Already Arrived at August’s End!

My tail-end-of-August post begins with a couple of pictures from July readings that took place after my July blog, both of which were a real joy to take part in. The Phosphorescence Reading (pictured second) was a virtual event that was recorded live in the Emily Dickinson Museum, from the Dickinson parlor. Here’s the link to that reading on the museum’s YouTube channel if you didn’t get a chance to tune in live.

I had one reading in August, last week at the beautiful Book Love in Plymouth, MA with the Good Harbor Poets writing collective. In September, I have five events, including a rescheduled class visit and reading with J. D. Scrimgeour at Salem State University, which was canceled due to snow last February. The event slide is below, and you can find more details in my “Readings & Events” tab.

Two reviews of Singing from the Deep End have come out since I last wrote. I am indebted to the reviewers for their time and care in reading and thinking about this collection, and to the publications that gave the reviews a home, celebrating both the reviewers’ writing and my own. Gratitude to Tessara Dudley for their review in MER, and to Carla Panciera her piece in Sugar House Review. Excerpts of both are below.

I’m thrilled to announce Perugia Press’s 2026 collection, and Perugia’s 30th book overall, Jen Siraganian’s Everything Has Been Moved, Even the Dead. Officially out on September 15, copies have already arrived, and it is stunning. Here’s a short description: “Whether portraying a grandparent’s survival during the Armenian Genocide, a father’s childhood in 1940s Palestine, or a son’s birth when ‘death is a neighbor,’ Siraganian’s poems interrogate concepts of home, origins, belonging, and displacement. Through poems that seed each other with recurring images of pomegranates, mushrooms, and fire, this debut collection pushes against annihilation with a voice that resists silence.” Jen has been incredible to work with, and it is such an honor to bring this beautiful and important book into the world with her.

The 2027 Perugia Press Prize is also open now through November 15. I’ve been doing a lot of press to celebrate Perugia on the cusp of its 30th anniversary, and as I mark a decade at the helm. If you’d like to learn more or are interested in submitting your work, check out these interviews about the history, ethos, and mission of our nonprofit micro feminist press, and what it looks like behind-the-scenes for our contest and our organization:

• Read Sapling Substack interview with Kit Frick
• Listen to “Press Enter: The Heart-Labor of Small Presses and the Creative Minds Behind Them” interview with Enzo Silon Surin on “It’s A Poetic Life” podcast
• Watch YouTube “Publisher’s Talk” segment curated by Gloria Mindock of Červená Barva

I was so very lucky to spend time at Hedgebrook Farm on a writing residency for almost two weeks at the start of August, made possible through the backing of Hedgebrook, a grant from the Mass Cultural Council, and of course my family. I’m beyond grateful for this support of my writing. This was a dream I’d held close and that came true, including the secret wish that I’d get placed in Cedar Cottage, where Ursula K. Le Guin had stayed and worked while she was at Hedgebrook in 1994. I learned how to make and tend a fire, spent a lot of time reading, writing, and working on my third full-length collection, picked flowers, ate extraordinary meals, walked and biked to the birds and the beach, explored the forest, and worked only a limited amount at my Perugia responsibilities. Thanks to the six brilliant women who attended with me, to all the women before us who made this magical place possible, and to all the women who run it now with radical hospitality, labor & love.

This August I also participated in the Sealey Challenge for the first time, which is a “community challenge to read one book of poetry a day for the month of August.” The challenge was sparked ten years ago by poet Nicole Sealey, and it is now hosted by the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center. Being at Hedgebrook at the start of the month provided time and space to begin the challenge, and continuing to read through August helped me to transition from residency to real life and to feel that my attentiveness to poetry had not gone completely to the wayside when I returned. “Challenge” is the right word for this endeavor! It’s no simple feat to read so much work that requires what poetry does of a reader, and in such a compressed time. I’m so glad I did it as it gave me the chance to get to *some* of my TBR pile that seems to grow exponentially. Below I bestow flowers upon the thirty-one collections I enjoyed this month (the literal blooms pictured with the first two weeks of reads are from Hedgebrook’s garden). Thank you to all the poets, translators, and presses for your good work!