News & Events
News
2023
01.25: I got my copies of The Dead Wrestler Elegies, Championship Edition, which means that my first book is a real thing in the world once more. I’m so grateful to New Michigan Press and Ander Monson for the thought and care that went into this second edition, this time with more poems, more illustrations, and better copyediting!
2022
10.28: I have these new poems in Bear Review this month. I haven’t been sending many poems out lately, so I am particularly happy to have these online: “Black Hole” and “Elegy Full of Animal Parts.”
09.01: I am not sure when this became public news, but I am making a book called Afterlife with the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. This will be a single long poem with illustrations by John McKaig. This project is made possible by KBAC through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. I’m excited to see how this letterpress book comes out!
02.07: I’m super grateful to be able to present three poems in the newly relaunched Defunct Magazine. You can see these poems on their website: “America for My Heart,” “Mother,” and “Song Beginning with the Chorus from the Song ‘Let It Go” from the Movie Frozen and Ending with Two Lines from Czeslaw Milosz“
01.07: First poems of the year! Check out my poems “How to Stay Safe” and “When Our Twin Sons Are Born” in the new release of Couplet Poetry!
2021
10.21: Thanks to Poetry Northwest for featuring Mark Leidner and me in conversation about poetry, family, and writing in general as part of their “One More Thing” interview series.
10.14: Sometimes the world makes a tired, bedraggled father of too many kids feel like a real writer in the world. Today, I got my copy of The Strategic Poet, which contains my craft essay about diction, and it’s such an honor to have my work in a book full of work by so many other poets I admire.
10.12: I am honored and super geeked to see my poem “Invocation” on the Slowdown podcast today. Thank you to Ada Limón and everyone who works on the podcast, and thanks to the editors at the Adroit Journal for first publishing it.
10.01: I have a new poem “Monster Theory” online today at Broadsided. You can download a copy of this free broadside with art by Jennifer Moses from the website.
06.16: It’s publication day for SLASH / SLASH, the chapbook of poems I co-wrote with Amorak Huey! It’s out from Diode Editions and I couldn’t be more grateful to my co-author and publisher..
05.19: I have three poems in the new issue of Phoebe, a journal I’ve admired since I was in grad school. Check out “Prayer,” “Japanese,” and “Briefly, the Fish.” I’m so grateful to the editors for including them in the issue.
04.16: A broadside of my poem “Birthright” from This Is How the Bone Sings is available from the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. The beautiful broadside was designed by Carol Myers, and they are signed and numbered. I just noticed that they still have copies of a broadside of my poem “It All Began with Strangler Lewis” from The Dead Wrestler Elegies too. This one was designed by Vicki VanAmeyden back in 2015.
03.25: My poem “Minidoka Was a Concentration Camp in Idaho” is online with Verse Daily today. I’m super grateful to see it on the site. What an honor.
02.15: Today I got my contributor’s copy of Cherry Tree. My poem “Your Father Died Last Night” is inside with some awesome work by lots of writers I like and admire.!
02.07: I’m excited to see my poem “All the Things That Make Heaven and Earth” online at Poetry Daily today.
01.02: Thanks to the editors at Poetry Northwest for selecting my poem “David Carradine” to appear on their website.
01.01: You can catch me reading a few poems on video for the DMQ Review Virtual Salon, which is so graciously hosted by Sally Ashton and the great magazine she heads up. There are lots of great readings posted to the site that are well worth perusing. I am grateful to be included. 4
2020
12.22.2020: I have two new poems in the new Winter/Spring Issue of Poetry Northwest: “Waiting for Colonoscopy” and “My Father Writes Poems” both appear in the magazine. Thanks to the editors for including my poems in what seems to be a star-studded issue of poetry.
10.07.2020: I’ve been collaborating with the poet Amorak Huey on poems about Axl and Slash from Guns N Roses for a while now, and our collection of these poems called Slash / Slash is going to be published as one of the winners of the 2020 Diode Editions Chapbook Contest. I don’t usually win stuff, so you know—I’m pretty geeked about this.
10.05.2020: I have a new poem “Bodies Where We Can See Them” in the new issue of Copper Nickel. Thanks to the editors for including my poem in this spectacular star-studded issue.
08.24.2020: I have this weird flash essay about Sour Patch Kids and concentration camps in America in the new HAD Journal: “Say It for Sour Patch Kids.”
08.13.2020: You can read “Elegy for Han Solo” and “Elegy with Great Responsibility” in the new issue of Sporklet. I’m elated to be included in this dynamite issue.
07.21.2020: I have a new poem called “The Bread is the Blessing” in Birdfeast 15, just released today. It’s really a dynamite issue, and I am grateful and honored to have this poem included.
07.19.2020: This website is live. My second book THIS IS HOW THE BONE SINGS is due out in August from Black Lawrence Press. My first book THE DEAD WRESTLER ELEGIES has been out of print for about a year and is scheduled to be rereleased this winter as a revised edition (still working on what that means) by New Michigan Press. I have poems coming out in some awesome places soon. It’s the middle of summer and it’s hot.
events
I would love to talk creative writing to your students, read for your audience, or whatever. If you are interested in scheduling me for some kind of event (reading, class visit, etc.), please feel free to contact me. I would love to try to make something happen for us.
2023
February 23: Poetry Reading
Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI
April 15: KBAC Reading
Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, MI
2022
February 7: Poetry Reading & Workshop
Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA
February 17: Poetry Reading & Workshop
Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
March 23: AWP Offsite Poetry Reading
Online, Tampa, FL
April 23: Diode Editions Collaborative Poetry Reading
Online
2021
January 1: DMQ Review Virtual Salon
Asynchronous Video Reading
with Christopher Salerno & Jane Craven
January 29: Grand Valley Writer’s Series
Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI
Zoom Reading, 1pm EST
with Chris Haven
February 10: Authors Reading Virtually
Peter White Library, Marquette, MI
Zoom Reading, 7pm EST
March 17: Cheap Pop Round Robin
Zoom Reading, 8pm EST
with Sara Siddiqui Chansarkar, Andy Lopez, & Shannon McLeod
March 25: Phosphoresence Reading
Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, MA
Zoom Reading, 6pm EST
with Amy Dryansky & Teri Ellen Cross Davis
March / April: Visiting Writer
Montgomery College / Potomac Review
April 10: Poets In Print
Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, MI
Zoom Reading, 7pm EST
with José Olivarez
April 22: DMACC’s Celebration of Literary Arts
Des Moines Area Community College
Zoom Reading, 1pm CST / 2pm EST
with Aimee Bender
April 27: Black Lawrence Press Virtual Reading
Zoom Reading, 8pm
with Charlotte Pence & Enzo Silon Surin
May 15: “Writing the Vertical: Using the Lyric
Mode to Create and Revise Poems”
Oregon Poetry Association
Zoom Workshop, 5pm EST (2pm PST)
[Click here for registration]
May 16: Metal Upon Heart Upon Glint
Chinese American Citizens Alliance
Zoom Reading, 7pm EST (4pm PST)
With Jane Wong and Dorothy Chan
[Click here for registration]
May 23: “Yes, And: Collaboratively Writing Poems”
RHINO Poetry
Zoom Workshop, Noon EST (11am CST)
with Amorak Huey
[Click here for registration]
June 26: Diode Editions Chapbook Release Reading
Zoom Reading, 1pm EST
with Teow Lim Goh, Joey Kim, Natasha Saje, Amorak Huey, Tyler Mills, and Kendra DeColo
July 9: The Downtown Writers Center
Zoom Reading, 7pm EST
[Click here for registration]
August 16: Slash / Slash Reading with Amorak Huey
Peter White Library, Marquette, MI
Zoom Reading, 7pm EST
2020
November 18-19: After the MFA / Stellar Alumni Reading
with Caitlin Horrocks, Author of The Vexations
Arizona State University MFA Program
Zoom Reading, 9pm EST
November 16: Reading and Q&A
Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Zoom Reading, 7-8pm EST
October 17: Creative Youth Center Poetry Hike
Blandford Nature Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1-5pm EST
August 26: Words Together, Worlds Apart Reading
Zoom Reading, 8:30pm EDT
July 21: Online Publishing Workshop with Diatribe
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1pm EDT
March 27: “Hold This Stone: Poets Confront the Japanese American Incarceration,” Reading at Split This Rock
Cancelled Due to COVID-19
March 7: AWP Conference Offsite Reading:
Radius Center, San Antonio, 7-9pm.
Cancelled Due to COVID-19
March 6: AWP Conference Panel
“Song or Sting: Choosing Art Over Fame,”
AWP Conference, San Antonio.
Cancelled Due to COVID-19
March 6: AWP Conference Panel
“The Evolution of Sudden to Micro Fiction: The Anthoogies That Got It Started,”
AWP Conference, San Antonio.
Cancelled Due to COVID-19