Category Archives: Reading

28,065 Nights Release Reading

Today’s release reading for my new chapbook was such a gift. I got to read alongside students, peers, and mentors in a Zoom room full of friends, family, and former strangers. Most of the reading is available for viewing on YouTube now.

I never expected that such a joyful event would come from my little chapbook of deep grief, but getting to weave my words together with work by each of these wonderful poets was amazing.

Thank you to all who read with me and worked behind the scenes to make this possible. Thank you to the 100+ people who attended too. This poet feels very celebrated and grateful today.

Visit this page to find out more about 28,065 Nights.

Poetry on Point

I started Poetry on Point in 2016 because I knew that the faculty, staff, and administration across disciplines at PLNU were writing poems (secretly and not-so-secretly), and I wanted them all to read their poems to me! This year we’re not together in an ocean view room, and I don’t have cookies to share, but please feel welcome to bring your own cookies and to watch these videos from current and retired PLNU faculty and staff. I needed this today.

Thanks especially to Ashley Reynolds Montaño for creating this beautiful web page and arranging the virtual room for this event (in addition to jumping in and sharing one of her own poems!).

Wednesday Night Poetry

This summer, I’ve been participating in Wednesday Night Poetry, the longest running weekly poetry reading in the nation. This series is usually in Arkansas, but its presence online is one is those unexpectedly beautiful things that has come about during the pandemic. I’m so grateful to Kai Coggin for hosting this event and curating this reading in such a welcoming, inclusive, affirming way. This has been a summer highlight for me.

Last night I shared my poem “Nevermore,” a love poem for my Granny from my chapbook 28,065 Nights, which will be published next month by River Glass Books.

 

Voices at Home: A Virtual Reading from Mom Egg Review

I’m so thrilled to be part of Voices at Home: A Virtual Reading to celebrate the release of Mom Egg Review 18! This home-themed issue contains some incredible work, and I love seeing videos of the poets reading in or just outside of their homes. Thanks to Marjorie Tesser and the rest of the MER crew for curating this beautiful journal and making space for writing by and about mothers.

The virtual reading will be up on the website for the rest of the month, so check it out! You can see me reading my poem “Hermit Crab” alongside so many poets I admire: Barbara Crooker, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Gabrielle Brant Freeman, Jules Jacob, Jennifer Jean, Cathy McArthur, Kyle Potvin, Kimberly Ann Priest, Sarah Dickenson Snyder, Pramila Venkateswaran, and more!

 

PCA 2020: Poetry Salon on Zoom

We didn’t get to present in Philadelphia this week as we’d planned, but many of us from the Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry area of the Popular Culture Association came together for a poetry salon on Zoom today, and it was so wonderful to read poems to each other and chat for a while. I always love the warmth and creative energy of this conference, and I’m so thankful that I still got to experience that today.

And now a silly one…

I hope we’ll get to be together next year in Boston!

“Hermit Crab” in Mom Egg Review

I recorded my poem “Hermit Crab” that was just published in Mom Egg Review, vol. 18. I wrote it two years ago, but it feels strangely timely now.

 

Hermit Crab

The pain in my right temple
flares awake, my lower back
aches from face-down sleep,
my sprained ankle pangs
before I take a step. I long
to crawl downstairs and out
to the beach. If I could slither
my soul from this skin, I would
find a new shell to hold me,
something shiny and solid—
no cracks—something large
enough to bring my spouse
and children in, shield us
from this violent, broken world.

You can order copies of MER’s “Home” themed issue at this link. Mom Egg Review took submissions a year ago, but this issue also feels especially timely now, so check out the order link and get yourself a copy of this wonderful literary magazine (and order copies for others too!). I’m thrilled to have a poem in here alongside so many writers I admire. Thanks, Marjorie Altman Tesser, Jennifer Colella Martelli, and company!

THRUSH Virtual Reading Series

I can’t participate in or attend as many of the online poetry events as I’d like since I’m trying to be a full-time prof (newly online) and a full-time stay-at-home (homeschooling?) mom simultaneously, but I jumped at the chance to be a featured reader in the new THRUSH Virtual Reading Series on Zoom last Friday night. Thanks to Helen Vitoria for creating this salon-style reading! I started things off by sharing seven poems, and then I was enamored with the incredible poems by Sandy Marchetti, Sally Rosen Kindred, Dan Albergotti, Jennifer Colella Martelli, Rachel Patterson Moles, and Amanda Auerbach. What a life-giving experience! You can watch the whole reading on YouTube and subscribe to Helen Vitoria’s channel to catch more of these weekly THRUSH contributor readings.