The HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. X is officially available! Inside you’ll find all manner of delightfully dark verse from members of the Horror Writers Association. As I’ve stated elsewhere, it was so difficult to narrow the selections down with the other judges and our editor, Angela Yuriko Smith, from all the submissions we received. A good problem to have.
I’m excited for OryCon this weekend! Here’s where you can find me:
One final reminder that Haunted Tales and Eerie Melodies is taking place in Portland, for free, tomorrow afternoon! Here’s the lineup:
If you’re local or in town this weekend for the Portland Book Festival, I hope you can make it! We’ll be in the beautiful Sanctuary Hall from 2-4pm. (Also, I’ll be giving another reading a week later at OryCon.)
I just heard from Russ López, editor of LatineLit, that he’s selected my story “The Galapagos Widows” as one of his nominees this year for the Pushcart Prize, as well as the O. Henry Award! I’m honored and so grateful he gave my story a home, especially among so many other works focusing on this traditionally underrepresented part of the world. (My story centers on Ecuador, which sadly is experiencing a lot of turmoil these days.) Please go peruse the other works on LatineLit, too.
If you’re in the mood for more dark fiction, I hope you’ll check out the recording of the reading that Steve Toase and I did this month with the awesome folks over at Story Hour. Seriously, Steve’s writing is lovely and haunting, so go give it a listen. You can stick around and see how terrible the lighting is in my office at night, ha! I read “Until It Has Your Reflection” from Nightmare Magazine and “Tree Eyes” from Frost Zone Zine.
If that still isn’t enough horror for you, and you’ll be in the Portland area for the Portland Book Festival, mark your calendars for Haunted Tales and Eerie Melodies. I’ll be reading along with four other authors, each of us accompanied by the live stylings of some fantastic local musicians. For my portion, I’ll have the multitalented Katie Bennett accompanying me on piano! This free event will be hosted by the Oregon Chapter of the Horror Writers Association.
I can now share the details of my November in-person events! Plus, reminders for online events, including this week:
Whew! We’ll see if I can fit some writing in there, too. I have to share, I went to my local Powell’s bookstore and found the September/October 2023 issue of Asimov’s—my first time going to a bookstore and finding a publication with one of my pieces in it! Checking that off the bucket list.
I’m stoked to see that Tor.com included my story “The Menagerie Machine” on their list of “Nine (Very) Short Fantasy Stories With Happy Endings”! If you’re looking for some short fantasy reads to brighten your day, this is the list for you.
I’ve been thinking a lot about endings lately. I’ve been reading about closure and anti-closure, particularly in poetry, and a few months ago TOWER Magazine tweeted my comments below about an ending I admire. This was part of the lead-up to their End-themed issue.
Then there’s the DIY MFA book, which breaks down endings into a matrix—the analyst side of my brain loves a good diagram—based on the result that a character wants (or, believes that they want), whether or not they get it at the end, and—tellingly—whether they still want it. That last piece is huge.
I don’t have one set outcome I seek to provide in my work. I love happy endings, and these probably make up the majority of what I write. However, I also love bittersweet ones, dark ones, ambiguous ones, at various points depending on my mood and, especially, on what the story or narrative poem demands. I probably have overall tendencies I’m not crisply aware of (I’m actually far more of an idealist than a cynic). I prize variety. It’s probably why, for example, the editor of Wyngraf called out my cozy fantasy novelette “A Petrified Heart” as “certainly the darkest story of the issue” in his introduction.
People talk about stories, even dark ones, having an undercurrent of hope. That resonates with me. Even with the horror I write, I don’t see hope as a weakness. I never see it as trite or twee or insignificant. I think it’s an essential component of survival. I went with a friend to see Ada Limón give a talk in Portland earlier this year, and one thing the poet laureate shared jumped out at me: “Hope is work.” She meant this in a good, worthwhile way. Yes. Let’s go do the work.
I’ve got a flurry of events coming up in the next couple of months, some online and some in-person:
I’m thrilled that my poem “Fragrances of the Night-Blooming Space Garden” is included in the September/October issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine! I’ve dreamt of being published in Asimov’s for years, since back when a writer friend of mine lent me a bunch of his copies, which I proceeded to binge-read on my work breaks when I went back to the office after maternity leave. I was a tired and frazzled new mother, desperate for an escape during those precious chunks of free time, and the gorgeous, thought-provoking works within Asimov’s were like a balm for me.
Fittingly, “Fragrances of the Night-Blooming Space Garden” is about seeking comfort. I’ve always been prone to homesickness. I remember my family flying across the country to visit relatives when I was in grade school, and I got this unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach. No particular reason—it was a lovely visit—except that it wasn’t home. I combined that feeling with movie scenes I recalled with futuristic gardens, often holograms, and envisioned them being real plants.
It’s finally here! The Discover Beaverton anthology is available now. This eleventh issue of Lucky Jefferson brings together 11 writers and artists to highlight Beaverton, Oregon, through their poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual art. It also includes a Foreword I wrote, plus interviews with the contributors, some of whom are published for the first time here! I really enjoyed getting to guest edit this anthology, working with Lucky Jefferson’s founder and editor, NaBeela Washington.
You can read Discover Beaverton online for free or order a physical copy. Inside you’ll find creative work from Rodney Wilder, Derek R. Smith, Ruth Mota, Rhienna Guedry, Elizabeth Beechwood, April Hernandez, A.M. Arndt, Katie Briggs, Kate Tomich, Andria Lishka, and Marie Queen.
This project came to fruition with support from the City of Beaverton Arts Program.
I’ve got three poems, all sonnets, in the MiniGames issue of the minison zine, as well as a new installment of my “Level Up Your Poetry” essay series for Sidequest, this one on prose poetry and liminality.
“Zelda II Bossfight” is a Petrarchan sonnet about my some of my favorite characters from my favorite video game. “Manipulator” is a Spenserian sonnet about the fascinating game Braid. “The Boy of My Vegas Dreams” is a Shakespearean sonnet about puppy love set against a backdrop of 8-bit casino shenanigans and flirtations. (Wow, that last one is a sentence I wasn’t expecting to write today…)
Sonnets aside, I’ve had prose poetry on the brain recently, and it seemed a fitting topic for a new essay for Sidequest. In “Level Up Your Poetry, Part 4: Games, Prose Poems, and Liminality,” I dig into some quirks that make video games and prose poetry apt partners in art and discuss a few approaches I’ve taken in this realm.
On the horizon is the release of Discover Beaverton, and I’ll have some news about a reading coming up.
