As we get closer to October, this seems like a great time to share the recordings of last year’s Haunted Tales and Eerie Melodies event, part of the Portland Book Festival Cover to Cover program.  I read a selection of dark poems to live piano, and the others read horror short fiction to their live musical accompaniment.  Enjoy! 

• Katherine Quevedo and Katie Bennett
• Remy Nakamura with Kate Ristau and Matt Brislawn
• Elle Mitchell and Julian Kosanovic
• Sarah Walker and Obadiah Baird
• Nathan Carson and Erin Jane Laroue

Also, the Horror Writers Association has announced their Poetry Showcase Vol. XI table of contents, and I’m excited to have a poem selected for inclusion:  “Peter Pumpkin Eater’s Most Delectable Carving.”  Keep your eyes peeled for news about the anthology’s release. 

Coming soon, a new short story in Abyss and Apex… 

In my series of essays for Sidequest on writing poetry inspired by video games, I’ve just added “Level Up Your Poetry, Part 5: When Words Take Iconic Shape.”  This time I focus on concrete poetry, or visual poetry (sometimes shortened to “vispo”).  It’s a form that aligns nicely with how important graphics are in the source material.  I’ve played with this sculptural approach lately and wanted to share some of my trials and tribulations, as well as some inspiration. 

I’m a guest on Pages on the Tongue, an all-new podcast about short fiction!  Host Michelle Murray was so gracious and fun to talk to.  She’s also traveled to Ecuador, so she had me read “Venom in the Cloud Forest” from Myriad Lands Vol. 2, and then we had a marvelous time discussing my story and our travel experiences, and many other topics:  entering story through setting, how my desire to write a villain shaped the narrative, putting indigenous perspectives at the forefront, etc. 

This seems like a good time to share something I read in the article “Indigenous women are showing us how to fight for environmental and human rights”:  According to Sônia Guajajara, “Indigenous peoples make up only 5% of the world’s population, yet we protect 82% of the remaining biodiversity on the planet.”  Pretty staggering. 

Michelle put a lot of care and time into adding sound effects to my story for an extra immersive experience.  Please support the Pages on the Tongue podcast by downloading the episode and watching for her next guest. 

My new poem “Rain at Waimea Falls” is part of the Happy Poems issue of Poemeleon.  I wrote this piece after a trip to Hawaii where we got caught in a warm downpour while visiting the titular waterfall. 

Ah, happy poems.  The more I’ve been researching poetry chapbooks in recent years, the more I’m struck by how many seem to center on trauma.  Maybe it’s just me.  But I love variety and range, and I figured my poetry should be no exception.  So why not tackle sheer pleasure, awe, joy for a change?  Not that there isn’t a need for darker topics and working our way toward healing.  But I was excited to see a call for happy poems and am pleased to be part of the themed issue. 

By the way, my friend Richard Leis has an absolute stunner of a Hawaiian waterfall poem, “How We Will Walk Through the Extremely Green,” in Harpy Hybrid Review.  Please go read that one, too!