If AWP23 left you hungry for more readings, join me virtually this Thursday, March 16th, at 6:00 PM EST for 1-Week Critique's first Salon Reading. 1-Week Critique (1WC) is a nonprofit digital editing studio providing literary education and pedagogical support to writers everywhere. For this salon, I will be reading poems from Adelante, as well as some newer work, alongside the incredible Sandra Simonds. Thank you to 1-Week Critique for organizing!

Find me at the AWP23/the Association of Writers and Writing Programs annual conference in Seattle this week!

I read on Thursday night for Diode Editions as part of the launch for the Beyond the Frame anthology. The reading begins at 6:00 PM at C&P Coffee (5612 California Ave SW) and also features an amazing lineup of Diode poets. Then, you can catch me reading for Switchback Books at the Switchback, Futurepoem, Action, VOLT, Jellyfish, Boa, & Everybody Reading Extravaganza on Friday night, 7:00 PM, at Bad Bar (819 5th Ave N).

Copies of Adelante will be available at the Switchback Books table in the book fair. You can also stop by and say hello on Friday from 2:00-3:00, when I'll be at the SBB table signing copies. Hope to see you there!

Grateful to my colleagues in Widener University's Wolfgram Memorial Library and Prof. Dana Reisboard for inviting me to speak on a panel about the dangers of banning books. Here's more about the event:

Lawmakers and parent groups are working to ban books that discuss historical times/events and personal lived experiences related to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) community, and other marginalized groups from classrooms and libraries. Simultaneously, protections from prosecution that teachers and librarians have had are being removed. Book bans stand in opposition to the main function of education, which is to teach students to think critically and to develop their own views about the world. It is natural for books to evoke strong emotions from readers, even distasteful ones, however, it is wrong to use these feelings to restrict the right to learn for all students.  Weaponizing and politicizing books with diverse content about diverse groups restricts all students from seeing and understanding the lived experiences and worldviews of people different from themselves, stunting their education.  John Culhane, Widener University, Jessica Guzman, Widener University, Trace Reed, Montgomery County District Librarian, and Sharon Ward, Education Law Center Senior Policy Advisor will discuss the danger censorship poses to students and society. 

Join us this Monday at 12:00 PM EST for "You Can't Read This: The True Dangers of Book Bans."

As chair of the new Poetry & Poetry Studies area for the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association, I hope you will see the call for proposals and consider presenting at this year's conference, which will occur virtually on November 10-12, 2022. The Poetry & Poetry Studies area welcomes presentations examining all aspect of poetry, including critical perspectives on poetic craft and creative readings of original works. Visit Penn's Call for Papers to read the full CFP. 

Almost surreal to be attending this year's conference in the city I now call home. On Thursday, March 24, I'll be signing at Switchback Books' table (1339) in the book fair from 2:00-3:00 pm. You can also find me reading at the Switchback Books, Jellyfish Magazine, and Furniture Press Books offsite reading Friday, March 25, 7:00 pm at Stir Lounge in Rittenhouse Square. And if you haven't picked up a copy of ADELANTE, it and all Switchback Books titles will be $10 at the book fair, the Smol Fair, and in their online shop. Nervous but thrilled to see friends from near and far. Will you be there? Hope to see you.

Calling all poets! Submissions are open for Sweet: A Literary Confection's fifth annual poetry contest, and I will be serving as the final judge. Read the submission guidelines and submit your work through Sweet's Submittable. 

Thrilled to see "Ode at the Hospital," a poem from Adelante, featured on 1-Week Critique for their December Teaching Takeaway. 1-Week Critique is a nonprofit digital studio providing literary education and pedagogical support to writers of all genres and backgrounds. All my thanks to Jon Riccio, brilliant poet and generous reader, for his care with this poem. Read his observations on "Ode at the Hospital" and the archive of Teaching Takeaways. 

My poem, "Ode at the Hospital," is featured this week as part 14 of the Best American Poetry Blog's New York School Diaspora series. I am so grateful to the generous and brilliant Angela Ball for including this poem. Read the poem and her comments here. 

Happy to have read alongside Teo Mungaray and Scott Ennis at this year's Pop Culture Association Conference​ for the session "Ballads, Ventriloquism, & Dark Rides: Poems on the Edge of Enchantment." It was a pleasure to view a poem film, discuss Florida tourism, and hear a new phenomenological approach to reading poetry. Special thanks to Poetry Studies & Creative Poetry area chair Katie Manning for organizing!

A double-reading weekend! I will also be reading on Saturday, May 15th, at 3:00 PM EST as part of "Publishing in the Time of COVID: Local Writers With Books Out During the Pandemic" for the 215 Festival. Can't wait to read alongside Ted Rees, Emma Brown Sanders, Patrick Blagrave, Stephanie Cawley, Ashley Elizabeth, and Sebastian Castillo. Thank you, thank you, Alina Pleskova for inviting me to be a part of this excellent lineup (and organizing so many awesome events for the festival this year)!! Register for the reading at this link. 

About the reading: "While we were all trying to wrap our heads around this life-upending year, some amazing books of poetry and prose have been released from beloved local authors! This reading celebrates writers from the Philadelphia area, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York whose terrific books were published over the last year."