As #AWP26 approaches, the energy is already building. Whether you’re joining the conference in Baltimore or tuning in virtually from home, this year’s lineup is overflowing with opportunities to connect, learn, and celebrate the literary community. From powerhouse off?site readings to bookfair signings and panels designed to spark […]
When my book, The Animal at Your Side, won the Airlie Prize in 2019, it was the culmination of a seven-year submissions process in which I often wondered whether to keep going. I finished the book in 2012 and started sending it out in earnest in 2013. I didn’t […]
Y’all, 2026 is supposedly not a normal year from an astrological perspective. Neptune enters Aries on January 26th for the first time since the 1860s. Saturn follows in February. These two planets then meet on February 20th—a conjunction that hasn’t happened in Aries for centuries. (Chani Nicholas calls […]
Special thanks to Tell Tell Poetry for publishing my guest blog post 42 University lit mags/journals + why to submit. If you’re a poet/writer looking to share your work, university literary magazines and journals are some of the most welcoming and rewarding places to submit. I’ve gathered this […]
If you’re not already familiar with Clifford Garstang‘s annual literary magazine rankings or you’ve forgotten to check them out for a while, here’s a reminder to how handy they are! Every year Garstang ranks lit mags based on Pushcart Prize anthology. He creates rankings for the three main […]
“Literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon women.” —Virginia Woolf In the famous, book-length essay “A Room of One’s Own” (1929), Virginia Woolf comments on the disempowerment faced by women throughout history. The lack of opportunity and resources, she claims, have kept […]
I’m pleased to announce I’ll be teaching a poetry workshop for the International Women’s Writing Guild on Saturday, December 13 from 1 – 3:30pm ET. This virtual poetry workshop invites participants to explore the intersection of sensory awareness and personal identity as creative catalysts. Through guided readings, reflective […]
A former pastor of mine argued that the Biblical first act of human speech was poetry: Adam calling Eve “bone of my bone/flesh of my flesh.” This experience of woman’s creation was so spectacular to Adam that couldn’t respond with a simple narrative. There was something supernatural, seemingly […]
Wallace Stevens, one of my favorite poets, published his first book of poetry, Harmonium, when he was 44 and didn’t publish another collection until Ideas of Order, when he was 57. He went on to publish five more collections of poetry. E. B. Moore published her first chapbook of poetry New […]
The End. Wouldn’t it be a relief if you could just end a poem like that? Every reader would know the poem had resoundingly concluded. However, most of us would like to be more subtle with our poetic craft, to signal the end with the structure of the poem, […]
