This page is reserved for news of some stuff I’ve been up to as well as (eventually, as is my goal) useless facts, dystopian nightmares, quotes by other people that make me sound smart, dire warnings, and maniacal ravings.
October 3, 2026 — I love interviewing author friends on stage. This time I organized a fun Q&A out in Calvert County, MD, with the extremely talented and slightly delulu Paula Whyman, author of Bad Naturalist, which just released in paperback. It tells the story of her journey to restore over 200 acres of farmland long gone to seed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Invasives! Snakes! Lightening! Tractors! It’s all there, told with humor, humility, expertise, and at times profound reflections on life.
June 10, 2026 — I had the pleasure of serving as a juror for the 2026 Baker Artist Awards sponsored by the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and the William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, which recognizes six artists or artist duos working in the literary, visual (2D and 3D), performing, and interdisciplinary arts. I discovered so many talented artists, holy cow: poets and writers of course, but also artists who make magic with puppets, dazzle with light installations, create films by smudging clay on glass. Check out these past and present awardees, and these portfolios of many more artists in the Baltimore region.
March 15, 2026 — I organized my first local book event/fundraiser at Wonderland Books in Bethesda MD (thank you Amy Joyce!) around Jean Merrill's wonderful classic 1964 YA novel The Pushcart War, which oddly mentions this date (March 15, 2026) in the first sentence (so, you know, I had no choice but to do something). I was joined by Tope Folarin, Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis, and Rachel Louise Snyder. We raised money for Ayuda, a local nonprofit that provides legal, social, and language services to help low-income immigrants.
March 4-7, 2026 -- I survived my 26th Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference, this time in Baltimore MD where I was a speaker on two panels: Imagining Literary Futures in Challenging Times with Nightboat Books Director and Publisher Stephen Motika, Cave Canem Director Lisa Willis, and Copper Canyon Director and Publisher Ryo Yamaguchi, moderated by Four Ways Books Board Member KT Herr; and The Role of Art in Shifting Political Landscapes with fellow writers and thinkers Tope Folarin, Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis, and David Taylor, moderated by Rachel Louise Snyder.
December 11, 2025 -- What a pleasure to celebrate Arthur Sze at his inaugural reading in Washington DC at the Library of Congress as the new U.S. Poet Laureate. Check out his poem Here.
November 19, 2025 -- I donned a fancy dress (thanks Rent the Runway!) and enjoyed myself immensely at the 76th National Book Awards ceremony and dinner in NYC thanks to a special (and much appreciated) invite from Ruth Dickey (ED of the National Book Foundation) and the wonderful NBF staff.
November 5-8, 2025 -- I had the pleasure of attending the American Literary Translators Association's annual conference in Tucson AZ and speaking on a panel with Michael Holtmann (The Center for the Art of Translation ED and publisher), Elisabeth Jaquette (translator, ED of Words Without Borders), and Edward Gauvin (translator).
October 24, 2025 -- The night after the Pegasus Award ceremony (see next entry below), Rigoberto, Kazim, and I presented remarks at the Poetry Foundation. I talked about my career and what serving the field means to me. Here is a written version of what I said. To the right is a short video the Poetry Foundation made of me in my home.
October 23, 2025 -- I wore black leather to the Poetry Foundation's "urban chic" ceremony and afterparty at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago IL where they very nicely awarded me the Pegasus Award for Service in Poetry along with Rigoberto Gonzalez (who won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize) and Kazim Ali (who won the Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism). I'm still traumatized from seeing my face so large in this video they showed of me on stage.
May 5, 2025 -- My team and I released a letter to the literary arts field announcing our departure from the National Endowment for the Arts. The journal N + 1 republished it here.