Super honored to have a poem in Muzzle Magazine. Muzzle has been a publication goal of mine for years, so this is a big one for me personally. click here to read my poem in muzzle magazine, fall 2021 I also have a new poem in the anthology "Made of Rust and Glass: Midwest Literary Fiction Vol 1." available for purchase here

Little one, After weeks upon weeks of keeping quiet, of writing letters to you in saved word documents, I can finally acknowledge you here. You were the hardest secret I've ever had to keep. At first you were only a word, a confirmation, a photo I sent to your father while he was still at work. I was in shock and couldn't imagine waiting a second longer, let alone take the time to find some cutesy way to break the news. The moment of you was immediate, insistent. There was the agony of waiting for the first appointment, to finally see you. Everything told me you were there, but I still wasn't sure until I saw you, a tiny gummy bear on the screen. I could've stared at you all day. Forgive us both for laughing at one of your still photos that looked exactly like a tiny dinosaur. Don't worry--we're saving it. I'll show you someday. We told our families about you immediately after. The love and support felt extremely necessary to have around us. We didn'...

I think the brief sweet spot of travel is coming to an end. At least for now. Things have been absurdly busy since returning from vacation. I am super stoked to share that I've had a poem accepted to Muzzle for this fall, which was a massive goal of mine this summer. I've started doing some editing work on the side, and there is an oppotunity to release another collection sooner rather than later. I'm so endlessly thankful to be a writer. More big(bigger, biggest?) news coming in the not-distant future. For now it's back to all sorts of grinds. Here's to momentum. Oh and nature. Here's to nature as well because she's been knocking my socks off.

Leaving for vacation tomorrow and excited to completely unplug for the duration of it. I'm taking five books and a stack of poems to edit. Social media, work, news--my brain is oversaturated and I'm very much looking forward to stepping away. I have two new book projects in the works that require my undivided attention. I've got an ocean to be in the presence of. Also! I have a reading next Tuesday. I'm honored to once again be a part of the Hemingways summer reading series. This year is a bit different since it's virtual. Link to register is on my upcoming events page by the way.

I'm down to 1 book left in my first print run. The rest have all been sold/spoken for, and it feels so surreal and exciting to say that. My words have found their way to the Netherlands, Canada, South Africa, England, the west and east coast of the US and to a smattering of cities in between. I've received photos of it on beds, in open palms, on a stack of other beloved books. It feels like I've sent out bits of love and the love has returned to me in tiny, beautiful ways. I'm so grateful. For all of it. I was catching up with my dear friend Joseph via video chat today and expressed to him how I've been feeling both proud and guilty. Proud of myself for working so hard the past few months, for fully immersing myself in the hard work that comes with diving into one's craft. And guilty because of this busy-ness. I'm used to being someone who gives a lot of time to checking in on others, and lately I've felt more pulled away from that than usual. It's ...

Renee and I were joking today, about being busy--how if things to do are things being carried then I'm using both hands, both feet, all my teeth, and a swaying stack of tea cups clatter balanced on my head. The month of May, an exquisite tumbling of thing after thing after thing. My birthday is my new year, and for each one I like to reflect heavily. I usually write up something in this space to honor it, but this time I didn't have just that: time. I kept the reflecting more on the quiet side, staring off into a space a lot on the actual day. My love and I were married 9 days before it so I felt entirely surrounded by sweetness. Truly a gorgeous month. May also marked the month I started my role as a teaching assistant in a fairly intense writing workshop. I'm feeling particularly proud of grinding for this position--last fall I took the workshop as a student for the first time. This helped push me to finish my book--huge victory. I took it again in the first month of 202...