My new chapbook, 28,065 Nights, is now available for pre-order from River Glass Books!
This is a collection of prose poems that explore storytelling, grief, and love. I wrote these poems to my Granny after her death, so this book is extra dear to me.
I’m so grateful to Kimberly Dawn and Marley Stuart for making this beautiful chapbook of my poems!
Thank you to the editors of Memoir Mixtapes for re-printing my poem “Ojo Caliente,” which was first published in the American Journal of Nursing. I love that they include a playlist of the connected songs for each piece, so definitely listen along as you read the whole issue!
A year ago today, I spontaneously started a series of little video reviews and called it Poetry Rev. Poemeleon was kind enough to feature my YouTube channel on their site this week!
Please click the image above to see the rest of this short feature, and please do follow me on YouTube for more Poetry Rev videos coming soon (as soon as I recover from pneumonia!).
Happy National Poetry Month, poetry fools! 🥳
My poem “We Brought You to San Diego” was published in an anthology of San Diego poets called Bards Against Hunger. Proceeds go to a local food bank. I’m grateful to editor Chris Vannoy for including me!
I also got to participate in a release party reading at Verbatim Books on March 2. Thanks to Ellen Huang for the photo!
Since people were responding to my poem “Don’t Repeat This” in the latest issue of Thimble, the editors asked if they could publish more of my work in their newsletter. Here are “Jesus Was Not a Monkey” and “No One Beats Jesus at Chess” from Thimbletter No. 8, February 2020.
after a picket sign
I’m so happy for these poems to be published alongside work by Shawnte Orion, who is awesome and also went to my high school. You can subscribe to Thimble’s newsletter yourself at this link.
I’m honored that The Lascaux Review wanted to reprint my poem “Nevermore.”
Check out this great online journal!
My poem “Post-Partum Jenga” is published in the new issue of Lunch Ticket.
Check out the rest of this issue too, especially the incredible poem by Albert Abonado. Thanks, Lunch Ticket!
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.
Here’s a quick event update from the last few months…
I had the pleasure of spending last week in Santa Fe at the Glen Workshop. I took Pádraig Ó Tuama’s “Poetry and Preaching” class, in which we read poems and had thoughtful conversations about midrash and more. I got to attend amazing readings and panels, write in the company of friends, attend an opera, practice yoga while the sun rose over the mountains, visit the Ojo Caliente hot springs, eat fantastic food, stand in awe at the Georgia O’Keeffe museum, and wander happily through Meow Wolf. (I also got to visit urgent care thanks to a spider bite!) It was so good to be in the company of some of my favorite poets and creative people.
On June 22, my family kicked off our 3-week road trip by driving up to L.A. so I could do a reading with Zoetic Press at Book Show. I had so much fun reading with Gayle Brandeis, Marie C. Lecrivain, Kevin Wetmore, and company, and I got to see Kolleen Carney Hoepfner and meet her famously adorable baby in person. Thanks again for hosting this, Lise and Kolleen!
In mid-April, I was once again chairing the Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry Area of the Popular Culture Association National Conference, which was held in Washington, D.C. I got to spend my first day with the kind and brilliant poet Sarah Ann Winn, who showed me around her home in Virginia (tulips! book shop! tasty food!) before we ventured over to the conference. Then I got to spend three days immersed in poetry sessions, which was exhausting and exhilarating. I love hearing undergraduates read alongside retired professors. We had a spectacular off-site event this year: a poetry salon at the home of Anne Harding Woodworth, whose windows look out over the city in view of the National Cathedral.
At the end of March, I attended the AWP conference. I love being in the crowd of creative writers, but this year I finally felt like I found my groove: a few panels, a few off-site events, lots of chatting at the book fair and over meals with friends. I had two major commitments at this conference, and they were deeply meaningful to me. First, I hosted a tribute event for Marthe Reed, my beloved dissertation advisor who passed away the previous April. We had such a wonderful time reading work by/for her and celebrating her life together. Second, I co-sponsored One Poet, One Poem on behalf of Whale Road Review, and there I read Marjorie Maddox’s poem in honor of Anya Silver, a dear poet friend whom we’d lost the previous August. In some ways, it felt strange to go to a writing conference for these grief-related purposes, but I was so glad that I had the opportunity to grieve with others and to honor these incredible poets.
