Goose Hill

In the past two months we've held two launch events for newly-released Still Life with Poem: Contemporary Natures Mortes in Verse , which I co-edited with my friend Jehanne for the Literary House Press; we've waded through over a thousand submissions for the third issue of Cherry Tree ; and although I haven't been able to get much new writing done, I did manage to send out a batch of poems to thirteen literary magazines. I'm pretty exhausted! On October 18, we hosted the first book launch at home at the Rose O'Neill Literary House with readings from contributors James Arthur, James Allen Hall, Leslie Harrison, dawn lonsinger, and Dora Malech.  I gave the introduction (a first for me) and also read my poem, as well as two others from the anthology.  We had some delicious food, debuted a beautiful commemorative letterpress broadside that I helped to design and print, and decorated the space with still lifes made up of gourds, antlers, tarot cards, and o

The September 22nd reading at Frederick's brand-new Sky Stage was an amazingly fun evening. A crew of present and past Chestertonians came out: My reading-mate Rae Bryant was an incredible host who made me feel like family as soon as I arrived. I feel very fortunate now to call her a friend. I read a fairly large batch of work: some fairy tale girl poems, some Silence of the Lambs  poems, and even a few Alien  poems. I was happy to discover some fellow horror movie fans in the intimate audience.  My best partner-in-poetry snapped these photos of me in action (thank you, Emma!) and she took video snippets of my reading:  And because my copy arrived on Tuesday, I showed off the brand-new Autumn 2016 issue of Faerie Magazine  (based out of nearby Baltimore) and read my fairy tale girl poems published there. Really, if you don't subscribe to this gorgeous full-color magazine, you should. Rae gave a fantastic reading of her short st

And just like that, the summer has passed and September is here again. (Thank God — bring on sweater weather!) Although they came very slowly, I did manage to get two more Alien  poems written before Labor Day. And I'm once again wading through submissions for Cherry Tree , but this time for our third issue!  This fall I will also be participating in two poetry reading events. Here are the details: Reading #1: Sky Stage Eco-Urban Reading Series Featuring Rae Bryant & Lindsay Lusby  Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 p.m. Sky Stage, 59 S. Carroll St., Frederick, MD  Reading #2:   Still Life with Poem: A Literary House Press Book Launch Featuring James Arthur, James Allen Hall, Leslie Harrison, dawn lonsinger, Lindsay Lusby, Dora Malech, and Jason Schneiderman Tuesday, October 18 at 4:30 p.m.  Rose O'Neill Literary House, 407 Washington Ave., Chestertown, MD And speaking of readings, during our first Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conferenc

Since my last post (in March! What?!), I've been entirely sucked into my (fantastic but busybusybusy) day job at the Rose O'Neill Literary House. It's been a productive few months professionally, but my writing has stagnated in the meantime. I intend to turn that around again soon, making sure the entire summer doesn't pass before I've written at least 2-3 more Alien  poems.  In news: after months of editing and proofing, we finally received the first printed copies of the Literary House Press's next poetry anthology, Still Life with Poem ! It's just as beautiful as I hoped it would be. This is the second volume I've co-edited with my great friend and colleague Jehanne Dubrow . Sadly, this is going to be the last, at least for now. Jehanne recently accepted an exciting new position that she is looking forward to beginning before the end of the summer. As heartbroken as I am for myself and for the Lit House, I am thrilled for her. I can honestly say

This is a fairly accurate representation of the last month of my life:  Don't these two look great together? Cherry Tree 's second issue was released on February 15 and we've been welcoming it since with a parade of contributor, staff, and subscriber selfies in our #cherrybomb social media campaign . It's been a heckuva lot of fun because so many of our friends have been playing along with us.  Then this week, Fairy Tale Review 's Ochre Issue arrived on my front stoop! My contest-winning poem series "Forestry (parts 1-3)" is in here alongside some other fantastical work. If you're headed to AWP in LA later this month, you can pick up a copy of FTR there, although Cherry Tree  will be staying home this year. Either way, you should absolutely subscribe to both of these literary journals.  And in case you missed it a couple of weeks ago, I have a guest post up on Fairy Tale Review 's blog for their Fairy-Tale Files series: On Circles of

For the past month and a half, I've been wearing my editor pants almost constantly (good thing I have a few pairs!). Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to since my last post:  After a couple weeks of intensive proofing and revising of Cherry Tree 's second issue , we sent that beautiful baby to print! The printed copies have arrived at the Literary House and we're now prepping them to mail out to contributors and subscribers. I am so incredibly proud of how this issue turned out. If you haven't already, you should subscribe now ! Also, we received word on January 15 that a poem from the inaugural issue was chosen for inclusion in the 2016 edition of Best American Poetry : "As If," by Julie Kane ! Once that editorial work was wrapped up, I moved on to laying out the interior of the Literary House Press's next poetry anthology, Still Life with Poem . That's nearly complete now. Soon it will be ready for proofing and revising like m