So excited! The Museum of Americana Literary Journal (facebook) has accepted my poem “The Original Siamese Twins” for inclusion! Visiting the Way Back Machine, I first wrote this poem around the time of this post. I worked on the poem with my then-professor, April Bernard, and got it into its present day incarnation. There is a recording of my reading it here. I am so excited this poem finally found a home, and will link to it when it is up in mid-November.

I have been shopping this poem around for two years now, and I couldn’t be happier at where it landed. I really like this journal, and will be glad to have my Siamese Twins surrounded by other poems regarding historical Americana.

In the meantime, I would urge all of you to submit to The Museum of Ameriana! To quote from their submission page, “the museum of americana accepts submissions of original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book/chapbook reviews, writer interviews, music, photography, and art. We seek work that showcases and/or repurposes historical American culture.”

I have a great amount of updating to do! First, I want to say what a joy it has been to work with the good folks at Four Chambers Press (facebook) (twitter). They chose three of my poems for inclusion, one of which is available online: “Local Church Falls in Love With Area Library.” The poem won a $25 prize, and was illustrated by a very talented artist named Rebecca Green. Illustration appears below.

This poem is dear to my heart, as is the man it is about. I couldn’t have asked for it to be included in a better journal. Four Chambers is great at promoting their writers and artists, and I really see this journal going places. I encourage all of my writer friends to submit!

Bonus: Bernie and Jasper enjoy my contributor’s copy below.

I have three new poems out in the world at Contemporary American Voices. Thank you very much to Sherry O’Keefe for nominating me for inclusion! Mine are the second set of the poems, but please read them all, if able.

A note on King-Sized Bed: This was written two years ago, during a very hard time for me when I was going through the end of a long relationship, + bedbugs! Thank goodness that the relationship is still over and the bedbugs are gone–life moving forward!

I also wanted to share two photos from a recent reading I did as part of Three Dozen Poets for Change. The reading was organized by my writing teacher, Leonard Gontarek, and featured a lot of other readers from my workshop and other area Philadelphia poets. This took place as part of the 100,000 Poets for Change event on September 27th.

The night before I went to one of the best poetry readings I have ever been to, with a lineup of people published by Bloof and Coconut Books. There were some amazing readers there, and nine out of ten of them were women. The positive energy toward women in the air was so refreshing, and it inspired me to ask some of my female poet friends and acquaintances to do a reading together featuring about six of us. I am really hoping it comes together!

At that reading I also heard the works of Natalie Eilbert, whose writing I loved so much it inspired a new poem of mine, titled, “In Response to Learning the Lego Line of Female Scientists was Limited Edition.” The poem is in response to this article, which my cousin Ariana Kelly posted on facebook. Sometimes the rabbit hole is useful.

I am finding inspiration in so many places these days! I can’t quite turn the poet voice (not the monotone linebreaky one, the one that looks at the world through a curved lens) off in my brain lately.

I also set a date for the workshop I am leading at my local domestic violence center: October 21st. I am incredibly excited to do this, especially during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

That’s all (that my lunch hour will permit) for now!

I am super elated to announce my first piece of published non-fiction, “Report of Findings on my Mother, Electron Microscopist for the United States Department of Agriculture.” Drafthorse has been a wonderful journal to work with, and I heartily recommend submitting there. I submitted because I know one of the Executive Editors, Denton Loving, from Bennington. There couldn’t be a nicer person on the planet. I am also excited to see Shawna Kay Rodenberg’s poetry in this journal, as she is a fellow Benningtonian.

Hope you enjoy the piece!

Hello! I have two new pieces coming out shortly, one with The Florida Review, the second with Forklift Ohio. The latter piece, “Shevaun Looks for a Man” I read at a reading of Bennington Alumni in New York, and one of the editors of the journal was in the audience–she liked the piece and asked me to submit, for which I am grateful! It is a fun poem, and when it is up at the journal I will post a video of myself reading it because it really is more performance based.

I also have been taking the University of Iowa MOOC: How Writers Write Poetry, and very much enjoying it! There is still time to enroll and access the videos of past classes. I really recommend this course. If you’re looking for any of my submissions on there, I’m posting under sbrannig, and would love your feedback. I am learning a lot from the fellow students in the course, as well as the accomplished poets who have taken the time to film videos for us.

http://phillypoetryday.com/ is a great resource to keep track of the events occurring to celebrate poetry in America’s fifth largest city on April 12th!

I’ll be participating in the following, with wonderful writer Hila Ratzabi.

I have neglected this, haven’t I?

I’ve added some new links to poems that are coming out or have, in such journals as Free State Review, Court Green, and Four Chambers Press. I’ve been terrible about submitting, but am so pleased that poems found homes in the previously listed journals, despite that fact.

One of the editors of Free State Review, Barrett Warner, pictured below with myself, is having a birthday tomorrow! I’m sure he would love it if, as a gift, you submitted your finest works to his journal.

I have a poetry reading myself coming up, on April 13th. Facebook information about it is here, but, in brief, it is located at Yell Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, and I have been reassured by facebook that there will be muffins there. Reading is from 2-4 PM. I would love to see some new or familiar faces!

https://soundcloud.com/chicago-amplified/woman-made-gallery-poetry check it out! Begin at 17:27 for me 🙂