Much of my weekend will be tending to children, grading essays, and writing curriculum. I might sneak in some other writing here and there, but I find that my school work often eats at those muscles and I tend to write less when the school year is fully flourishing. Plus, this is the second year in a row with two new classes that I’m building, which involves more work than simply refining a previously built course.
I’m excited that I’ll have a poem in a matchbook anthology made by Small Fires Press, a print shop and bindery in New Orleans. Their work is fantastic.
“Nextdoor,” a continuing collaboration with Mark Ehling, is getting a new form of life in the GROW UP exhibition at Wild Goose Creative, a non-profit art and education space in Columbus, Ohio. I have some family roots in Ohio so I’m excited about this show for many reasons. I have to say thanks to Amanda Page who made us aware of the exhibit and who will now have to hang our art! Mandy continues to be…supportive…hee…
Recently, Jason Quinn Malott and I started volume two of the Outrider Podcast. We’re working with a few different structures, and this first episode may have even been the third in a series of recorded conversations about writing, reading, and life.
I’m drafting my next Halloween collaboration with artist Reed Randolph. Last year, we did The Coven of Lonely Gourds. This year’s project will maintain our indulgence in a kind of EC/MAD humor, but is also influenced by Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose demonology school I wanted to attend as a twelve-year-old.
Here’s some recent reading:
General Favorites 2017–So Far, Part II
Books that left traces.
Nonfiction
Auto/Biography
Two-Dimensional Man: Paul Sahre
Theft By Finding: Diaries (1977-2002): David Sedaris
Psychology/Philosophy/Education/Religion
The Dhammapada
Taking the Path of Zen: Robert Aitken
The Book of Tea: Kakuzo Okakura
There Is No God and He Is Always With You: A Search for God in Odd Places: Brad Warner
Essays/Criticism
Paperbacks from Hell: A History of Horror Fiction From the ‘70s and ‘80s: Grady Hendrix
Equipment for Living: On Poetry and Pop Music: Michael Robbins
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments: David Foster Wallace
Film
Melinda Camber Porter In Conversation With Wim Wenders
Art/Comics
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: Winsor McCay
Poetry
Best American Poetry 2017: ed. Natasha Tretheway
Stephen McClurg 