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!!
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!
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?
~ 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.
~ 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.
~ 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.
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.
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