I had such a fun time chatting with Mike Gravagno last month at Chapman University for the Writers’ Block podcast!
We talked about poetry, especially my newest book Tasty Other, and the weird variety of things that influence my writing, from board games to God.
I’m so thrilled to have a poem in the American Journal of Nursing this month. It’s fun to say that I have a poem in a peer-reviewed nursing journal, but it’s especially wonderful that it is this poem, which I wrote to honor those who died in the Baga massacre of January 2015. I’m glad that this poem is finding readers.
The end of the semester would’ve been busy enough, but we’ve also had my spouse’s surprise cancer, surgery, and chemo treatments. Although April and May haven’t been the most productive writing and publishing months for me, I do have some good poetry-related updates.
The PCA/ACA conference was wonderful as always. I loved seeing all of the poetry presentations and sharing poems from Tasty Other. I was also honored to receive the Felicia Campbell Area Chair Award!
I got to read on April 19 at the New Alchemy Poetry Series, which is newly relocated at Lestat’s West. What a cool venue, and what a great night of sharing my poems and hearing others read during the open mic.
In May, my poem “The Book of Icons” from my Bible word banking project was published in Unlost Journal.
This week, Tasty Other turned 6 months old! I joked about doing a mock-baby photo shoot with a chalkboard of fun facts about the book, but I’m not that silly (or perhaps I just don’t have the time right now… I am that silly).
Next up: I’ll be participating in a local author book signing this coming Friday, June 2, from 6-8 p.m. at Liberty Station, Barracks 16 (co-sponsored by SD Writers, Ink and Comickaze).
Here’s another wonderful, thoughtful review of Tasty Other. Thanks, Juli Anna Herndon and Literary Mama!
“Katie Manning’s collection of poems, Tasty Other, which won the Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award in 2016, examines motherhood with a fresh, acerbic eye and an imaginative wit. While not lacking in tenderness, Manning eschews sentimentality in order to dissect the daydreams and nightmares of the new mother in fantastical detail.”
What a lovely review of Tasty Other! Thanks, Anne Britting Oleson and Mom Egg Review!
“For in that sleep…what dreams may come,” said Hamlet. He was speaking of death, but in Katie Manning’s new collection, Tasty Other, many of the poems stem from the way the hopes, fears, and hormones of pregnancy make themselves known through our subconscious and our dreamscapes. It’s the fear of the unknown: will I be a good mother? Will my baby be a boy or girl? Will my child be “normal” (whatever that means)? Manning’s poems channel some of the answers a mother-to-be might wake up with, answers which are by turn hilarious, frightening, and heartbreaking. [read more]
Life has been and continues to be chaotic, but sometimes it’s chaotic in wonderful poetic ways. Here’s a quick update about my recent readings.
In mid-February, I had an awesome time attending the AWP conference in D.C. I did some daily updates on social media (feel free to find me on Facebook and Twitter!), so I won’t try to re-capture every detail here. It is always wonderful to be in the presence of so many writers, and I enjoyed getting to read from Tasty Other on the Voices of Main Street panel.
Voices of Main Street
Over my spring break, Chris Davidson brought me up to Biola University as a guest poet. I gave a reading with novelist Paul Buchanan, and the next morning I visited Vision, Voice, and Practice, an incredible hybrid art and writing course.
Reading at Biola
On March 10, I got to read at the Meraki Cafe in San Diego for a reading series called A Turn for the Verse. I loved hearing poetry from Bill Harding and fiction from Keenan Colditz, and this was such a fun, responsive audience to my Tasty Other poems.
I’ve got a couple of San Diego readings coming up in April, so please visit my Events page for details.
The end of the semester and the holidays kept me away, but I did have a wonderful book launch at PLNU on Nov. 30 and an awesome San Diego book release at the Women’s Museum of California on Dec. 3. What a privilege to share my weird Tasty Other poems and to read alongside some of my favorite people!
Here is my Poetry Has Value post about November. What a bizarre month that was. I’m still working on the December post and 2016 year-end reflection, but those will be ready soon.
My journal, Whale Road Review, published its first anniversary issue on December 1. I love the issue, and I love the work of choosing and sharing other people’s incredible writing.
I had 3 poems published in a mixed-genre mystery anthology called Candlesticks and Daggers. I also had a review of Luci Shaw’s Sea Glass: New & Selected Poems in the Advent/Christmas 2016 issue of The Cresset.
I’ve been sending out poetry submissions a lot over winter break and reading a lot of submissions for Whale Road Review. Now that classes are beginning tomorrow, I’ll be getting back into a regular writing routine, especially since PLNU awarded me an internal grant of a 4-unit release to work on a poetry project. (Thanks!) Here we go…
Tasty Other has arrived! This creepy cover looks even better when multiplied…
The book launch is today at 3 p.m. in Colt Hall at Point Loma Nazarene University, and I will also be giving a release reading at the Women’s Museum of California at 4:30 on Saturday, Dec. 3.
Samantha Duncan and I interviewed each other about our new chapbooks from Agape Editions. We covered babies, Bibles, rhinoceroses, and more. You can read the interview now at Grist, and you can read our chapbooks (hers, mine) for free at Agape Editions.
Also, my October update for Poetry Has Value also went live yesterday, and it includes thoughts on poetry readings and human connection.
I’ve created an Events page for my Tasty Other book tour!
Now that I have an Events page, I will stop saying “book tour” with finger quotes. 🙂
The first two events are coming up this week!
11/30/16: San Diego
Tasty Other Book Launch
Point Loma Nazarene University
3900 Lomaland Dr., Colt Hall
Wednesday, 3 p.m.
12/3/16: San Diego
Tasty Other Release Reading
The Women’s Museum of California
2730 Historic Decatur Rd.
Liberty Station, Barracks 16
Saturday, 4:30 p.m.
http://womensmuseumca.org/event/katie-manning-poetry-reading