Photo by Hans Eiskonen on Unsplash
I have a new poem up at Trampset, on regret, waiting, treating the body like a plant, and how the beginning of *last* year felt like an ill omen.
This is how the year begins, already wrong.
Was it in my stars that I would never think
of now, that I would wall myself inside
with looping thoughts?
The full poem is here, along with a lot of cool work, including two amazing fiction debuts in the same issue!
This is my first essay for a new Catapult column called Internet as Intimacy: “You’re in Good Virtual Hands: On ASMR, Anxiety, Relaxation in the Side-Hustle Economy, and Being Baby.” Featuring some of my favorite ASMRtists, and one of the best meme-takes by my friend Aiden Arata.
“Bed of Dragonflies” by Claudia Amuedo, courtesy of wearegrimoire.com
NYC POETRY FESTIVAL
I’ve been in New York City for a little over a year now. It’s been a lot, hence some radio silence, but the summer is shaping up magically.
I am reading poems THIS WEEKEND at The New York City Poetry Festival! If you’re in town and feel like taking the ferry to Governor’s Island, you might see me:
Reading with Litbreaker on the Chumley’s stage at 2:00 pm
Selling chapbooks and swag at the Sweet Action merch table at 4:00
Reading with Sweet Action Poetry Collective on the Chumley’s stage at 5:00 pm
Full schedule for the festival is here.
SOFT SKULL AND CATAPULT
In other news, I am now the editorial assistant at Soft Skull Press and get to spend my workdays surrounded by books!! Since last July, I’ve also been soliciting fiction and the occasional essay for Catapult and have published these gems:
“Dusty Secrets and Sleights of Hand” by Crystal Carey
“The Evacuation” by Sarah Blake
“North to the Future” by Luke Wiget
“How to Love a Rabbit” by Nahida S. Nisa
“Marisa, the Pitch Pine” by Joe Wadlington
“On Violations, Macarons, and the Pursuit of Beauty I Can Control” by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
“The Day Nothing Remarkable Happened” by Kamil Ahsan
PUBLICATIONS
My recent and forthcoming publications, since last update:
“Of all the classes of people who ever lived” and “THE FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF CHIVALRY” — erasure poems in the forthcoming anthology Erase the Patriarchy (University of Hell Press), edited by Isobel O’Hare
“Guided Meditation with Inner Mother” — poem at Grimoire
"Temperance" and "Becoming the Magician" — tarot medicine poems at Yes Poetry
"The Empress" and "Poem about My Uterus" — poems at FORTH magazine
Image courtesy of BlackLawrence.com
Happy National Poetry Month! I am pleased as punch to show you this beautiful-weird new cover for They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing—and more pleased than punch to announce that preorders are now open!!
Poet-friend Isobel O'Hare and I co-wrote a poem that appears in here. You can read about our process in the back of the book once it makes its way to your hot little hands. The full list of contributors, advanced praise (including from the editors of ZYZZYVA—I swooned), and order link are in today's BLP announcement.
Image courtesy of younginklings.org
In other Poetry Month news, Society of Young Inklings interviewed me as their resident poet for their monthly newsletter, the Ink Splat. You can read about me writing poems for online communities as a teen, gushing about Matthew Zapruder, and being inspired by young writers here.
Image courtesy of vineleavespress.com
Today is the official release date for this handsome coffee-table book, Vine Leaves Literary Journal: A Collection of Vignettes from Across the Globe. It includes "Cosmologies," a vignette I wrote some years ago in a creative writing class with Kate Evans.
The prompt was "you are an astronaut," and while many in my class wrote madcap sci-fi adventures, I thought about how children can believe they are anything. I wrote from the perspective of a mother recognizing that she can still create magic for her young son, but she won't always be able to.
The book of vignettes and photography is available to order at various sites here. If you, like me, are obsessive about adding books to the "to-read" list in Goodreads, you can find and add it here.
Annnnd stay tuned for another book-related announcement soon!