Most pressing news of all! We raised $323 for WOAR (Women Organized Against Rape), Philly’s ONLY rape crisis center. This was thanks to all of our donors, and a last minute donation from Denise Ingram made a big difference.

The evening began with some mutterings and remarks by myself. Here is a picture of me taken by Sheila Squillante. The Halloween bucket at my feet that appears in some of the pictures is the “hat” we passed around for donations.

The evening really began with Sandra Beasley, poet superstar who just blew me away with her great imagination and performance style. Each hand gesture was deliberate. She very much does her poetry on the page justice. Also, one of the nicest people you could ever meet. Pictured below.

Next up was Dawn Manning, who read a number of tanka, a form I’ve never experimented with, but love hearing other people employ. She is a master of them! Her poems addressed great atrocities, everything from the Atomic Bomb to gendercide. Listening to her work felt important. Pictured below.

Then the wonderful Emily Cox from WOAR spoke! She’s pictured below speaking passionately about the work done by WOAR. If you have a friend, or you yourself, have experienced assault or rape, please reach out to them. They have counseling, a helpline, and many other resources.

Next was the great Sheila Squillante, a lovely soul who excitingly was reunited with her college roommate of 22 years ago for the reading! She read the poem that made me choose her for the reading, so that was a delight for me. She also has a wild relationship with the use of second person. Such a fan!

The evening closed out with the inimitable Annie Won, who read two of the poems from the Entropy series I had posted in the facebook group, and just really love. The link at her name will take you there. She also read some great poems about or influenced by walls, structure, constraints. And her second to last poem was hilarious, and my personal favorite. I tried to get a photo of her holding her beautiful books, but the below will have to suffice.

AND A MANDATORY GROUP SHOT, stolen from facebook and the wonderful Denise’s posting.

Time will tell if the series continues. Cross your fingers with me it does!

1! Thank you to Museum of Americana for nominating my poem “The Original Siamese Twins” for Best of the Net! Super cool! They also nominated my bud Denton Loving’s short story! Best of luck to him and my other friends who received nominations.

2) Rhino nominated my poem “I Want to Write a Memoir” for the Orison Anthology, a collection of writings about faith, and it was selected for inclusion! I feel a little bit like this.

The facebook event is here! Sandra Beasley, Dawn Manning, Sheila Squillante, and Annie Won will be reading. It’s the last one of the year, and possibly ever, so it’s a great one to attend!

I have two new acceptances to report, one is my visual/experimental poem “Bathroom Graffiti,” which was picked up by the forthcoming anthology Hysteria. This anthology is limited to lady-folk and non-cis gendered writers, and is being edited by E Kristin Anderson and Allie Marini. I’m really excited to see what the end product will look like!

Continuing the lady theme is the acceptance of my poem “I Want to Ask Grandfather Frank About the Stars in Panama” by Bone Bouquet (an all women’s and non-binary individuals’ journal). It will appear in Spring 2016, and is part of a project where I turn my family legends into poems. I was taking a hiatus from it due to life, etc., but this may have sparked my interest in the project again.

My grandpa pictured above. The poem takes place about the time this picture was taken. I miss him every day, as well as my grandmother, Maurine.

I recently (/months ago) got my contributor’s copies of Crab Orchard Review for my poem “Lucky Ones,” about the kidnapping of the Nigerian Girls (the title makes sense when you read it), and Washington Square Review for my poem “What if I Don’t Even Like You?” which is strangely enough a love poem borrowing two lines from Dorothea Lasky’s poem “Depression.”

I am very pleased to be in both of these amazing journals. Pick up a copy of either/both, if you like!