Category Archives: Reading

Launching Hereverent!

My first two launch events for Hereverent have been announced!

My publisher is throwing me a virtual launch on April 21 that will be part of the Favorite Poems series! Each poet will read a favorite poem or two from my new book in addition to work of their own. Join me with Fox Henry Frazier, Diane Glancy, Charles Jensen, Tania Runyan, Nicelle Davis, Jen Grace Stewart, Charnell Peters, and Jane Muschenetz!

Register in advance at this link.

And if you’re in San Diego, you can join me in person for a very special Poetry & Jazz book launch celebration on April 20 at 3 p.m. in Cooper Music Parlor at PLNU. I’ll read poems, my friend Brenda will do some jazz piano improvisation in response, and we’ll have dessert! I can’t wait!

In the mean time, you can still pre-order Hereverent! The book officially drops on April 3.

First Friday and WNP

I’ve been sleep deprived and scrambling to finish course prep after what felt like the shortest winter break ever, but somehow I still got to be involved in two poetry readings within the past week, and those were life giving.

The First Friday reading at San Diego Writers, Ink last week was delightful! What a joy to see some faces I didn’t expect to see and to read from How to Play alongside Jane Muschenetz, who read from her forthcoming chapbook and ended with having everyone raise some sparkling cider, and pinch-hitting poet Jill Hall, who stepped in at the last minute to fill in for our sick scheduled reader. Thanks to Tania Pryputniewicz for organizing such a wonderful event and to Kristen Fogle for hosting! (And thanks to Jenn Givhan and Ann Tweedy for sending photos of me!)

And tonight I was part of a virtual event: Wednesday Night Poetry featured Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology, and I was one of the readers representing the anthology. The other featured poems were incredible. I can’t wait to hold a copy of this book in my hands! Thanks to host Kai Coggin for featuring us!

Simultánea, Play Forever: A Celebratory Reading!

On Oct. 1, Margarita Pintado, Emma McCoy, and I had a wonderful time celebrating our new poetry collections with a virtual reading for a lovely audience that included folks from San Diego to Nairobi!

If you’d like to catch the recording of our reading, you can find it now on YouTube.

If you’d like to get copies of our collections, here are the links to purchase them:

Emma McCoy’s “In Case I Live Forever”
Margarita Pintado’s “Simultánea, La Marea”
Katie Manning’s “How to Play”

Thanks for supporting poets and poetry!

A Celebratory Reading!

I had so much fun reading with these amazing poets in person a couple weeks ago, and so many people from all over told us they wished they could be there, so I’ve asked Margarita Pintado and Emma McCoy to join me for a virtual celebration! We’d love for you to join us on Zoom this Saturday, Oct. 1, at 10 a.m. Pacific. Grab your beverage of choice and let us read to you from our new poetry collections. Register at this link.

Glen Workshop, La Playa Books, SDUT Festival of Books

The past month was full! We crammed in as much last-minute summer break fun as we could (and I’m still a bit sore from two nights of all-you-can-play laser tag) while also trying to prepare for the new semester. Last week was full of meetings, and this week we all started school again!

The end of July and the month of August still found me immersed in poetry though. Highlights include a week in Asheville at the Glen Workshop, where I took the lyric essay workshop with Molly McCully Brown and had so much fun with writer friends. It was especially fun to be there when Agape Editions announced that they’ll be publishing my second full-length poetry collection, Hereverent, in Spring 2023! These dear friends stole me away to celebrate…

Another highlight: a reading at my delightful little neighborhood bookshop, La Playa Books, with Leonora Simonovis and Karla Cordero…

Recent highlight: a full day at the poetry stage at the SD-UT Festival of Books, where I got to host the teen and young adult poets, including two of my rockstar students, Emma McCoy and Aliah Fabros, and also enjoy readings by several more incredible San Diego poets and friends.

I’m looking forward to more readings and good things coming soon. If you’re in San Diego, join Margarita Pintado, Emma McCoy, and me at PLNU for a joint poetry book release celebration in Colt Hall at 4:30 on Wednesday, Sept. 14! We’ll each be reading from our newly published poetry collections, and it’s going to be a fun time.

A Hundred Pitchers of Honey

Reading in Donna Vorreyer’s virtual series, A Hundred Pitchers of Honey, was such a delight this past Thursday evening! I shared some poems from How to Play, along with a couple of newer dinosaur poems, and I loved getting to hear my fellow readers–Fox Henry Frazier, Ann Hudson, and Steven Sanchez. Their incredible readings might’ve caused me to do some book buying immediately after…

If you’d like to relive the magic, the reading is now on YouTube! Grab a cold drink and imagine you’re with us in real time. 🙂

Mom Egg Review: Poem & Launch Reading!

My poem “Dear Carol,” was published in the new issue of Mom Egg Review, and I’m so excited to be part of the issue’s virtual launch reading on June 2.

You can register for the June 2 free virtual launch reading at this link.
(The second launch reading on June 5 will also be excellent.)

You can also purchase a print edition or PDF edition of the new issue, and you should. This one is especially fantastic!

Conversations with Poets!

I had such a fun time chatting about poetry and reading some poems with Michael Klam at the San Diego Public Library for this Conversations with Poets video series.

I’ve really enjoyed watching the other videos in the series too. Thanks also to the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture and the San Diego Poetry Annual for this great collaborative project.

Shows & Publications

I’m spinning too many plates right now. Some plates that should be spinning are actually still packed in the box, but I’m limited, and between the ongoing pandemic and the violence in Ukraine, it’s hard to continue on as usual.  Even so, here are some poetry highlights from the past month…

In early March, I got to be a virtual featured poet for Wednesday Night Poetry, the longest running weekly open mic in the country, and it was a joy to share some of the poems for my spouse from How to Play.

Also in March, I received my contributor’s copy of Dear Vaccine, the print anthology created from the global poetry project of the same name. It’s fun to see work by friends in here with me, and I was excited that Naomi Shihab Nye was one of the editors.

At the end of March, I got to release the new spring issue of my journal, Whale Road Review, and it’s amazing. Even when the rest of life is chaotic, I love doing this editing and publishing work.

Yesterday, John Compton hosted me on the jojo show, and it was so fun to talk with him about How to Play, all things poetry, and whatever else we stumbled upon.

To anyone reading this, I hope you’re safe and well.