For those who can’t make it to my in-person readings, I’ll be part of Akua Lezli Hope’s free Speculative Sundays online poetry reading series in November.  I’ll be reading along with Joshua Gage on November 16^th.  Mark your calendar to come celebrate Speculative Poetry Month with us! 

Has a week gone by already?!  My head is still spinning from the flurry that was Seattle Worldcon. 

Some of my highlights: 

I got to hang out with two of my good writing friends, Maggie Slater and Rachel Unger!  Maggie and I hadn’t seen each other in person in many, many years.  It was like no time had passed.  And having Rachel in the mix was an absolute blast. 

I got to meet the editor who gave me my first sale, David Stokes of Guardbridge Books, and thank him for taking a chance on a new writer back in the day. 

I also got to meet up with my mentor, the amazing A. T. Greenblatt, who never fails to inspire me. 

I spotted “in the wild” the special prerelease edition of a new anthology I have a story in, The Muddy Goose Guide to the Weird Northwest. 

I met some outstanding fellow poets at a meetup of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, as well as when I performed selections of my poetry at a group reading and participated on a panel. 

Now I’m prepping for another reading next weekend, as part of Portland’s Chatter PDX series.  The theme for the upcoming event is A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and you’d better believe I’ll be bringing the fairy poetry. 

Here’s where you can find me at Seattle Worldcon next month: 

Poetry Readings Saturday, August 16, 2025, 4:30pm-5:30pm PDT

Come bask in the poetic wonders of strange worlds, fantastic narrators, and imaginary perspectives! Hear the poetry of Grand Master Linda D. Addison, Ai Jiang, Devin Miller, Geoffrey A. Landis, Vanessa MacLaren-Wray, and Katherine Quevedo.

Readers:  Ai Jiang, Devin Miller, Geoffrey A. Landis, Katherine Quevedo, Linda D. Addison, Vanessa MacLaren-Wray

Poetry Performance Tips, August 16, 2025, 6pm-7pm PDT

There are many ways to read a poem out loud. Hear from experts as they describe why they do the things they do.

Panelists:  Terese Mason Pierre, EB Helveg, Katherine Quevedo, Linda D. Addison, Mary Turzillo, R. Thursday

If you’re attending the convention and we cross paths, I hope you’ll say hi! 

If you’ve been waiting for a physical copy of Thrice Petrified to hold in your hands as you read, and to add to your bookshelf, now’s the time.  My fantasy novella about fairies is now available in paperback! 

This story has been a 15-year project for me.  You can read all about it in my interview with Of Metal and Magic Publishing.  Learn about this novella’s connection to a Barbie doll, what posters I had on my childhood bedroom wall, and more. 

I’ve got several in-person events next month related to speculative poetry: 

• Writer’s Fair at the Willamette Writers Conference, Portland, OR, August 1, 2025, 5pm-7pm PDT – Come see me at the table for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA)!  Learn more about this professional organization, or just chat with some of my awesome local poet friends and me.  Free and open to the public. 
• Worldcon 2025, Seattle, WA, August 13-17, 2025 – On that Saturday I’ll be participating in a poetry reading and then on a panel discussing how to do just that: perform your poetry for an audience.  I’ll be in the company of some amazing poets! 
• Chatter PDX: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Portland, OR, August 31, 2025, 10:30am-11:30am PDT – I’ll be the spoken word guest who reads poetry to accompany live classical chamber music, this time performed by Maria Garcia and Yoko Greeney.  I love when poetry and music mix, although at next month’s event it won’t be simultaneous. 

Now available for your reading pleasure, it’s Thrice Petrified, my debut fantasy novella about warrior fairies and stone curses!  For now it’s just in ebook format, but the paperback is coming any day now. 

With much gratitude to: 

• Maggie Slater, Elizabeth Mitchell, Leon Taylor, and A.M. Fox for reading my story and providing helpful feedback
• JM Williams and Brianna Summers, my publisher and editor at Of Metal and Magic Publishing, for bringing this novella to readers and being great to work with in the process
• Nathaniel Webb, editor of Wyngraf, for giving these characters their first home and giving me the confidence to expand their story and world
• My family for their patience, always

Thrice Petrified comes out in two days!  To give a sense of the vibes in it, here are some of the real-life places that inspired the settings in my novella.  Some of these are not a one-to-one connection, but they’re examples of the landscapes that got me thinking and daydreaming. 

Imagine, if you will, a version of this wild Oregon populated by fairies instead of humans.  Soon…

My first attempt at writing a sestina, a 39-line poem with a strict pattern of repeating end words, was rough.  I stuck with it, though, and produced “Court Sestina,” about a relationship explored through a tennis match.  It’s available now in Volume 41.2 of Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, alongside some absolutely lovely writing about all types of athletics.

I had a lovely chat with Steven HAuse and Cody Vanderzwaag of the new video interview series Gloaming and Gamma Rays about “The Sphynx’s Blind Date.”  We talked about this story’s connection to a sonnet, how I ended up reading a list of phrases about bulls as research, and why I didn’t include a centaur or mermaid, among other things.

If you couldn’t make it to our in-person launch for the Claw Machine anthology (or if we left you wanting more), please join us tomorrow, Tues., June 24, at 7pm PDT for Vintage Books Live! Tries Out the Claw Machine.  This reading and Q&A will be streaming live via YouTube.  Hope you can join us!