Halloween Reading

Update (10/30): Scratch that. No reading for me. The pandemic wins again.

New England friends: want to come play on Halloween? I'll be reading my Wednesday Addams poem as part of the Portland Public Library's Halloween Showcase in Congress Park. 

More information is here.

Two New Poems in rose quartz

A belated update: I've got two new poems about disability, love, STAR WARS, and Mad Men's Peggy Olson up now in the lovely rose quartz magazine.

Read them here.

Rerun Four: Wednesday in Therapy

Wednesday in Therapy

The bearskin rug that bit visitors was always my favorite. At Christmastime, our butler stood on the rooftop and doused carolers in boiling pitch. The mansion had trap doors, maim-you-if-you-misjudge-the-exit secret passageways. Carnivorous vines as silent as boa constrictors. A graveyard of gruesome statuary. The pits of quicksand. My father would throw an épée at anything that moved. Mother meticulously decapitated all the roses. Grandmama was always entertaining some demon or another. There were corpses in the closets, beasts with teeth in the bottoms of dresser drawers. No welcome mat, in other words. Yet still the villains got in.

They said we were safe
and flung open the front doors
to ravening wolves



Originally published in Moonchild Magazine.

[Image description: a color photograph of the Addams family mansion.]

One New Essay

art: Tony Stella

New this month: I wrote about family, trauma, and hope in Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak. 

You can read the essay at Bright Wall/Dark Room or on RogerEbert.com.

Image description: A watercolor illustration of Mia Wasikowska in Crimson Peak. She levels her gaze at the viewer. Her expression is steady but unreadable.

A Zootopia Poem

image: YouTube // Googlemovietrailers

In March, I went to see Zootopia. 

I came home with visions of oil and water dancing behind my eyes. 

I thought about patterns, and the way we consider some dysfunctional behaviors strong or noble while others are viewed as weaknesses. I thought about grasping rabbits and flight-risk foxes I have known. I wrote a poem.

All that is to say:

"sly fox / dumb bunny" is up today at Quail Bell Magazine.

New Essay in Luna Luna

I wrote about chronic illness, love, and The Fountain in Luna Luna magazine this week.

You can read the essay here: To the Man Who Would Save Me from My Own Life

A Truly Great Artist: Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

I grew up loving Woody Allen--not just the movies, but the man. Over the last year, I've renegotiated that relationship. My essay on Sweet and Lowdown is in the June "Dilemmas" issue of Bright Wall/Dark Room magazine.

You can read it here.

Our Hearts Condemn Us

And now for something completely different: my very short essay on Only Lovers Left Alive is part of Bright Wall/Dark Room's glorious Halloween issue. Hurrah!

check it out.


illustration by Brianna Ashby