From Sickbed to Book Deals: This Week in My Writing Life

Well, well, well…

It has been another week and I have already failed my own consistency challenge, but for good reason. I was sick. I went out last weekend, and one by one, my friends have all come done with something. I was the strongest soldier, the last to fall, but I unfortunately I succumbed to the sickness.

I am only a day late, but still I am beating myself up although I was bedridden yesterday.

Here are some up dates about what’s going on in my world:

• Kites is still under contract, but the process is very slow moving. I do, however, have patience.

• Another excerpt of Violent Offender should be out next month. Apogee Journal will be publishing an excerpt of chapter four. I am so honored.

• The Ex-Puritan recently accepted two poems of a five poem sequence I wrote about my siblings on my mother’s side.

• This October I will be teaching Poetry I (finally!) at Gotham Writers Workshop. I am super excited about this.

• I think my next collection of poetry is finished, or at least I have all the poems for it that I want. I have a tentative contents section. Now, I just want to revise some of these poems to ensure they are the best they could be.

Lastly, I will be in NYC next month on Sept. 23 for a reading with PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing program. The venue has yet to be chosen, but I will update as soon as I have it. Links to new publications will be up once I have them.

Thanks for being here. Tell someone you love them today.