POETRY NEWS, Spring/Summer 2011

My biggest spring news is that my third book, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls, is out from Anhinga Press as of March.

You can order it directly from Anhinga, or via amazon or SPD, or you can order a signed copy directly from me.

My second book, Ideal Cities, is still available from HarperCollins & amazon. It was selected by poet Paul Guest as one of the winners 

of the 2009 National Poetry Series (thanks, Paul!), and was reviewed in The New York Times & the Boston Review (Jan/Feb 2011).

The most up-to-date way to get news from me is by liking my Facebook author page, or by following me on Twitter. Hello social networking!

I'll be doing readings from Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls and Ideal Cities in GA, FL, MO, IL, SC and WI this fall.  

See my readings page for details. I love to do readings and craft talks, so please email if you want me to come visit.

I have a new (July 2011) interview up on the Kenyon Review blog with Weston Cutter (who asks really excellent & thoughtful questions),

and Jake Adam York has a brilliant post on similes (also newly up on the Kenyon Review blog) where he compares me to Outkast (for reals!).

In case you always wanted to see me on video, here I am on the PBS News Hour Art Beat blog reading my poem "Miracle Blanket."

You can also read about how I ended up reading for the News Hour, and my winding career path over at the UVA Today News Blog. 

My poem "Elegy with Construction Sounds, Water, Fish" from the Spring 2010 issue of VQR was selected for 

Best American Poetry 2011, edited by David Lehman and Kevin Young!

Also, I have seven documentary poems and an essay ("This is not a Requiem for Detroit") in the Spring 2011 Ruin & Rebirth issue of 

Virginia Quarterly Review, accompanied by Ryan Spencer Reed's haunting photos of the city. Pick up a copy at a bookstore near you!

(Or get the beatific Issue 27 of Salt Hill with my poem "Ghostbox" in it.)

The Virginia Tech MFA program is ranked #23 overall (and #16 in poetry) in the latest 2012 Poets & Writers MFA Rankings. We're very proud.

For Archived News, click here...

Kick-Ass Site Alert:  Hear lots of cool young poets read their work (myself included) at From the Fishouse.

Order my first book, Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore, on amazon.com, via Small Press Distribution, or directly through Anhinga Press.

Order my second book, Ideal Cities, on amazon.com or pick it up at a Barnes & Noble store near you!

Order my third book, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls, on amazon.com, via Small Press Distribution, or directly through Anhinga Press.