New interview in the April issue of The Blue Mountain Review: A Journal of Culture!
Thanks over thanks to @kristie.daugherty.1 for her care, conversation, and deeper interest in The Hungriest Stars, my work in publishing, my writing practice, and so much else. I’m so grateful to her for all she does for writers and writing and to @southerncollectiveexperience for the generous space & support.
And to have this as well as two poems in the issue is such a gift, especially in the company of so much luminous writers like @januarygilloneil & @richiehof . What enormous luck & what an amazing issue! 🔗 to read in bio ✨💖✨
When I started college, my plan was to go to medical school. Imagine my surprise when I fell deeper in love with reading & writing poetry than with multi-trait punnett squares and potassium permanganate titrations. And, too, my first exposure to publishing ignited something magical in me, shaping who I am today.
In Sprau Tower at @westernmichu , I pushed a maroon-cushioned waiting chair up to a narrow counter and slid open and crawled through a small service window to access an office where I would open submission with a letter opener, record poem titles and submission info with pen on paper, and stuff editorial staff cubbies with reading assignments. As simple as it all was then, I loved every minute of it. I got lost in that work, time disappeared, my field of vision expanded and narrowed. As a person already unmoored, I felt a sense of peace and place.
Now a full circle moment has arrived with Issue 55/56 of @thirdcoastmag , still high kicking it after all these years, containing a poem of mine from The Hungriest Stars. This is the final in the series of poems from this book that were published in journals, and that also feels crowning and right. 🌻💗👑✨
Gratitude to the very fine editors at Third Coast for their support and stewardship of my work. They also relentlessly fought to get this double issue to press, enduring countless delays and obstacles. I’m impressed by their professionalism and fortitude—precisely what I would always expect from a place I’ll enduringly consider some place like home.
“The Sugar Season (Luger)” is the opening poem to The Hungriest Stars & appears, also, in the newest issue of The Worcester Review alongside so much compelling and powerful work.
The poem draws subject from my memory of living in rural Michigan, our home adjacent to corn fields, rye, and woods within which our neighbors tapped the maples in what I suppose someone very generous could maybe call spring. We had two dogs in Clare, Simon & Luger, and they both met untimely deaths. Simon was run over by an Amish buggy, at which he would run and bark at the wheels. Luger’s death came by the hand of another neighbor who told us he would do it and then did it. He carried in him what must have been a deep hunger for violence. I think about how we should always listen closely to and take seriously what people say. I don’t really believe in the concept of jest. Even remarks that evoke laughter from any party to conversation carry weights of truth. Or Maya Angelou says it so much more eloquently, “When people show you who they are, believe them.”
Anyway, the point is really to convey heaps of gratitude to the kind editors at TWR for their care and support of my work. I’m grateful to them for their stewardship of this poem (which is also a show of support for my book) even as the publication of the Review was significantly delayed due to budgetary constraints. This is a lovely and beautifully produced journal, so subscribe and/or send them your work. ✨❤️✨🙏🏼
📣 Introducing Our Spring 2028 Season 📣
We’re thrilled to welcome back Shira Erlichman (ODES TO LITHIUM), whose second poetry collection, IS, will be published in August 2028, and Ellen Doré Watson (PRAY ME STAY EAGER), whose newest collection, MOSTLY, I TELL THE TRUTH, is forthcoming in May 2028.
We’re also excited to introduce two new voices to the AJB community: S. Brook Corfman and Karan Kapoor, whose collections THE TURN and THIRST will both be published in April 2028—just in time for #NationalPoetryMonth!
📚 Explore the full season and preorder today: bit.ly/AJBSS28 (LINK IN BIO)
Evenings just like this are what remind me of the power of poetry & community. We are at our best when we are together. Thank you @meninoartscenter for your extraordinary warmth and hospitality. I’m grateful for the chance to hear poems from the myriad voices in your immediate orbit and to read poems with @odelapaz & @boy_ghost_poet . What an immensely immersive & meaningful night we had. I am wholly afterglowy from the magic. ✨💖✨
This year, Diane Goettel (Executive Director of Black Lawrence Press), Carey Salerno (Executive Director and Publisher at Alice James Books), and Sampson Starkweather (Founding editor of Birds, LLC) will all be sharing the stage for a special panel and Q&A on the ins and outs of small presses. Be sure to bring questions you have for these talented members of the indie press community!
My latest essay, “On Shapeshifting & Malleability: Lineation & The Fluid Couplet,” appears in the March/April issue of @american_poetry_review . I’m eternally grateful to @bizscanlon for her generous support of my work and for her astute stewardship of this piece. I’m also blown away by these @biancastone poems and the new poems by @patrickrosal . 🫡 💎This is a stunning issue, full of gems (just like always). I feel so lucky to be included. 🤩💖🙏🏼
& too, I have been spoiled with this absolutely gorgeous new desk, resplendent with so many treats like a My Little Pony animation cell & perfect spring bouquet of green dianthus & orange emperor tulips, courtesy of @nattygarb ❤️🥰✨
Link in bio to buy/subscribe. Not applicable to desks & ponies as far as I know, apologies; I understand this news may be moderately disconcerting for some. 🙃
Here’s my Charm City AWP schedule. Can’t wait to read tarot w/ the luminous Shannan Mann @onlypoemsmag on Thursday especially. 🙏🏼&💖 to them and @perseabooks for arranging these events and for their ongoing support of THE HUNGRIEST STARS. I hope to see you, hear your news, and share my gum and headache medicine with you 😂✨ #awp2026
Please join us in welcoming Carey Salerno to this year's festival! Carey will be reading with Cameron Awkward-Rich as well as participating in our small press panel.
