We need to talk. Or moreover, I need to tell you something that’s hard for me to tell you. The past few months have been emotionally trying. For all the universal reasons - the pandemic anxiety, insecurity about the future, raging fires and furies. And all of that uncertainty turns me into the quietest mouse. Makes me fear my shadow and stops me from doing the work that I love. I haven’t written in weeks. Drag my feet to complete the simplest tasks. Struggle to read books I’ve been waiting to dig into. And without getting too pop psych 101 on ya’ll, I’m enough already and I’m getting a little annoyed with the self-pity act I’ve been pulling. So here’s my public apology for being so skittish.
I am, at heart, an annoyingly up-beat person. And there are so many things to be excited about right now. The latest Gasconade Review is out and three of my poems have found a home there. One of my poems found its home in Dissonance Magazine. Another poem was included in Of Rust and Glass: Triumphs. And finally, three of my poems are included in Women Speak, Volume 6, an anthology put out by the Women of Appalachia Project and Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. All in the last month! Which makes it my most successful month as a published poet.
And in just this next week, I get to be a part of two incredible events. On Thursday night, I will be a featured reader, along with the amazingly talented Haley Mitchell Haugen, in Athens County (& Friends) Thursday Night Open Mic. (Register for the zoom event here.) And then on Saturday afternoon, an incredible group of women will be reading at Women of Appalachia Project 12th Annual “Women Speak” and I have the equal-parts-humbling-and-thrilling honor to read with them. (Register for the zoom event here.)
What’s more, though it has taken me a long time to put this together, the PopUp book Black Lives is nearly finished and I am so excited for you to read it! A small book with a lot of power and I could not have asked for better contributors. Massive thanks to them for their patience, to The Arts Commission for their financial support through the Accelerator Grant program, and to Social B Creative for their financial contribution making it possible to pay the contributors.
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