buy, to adopt for classes, to give as gifts… it’s going to come in handy all over the place.

Tania also interviewed me about “The Book of Class,” my found poem that’s included in the book, and you can read that interview here. I don’t think I’ve ever teared up at an introduction to an interview before, but now I can say confidently that I have.

Three Poems in Verse-Virtual

To kick off National Poetry Month, I have three poems in the April issue of Verse-Virtual. This was my first submission to this journal, and I love the focus on community building and the note at the bottom of each page that encourages readers to contact the author if they love a piece.

My three poems in this issue are harder to share than most. They deal with the car accident that took the lives of my spouse’s parents. If you’re up for reading about my wishes to rewind and rewrite the past, the details of the car accident that kept me from sleeping well for months because I kept imagining it, and the bronchoscopy I witnessed, then these poems are for you. If you need to skip these poems, I will certainly understand.

I highly encourage you to read more of this issue, especially Barbara Crooker’s poem, which uses the Spanish glosa form. Thanks to editor Jim Lewis for curating this space and including my poems!

Guest Blog: 5 Steps to Poetry Publication

In 2014, I wrote a guest blog for Editing Addict called “How to Submit Poems for Publication.” The fantastic Trish Hopkinson has now published an updated version of this guest blog: “5 Steps to Poetry Publication.”

I found the process of submitting for publication bewildering when I first wanted to begin, so I hope I can help others feel more confident about getting their poems out there.

“Scheherazade’s Last Words” in The Shining Years

I’m so pleased to have my poem “Scheherazade’s Last Words” included in The Shining Years, an anthology edited by Gary J. Lechliter and published by Blue Wild Indigo Productions.

I admire so many of the poets in this anthology, so I won’t try to list them all here, but one of them is my late thesis advisor, Michelle Boisseau. I’m deeply honored to appear in this company. 

Tasty Other Song Cycle Premiere

Last night, many of us gathered for a YouTube watch party for the virtual premiere of Tasty Other: A Dramatic Song Cycle. What a gift to have Victor Labenske compose this song cycle from nine of my poems! Elda McGinty Peralta and Judith Spaite Labenske brought so much humor, skill, beauty, and brilliance to the vocals, and Victor’s playing and back-up vocals were gorgeous too. The YouTube video will remain available to view; it includes the audio track and the sheet music, which is also available for purchase here.

When I wrote poems based on anxiety dreams during my pregnancy ten years ago, I couldn’t have imagined that some of them would become a song cycle, but last night I got to watch and listen with my nine-year-old son eagerly watching and listening with me, and that was such a joy.

My book Tasty Other won the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award in 2016 and is available for purchase from the publisher or directly from me. Visit this page for more details.