news
another jam-packed month! let’s get to it!
first, a reminder: my full-length poetry collection this book will not save you is now available from dogleech books in print and digitally! if you’re still waiting on a print copy, expect that in the next few weeks—the Canada Post strike delayed fulfillment a bit.
published pieces: “journal (takes #17, 19)” in Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Vol. 4
published poem: “tears of the kingdom” in Welter
published poems: “gettin’ slizzered” and “crown of love” in JAKE: Alex Carrigan Wants Shameless Name-Dropping Literature edition
published poem: “the script” in Vagabond City Lit
published poem: “i’m gonna sleep cause you live” in miniskirt magazine Issue 29
prompts: i released some prompts from my Barrelhouse workshop as a $1+ downloadable—check them out on itch.io.
pushcart prize: i received my first-ever Pushcart Prize nomination from manywor(l)ds for my poem, “pov: a commenter on your r/ptsdhumor post has just informed you that you have tinnitus”
reading: my book tour continues after the winter holidays with these dates in January!
first, my December 7 launch party was recorded, along with one of my favorite poems i read at my D.C. date!
1/4, 3pm: reading at Bar Freda (NYC/Queens) with Erica Leslie Weidner and Yael Veitz
1/5, 7pm: featured reader at Trident Cafe & Booksellers’ open mic (Boston)
1/12, 3:30pm: reading at Queer Haven Books (Columbia, SC) with Evelyn Berry
notes
remember those poems i wrote in random access memory where i searched for a word in my tweet history, email inbox, hard drive, then wrote a poem from the results? kind of starting to feel like i should do one of those where the word is “busy,” because it feels the most recurring in all my communications lately. make no mistake: being a creative with a full-time day job is difficult! give yourself a pat on the back! (that last part is for me, mostly, but if your circumstances are similar, do feel free to follow suit.)
sneak peek
i’m pleased to announce that my next full-length collection, fruits of the valley, was picked up by Querencia Press! stay tuned for announcements about preorders, etc, but for now, i thought i’d share a seasonally appropriate excerpt from the book to celebrate.
in praise of an olive tree a holiday is not only russet potatoes mashed with butter and spooned into the big clay bowl, placed onto the trivet beside a platter of crab cakes. it transcends a faux-fir adorned with nine blown-glass reindeer. its core rests in mom’s potted olive sapling with five bejeweled eggs dangling from its branches, holding a space for Sandy’s widow-years charlie brown tree—the one that said i am still here, still trying, for loss may have dulled my heartbeat, but i am still surrounded by something that matters far more than tinsel and medium rare beef tenderloin. something so whole it will carry us all for a decade, before it’s time for me to leave too.
friends
call: Romy Rhoads Ewing is the Last Good Thing About This Part of Town, a guest editor call run by JAKE and edited by the titular Romy Rhoads Ewing, opens for submissions for one week only starting 12/23
release: fifth wheel press author N.W. Downs recently released Objects in Mirror with Querencia Press
current events
here’s what i’ve been reading, watching, listening to, and playing.
books: Emotion Industry by Tracy Dimond
tv: Daria (rewatch)
games: Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing: New Horizons
predictions
all the cool kids are doing it. here are my predictions (premonitions?) for 2025.
in
queer publishing
going braless
personal space
thc drinks
bluesky
waking and baking
DIY
out
big 5
underwires
people watching
hangovers
tiktok1
moving and shaking
generative AI
finally
i’m (still) slowly trying to find my people on bluesky. give me and the press a follow, if you haven’t already?
as someone definitively and unashamedly too old to understand tiktok, this might be more of a hopeful manifestation