Blackbird Poetry Festival
(IMAGE: HoCoPoLitSo and Howard Community College) This time of year, Poetry gets a lot of attention from the mainstream public. News organizations around the country that would otherwise snub her...
View Article2012 Awards Mark Best Year Ever for DC-based Nonprofit
Full disclosure: I’m the senior program director for the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop. We’re always bragging about our students. They’re always doing amazing things. Here’s another post about what...
View ArticleI’m on the show THE POET AND THE POEM
(Marlene Lillian Photography) According to the Library of Congress’s website: The Poet and the Poem is an ongoing series of live poetry interviews at the Library of Congress with distinguished artists....
View ArticleA Message from DCCWW’s Executive Director Nancy Schwalb
(PHOTO: D.C. Creative Writing Workshop) Those who can’t make this event, or who live out of the area, can support our work by visiting our donations page here. Dear friends and supporters, For the past...
View ArticleCurtis Crisler: Migration of a Latchkey Boy
(PHOTO: William Bryant Rozier) Curtis Crisler Curtis Crisler’s unnamed speaker is a griot of sorts. His distant kin, fleeing from Jim Crow and southern domestic terrorism, joins the 5 million African...
View ArticleTim Seibles: A Product of Sweat and Patience
(PHOTO: Helenbackrwards.com) Tim Seibles is a literary treasure. Understanding how Tim Seibles got the National Book Foundation’s attention requires some knowledge of neuroscience and of his...
View ArticleI’ve been BOMBed!
(PHOTO: Courtesy) TIm! Bomb Magazine posted the full interview I conducted with National Book Award Finalist Tim Seibles, who I also profiled in an earlier post. Here’s an excerpt from the intro: Tim...
View ArticleRejoicing in the Church of Poetry
(PHOTO: Steven Pinker) I’m coming off a high after graduation last month. I finished the Stonecoast M.F.A. Low-Residency Program at the University of Southern Maine, a two-year journey I started for...
View ArticleDRIFT, A Cyber Conversation on Process
(PHOTO: Stock Image) EDITOR’S NOTE: My friend, poet and educator Curtis Crisler, recently taught my debut poetry collection, DRIFT, to his students at Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne....
View ArticleWillow Books, The Motown Records of Book Publishing
(Courtesy of Willow Books/Aquarius Press) Started in 2007, Willow Books, an imprint of Aquarius Press, is still in its childhood. Yet the six-year-old Detroit-based press is rapidly becoming the Motown...
View ArticleThe Invisible Man in Iain Haley Pollock’s SPIT BACK A BOY
(ARTWORK: Krista Franklin) Like Ralph Ellison’s narrator in Invisible Man, Iain Haley Pollock’s speaker in Spit Back A Boy is the invisible underdog. He’s a man torn between his “black mother’s...
View ArticleA Poet on his Way to a Reading
(PHOTO: Courtesy of Sidwell Friends School) That’s me, right there! Yesterday, I left work around 9:30am and hopped the red line to the Tenleytown Metro Station. During my 13-minute walk, I took a...
View ArticleAll Aboard THE OVERGROUND Express!
A few weeks ago, I did a write up on The Overground Railroad (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2015), a powerhouse of an anthology. It’s now available! See our smiles? You’ll have one, too, after ordering...
View ArticleDRIFT book trailer
Here’s a trailer for my debut collection of poems, DRIFT (Aquarius Press/Willow Books, 2012).
View ArticleNew Video for My Poem, “Conundrum”– DRIFT Book Trailer pt. 2
Here’s another trailer for my poetry collection, DRIFT (Aquarius Press/Willow Books, 2012).
View ArticleWhat the PLUCK!
Here’s the rundown on this journal, according to the editorial team: pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, takes its name from a Nikky Finney poem of the same title which appeared in...
View ArticleThe Light Inside
for Jazmyn King (due date: Dec. 30, 2015) You were a print of light pressed into a waxy dark sheet. Your mom framed you while I carried you in my wallet and phone. I stood in your white room — the...
View ArticleCherry Castle Publishing Trailer (Official)
If you haven’t heard of Cherry Castle Publishing, this press is a gem, where diverse voices flourish. It’s also an award-winning indie publisher. I’m honored that Publisher/Co-Founder Truth Thomas,...
View ArticleCurtis Crisler’s New Book “…Out-Schools Every School of American Poetry”
Curtis L. Crisler’s new book, “This” Ameri-Can-ah (Cherry Castle Publishing, 2016) “out-schools every school of American poetry.” That’s according to Jericho Brown, American Book Award Winner....
View ArticleWhat the PLUCK!
Here’s the rundown on this journal, according to the editorial team: pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, takes its name from a Nikky Finney poem of the same title which appeared in...
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