Word Perv
(noun): One who takes delight and is skilled at constructing, writing or saying naughty phrases or dialogue.
February 20, 2024

Exciting News

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Now that the news has officially been announced, I can tell you: my next collection of poetry, Her Dark Everything, will be published April 2025 with Riot in Your Throat. Her Dark Everything grapples with the loss of a friend to suicide and the continued survival of my best friend, despite her battles with major depression. It’s about hope and joy and sorrow and loss and survival. The Riot in Your Throat 2024-2025 lineup is fantastic, every single one of these books is amazing and I promise, you’re going to want to read them!

In other news, I survived AWP and showed some real restraint by only bringing home ten books. Seriously, this is impressive since I essentially have an unlimited budget for books — life is too short to not buy poetry!!

AWP Book Haul!

I’m also working on a new, secret poetry project that I hope to kick off and reveal within the next few months. Right now I’m doing research, putting in the work, and manifesting my future…while eating a giant chocolate chip cookie. 😉

I’ll also put the finishing touches on my forthcoming collection to see what it looks like. I think it’s almost there but I may still need a few poems. The next few months will be busy but poetry-related projects are my favorite so I’m looking forward to it!

January 26, 2024

Find Me at AWP

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AWP, the largest writing conference in the country, is right around the corner: 8-11 February in Kansas City. It’s early this year which makes me feel slightly rushed and anxious because I have a to-do list a mile long. (Side note: Who knew being an adult would consist of making daily to-do lists and never reaching the bottom of one…) In addition to prepping for the independent poetry press I run, Riot in Your Throat, to be at the book fair, the press is currently open for submissions so I’m busy reading manuscripts. (If you have a full length poetry manuscript looking for a home, send it my way! We’re open through the end of the month!)

This year I’m taking it a little easy at AWP – last year I had a reading every single night and it was exhausting, especially since I’m at the Riot in Your Throat table at the book fair all day, every day. Even as an extremely extroverted person, by the end of the day I was exhausted from being on all day. This year, I only have one offsite reading I’m participating in so I’m hopeful I’ll be slightly less exhausted.

Here’s where you can find me:

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The lineup for the offsite reading looks amazing! My press is partnering with Small Harbor Publishing and it should be a great night of poetry.

To those attending AWP this year, what are you looking forward to the most? Whose book are you making a bee line for to ensure you snag a copy?

January 2, 2024

Poetry Read in 2023

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This year I read a total 314 books, of which, 103 were collections of poetry. Here’s the list for this year:

  1. Urbanshee by Siaara Freeman
  2. The Cabinetmaker’s Window by Steve Scafidi
  3. Love Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
  4. Strange Light by Derrick C. Brown
  5. When You Say One Thing but Mean Your Mother by Melissa Broder
  6. The Even Years of Marriage by Ash Bowen
  7. Flèche by Mary Jean Chan
  8. Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggs
  9. Slaughterhouse by Melissa Sussens
  10. Little Beast by Sara Quinn Rivara
  11. A Dog Runs Through It by Linda Pastan
  12. Threshold by Joseph O. Legaspi
  13. Insomnia by Linda Pastan
  14. Traveling Light by Linda Pastan
  15. Songs in E– by Dan Brady
  16. Queen of a Rainy Country by Linda Pastan
  17. Girls Like Us by Elizabeth Hazen
  18. Heat + Pressure: Poems from War by Ben Weakley
  19. One Hundred Children Waiting for a Train by Michael Atkinson
  20. East & West by Piort Florczyk
  21. Truth and Consequences by Lisa E Baldwin
  22. How the Body Works in the Dark by Derrick C. Brown
  23. Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith
  24. Almost an Elegy by Linda Pastan
  25. Decade of the Brain by Janine Joseph
  26. Bianca by Eugenia Leigh
  27. 40 Weeks by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
  28. Meltwater by Claire Wahmanholm
  29. Body Psalms by Audrey Gidman
  30. Bad Animal by Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer
  31. Standing in the Forest of Being Alive by Katie Farris
  32. My Dear Comrades by Sunu P. Chandy
  33. Take Me to the Water by Irene Vázquez
  34. Unshuttered by Patricia Smith
  35. Gutter by Lauren Brazeal Garza
  36. The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise
  37. Rapture by Sjohnna McCray
  38. I Want to Make You Safe by Amy King
  39. Famous by Kathleen Flenniken
  40. The Anxiety Workbook by Christina Olson
  41. Against Heaven by Kemi Alabi
  42. Music for Landing Planes By by Eireann Lorsung
  43. Eyes, Stones by Elana Bell
  44. The Explosive Expert’s Wife by Shara Lessley
  45. Seed Celestial by Sara R. Burnett
  46. Dear Selection Committee by Melissa Studdard
  47. I Rode the Second Wave: A Feminist Memoir by Fran Abrams
  48. You Cannot Save Here by Anthony Moll
  49. Elegies for an Empire by Le Hinton
  50. Santa Muerte, Santa Muerte: I was Here, Release Me by Lauren Brazeal Garza
  51. Forevernoon by Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir
  52. Sinners Welcome by Mary Karr
  53. Late in the Empire of Men by Christopher Kempf
  54. Play for Time by Paula Mendoza
  55. Waitress in Fall by Kristiín Ómarsdóttir
  56. Solastalgia by Brittney Corrigan
  57. The More Extravagant Feast by Leah Naomi Green
  58. An Essential Melancholy by Lora Robinson
  59. The Book of Redacted Paintings by Arthur Kayzakian
  60. Avoiding the Rapture by Karen J. Weyant
  61. A God at the Door by Tishani Doshi
  62. Loss and Other Rivers that Devour by Gustavo Barahona-López
  63. Snacks for the Love Hungry by Valerie Nies
  64. Customs by Solmaz Sharif
  65. Blowout by Denise Duhamel
  66. Here I Am Burn Me by Kimberly Nguyen
  67. Boy with a Halo at the Farmer’s Market by Sonia Greenfield
  68. Poetry in America by Julia Spicher Kasdorf
  69. Binded by H Warren
  70. Driving Without a License by Janine Joseph
  71. The Patron Saint of Making Curfew by Tim Stafford
  72. Landslide by Andrew Jarvis
  73. Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood
  74. Tonguebreaker by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
  75. Brilliant Little Body by Brett Elizabeth Jenkins
  76. I Do Everything I’m Told by Megan Fernandes
  77. Dispatch by Cameron Awkward-Rich
  78. The Book Eaters by Carolina Hotchandani
  79. Book of Gods & Grudges by Jessica L. Walsh
  80. A Plumber’s Guide to Light by Jesse Bertron
  81. The Terrible Wife by Terry Ann Thaxton
  82. Secure the Shadow by Claudia Emerson
  83. Dien Cai Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa
  84. Mothersong by Amy Acre
  85. Space Struck by Paige Lewis
  86. Trailer Park Psalms by Ryler Dustin
  87. Remedies for Disappearing by Alexa Patrick
  88. Built of All I Shape and Name by Jessica Genia Simon
  89. Pig by Sam Sax
  90. Chorus for the Kill by Allison Blevins and Josh Davis
  91. As Long as This Heart Beats by Kyrsta Morehouse
  92. Fire and Other Feelings by Ambivalently Yours
  93. Blossom Boy by Beck Anson
  94. I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times by Taylor Byas
  95. The Kingdom of Surfaces by Sally Wen Mao
  96. Green Card Girl by Shannon Wolf
  97. Lemon by Isabella J Mansfield
  98. Pink Elephant by Rachel McKibbens
  99. The Hollows of Bone by Isabella Mansfield
  100. We Are Mermaids by Stephanie Burt
  101. Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones
  102. Fixer by Edgar Kunz
  103. Above Ground by Clint Smith
December 31, 2023

Best Books of 2023

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Last year I read 329 books and this year I read 314 books. Here are my favorites.

Poetry

~ Little Beast by Sara Quinn Rivara – A collection of poems equally brutal and beautiful, Rivara writes about the woman’s voice, violence, hope, heartache, and survival.

~ Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith – A collection of poems about Hurricane Katrina – the people affected by the storm, the area, even the storm itself has a voice in these brutal poems.

~ The Anxiety Workbook by Christina Olson – A collection of poems about anxiety, survival, family, identity, home, the pandemic, and trying to fight the demon inside your own brain.

~ Avoiding the Rapture by Karen J. Weyant – A collection of poems about a rural childhood, about survival, about rooting for the girls who make it out.

~ Brilliant Little Body by Brett Elizabeth Jenkins – A collection of poems about love – finding it, losing it, searching for it. And about life and survival and humor and wit.

~ A Plumber’s Guide to Light by Jesse Bertron – A chapbook of poems from the plumber-poet perspective. There’s light, sorrow, loss, wit, humor, hope, and love in these poems.

~ Pink Elephant by Rachel McKibbens – A collection of poems that will fuck you up. Trauma, loss, abuse, survival, hope, and love, this collection comes out swinging and doesn’t stop until you’re down for the count.

~ Alive at the End of the World by Saeed Jones – A collection of poems about survival, identity, loss, grief, and being Black in America. The multiple versions of the title poem are especially good.

Creative Non-Fiction

~ The Tiger and the Cage: A Memoir of a Body in Crisis by Emma Bolden – A memoir of a body betraying, of the medical system failing, of the silent pain and suffering so many women endure. Bolden tells her story, which is both heartbreaking and infuriating, with lyrical narratives and beautiful prose.

~ I’m Wearing Tunics Now: On Growing Older, Better, and a Hell of a Lot Louder by Wendi Aarons – A collection of essays about aging in a female body that had me laughing out loud and nodding my head in agreement!

~ You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie Smith – A memoir about her marriage, her divorce, and surviving it to become a better, stronger person.

~ Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World by Lauren Fleshman – A memoir about running, the female body and the pressure society puts on it, sports, and how these merge together and need to change.

Fiction

~ The Measure by Nikki Erlick – One day every adult around the world receives a box. Inside the box is a string which equates to the length of your life. An interesting and unique story with good characters and plot.

~ Yellowface by R.F. Kuang – A dark satire about a white writer and an Asian writer. One dies and the other takes her manuscript and publishes it as her own. A dark tale that I couldn’t put down.

~ The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin – A heartwarming and heartbreaking book about an unusual friendship between a 17-year old terminal patient, Lenni, and an 83-year old patient in the hospital. Prepare to cry when you read this one.

December 29, 2023

Journals of 2023

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Last year, I filled five notebooks with poems and this year was the same – five notebooks filled with words.

(That first one was obviously a gift, y’all know writers are always getting journals and notebooks as gifts!)

So much of 2023 was focused on my book tour for Her Whole Bright Life, my third collection that was published by Write Bloody in April. It didn’t feel like I was writing that much but looking back, I can see I did write a lot. And that’s good because the next collection is percolating in my head and in the new year I’m going to see where it stands and starts fleshing it out.

I’m grateful for everything poetry brought me this year and I cannot wait to see what 2024 brings.