Howdy, y’all! My last post told you my book launch would happen at The Wild Detectives in August. That happened! It was gorgeous and I loved every second of it. A lot has happened since! The book has generated a lot of cool things since the launch. The Texas Observer reviewed Welcome to Midland. They called the book a memoir at first—we got that fixed but it’s sort of a curious phenomenon. It’s definitely a book of poems, y’all. Lucky for me, the folks over at Infrarrealista Review published this review that made me feel really seen.
In a complicated turn of events, The Midland Reporter Telegram interviewed me about the book. The article misquotes me a few times and you might hit a paywall. But that happened! The hometown paper, y’all. That’s not what I expected. In happier news, one of my poems was featured on the Backstory of a Poem blog series and D Magazine listed the book on this 2021 best list.
I’ve also received so many notes from strangers—folks letting me know they’re also from somewhere small, Texas, and my work speaks to them. That’s exactly what I wanted. Thanks, y’all.
I am also happy to report I was featured in the 2021 Texas Book Festival! I was on a panel with legendary Texas authors Kendra Allen, Carrie Fountain, and Tomás Morín. It was incredible! Check out the photo of my stunning fiancé and me at a fancy author event:
In other news, I have entered into a partnership with The Writer’s Garret for Inner Moonlight! You’ve heard me talk about teaching workshops for The Writer’s Garret in the past, and I’m stoked to work with them and The Wild Detectives to keep making space for poets. So much has happened and I’ve got more good news in store!
We are officially back at The Wild Detectives in person! But don’t worry; we are still a podcast. After Lauren Berry’s episode dropped, I published this review of her book, The Rented Altar. I made a few more podcast-only interview-style episodes: Lindsay Illich, whose book, Fingerspell, Katy Dycus reviewed; fellow West Texan Loretta Diane Walker, whose book I reviewed; and finally, I agreed to let Katy play host and interview me about Welcome to Midland. It was a little weird to be interviewed, but it was such fun and Katy was the perfect interviewer. Happy to have such a brilliant collaborator!
In November 2021, after almost a full year of producing just the podcast, we came back to The Wild Detectives backyard in person! I record the live show and release it on the podcast platform—Anchor, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and most places folks get their podcasts. Now, each episode includes one featured writer reading their work and answering my nerdy questions in front of a live audience at The Wild Detectives. Our November poet was Vic Victory, who was incredible. In December, we hosted Shug Avery, and the Dallas Observer thought y’all should know. In January, it was Matthew W. Baker. February brought us the incomparable Emily Ramser, whose episode is forthcoming at the time of this writing. The show is always, as ever, total magic. It’s the second Wednesday of every month. We do a brief open mic. We’d love to see you! Check out the stunning new logo, thanks to Writer’s Garret Executive Director, Aaron Glover.
In other news, I will be reading for the Dallas Literary Festival for the LitNight panel on March 20th. RSVP if you want to join!
I am in the middle of making a new issue of Script with my students right now, so I’ll be sure to report back about that. I will have more good news for y’all, no doubt. Be good out there!