was just accepted for publication by Prick of the Spindle! After brief forays into fiction writing over the years, I am really excited to see one of the pieces in print. Given that I’m a poet, writing characters is not easy and I’ve had to work hard to not write fiction “like a poet.” It’s great news to get on a blustery cold day here in Wisconsin.

My chapbook, Fascicle, is now on sale with Dancing Girl Press. It is inspired by Emily Dickinson and comes in a box with my poems intermingled with prints from Dickinson’s Herbarium. You can order it directly from Dancing Girl Press.

Prime Number has a review of The Flight Cage up in its newest issue. Thank you to Prime Number and Paul David Adkins for the review!

The newest issue of Verse Wisconsin has launched, and includes poetry by yours truly, Brenda Cárdenas, Ron Wallace, Angela Sorby and many others! Take a look, and keep Verse Wisconsin‘s upcoming reading at the Wisconsin Book Festival in mind. Thank you to Sarah Busse and Wendy Vardaman for curating an amazing and politically relevant issue as the election approaches.

Come to Boswell Books at 7 pm tonight (9/21) to hear three UWM graduate students and faculty (i.e., yours truly) read our work.

The Chazen Museum in Madison has just opened its new special exhibit: Offering of the Angels: Paintings and Tapestries from the Uffizi Gallery. I’m excited to be part of the new Bridge Poetry Series, in which Wisconsin writers compose a poem inspired by one of the works of art. The first Bridge Reading was last spring, and it was great. This reading will be November 1st.

Just found out yesterday that the panel I proposed was accepted! It is called “Women Poets on Mentoring.” Allison Joseph will be moderating, and the other presenters are Tyler Mills, Shara McCallum, and Brittany Cavallaro.

Description:
Women poets today have a wealth of literary models to turn to in their reading. Cultivating relationships with other female poets during key stages in their development is, however, equally important. Female mentors can fill a crucial role in helping other women reflect on writing, pedagogy, professional development and even lifestyle choices.
Panel members will reflect on their own mentor-mentee relationships as well as discuss how individuals and writing programs might foster such connections.

I’ve managed to write a poem every day so far, which I think is better than I managed in April. I think one or two might be keepers? To date:
1. Harvest Queen (inspired by Arcimboldo’s “Autumn,” above)
2. Lines…
3. Reworking of poem in multimedia format
4. Whet stone
5. Not Separated
6. Daybreak
7. Learning to Pray (sections 1 and 2)
8. Learning to Pray (section 3)
9. Forgiveness
10. Learning to Pray (section 4)
11. He Said/She Said

I need to brainstorm some prompts — I’m running out of ideas! If you have any good ones, send them my way.

My list of projects I wanted to do this summer is still woefully long — and tomorrow is August 1st! In hopes of salvaging the last few weeks of summer, I am going to repeat April’s grueling poem-a-day schedule. Joining me will be Steve Gehrke, Jaqueline Kolosov-Wenthe, Aviva Englander Cristy, Angela Voras-Hills, and Sam Taylor.

In the interest of even greater accountability, I’ll try to post updates here as the month goes along.

The new online issue of Verse Wisconsin is up, featuring great work by lots of Wisconsin writers, all on the theme of “Community.”

I also have a poem, “Insomnia Ghazal” up at Triquarterly Online.

Both issues have a lot of great writing in them, so check them out!