Category Archives: Reading

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. 🙂

Mom Egg Review: Poem & Launch Reading!

My poem “Dear Carol,” was published in the new issue of Mom Egg Review, and I’m so excited to be part of the issue’s virtual launch reading on June 2.

You can register for the June 2 free virtual launch reading at this link.
(The second launch reading on June 5 will also be excellent.)

You can also purchase a print edition or PDF edition of the new issue, and you should. This one is especially fantastic!

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.

Readings in the Stars

The end of January found me in some amazing company! I got to participate in two release readings for A Harp in the Stars: An Anthology of Lyric Essays (U of Nebraska Press, 2021). I’m still pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming about having a piece included in this gorgeous book!

On Saturday, January 29, The Writers Place in Kansas City hosted a reading on Zoom with anthology editor Randon Billings Noble and contributors Dorothy Bendel, Heidi Czerwiec, and me. Lyric essay as labyrinth? Lyric essay as body wash instructions? I loved hearing these essays aloud and sharing my “Nevermore” in such company. The sponsor was also special to me: I helped connect us to TWP, and this organization gave me a scholarship when I was an MA student at UMKC. I’m honored to be a member now.

On Monday, January 31, San Diego Writers, Ink sponsored our reading, and my former student Madi Bucci, who is now their administrative assistant, was our Zoom host! This time I got to read with Randon Billings Noble, Laurie Easter, LaTanya McQueen, and Maya Sonenberg, and I was once again stunned by my fellow contributors. Have you ever seen a lyric essay take the form of a word search (and then have it gut you with its content)? Well, you can if you read this anthology, and you definitely should.

 

Mercy Street Readings

Thanks to Ruben Quesada for including me in this stellar line up of poets last night! What a joy to read alongside these rockstars, and Jennifer Kwon Dobbs was such a warm and lovely host. I’m still glowing. 

 

May: The Other Journal, The Canopy Review, Guilty Pleasures, & Forms!

The end of May has found me busy preparing for things that shouldn’t overlap. I always release the summer issue of Whale Road Review during the first week of June, but my university delayed our spring semester’s start, so the first week of June is also our last week of classes. On top of that, the Popular Culture Association national conference (for which I run the Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry area) also moved this year from Boston during Easter week to a virtual platform during the first week of June. It’s absurd that these major roles I play are all colliding this coming week, but I’m as ready to rock as I can be.

Before I jump into this absurd week, here’s a look back at some lovely things from May that I didn’t get a chance to share here yet:

The Other Journal was especially good to me, re-publishing my poem “The Book of Fists” in their newest print issue and also publishing this beautiful review that Tom C. Hunley wrote about my latest chapbook, 28,065 Nights.

The Canopy Review published two of my poems in their second issue, and they’ve featured “The Book of Ear” on their website. (You can find that poem and “The Book of Ash” in the print issue.)

The “Guilty Pleasures” Crystal Field Scholarship Reading was held via Zoom on May 21, and I was honored to read a brand new poem in the company of some Kansas City poetry stars. I received the Crystal Field Scholarship 15 years ago during my time at UMKC, so it’s a special joy to thank the writers who keep this scholarship funded and to give back now.

Finally, I received the contributor copies of How to Write a Form Poem, which includes my ghazal “Time Falling” and my found poem “The Book of Class.” I’m so grateful to Tania Runyan for including my work and feel overwhelmed to have my poems in such stunning company.

Now to let these lovely things fuel me through the wild week ahead!