Post AWP Coma

This year's AWP has concluded in typical glorious fashion. I managed to push Imaginary Friend Press titles into many new hands, got some new exposure, and realized I need business cards. I brought home twenty two new books to read - highlights include: Martha Collins's White Papers, Patty Paine's The Sounding Machine, Laura Yes Yes's How To Sleep With a White Boy in Ten Easy Steps, and Gary Jackson's Missing You, Metropolis.

Before AWP, I heard the great news that Emerge Literary Journal chose two poems for their second issue. I will be gracing the same space as my dear friend, Anthony Frame. As always, I will hope for more good news soon, but until winning the lottery I will go to work.

So, I'm still a writer

The title of this post is deceiving. I've never not been a writer. I've just be incredibly busy with that whole "making a living" thing. Who would think teaching, being an editor, applying for jobs, and a little life rearrangement would be so time consuming?

In spite of all of that I have been trying to write and publish. I've recently had poems be accepted or published in The Licking River Review and The Turnstile Review. I've also received my first Pushcart nomination from my amazing editor at Accents Publishing.

Hopefully I will have even more good news in the near future.

Presentation, Presentation!

I just found out, that in addition to my Midwest Pop Culture presentation on home brewing as a reclamation of labor, I will be giving a presentation at the AWP conference in Chicago on creative writing pedagogy/ethics(?). It's an exciting time to be thinking about presentations, mostly because I'm procrastinating on writing syllabi. Hope to see you all at one or both of these panels!

Midwest Pop Culture

This October, I will be presenting at the Midwestern Pop Culture Association conference here in Milwaukee. I am on the working class panel discussing how making your own beer is a reclamation of labor from the Big 3 Breweries. It should be exciting. I am thinking of visual aids, but a power point seems to be out of order. Perhaps I will just make a few different beers and show off my abilities as a brew master. Any recommendations on what to make?

Sweet Home Louisville

This Friday will mark a glorious return to the site of my MFA, Spalding University. I will be there to celebrate homecoming with several amazing writers and be giving a reading at the After Party. If you're in the area you should come see why the bar bill at the Brown Hotel is always runner up only to the Derby.

Forthcoming Publication

Was just recently informed that the North American Review (the oldest literary magazine in the nation) will be publishing my poem "Turn the Page" (which, yes, was inspired by the Bob Seger song).

Praise!

I know I could have posted this earlier. I know posting it earlier might have allowed me a little more street cred. I'll take what I can get from it now though. Here, Vince Gotera of the North American Review, said I was one of the brightest young poets in the US. Amazingly sweet from a guy who can rock some pretty awesome hats.

http://wcfcourier.com/news/opinion/blogs/extra_credit/article_054043f2-6f51-11e0-aee4-001cc4c002e0.html