The Gasconade Review puts out an annual poetry anthology (among many other individual collections) and this year they titled their anthology after one of the three poems of mine they selected for inclusion, “Strange Gods of the Prairie.” The other two poems they accepted are “A Dying Orchid on Fire” and “Two Chairs on the Front Patio,” and I’m thrilled to be included alongside the likes of John Dorsey, Linnet Phoenix, William Taylor Jr, Shawn Pavey, Zara Lisbon, Tim Heerdink, Holly Day, Ace Bogges, and many others. The cover art is pretty cool and you can find copies online for $15. It’s a big one so it’s worth your money. My thanks to the editors and congrats to all who made it into the anthology!
"Derelict" in Redshift 4 Anthology
My poem “Derelict” now appears in the fourth edition of the Redshift anthology, published by Arroyo Seco Press. The publisher, Thomas R. Thomas, teamed up with guest editor and prolific L.A. poet Kevin Ridgeway to sift through all the submissions to put together the final lineup, which features an absolute landslide of fantastic poets, including a bunch I previously published in Hobo Camp Review. It was great to see so many familiar names, such as Rob Plath, John Dorsey, Wendy Rainey, Jennifer Lemming, Gabriel Ricard, Jason Ryberg, Jeanette Powers, Alexis Rhone Fancher, John Grochalski, William Taylor, Jr., and many many others. I had a great time reading through and seeing the works of so many writer aquaintences I admire, and I highly entourage you to give this collective a shot. The anthology is now available online. Thanks!
Coming Soon: Hobo Camp Review 10 Year Anniversary Anthology
I started Hobo Camp Review in 2009 thinking it would be a fun little project that might last a few years at most, a journal where I’d invite poets to a quiet little campfire in the remote corner of the internet to sit a spell, share some road stories, some dreams, some wonderments, little pieces of their own twisting narratives before heading back into the wilds of the universe. I imagined Steinbeck and McCullers, Plath and Kerouac, Li Po and Tom Waits all sitting around eating beans from a can while a train cried out in the far distance, and lo and behold, ten years passed at that fire.
So to celebrate all the wonderful poems and stories that passed through that literary hideaway, I’m creating a print edition of Hobo Camp Review that features a few of my favorite pieces from each issue we released between 2009 and 2019. Most of the selections in that span were mine, but I’d be a damn fool if I didn’t thank the wonderful Rachel Nix for her support and contributions over the last couple years, and also David M Morton for his writings and brainstorming sessions during his time by the fire before wandering off into the wild blue yonder. Here’s a toast to both of you, and to all who submitted work to us over the years.
The issue will come out in early 2019 (date TBD) as a print book (and possible digital version). All proceeds will go to The Food Pantries for the Capital District, a coalition of 50+ food pantries throughout my hometown of Albany and surrounding counties. So if you buy a copy (and I’ll make them as cheap as I can), you’ll be helping someone put hot food on their table, a yearning dream shared by every hobo traversing alongside the railroad tracks on a sunny afternoon while looking for work, rest, and a little home-cooked meal.
So who’s going to appear in the issue? I rummaged through our archives and picked poems and stories that still resonated with me and spurred a little of the eager-to-ramble magic, but just because your work didn’t appear here doesn’t mean it’s not worthy. If you made the cut at one point, you’re in the hobo family for good, but these are the ones that I felt wove the ten-year story I wanted to tell in this anthology. Thank you all.
The issue will include work by (alpha by first name!) and we might have readings planned later in 2019, so stay tuned:
Adam Perkins, Ally Malinenko, Amy Blair, Ann Howells, Anney E.J. Ryan, April Michelle Bratten, Bud Smith, Charles Clifford Brooks III, Charles O'Hay, Corey Mesler, David M Morton, Dena Rash Guzman, Destini Vaile, Don Thompson, Doug Draime, Edward Ferri, Jr., Faith Mingus, Frank Reardon, Glen Armstrong, Gloria Keeley, Hasan Jamal, Hillary Leftwich, Holly Day, Holly Holt, J.C.D. Kerwin, Jack Henry, James H Duncan, James Murdock, Jason Ryberg, Jeffrey Alfier, Jessica Dawson, Jessica Mehta, John Tustin, Joseph Jengehino, Josh Fernandez, Joshua Ryan Wood, Kami, Kate Garrett, Kathleen Sparks, Kathryn Staublin, Kevin Ridgeway, Knar Gavin, L.L. Jacobson, Lark Beltran, Lee Ann Pingle, Lili-Leader Williams, Maria Pascauly, Mary Shanley, Mathew Borczon, Mikey Sivak, Orooj-E-Zafar, Peycho Kanev, Puma Perl, R.M. Engelhardt, Rachel Nix, Raina Masters, Rebecca Kokitus, Rebecca Schumejda, Rhiannon Thorne, Rob Plath, Rogan Kelly, Sam Slaughter, Sarah Warren, Scot Young, Scott Blackwell, Seth Murray, Shahé Mankerian, Sheikha A., Siham Karami, Stan Galloway, Suzanne Allen, Taylor Copeland, Tempest Brew, Tobi Alfier, Tom Montag, Valentina Cano, Vivian Demuth, Wanda Marrow Clevenger, Wilna Panagos, Yossarian Hunter
The Blue Hour Anthology, Vol. 4
I'm ecstatic to announce that two of my poems now appear in an amazing collection, The Blue Hour Anthology, Vol. 4. This press has supported my work for a long time and to have my poems "Badlands" and "Sunday May" in their new assemblage is a real honor. They always put out gorgeous books and they have a great eye for writing. Being included with such writers as John Dorsey, Megan Gray, Heather Minette, Allie Marini, and Johnathon Dowdle (among many others) proves it. My deepest thanks goes out to the editors for including my work, and you can pick up copies at their Etsy shop!
Two Poems in the 2017 BONED Anthology
BONED Every Which Way 2017 is an anthology of the poems that appeared at the BONED online magazine over the course of the year, and the new paperback edition includes two of my poems, "Dry Tide" and "Going Ghost." The first poem, "Dry Tide," first appeared in my mini-chapbook The Darkest Bomb from the Lantern Lit, Vol. 1 collection, which is also available online. The second, "Going Ghost," takes me back to my days in Berlin, Germany almost eight years ago. Feels like yesterday. Anyway, the collection is full of great poets, including Mikey Sivak, Wanda Marrow Clevenger, Susie Sweetland Garay, RM Engelhardt, Matthew Borczon, Mat Gould, and others. The anthology is also edited by Nate Ragolia, who is a fine poet himself. I hope you are able to pick up a copy, it's pretty darn affordable at just under $12. Enjoy!
From Somewhere to Nowhere: A New Anthology
My short essay, "I Saw It On The Radio," now appears in the massive new anthology, From Somewhere to Nowhere: The End of The American Dream. This anthology is huge, and filled with fiction, essays, art, and more from artists all over the world, but was organized by a loose yet long-standing poetic collective called The Unbearables, who are based out of NYC. This book was in the works for years and I'm impressed by just how much they fit between the covers. The pieces focus on the experiences and observations on American life during and since 9/11, and its publication was delayed in order to include work that looks at our American life under Donald Trump's administration, capping the collection with a rather intense and anxiety-filled finale. My own piece is simply about my experiences on the morning of 9/11, and how I witnessed the towers fall while listening to live radio and watching it on TV at the same time. I was alone, but in a sense, I was with everyone listening in too, all watching the possibilities of a rather mundane Bush presidency crumble into eternal war and strife. The complexities of our world are not easily laid bare, but this anthology tries its best. Check it out if you can! It's a little on the pricey side, but you really get your bang for your buck. Seriously, it's hefty, you could knock out a burglar with this thing if you needed to. Enjoy!
Wait, I Haven't Posted in 2016 Yet?
Time flies when your head is spinning because of how busy you are. Yeah, it’s been quite a while since my last post, but thankfully it’s because I've had too much to do rather than not having anything to post about. It’s been a busy winter so far, with multiple and exciting (to me) projects happening all at once, including:
- I have a new poetry chapbook in the works with Dark Heart Press, titled We Are All Terminal but This Exit is Mine. There is a tentative release date for this spring that may be pushed back, but I’m excited to work with editor Kevin Ridgeway on this release with his new press based out of Los Angeles. More news on that coming soon.
- I’m in preliminary talks with a fellow writer to co-edit a new print anthology we want to create collecting personal essays about the daydreams we had while listening to music as kids in the 1980s. It’s early yet to post any more details than that, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.
- I’m in the home stretch for the first draft of the mystery novel I’m working on, with a working title The Girl in the Mountain, my fifth novel overall, although at least one or two of those will never see the light of day, and for good reason - woof, that was some rough writing in my early 20s. Anyway, I’m about 15K words away from the end, and once it’s done I’ll have a few beta readers give it a go before moving on to the revision stage.
- I also have a novel waiting for revision that I’m excited to jump back into and get out to agents later this summer. This one is based in Beacon, NY and is about the intersecting lives of five people who moved to town to hide from something, to start over, to figure out what comes next, and then one unsolved murder changes them all.
- Freelance has been keeping me on my toes, with projects due for Pearson (writing ELL essays and questions for overseas students) and ECS Learning (creating end-of-book tests for classic and award-winning novels taught in grades 4-8), so the next few months will be extra busy, but as every writer working today knows, every penny counts while you’re chasing down an agent for your work, right?
As I attend to all that and more, I’ll try to keep a better variety of weird, fun, informative, and literary posts flowing here in 2016, okay? See you down the road…
Too Much: An Anthology of Excess
I am pleased to announce that my short story, "The Rube," is scheduled to appear in the upcoming Too Much: An Anthology About Excess from Unknown Press. The book is due in late July and is overflowing with poems, short stories, essays, and interviews about the pleasures and pitfalls of excess, be it alcoholic, sexual, mind-altering, or what have you. A big thank you goes out to editors Chuck Howe and Bud Smith.
My story, "The Rube," is a brief and humorous look at alcoholic excess experienced during a point in my life when I was ... well, to be honest, a bit of a barfly, working as a freelance writer, surviving on meager poetry sales and the kindness of friends, and how a destination wedding invitation turned into an alcohol-infused brush with death in a third-world country. Part memoir, part fiction, and definitely excessive.
I'm also excited that a poem of mine, "Burning in the Freeze," will soon appear in riverbabble #25. I just need to return the publishing agreement on Monday morning. I haven't sent out many poetry submissions recently, so this is a real treat. I'm excited to be in riverbabble once again. Many thanks to the editors for selecting my poem.
I'll post more details when each of these pieces become available. Thanks!