My poem “The New Avenues the Only Avenues We Have” has just been published in the new online issue of Witness Magazine. This poem is especially close to my heart, as among other things it celebrates old and dear friendships. Having just recently lost an old and dear friend, this publication is doubly poignant for me. I hope you enjoy the poem. Thank you to Lindsay Olson, Tamar Peterson, and the whole Witness team!
Here’s an interview with me just published by the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. It’s one of my favorite interviews I’ve done. I talk about the Institute a little, and a lot about my poems, my titles, my first and second books, teaching, poetry readings, prose poetry, the importance of play in creativity, and more. Ya’ just can’t shut me up once I get going. Thanks so much Alexandra Murphy for your thoughtful, exciting questions, and to the MVICW for publishing this interview!
Read it HERE.
We’re the back cover of the new Denver Quarterly! Holy moly! Friends, I’m over-the-moon to have received contributor copies of the new issue of Denver Quarterly whose theme is collaborative writing. It contains three prose poems I wrote with Dustin Nightingale. And they put one on the back cover! What a thrill! Thank you to Vincent James and everyone at the Denver Quarterly!
Delighted to receive the news that my poems “Black Bean Sauce” and “Like a River Stood on End” have been accepted at Cherry Tree. Huge thanks to James Allen Hall and the rest of the Cherry Tree crew!
On the day that I received my driver’s license renewal I’ve also received my contributor copy of this beautiful new anthology, Show Us Your Papers, edited by Daniela Buccilli, Wendy Scott Paff, and Cherise Pollard, from Main Street Rag Publishing! It’s a thrill to have my poems “It’s Something People in Love Do” and “Sick of Sick” appear alongside work of so many poets I admire and read with joy!
On this warm September Monday, after three nights of frosts, I thought I’d share this video I made in June of me reading two poems (“It’s Something People in Love Do” and “Our Beautiful Life When It’s Filled with Shrieks”) from my forthcoming book, If We Had a Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That the Sun. Pandemic beard in evidence.
I just uploaded this video to my YouTube page. The squirrels seem to be hectically preparing for the coming cold.
Goodbye Journal 110. Hello Journal 111!
For the last seven years, it’s been my great pleasure to have served as an editor for decomP magazinE, for two as Assistant Poetry Editor and five as Poetry Editor. We published an amazing group of poets and writers. I was delighted to invite my friend Steve Castro on board to fill my position as Assistant Poetry Editor, and he brought his vision and hard work to make the journal’s poetry even more awesome. This January the Managing Editor decided to end decomP. That was a shock, and it made me sad. I had nothing to do with that decision. It was his to make. I see today that the journal has morphed into a new incarnation as the “in-house journal at The Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia.” As of now the old archives are still up and available online. I hope they will remain so. I have no idea who is in involved with it now, but I wish them well. I thank everyone who trusted us with their poems, everyone who took me up on my invitations to submit, and my fellow editors, especially Steve Castro. All hail what decomP was. I wish smooth seas to those who will now sail in her.
And some day soon, I hope to be on board with some other beautiful literary journal.
.Christopher.
Hey all writers everywhere! The deadline for this is tomorrow, July 10! Want a little of that Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing experience? This summer the Institute is offering virtual one-on-one manuscript consultations with some of the regular faculty (including me!). Each session includes a generous review of your work, including line edits, written feedback, and a 40-minute Zoom meeting to discuss your manuscript! The cost is $200. Visit this link to register by July 10. I’d love to see what you’ve been writing!
https://mvicw.submittable.com/submit/166759/mvicw-summer-one-on-one-manuscript-sessions
As part of the celebration of Smartish Pace 27 I made this video of me reading my three poems in the new issue, “The Sky Always Blue Above the Clouds Useless To Us,” “Please Let There Be an Ice Storm This Afternoon” and “Our Breaths Are Weather.” It was May and still snowing here in Syracuse. I hope you enjoy.
Thank you again Stephen Reichert and the rest of the Smartish Pace ensemble for including my poems in this beautiful new issue! 🙂
You can snag yourself a copy of the issue HERE!