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I'm super honored to have a poem in the Philadelphia issue of Ren Quarterly, and to appear alongside of hero/photographer Zoe Strauss and numerous other great artists and writers. You can order a copy here.
 I recently reviewed Marion Bell's Austerity (Radiator Press, 2019) for Hyperallergic. From the intro:
In her poem “Austerity,” Marion Bell writes that it’s easy to get radicalized just by paying attention to experience. In her debut collection of poetry under the same title, she shares what those experiences are. Comprised of fragments, dreams, journal entries, and notes from friends, Austerity is a glimpse into a few years of the author’s life. Bell explores large ideas — capitalism, queer liberation, radical friendship, and community — in a deeply human and personal way, endeavoring to live a meaningful life in this stage of late capitalism. Read the review here.  The latest issue of the tiny launched today. It features work by Stephanie Anderson, Nicole Callihan, C.S. Carrier, Paula Cisewski, Brian Clifton, Shanna Compton, Daniel Coudriet, Tyler Flynn Dorholt, Sharea Harris, Laura Jaramillo, Steven Karl, Rodney Koeneke, Rebecca Loudon, Jenn McCreary, Alexis Orgera, C.E. Putnam, Elizabeth Robinson, Amy Saul-Zerby, Crossley Simmons, Oki Sogumi, Wendy Trevino, Yolanda Wisher, and Elisabeth Workman. Cover art by Yolanda Wisher.
Read the issue here. Thank you to all of these amazing contributors! And thanks, as always, to my incredible co-editor, Gabriella Torres!  I'm excited to be a part of this World Poetry Day event, curated by Sarah Cowell and hosted by Jaime Fountaine. The reading features an incredible lineup of poets: Raquel Salas Rivera, Kirwyn Sutherland, Shanel Edwards, Sojourner Ahebee, Boston Gordon, Quinn Rodriguez, and zach blackwood.
When: Thursday, March 21, 2019, 7 pm Where: Tattooed Mom (530 South St., Philadelphia, PA 19147) I've been awful about updating this news page and a lot has happened this past fall, including several Accidental Player events, a reading for Prolit Magazine in Philly, and a few podcast appearances. So here's a round up:
Accidental Player now has its own website which has the schedule for the Winter/Spring season up, and it includes an archive of past events. Additionally, Accidental Player is now publishing chapbooks! The first title, Planchette by Sean Collins, will be released at an event in Philly on Thursday, January 17th. Late this summer, I talked to Mike Ingram for his new podcast called Day Jobs. It's focus is on art, money and what artists do to support themselves if they aren't able to do so through their art. I talk about the range of jobs I've had (factory worker! bartender! web content writer!) as well as the ability (or inability) to do residencies and the cost of poetry book prizes. The episode came out in December, and the most recent episode, featuring Bud Smith, just dropped this week. Check out Day Jobs. I also spoke to Jeff Alessandrelli and Sunny Bleckinger for their new podcast The Steer, which features writers talking about music and musicians talking about writers. It was a lot of fun to drop by the KBOO studio when I was in Portland and talk to Sunny and Jeff, and I love that they assembled a playlist to close out the episode. Other episodes feature Justin Phillip Reed, Eileen Myles, Jonathan Lethem, and Laura Gibson. Check out The Steer. I also have two new poems in the January/February issue of American Poetry Review. They included one of them, "Emma," online. Read "Emma" at American Poetry Review. (They seem to have pulled a photo of me that's about ten years old!) Since I was pretty much only happy with two poems I wrote this past year, it was nice to have them picked up by a journal I've long admired! Onward into 2019! Accidental Player is excited to host Jeff Alessandrelli, Warren C. Longmire, Jeff T. Johnson, Christy Davids, and Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela on Thursday, July 12 upstairs at Tattooed Mom (530 South Street, Philadelphia, PA). Reading starts at 8pm.
Jeff Alessandrelli is the author of the poetry collections THIS LAST TIME WILL BE THE FIRST (2014) and Fur Not Light (2019), both from Burnside Review Press. Just published in the US and UK in March by the UK press Eyewear, Jeff's also the author of the essay collection The Man on High: Essays on Skateboarding, Hip-Hop, Poetry and The Notorious B.I.G. Recent work by him appears in The American Poetry Review, Pleiades and Please Kill Me, among other outlets. Additionally, Jeff runs and directs the vinyl-record only poetry press Fonograf Editions; recent albums have been released by Alice Notley, Harmony Holiday and Rae Armantrout. Warren C. Longmire is a Philly native, expert level whistler, pushcart nominee, and former poetry editor at Apiary Magazine. He's been published in Painted Bride Quarterly, Eleven Eleven and has two chapbooks: Ripped Winters and Do.Until.True. He currently splits his time between web programming, midi drumming, and writing tumblr poems about the limit of 1/x. You can find his writings, essays, videos, and sounds at dountiltrue.tumblr.com and soundcloud.com/wclongmire. Jeff T. Johnson is the author of Trouble Songs: A Musicological Poetics (punctum books, 2018). His writing has appeared in Gramma, PEN America, Jacket2, Encyclopedia Vol. 3, Tarpaulin Sky, and elsewhere. A chapbook, trunc & frag, is at Our Teeth. He lives in West Philadelphia. Christy Davids is a poet and teacher. She is an assistant editor at The Conversant, collects recordings at poetry//SOUNDS, and co-curates the Philadelphia-based reading series Charmed Instruments. Some of her work can be found in VOLT, Open House, Bedfellows, Jacket2, and the Poetry Foundation's Harriet among others. Her chapbook "on heat" was selected by the editors in BOAAT Press' 2016 chapbook competition and was published in May 2017. Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela is a writer, editor, community college professor and sometimes DJ. Her poetry and prose have been supported by many rad people and projects including: VONA, Lambda Literary, The Leeway Foundation, Hedgebrook, American Poetry Review, The Baffler, Make/shift, As Us Journal, The Rust Belt Rising, APIARY, Aster(ix), Solstice, The Acentos Review, Mad House, HOLD, boneless, skinless, Bedfellows, and Organize Your Own: The Politics and Poetics of Self-Determination Movements (Soberscove 2016).  I'm looking forward to reading at this event celebrating the release of Erin Dorney's new book from Mason Jar Press: I Am Not Famous Anymore: Poems After Shia LaBeouf. Come join me, Erin, and Jim Warner for a night of readings and 50 cent pierogies. Hosted by Jaime Fountaine.
I am really excited to be joining Barrelhouse's upcoming Conversations & Connections conference in Arlington, VA on Saturday, May 12. I'll be appearing on a panel with Dan Brady and Celeste Doaks titled "To Make the World in Words: Writing Poetry From Real Life" (description below), and I will be providing feedback on people's poems during the "speed dating with an editor" event. I'm also super excited to attend the event and catch the other panels, especially the Poetry and Engagement panel. Check out the website, and I hope to see you there!
TO MAKE THE WORLD IN WORDS: WRITING POETRY FROM REAL LIFE Our best material often comes from our lived experience, but that doesn’t make it any easier to write. Writing from real life presents its own thorny set of questions: How true does this have to be? What will people who know me think? This is real, but is it interesting? The poets on our panel will discuss how to navigate these questions and more, including the advantages poetry has over fiction and non-fiction when getting to the truth. Panelists: Dan Brady (Strange Children, Barrelhouse Poetry Editor), Celeste Doaks (Cornrows and Cornfields), Gina Myers (Philadelphia, The Tiny Editor)  Did the dream of speed begin with the birth of the car? Or was that the dream of escape–of hopping in the car and going, leaving your life and responsibilities behind? And is this desire for speed and escape a particularly American thing? Bruce Springsteen has said that the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” is every song he has ever written, about which poet Ryan Eckes notes, “It’s not a song about overthrowing capitalism but of escaping it.”
In General Motors (Split Lip Press), his third collection of poetry, Eckes offers another vision for America–a glimpse at how different things could be if people were to recognize their collective power and reclaim public spaces. General Motors is a timely, alive, and necessary collection. Read the full review at Fanzine. On Tuesday, March 13th I am reading at the Writers & Words series in Baltimore alongside Joyce Lombardi, Jamesha Caldwell, and Karen Bennett. The reading starts at 7pm at Charmington's (2601 Howard St.).
In advance of the reading, I answered a few questions. I might have said I hope to be a couch in the next life. You can read the interview here. |
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