A year in review

Photo by Isaiah Vianese

It's been another year of highs and lows. The biggest high was the publication of Wonder &Wreckage back in April. This new & selected collection was six years in the making, and it was a nail-biter right up until the launch event. 

I've sung her praises here before, but Elizabeth Holmes really saved my ass and deserves all the flowers. She did the interior layout, designed the cover, mopped up a number of messes, and dealt with confusing messages from the printer. The result was a gorgeous-looking book and a perfect way to cap off my poetry life. 

Of course, I keep saying I'm through with poetry, but poetry is obviously not through with me. Keep reading for more on that.

I was back in Ann Arbor over the summer for another three-month stay, which wasn't nearly as interesting as last year's adventure and all the side trips to Toronto and Chicago. I visited Detroit a few times and spent a lovely afternoon exploring the Toledo Museum of Art with BFF Julie E. Bloemeke. My main reason for being there was to finally get back to work on the fourth novel, and I'm pleased to say I made some good progress. Completion is still several years away, but knocking the rust off my fiction mind and resurrecting the familiar characters of The Venus Trilogy was like seeing old friends again. 

Although it's nearly four years since my cancer, yet another scare happened in September when my annual CT scan lit up with an area of concern in the lymph nodes in my neck. This required a PET scan and thousands of more dollars out of pocket. Luckily, it was nothing, but the constant reminder that the cancer could resurface at any moment really wears you down mentally. 

On Halloween, Megan Volpert and I opened the call for submissions for White Winged Doves: A Stevie Nicks Poetry Anthology, which will be published by Madville Publishing in 2026. Subs are open until Jan. 8, so send us your Stevie-inspired/informed work. 

Believe it or not, I was sifting through the poems cut from Wonder & Wreckage and I started contemplating putting together a chapbook, which has a tentative title: The Cutting Room. This would be a limited edition, DIY kinda deal that would strictly be available directly from me and a few local bookshops. Watch this space to see if I follow through with this madness. See, I can't get away from poetry. 

I'll be in the political fray as the new editor of the Georgia Voice, which is Atlanta and Georgia's LGBTQ news outlet. I am excited to take the helm and bring readers the news and features they need as we move forward into the uncertain next four years.

The Republican party used LGBTQ people – especially the trans community – as a divisive and fearmongering wedge issue in the presidential election. There are legitimate fears about medical care, marriage, and other hard-won rights being stripped away by the incoming administration. At least one member of the Supreme Court has expressed his interest in overturning Obergefell vs. Hodges, the landmark decision that made same-sex marriage the law of the land.

The year ended with a flood. The crew installing the new HVAC system in my condo hit a sprinkler and flooded my unit and the four below me. I had to decamp to a hotel for a week while a fleet of air movers and dehumidifiers dried the place out. The biggest damage was to the hardwood flooring, which will have to be partially replaced and completely sanded/stained at the end of January. That means a complete pack up and move out and living in a hotel or Airbnb for a couple of weeks. 

Sometimes, I think hurling myself out of a window would be easier and yet I persist in living. I hope you persist, too.