The poet Brian Daldorph, a British native and long time editor of Coal City Review, has honored me with the publication in issue 43 of a poem and a super review of my book, Previous Lives, by Maryfrances Wagner. The poem is a pantoum about man who compulsively steals subway trains. The review says lots of positive things.  To find out more about Coal City Review, go to: https://coalcitypress.wordpress.com/about/

The distinguished magazine, Stand, edited on both sides of the Atlantic and produced out of Leeds University, Great Britain, accepted a poem I’ve been working on quite a while. “Getting the Right Tone” has its roots in a European train trip, and has evolved from lined verse to a prose poem. I hope to see fellow Sandy Point Writer Resident Mary Gilliland’s work in the same issue, as I know her poem(s) also made it past the first cut on this side of the Atlantic.

Happy was I to find in my black mailbox my contributor’s copy of the 13th Edition of the I-70 review! This Kansas City, Missouri-based magazine, is edited by Gary Leichliter, Greg Field, and my friend, Maryfrances Wagner, who also did the surreal cover art collage.  This edition is chock full of my poet friends. There’s prolific Walter Bargen, Woodley Press’ Al Ortolani, and, from Emporia, Kevin Rabas (currently serving as KS poet laureate). Also, poems by William Sheldon, who edited my book Horsetail, and his talented son, Tyler Sheldon are included.  Alarie Tennille from The Writers’ Place is in it as well is my BGSU MFA program classmate, Phil Sterling. The poems of mine in this journal are atypical–one is a prose poem, one is about leaf-cutter ants with a veiled reference to the moving forest in Macbeth, and the 3rd has purple lemurs and clueless scientists.

Mona Lydon-Rochelle had to cancel her appearance with me at Bookworks on October 16th at 6 PM. I am happy to announce that Stella Reed, author of the prize-winning Origami, will be joining me instead.

I am pleased to be scheduled to read at Bookworks on October 16 at 6 PM with Mona Lydon-Rochelle. Mona is the author of On the Brink of the Sea and Mourning Dove. She is a medical professional as well as a poet who has worked with Doctors Without Borders.  She hails from Bainbridge Island, Washington. I will be reading from Previous Lives and Any Song Will Do. Bookworks is at 4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW, Albuquerque, NM.

It’s been six years since the estimable Sin Fronteras/Writers Without  Borders has accepted a poem of mine, but I’ve been fortunate enough to have published several poems there since issue #5 in 2001 (they’re now working on issue 24.) Though there are some new names to me in the editorial staff, I believe Michael Mandel has been there the whole time. This poem is called “Hospital,” and it concerns my brother-in-law’s demise.

Unbeknownst to me, Verse Daily found a poem of mine and posted it in their July 13, 2019 edition. Thanks to my friend Scott Wiggerman for spotting it and letting me know.

The Beloit Poetry Journal accepted “My Only Son–Relapse,” a poem in pantoum form. Fortunately, the events that gave rise to the poem are receding into the past.  This journal has been in business since 1950. What I don’t know is where it is–there is a Beloit, WI, and smaller towns of that name in other states. Their postal address is a PO Box in Windham, Maine.

I am pleased to be teamed with Leslie Ullman for a reading at SOMOS in Taos on June 20th at 7 PM. I’ve been a fan of Leslie’s poetry for many years; we’ve read together once before, also in Taos, ten or so years ago. She will be reading from her new book, The You That All Along Has Housed You: A Sequence. I intend to read mostly from Previous Lives. SOMOS is located at 108-B Civic Plaza in Taos.

The next day, June 21st, I will be conducting a workshop, “Pumping Up the Pantoum,” also at SOMOS from 10 AM to 1 PM. I’ve done versions of this workshop before, and it’s fun for me and the students, who learn how to write this form that can engender quite emotionally compelling poems.

The Prairie Home people spotted a poem from Previous Lives for Garrison Keillor to read on the widely syndicated podcast of Writer’s Almanac. Stay tuned for details on when “Sorry” is to be aired. Update: Here it is in the July 15, 2019 edition.