Much as I would like to crawl in a hole & just write poems based on Catfish the TV show, I’m also glad to be diving into lots of big girl ~CiViC sErViCe~ engagements & somehow also reading for the LA Times Festival of Books on Sat. I hope to see y’all if you’re in LA!

I, um, started a new job today. It’s called Poet Laureate for the City of Dallas 🥹

Lolll the journey I just went on after submitting to 3penny, expecting a rejection, then feeling immense(!) hope, then realizing 2 weeks had gone by & I should just “assume we did not take your work & that it is free to go out elsewhere,” bc “some emails inevitably go astray.” 🫠

If you’d like to (virtually) hear me read and answer Qs this week, here’s your chance!

My review of SEX DEPRESSION ANIMALS by Mag Gabbert is up! It was my favorite poetry collection of 2023 - what a joy to get to spend time with it for Epoch 🦪🐂🌊🦇

epochliterary.com/blog/review-se…

Apocalypse Now Now
…starring 兔兒神 & mag gabbert

This morning I showed 兔兒神 a draft of a poem I was about to start sending out & he was like, “but what if you changed this one couplet?”

Reader: of the 113 drafts I had saved, 61 of them only changed that fucking couplet.

…But yes, now I’m gonna change it again 😭

The poets are all writing novels now(!), the novelists are writing poems(!!), & I am just over here tinkering with a semicolon.

Have you seen it? When you look at issue 53/2, it looks back!

Featuring work by Jay Sepac, Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, Mag Gabbert, Sophia Emmons-Bell, Felicia Zamora, Tan Tuck Ming, Lesley Jenike, Cindy Juyoung Ok, wry bread, and more!

Read selections or subscribe: iowareview.org/issue/volume-5…

Friendly reminder that Airea D. Matthews has created a resource of craft essays and scholarly writing on poetry. I'm trying to work through 1-2 essays a week and feel invigorated, equipped with sharper or newer modes of thinking when writing/editing poems. Link: drive.google.com/drive/folders/…

Turns out I did in fact win a Pushcart for this poem that gives zero fucks 😭

Tyssm, poets & editors, for making this happen. Like holy shit.

TONIGHT from 7-8 CST I get to be a BiG tExAs AuThOr & hangout & talk poems with séamus isaac fey 🥹

& you can register for free & join the virtual hangout! geminiink.org/the-big-texas-…

This cruel world is crueler for having taken Jonathan—a young, vibrant, & inspiring colleague of mine at SMU—away from so many on Tuesday. I hope that he’ll be remembered by us poetry lovers. My heart is breaking for his family.

I wrote a poem that is also a Turing test so I can figure out which of y’all is a real human 👀

Jk lol I don’t want to know but ty to the The Iowa Review for giving this a home!

Hey yall, just had a panel attendee ask who all is offering one-on-one poetry mentorship programs these days. Raise your hand if that’s you?

Hello here I am signing free broadsides of my poem “Another Hell” At booth 3003 until 3:30 👹

TIME 👏🏻 YOUR 👏🏻 SELF 👏🏻

At least I didn’t just screenshot my notes app this year!

thinking about the coco chanel quote, “before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” and while i am a maximalist in all areas of life, i encourage poets at marathon readings this awp to consider: before you go up to read, look at your poems, and cut one