Category Archives: Blog

“Matter and Antimatter” in HAD

To be honest, I was just thrilled to catch HAD’s submission period for once. I usually miss them since they open and close so quickly. I came back to my office after a Friday morning class, opened my laptop, and saw the call. The theme: Endings. Well, that’s my specialty these days (years) I suppose. I raced to send some poems before they reached the cap. I was so surprised to get a message from Mitch Nobis later that day saying that he loved “Matter and Antimatter.” It’s a heavy one, so I’m extra grateful for the love. I wrote it in response to a news article I read last year.

Verse Daily & Moon Prize & Pushcart (Oh my!)

I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the good poetry news I’ve received lately, and I’m behind on sharing it here…

At the end of September, my poem “One Way to Use a Deck of Cards” from How to Play was featured on Verse Daily!

Last month, two of my poems were published in Writing in a Woman’s Voice: “After an Older Man from Church Drunk-Texts to Tell Me I Looked Good Topless in His Dream Last Night” and “What’s Something You Love That Can’t Love You Back?”

Also in October, two of my poems were published in Pirene’s Fountain: “This Poem Is about Dinosaurs” and “Choosing a Moon.” This whole issue is fantastic, and you can purchase a copy at this link.

This month, I’ve gotten some happy award news! “After an Older Man from Church…” received the Moon Prize from Writing in a Woman’s Voice on November 9, and “This Poem Is about Dinosaurs” was just nominated for a Pushcart Prize this week! I’m so grateful to these editors who’ve published and affirmed my work and to the folks who encourage me and read my poems.

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!

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. 🙂

La Playa Books & SD Book Crawl

The good folks at La Playa Books featured my poetry books for the San Diego Book Crawl over the last weekend of April. I was out of town, so extra thanks to Sarah Holly for sharing this photo with me!

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.

How to Play: Poems Inspired by Games

I am overjoyed to announce that my new chapbook, How to Play, is officially published!

A box of copies is on the way to me from Louisiana right now, so if you’d like to be one of the first to order a signed copy from me or to order a copy from Louisiana Literature Press, we’re officially taking orders! You can find all of the order links on this page.