New Poems in Print!

Please take a moment and stop by to read four of my persona poems about the constellations at Orion headless: Poetry, Art, Found Objects.  I am thrilled to have four poems picked up by a single literary magazine or website. Stop by and you will encounter “Lyra” about Orpheus, a cranky “Orion,” “Dorado” in which […]

Happy Halloween: Guest Blogger Chad Helder Shares the Books that Shaped Him

Hi there Literary Magpie readers! I’m the guest blogger today (thanks, Jory), and I thought I would write about some of the books that “made me” (thanks to Nate Southard for the idea) as a way to pass along some literary inspiration and explain the origins of my weird books of poetry (Vampire Bridegroom and […]

Coming Soon: A Post of Substance

Graduate school and teaching is kicking my ass.  I will post something of substance soon.  Please stay tuned.  But to hold you over, here is a picture of me reading some new work this past week at the MFA reading for the Hemingway Festival in Moscow, Idaho.  (You can tell it is more noir poems because […]

Some Sad News: Reposted from Band of Thebes Blog

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for Alyson Books to release the book Notes from the Sexual Underground, 1935-1975: The Selected Writings of Sam Steward (The Renegade Author Also Known as Phil Andros) by Justin Spring.  At first it was due out in February and then June and now it appears […]

Matthew Shepard: On Martyrology and Media Distortion

I’ve been writing about Matthew Shepard, or at least the image of Matthew Shepard clouded by eleven years of martyrology and media distortion.  If the gay rights movement has a patron saint, it is the smiling face of Matthew haloed by his longish blond hair. Harvey Milk’s face has been edited out of history by that […]

Book Notes on Elizabeth J. Colen’s Money for Sunsets

Paperback, 90 pagesFrom Steel Toe BooksJuly 2010ISBN: 9780982416938 Reading Elizabeth Colen’s Money for Sunsets isn’t something that I could just once. After finishing the book, I needed to go back and reread the text with all the cues and nuances I picked up the first read. Money for Sunsets has a persistent anxiety of certain […]

Let’s Get Metaphysical: Marvell, Donne, Mark Wunderlich and Vaughan

Perhaps my wires are crossed.  I keep looking at this picture trying to figure it out.  Is it an anchor and a shark?  Where does the fin being and the metal end?  There is no shark.  It’s a picture of two anchors lashed together with rope and chain.  One is visible and the other is […]

Book Notes On: The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs by Frances McCue

Hardcover, 266 pagesFrom University of Washington March 2010ISBN: 9780295989648 The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs is a tour of the Pacific Northwest through the eyes of Richard Hugo’s poems. If you don’t know who Richard Hugo is, you are missing out. Born in White Center, Washington and buried in Missoula, Montana, Hugo’s poetry […]