I wrote a poem for a good friend. I sent it into the world. It got published. And now “when asked why I’ll never write you a sincere poem” was nominated by The Lit Nerds for a Best of the Net award!
"Stage Proxemics" [CNF] published in Pangyrus
The good folks at Pangyrus have published me once again. This time in creative nonfiction.
“Stage Proxemics” was a labor of love and part of a trilogy of essays (including “Type Casting,” published in ASP Bulletin).
And, my brother is still a badass.
Interview with Melissa Lemay of Collaborature
Click on the link below for my interview with Melissa Lemay, editor of Collaborature
Two poems in Star 82 Review
Happy to have two short poems appearing in the latest from Star 82 Review:
“‘what is PacMan without the ghosts?’”
&
“watching a production of The Tempest after a colleague asked about my relationship with white women” published in Terrain
My poem “watching a production of The Tempest after a colleague asked about my relationship with white women” was published in Terrain.org as part of their Letters to America series. The link includes a reading of the poem.
The poem contains research on Caliban in The Tempest from The Great White Bard: How to Love Shakespeare While Talking About Race by Farah Karim-Cooper.
A poem in The Book of Jobs anthology from One Art
My poem “when asked to read a poem for the Black History Month assembly, again” (first published in Cultural Daily) has been republished in the One Art anthology The Book of Jobs.
You can read the whole anthology on One Art through the link below. A fully accessible edition will be published by Penn State University Libraries Open Publishing in 2026.
“…it is not the stones, / But the child’s mound—" is published in Flight
I'm honored to have my poem “…it is not the stones, / But the child’s mound—" published in the inaugural issue of Flight: A Literary Sampler . It is a golden shovel from Robert Frost’s “Home Burial.”
"the first time" awarded an Editor's Pick in Solstice Annual Summer Contest
My poem “the first time” was an Editor’s Pick in Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices’ Annual Summer Contest.
Gloucester Writers Center reading 7/17/25
A (partial) recording of my reading with Luisa Caycedo-Kimura at the Gloucester Writers Center on July 17th, 2025. Luisa read from her wonderful new book All Were Limones while I read from a manuscript in progress.
My set list (such as it is):
“across the table” (excerpt) [time: 2:37]
“What else can I say when this lady says it all so well? Just…I think of you.” [time: 3:50]
“midwifery” [time: 5:50]
“you’d get over it” [time: 7:36]
“Gloucester Harbor | 78 “ [time: 8:35]
"oh God! please stop!!" in South Florida Poetry Journal
My poem “oh God! please stop!!” now appears in South Florida Poetry Journal . Bonus: a recording of me reading the piece accompanies it. Trigger warning: historical, graphic racial violence.
Click on the link below and scroll down to my name.
“oh God! please stop!!”
from the back of the class, his cry careens
over the heads of the rest—their stricken faces, jaws slack
or furiously clenched, eyes dewy or attempting to shut out
the assailant in my words—but I refuse. continue explaining
the lynching by car of James Byrd Jr., briefly mentioned
in Rankine’s The White Card, open on their desks. the event
is presented as a turning point, character development for ‘Charles,’
a billionaire with Basquiat’s Defacement on his wall. a news story
whose horror shook him into seeing that racism still existed
in the enlightened, heady days of 1998. a details-oriented educator,
I clarify why ‘Charles’ was so troubled.
Byrd—49, disabled, Black—was walking home
when three white men—one he thought a friend,
had known his whole life—offered him a ride
in a grey Ford pickup. crushed between them,
they forced him to remote woods, kicked and punched
and baseball batted him in and out of consciousness,
spray painted his face blacker, pissed and shat on him,
retrieved a 24-foot-long chain from the truckbed,
noosed it about his ankles, and dragged him for 1.5 miles.
the FBI’s autopsy determined he was conscious―
trying to keep his upper-body off the road-rashing concrete―
until their carefree swerving swung him into a culvert,
which severed his right arm and head. undaunted,
they continued to drag his remainder for another 1.5 miles
to the cemetery of a Black church, where they mutilated
and distributed his corpse to be found in time
for the following morning’s Sunday service.
I tell my class this did not happen in a grainy, black and white photo
of the past. 81 pieces of Byrd were jigsaw-scattered through Jasper, Texas
on June 7th in 1998, two weeks before I graduated from high school,
that I was only two years older than they are now. I remind my stunned―
sobbing, silent—students that I am younger than their parents,
who may send me emails asking why I would subject their children
to these horrors from another time, who may—echoing ‘Charles,’
echoing their children, echoing James Byrd Jr—ask me to please stop.
but the truck didn’t, so I can’t.
"the first letter of Paul to the Church of [name withheld on advice of counsel] published in The New Verse News
Another poem is now appearing in The New Verse News. This time some biblical fanfiction— what the apostle Paul might say to a certain Christian denomination within the US.
“the first letter of Paul to the Church of [name withheld on advice of counsel] is about the ICE detention of Pastor Daniel Fuentes Espinal and uses direct quotes from people my publisher wouldn’t allow me to use. But I still have them. They’re still public on social media. You can do a search.
Two poems in Cultural Daily
I have two new poems appearing in Cultural Daily.: “when asked what poets should do in response” & “when asked to read a poem for the Black History Month assembly, again,” both on the power of poetry (or lack thereof).
(The second poem is a sequel to my previous poem “when asked to read a poem for the Black History Month assembly” also published by CD.).
"apparently my last poem offended..." published in Six Sentences
My six sentence work "apparently my last poem offended" has ben published in (go figure) Six Sentences.
“There Is No God-Damned Metaphor Here” published in New World Writing Quarterly [CNF]
What started as an interesting physical writing prompt during my Kenyon Workshop Residency, turned into this creative nonfiction piece.
Poetry, the movie Sinners, the Duvalier regime in Haiti, The Cleaning Lady tv show, and more wrapped into this small package.
“There Is No God-Damned Metaphor Here” now appears in New World Writing Quarterly.
"when asked why I'll never write you a sincere poem" published in The Lit Nerds
I wrote a poem for a friend. They loved/hated it. So naturally I sent it into the world. “when asked why I'll never write you a sincere poem” was just published in The Lit Nerds.
"Facility" [flash fiction] published in OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters.
My flash fiction story "Facility" was just published in OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters.
Two poems in Pirene’s Fountain: A Journal of Poetry
“‘there is a goodness that doesn’t need me...’” and “floating” are ekphrastic poems that have been published in Pirene’s Fountain: A Journal of Poetry .
Click on the link below to read the full issue.
"watching a production of Beauty and the Beast after attempting to be vulnerable" published in Rituals
“watching a production of Beauty and the Beast after attempting to be vulnerable” is a loosely ekphrastic work in a series of “watching” poems I accidently started writing. It is found within the 2025 edition of Rituals from Anomaly Poetry.
Click on the link below to access the entire anthology.
Three poems in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age
I have three poems appearing in Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authoritarian Age, a free digital chapbook from The Chaos Section Poetry Project. Record of Dissent features 44 poems of protest, resistance, survival, and hope in response to the rising authoritarianism of the Trump era in America.
My three poems are:
“misstra know-it-all” (p. 9),
“when asked for help writing a satire” (p. 38), and
“say what you mean” (p. 58)
"The Quiet Part" [creative nonfiction] published in In Short
My micro-creative nonfiction story “The Quiet Part” no appears in In Short : A Journal of Flash Nonfiction.