So much has been happening!

The amazing Traveling MarLa has invited me to be a featured reader in her Occupy Humanity online book club. This is such a cool idea. Readers from all around the world will read books Marla has recommended, then submit questions that Marla will have the willing author answer in a posted Q&A. For now the books are all by African writers. I’m so excited to read these books and communicate with these authors I may otherwise never have encountered. I’ve been trying to shift my reading habits in the last few years to focus on voices and viewpoints that don’t get enough attention. In this case Marla has done the grunt work for me, so I can kick back and read some beautiful, powerful books. I highly encourage you to check out the book club (and of course Marla’s work both on the blog and in other publications) and to join me in celebrating these African writers.

I spent the Fourth of July weekend in Maine with a group of wonderful friends. I had so much fun that I put my phone down at the start of the weekend and didn’t pick it up again until we left, so I don’t have any pictures to show. It was a string of beautiful days, full of kayaking and frisbee playing and colonial reenactments and more food than you could imagine. I returned to my city life with bruises, bug bites, a blotchy sunburn, and a greater feeling of calm than I’ve had in maybe years.

My poem “Anchor Bend,” written with that stretch of Maine coastline in mind, is in the latest issue of Crab Orchard Review. I have read Crab Orchard for years and am consistently blown away by the quality of work that they publish. It’s been a dream to see my name there and I’m so excited that it’s happened. Please consider subscribing to Crab Orchard, or even to reading some of the back issues that are available as PDFs. You won’t regret a minute of it.