I have a new poem up on SWWIM Every Day! “My Body Writes Me A Sonnet” is part of SWWIM’s National Poetry Month project: Sing the Body: A Collection of Poems Praising Our Selves! The project is in collaboration with the Wolfsonion Public Humanities Lab and FIU’s Center for Women’s and Gender Studies. I am in awe of the SWWIM team, and this project. I know I say it all the time, but sometimes I just can’t believe my good fortune—that I’m living in this place, and a part of this writing community, singing the body, singing Miami.
Reading Tonight in Wynwood!
How cool am I?! I’ll be reading tonight at the Womanish Exhibit in Wynwood in collaboration with SWWIM, my poetry home. We’ll be reading original poems written in response to the art on display at Womanish. Thank you to the SWWIM team for including me and making me seem hip.
Chapbook "The Mosquito Bite" Accepted for Publication!
I’m so very happy to share that my chapbook, “The Mosquito Bite,” has been accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press! It will be put out as part of their New Women’s Voices series in 2022. A few of my very favorite women have been published through this series as well—the likes of Sarah Sala, Cat Prescott, Caridad Moro-Gronlier, and CQ Quintana. It’s heartening to be in such good, strong, brilliant company. More details soon!
"For Margaret" Published on SWWIM Every Day
I’m very grateful to the women of SWWIM for publishing this little cutie today! I wrote this thinking about the many expectations I had for my daughter and myself as a daughter’s mother when I found out I was pregnant with a girl.
Swamp Ape Review's South Florida Feature--The Mind Is Its Own Place
I am so super delighted to be Swamp Ape Review’s South Florida featured poet for Spring 2021. South Florida is, of course, my home and my obsession, so this designation means a whole lot. The South Florida poetry community is expanding and thriving in ways I never could have imagined as an awkward kid wandering around Sunset Place in the ‘90s. It still feels unbelievable, in some ways, to have a literary community to be a part of in the place that I love and I’m grateful to everyone who gives their time, treasure, and passion to make it a reality. Which is a long-winded way to say Thank you, Swamp Ape Review, for highlighting South Florida poets and poetry.
This is a poem about hurricanes, Milton, Miami’s drug wars, and love.
Friday, 12/11 at 7 PM EST: Office Hours Workshop Reading!
My first virtual reading is coming up! The phenomenal poet Sarah Sala invited me to take part in the Office Hours Writers’ Workshop this semester, which was such a treat. I haven’t been a part of a workshop in a long time and the insight and camaraderie that the OH workshop writers provided has been invaluable. Such a smart, smart group. Normally I wouldn’t have been able to participate but the virtual venue of this semester’s workshop allowed me to beam in from Miami (the workshop is based in New York City).
This Friday’s reading is going to be gorgeous. Please join us via this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/office-hours-poetry-showcase-reading-tickets-131897383625
Best New Poets 2020 Contributor Copies!
This weekend I received advanced copies of Best New Poets 2020. It is stunning. I was awed by the breadth and degree of talent among these writers. I feel extremely lucky to be a part of this group.
Best New Poets is available for purchase from University of Virginia Press: https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5714 and at bookstores nationwide. Thank you for your support!
"Crown for a Young Marriage" Excerpted in Paul Farmer's Latest Book
A few years ago, Paul Farmer asked me if he could include an excerpt of my poem, “Crown for a Young Marriage,” in the book he was writing about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. We couldn’t have known then how timely the lessons from his work fighting Ebola would prove. I’m deeply honored to have contributed to Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds, now available from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Paul’s reflections on the structural failures that allowed for the outbreak’s unprecedented deadliness provide valuable insight into what’s happening right now in the United States and around the world. “Crown” precedes Paul’s encounter with one of the many women widowed by Ebola. This is truly a book for this moment, and I’m grateful to Paul for thinking of me.
"Paloma" Out Today on SWWIM
Today, on the day I sent my son to school in PPE, I got the beautiful news that my poem, Paloma, was published today by the superwomen of SWWIM. Being a mother is tough and I am feeling tender today in the same way I was when I wrote Paloma. This poem is dear to me and I think it has found its perfect home with these brave, compassionate Miami writers. Thank you.
Best New Poets 2020
I don’t know how many times I’ve submitted to this contest. I think 9. It’s a lot. I am thrilled to be among the 50 poets selected by Brian Teare to appear in the 2020 Best New Poets anthology. The poem is one I wrote for a reading series that paired poets with visual artists. I was paired with Miami-based surrealist Alena Rebmann—you can see a poster for the event and the painting that I responded to here.
No surprise; the series was facilitated by Jen Karetnick, who, along with Cat Prescott and Caridad Moro-Gronlier of SWWIM, have moved mountains to create meaningful community and support women poets in Miami.
I’m dreaming of the day I can tell my workshop students about how many times my work didn’t make the cut. Keep shining!
Best of the Net 2018 Finalist!
Many many thanks to the wonderwomen at SWWIM for nominating my poem, “I Want Some Land,” for Best of the Net 2018, and thanks to Sundress Publications for naming it a finalist!
I am so happy to be finding a home in the Miami writing community. It’s a wondrous (and terrifying) place to live, and I’m really grateful to the artists who are working to make it a wondrous place to write, especially Catherine Esposito Prescott and Jen Karetnick of SWWIM.
"Cocoplum" on Aquifer!
The good people at Aquifer, the online offering of The Florida Review, have published my poem, “Cocoplum.” This poem is a special one to me. It’s one of the first poems that I wrote in graduate school in which I felt really confident. It’s about the strange neighborhood in Miami that I grew up in. I hope you enjoy!
Not Cocoplum, but similar
A Few Updates Since I Last Saw You Back in 2015
I was really happy to receive a contributor copy of the beautiful 2017 issue of RHINO today. I have a poem called "The Mosquito Bite" that I'm really proud of in this issue. And I'm thrilled to be published alongside a roster of really excellent artists, including my fellow Floridian Lola Haskins, who I saw read at the Betsy Hotel on South Beach recently as part of the excellent SWWIM Poetry Series.
I've been totally slacking on updating this blog for about two years now--basically since our son was born. My production has slowed considerably since I became a parent, but I think the quality may have improved. I certainly have to manage my time better. In the intervening years since the baby was born, I've published infrequently, but I've been honored to be among the finalists for the 2016 Sonora Review poetry contest and a semi-finalist for Nimrod International Journal's 2016 Pablo Neruda Prize. Why haven't I mentioned any of this? Mainly because I go to bed at 8:30 every night.
I'm very happy to share that "The Mosquito Bite" is a finalist for the 2017 RHINO Founders' Prize. It's about Zika and climate change and parenting-related anxiety--topics very much at front-of-mind-these days, since I trucked my little family down to my South Florida hometown. I hope you enjoy it.
Emotive Fruition + Radiolab: Elemental Poetry for the Masses!
So thrilled and honored to be participating tomorrow night in Emotive Fruition + Radiolab:
Elemental Poetry for the Masses! My poem "Calcium," written shortly before my son was born, will be featured in this innovative and hotly-anticipated (seriously! It's sold out!) live poetry event. The guys from Radiolab will be there recording and making chit-chat with the poets and the actors. I'd say "come on out," but it's sold out (what?!)
Serious Daring is here!
I just received my contributor copy of Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres, a new textbook from Oxford University Press. This was such a cool project to work on--really exciting to have contributed to a new teaching tool in creative writing. I'm very grateful to editor Lisa Roney for selecting my sonnet, "Moving Song." It's a true honor to have been included and to have my work introduced to young writers alongside so many literary greats.
"Crown for a Young Marriage" is on the Rattle site!
My crown of sonnets, "Crown for a Young Marriage," is up in digital form on Rattle.com ! Hope you enjoy it. xo
My First Review!
My poem, "Outside Orlando," was mentioned in New Pages' review of Saw Palm Vol. 8! It's my first review!
"Moving Song" to be published by OUP USA!
I got some wonderful news back in January that I've been waiting for permission to share: my sonnet, "Moving Song," will be included in a new creative writing textbook forthcoming from Oxford University Press USA! Huge, huge. The book will be called Serious Daring: Creative Writing in Four Genres, and will be edited by Lisa Roney. It's scheduled for publication in December of this year. It sounds awesome, and will be chock-filled with the work of poets and writers I deeply admire. Truly exciting stuff.
Best New Poets 2014 Nomination!
The good people at Rattle have shown me incredible fellowship and support once again, this time by nominating "Crown for a Young Marriage" for inclusion in the Best New Poets 2014 anthology. This year's judge is Dorianne Laux; I hope she digs it! I know I've said it a million times, but I feel so fortunate to have fallen in with the Rattle crowd. I'm excited to meet editor Tim Green in Los Angeles May and to thank him in person for championing my work. And the kind emails I've received from the magazine's readers have blown me away. It's really wonderful to know that people from all over the place are reading my poems and finding them meaningful.
Ok, enough feelings. Here's a picture of me on the bus dressed as a hot dog:
