Category Archives: Uncategorized

RockPaperPoem Board Member

Last week, I officially became a RockPaperPoem board member! I might be more surprised by this than anyone since I’ve been in a season of needing to say no to many things, but this feels like a worthwhile way to support fellow editors and writers, so I’m glad I could say yes. This journal is about 4 years old, has a friendly vibe, and has published many poets I admire. I’m so sorry that I’m filling a vacancy due to the sudden passing of co-founder Vincent O’Connor, but I’m very honored that they’ve invited me to be part of their board.

Review of Hereverent in Presence

Thanks to Michael Dechane for his lovely review of Hereverent in the new issue of Presence! Here’s an excerpt that the journal shared on social media:

“This feels like Lectio Divina meets fridge magnet poetry meets found poetry meets erasure poetry meets the serious, playful holiness of Manning’s imagination.”
— from Michael Dechane’s review of Katie Manning’s Hereverent in Presence 2025.

AWP, PCA, & the San Diego Writers Festival

My dad passed away this week. I feel shocked by this every time I say it. This post is not about my dad, but it felt wrong not to acknowledge that after the last few hard months, things here continue to be hard and sad.

Somehow, there’s still been joy and fun in the last couple of months too. This extrovert writer is especially happy when I get to throw myself into a sea of writers and spend days totally immersed in the writing world, so here’s a rundown of recent conferences and a festival.

AWP conference highlights:
– Celebrating Whale Road Review‘s 10-year anniversary at our booth with nonstop author signings and some sparkling cider toasts (pictured above).
– Being part of amazing off-site events: Wednesday Night Poetry, Off Site. On Purpose. (co-sponsored by Whale Road Review, SWWIM, MER, Perugia Press, and Cultivating Voices LIVE), and Reluctant Prophets (a book launch for J.D. Isip). Each of these felt magical—full of incredible poems and some of my very favorite poets.
– Giving a presentation on Networking for Writers alongside Abayomi Animashaun, Elizabeth Dark, and Jessica Jacobs.
– Going to the Gregory Alan Isakov concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on the last night with some of my dearest friends.

San Diego Writers Festival highlights:
– Being part of an eclectic panel interview on the writing life that was organized and moderated by Adam Greenfield (pictured above).
– Reading as a featured poet alongside some of San Diego’s rockstar poets.
– Meeting new writers and visiting with dear friends around the bookfair and in the presenters’ lounge.

PCA conference highlights:
– Enjoying the poetry panels: all hits, no misses! Being there as an attendee/presenter rather than as an Area Chair for the first time in 11 years was a nice break (and Billie Tadros did a fantastic job chairing).
– Presenting on how to write occasional poems on a deadline alongside Morgan Tinin and Debbie Campbell (who I refer to as my Whale Road Review doula due to a conversation we had 10 years ago at PCA in NOLA!).
– Getting to enjoy panels and events in other areas, including a Disney area movie viewing (an unofficial sing-along) and the annual Game Studies game night (where someone just gave me a new expansion of Settlers of Catan after I showed him the Catan earrings I was wearing.)
– Spending time with dear long-time friends and some newly-made friends too, often over fantastic food. So many beignets, but not nearly enough. 🙂

MoonPark Review

Life has continued to be busy and somewhat absurd, so I’m behind on sharing good things! Here’s a quick bit of news from March: I had a prose poem included in the spring issue of MoonPark Review. I’m honored that the editors wanted to share this one, and I love the art that they created to accompany my poem. I hope you’ll take some time to enjoy their whole issue.

Election Week Poetry Events

It would be an understatement to say that the past week has been rough, but I realized today that the week has also brought some really lovely moments of connecting with people over poetry, and I want to hold on to those experiences.

On Monday evening, I went straight from the airport to the Mingei Museum in Balboa Park for a fair of women-run organizations and the book launch of Jane Muschenetz’s Power Point. It was life giving to celebrate Jane’s book and to be in the company of so many incredible women.

On Wednesday afternoon, I hosted our annual Poetry on Point reading at PLNU. I started this event 9 years ago so that all of the faculty and staff who write poetry could gather to read our poems for an audience, and it’s so lovely and joyful to hear my colleagues across disciplines sharing their poems.

On Thursday, I was a guest poet in the University of North Dakota’s Virtual Speaker Series. I read a variety of my poems and talked about my process of learning (over and over again) to let myself write what I need to write without letting my worries or anything else hold me back. Even via Zoom, they were such a lovely audience and had great questions. I’m grateful to Patrick Henry for inviting me and teaching my work in his class!

Yesterday afternoon, I got to be a guest speaker at the International Memoir Writers Association monthly gathering. I talked about and read from my chapbook 28,065 Nights, answered questions about chapbooks and about how poetry and memoir intersect, and ended with a writing exercise (that got me writing too!). I was honored to be invited to share with this group of kind writers.

Another thing that lifted me away from post-election despair was this: I filled in for a friend’s American Literature class on Friday, and he had assigned readings from Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Margaret Fuller. Re-reading these texts and discussing 19th century women’s rights with a room of college students (all brilliant women) felt so important, and I think it fired me up to face whatever comes next.

Mothman & Little Free Lit Mag

I have a couple new publications to share! First, Mothman Was Here: Tales of the Uncanny is a fantastic cryptid-themed anthology edited by William Woolfitt and published by Tenpenny Books. I would love this anthology even if my poem weren’t included, but I’m extra delighted that a reprint of my poem “Baba Yaga’s Answer” is in such excellent company.

Last week, my poem “When My Spouse Was Hot” was published in the first issue of Little Free Lit Mag, and I’m so happy to be part of this new journal’s launch! The idea is that you can read (and listen to) the issues online and also print out copies to leave in little free libraries near you. So clever! I’m especially honored that they wanted to share this poem, which blends some playfulness with some flashbacks to cancer/chemo.

UPDATE (6/28/25): Apparently Little Free Library is the trademarked name of an organization that is litigiously defensive (which is fascinating since I thought that little free libraries were just a cool idea that had spread! I should’ve known someone was capitalizing on it.) So this magazine has rebranded as Painted Pebble. You can read my poem “When My Spouse Was Hot” at their new website! 

Interview in The Brooklyn Rail

I’m having trouble finding the words to share this interview that Tony Leuzzi did with me for The Brooklyn Rail. Whatever I say about it won’t quite capture how meaningful it is to me that he took such time and care with my work. His interview questions were thoughtful and generous, and his intro—with language like “What a relief and joy then it has been to encounter Katie Manning’s Hereverent,” and “Time and again, the poems in Hereverent left me astonished”—is incredibly affirming. He even had his students read Hereverent and write poems in the style of my project! What a gift.

You can read the full interview here.