A National Poetry Month recap

 

Reading with Karen Head at Call & Response. (Photo by Colin Potts)

National Poetry Month is wrapping up, and it turned out to be a little more hectic than I expected. Wonder & Wreckage turned one year old, so I celebrated with fellow poet and sister/friend Karen Head with one of our "Call & Response" round-robin-style readings at the Georgia Center for the Book. Thanks to the folks who came out to listen. 

I also had the pleasure of reading at the Cecilia Woloch  & Friends virtual reading today, along with the fabulous Brendan Constantine, Carine Topal, Carol Muske-Dukes, Yona Harvey, Kevin Prufer, Lynne Thompson, Pam Ward and Francisco Letelier. It was wonderful to hear these poets and see that so many people from around the world chose to spend their Sunday afternoon with us.

Megan and I continue to steadily work on the Stevie Nicks anthology. We've got a working manuscript together and are polishing off an introduction, so we're still on track for a Spring 2026 publication. 

On a personal note, I managed to snag tickets to see two of my music icons – Kylie Minogue and Alison Moyet – in the same month. I've loved both of these ladies for 40 years or more, so finally seeing them live was a real bucket list moment. You can read my review of the Kylie show here. 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I decided against doing a chapbook to mark the first anniversary of Wonder & Wreckage, but instead directed those poems (and a few I held out on purpose) to another project that will see the light of day in the next couple of years. Watch this space.

As for the fourth novel in the Venus series, well.. I haven't touched it in months. I'm not feeling it at the moment, and since there's no deadline, I'll work on it as I feel the spirit move me. 

As many of you know, Marianne Faithfull passed away on Jan. 30. She was one of my icons, and I treasure the note and signed photo she sent me back in the 90s. My chapbook, After the Poison, was inspired by her Before the Poison album. Luckily, we got one more taste of her music with the gorgeous Burning Moonlight EP released for Record Store Day.