NONFICTION
LYRIC ESSAYS in literary magazines & journals
"You Never Think It Could Happen To You: A Reckoning with True Crime" in Waxwing, Issue 22 (Fall 2020).
On my obsession with true crime shows, my relationship with my mother & my Catholic upbringing, and how the idea of violence shapes us as women.
"You Never Think It Could Happen To You: A Reckoning with True Crime" in Waxwing, Issue 22 (Fall 2020).
On my obsession with true crime shows, my relationship with my mother & my Catholic upbringing, and how the idea of violence shapes us as women.
CRAFT ESSAYS about writing, editing, & publishing
"Writing & Revising Poems from Your Body (Not Your Brain)" in Write More, Be Less Careful. April 17, 2024.
On how writing & revising lives in our bodies, finding the right form for your poems, and keeping your first draft energy as you edit.
MICRO-ESSAYS on literary blogs
"The Gorgeous Grotesque" on NPM Daily. April 27, 2016.
These poems don’t look for beauty in spite of the death and decay and viscera they are made of, they recognize the strange, gory beauty that is already there. Have you seen the Anatomical Venus in Florence? Could you deny that beauty?
"Circle of Salt" on Fairy-Tale Files. February 19, 2016.
As is the way with fairy tales, this logic is never explained and so immediately accepted as an obvious truth.
HOW-TO GUIDES & LISTICLES about poetry & publishing
Written for Tell Tell Poetry. With creative direction by Kallie Falandays.
"Submissions Series: Magazines that Pay." February 18, 2021. Also on Medium.
You make magic out of words and air. Shouldn’t you make money out of them too? For this next installment in our Submissions Series, we’ve put together the following list of fabulous lit mags that will pay good cash money to publish your poems. Some pay per poem, some per printed page. But they all put their purse strings where their pieholes are. So go get that bread, poets!
"Submissions Series: Submitting Prose Poems." October 12, 2020.
Where do you send those poems that just refuse to color within the line breaks? For this next installment in our Submissions Series, we’ve gathered together some of our favorite places for submitting your prose-iest poems. Whether your poem is a little too prose or your prose is a little too poem, these lit mags think your hybrid poem-babies are perfect just the way they are.
"Submissions Series: How It's Done." September 25, 2020. Also on Medium.
So, you’ve never submitted your poems to literary magazines before. Where do you start? It can definitely feel intimidating (and time-consuming) the first time you send your work out to potential publishers; but once you’ve gone through the steps a few times, it just becomes another part of your writing routine. To help you get going, here are some tips to guide you through the process and proper etiquette.
"Submissions Series: Most Beautiful Online Lit Mags to Submit to." September 4, 2020. Also on Medium.
For this next installment in our Submissions Series, we’ve left our poetry castles in search of the most beautiful online lit mags in all the land. And here’s what we found! For all your prettiest, unpublished poems looking for homes, these online lit mags are the fairest of them all.
"What's the Difference? Chapbooks vs. Full-Length Poetry Collections." August 18, 2020. Also on Medium.
If you’re newer to the poetry publishing world, you’ve probably heard the two different terms commonly used to describe books of poetry, but you might not know the real differences between them. It’s not just about size. Here’s a quick lesson about what makes chapbooks and full-length poetry collections distinct from each other, as well as the intricate rules that the publishing world has built around them.
"Submissions Series: Weirdest Lit Mags to Submit to." August 13, 2020. Also on Medium.
For the second installment in our Submissions Series, we’ve plumbed the depths of the lit mag internet for the weirdly wonderful and the wondrously weird. Where do you send your zombie poems, your boyfriend-turned-into-an-opossum poem, your ode to the Cheesy Gordita Crunch ™? Here’s your starter deck of the best and the bizarre-est, the uncanny canned goods, the sparkling and the spooky.
"Submissions Series: Lit Mags Open in the Summer." August 4, 2020. Also on Medium.
So many literary magazine reading periods seem to rise and set on the school calendar. What’s a writer to do all summer long? Here’s a list of just some of the literary magazines that are open and ready for your poetry submissions during the months of June, July, and August.
"How to Arrange Your Poetry Collection." July 24, 2020. Also on Medium.
So you have a pile of finished poems on your desk, now what? At this point, you’ve probably already been daydreaming about what it would be like to hold a whole book of your own poems in your cramped, ink-stained writer’s hands. You’ve written and revised pages and pages of poems. Now it’s time to take the next step toward constructing and publishing your own beautiful book baby. You’re going to turn a scattered bunch of stand-alone pieces into a cohesive collection that follows a narrative arc from the first to the last poem—a whole that is greater than its parts. Here’s how you do it.