Today is ADELANTE's official pub date! Grateful & amazed this poetry book has made it into the world. 🍊🍊

If you'll be at AWP in San Antonio, copies will be available at Switchback Books' table (T1237). If, like me, you had to re-think your AWP plans, you can also check out ADELANTE online at the #AWPVirtualBookfair and Small Press Distribution. (SPD is having a sale for 35% off with code VIRTUALAWP!) I also have copies I'm happy to sign--email or fill out the contact form if interested. I'm sad I won't be celebrating ADELANTE's release at AWP this year, but I'm so thankful this book about my father, grief, legacy, Florida, & the environment is here. 🧡

Excited to celebrate Adelante's release at this year's AWP Conference in San Antonio, TX! Find me at one of the events below:

Thursday, March 5th, 7:00-9:00 PM at SoHo Wine & Martini Bar (214 W Crockett St)
Switchback Books / Octopus Books / Jellyfish Magazine / Ricochet Editions Reading 
with readings by Cynthia Arrieu-King, Caroline Cabrera, Kristen Case, MJ Gette, Jessica Guzman, Stefania Heim, Noor Hindi, Becca Klaver, Alyse Knorr, Irène Mathieu, Lo Kwa Mei-en, Danielle Pafunda, Caitlin Scarano, Dennis James Sweeney, Stephen van Dyck, and David Wojciechowski

Friday, March 6th, 2:00-3:00 PM at Switchback Books' Table in the book fair (Table 1237)
Author Signing with Jessica Guzman & Irène Mathieu

I'll also be helping out at the table for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. If you'll be at AWP this year, I hope you'll stop by!

"Predictions of the Material" (from my forthcoming collection, Adelante) is the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day. All of my thanks to this month's editor, Meg Day, for including my poem among works by so many other amazing poets! Read "Predictions of the Material" here. 

Adelante is now available for pre-order! It is an honor and a joy to see my book listed on the Switchback Books' catalog alongside collections by Kristen Case, Irène Mathieu, Alyse Knorr, Morgan Parker, Jennif(f)er Tamayo, Mónica de la Torre, and so many other poets I admire. To learn more about Adelante--and check out the rest of Switchback's excellent catalog--visit Switchback Books' website.

I'm so happy to announce that the incredible Patricia Smith has chosen my manuscript as the winner of the 2019 Gatewood Prize. Adelante will be published by Switchback Books in 2020. All of my gratitude to Patricia Smith for choosing my book and calling it "a treasure of deftly-honed narratives that manage to be both unleashed and enviably controlled." You can read the rest of her kind and thoughtful comments, as well as the list of wonderful finalists and semi-finalists for the prize, on Switchback Books' news roll. 

This year's The MAX (Mississippi's Arts + Entertainment Experience) Youth Poetry Contest + Slam in Meridian, MS, was a truly wonderful event. High schoolers in Mississippi are writing some amazing poems, and it was an honor to hear them in person. Thank you to Antavia Mason for organizing the event and inviting me to serve as a judge. If you couldn't make it, you can watch some of the performers on The MAX's Facebook page. 

This year's AWP approaches, and I'm grateful to be reading alongside Samar Fitzgerald, Cade Leebron, David Mura, Gale Marie Thompson, Kathleen Winter, and others at "An Evening with Witness & American Literary Review." This offsite event is happening in Portland on Friday, March 29th, from 8:00-10:00 PM at Paddy's Bar & Grill. More details can be found on the Facebook event page. 

The great folks at Poetry Daily chose my poem "Florida Orange" (originally published in Shenandoah) as today's Featured Poem. All my thanks to the Poetry Daily team for sharing my work, as well as Shenandoah for first publishing the piece. Read "Florida Orange" on Poetry Daily here. 

Next week I have the privilege of leading a community workshop for the Hattiesburg Writers' Workshop. Sponsored by the Hattiesburg Arts Council, the Writers' Workshop course meets for six sessions, each focusing on a different element of craft. For this session, which meets on January 28th at 6:00 PM, poet Todd Osborne and I will lecture on structure across genres by looking at poems and stories by Claudia Emerson, Agha Shahid Ali, Tobias Wolff, and others. Visit the Writers' Workshop event page for more information about the course. 

So grateful to the Jet Fuel Review team for nominating "Return to the Queue" (published in their spring 2018 issue) for this year's Best of the Net anthology. It has been such a pleasure appearing in their pages and experiencing firsthand the care with which they treat their authors. See the official announcement for a list of nominees in all genres.