REBECCA HART OLANDER

So happy to share that my second full-length collection, Singing from the Deep End, is coming from CavanKerry Press on February 3, 2026! It’s available NOW for preorder at 20% off with the code “humming” (& the code works for my first book Uncertain Acrobats too) through November 2nd. Deep love and thanks to all who have supported this book along its way.  This stunning cover was designed by CavanKerry’s Mike Corrao. The art Mike found is from an old marine biology text and is entitled “A History of the British Sea-Anemones and Corals (Plate VI)” by naturalist Philip Henry Gosse. Sea-Anemones? Corals?!? Swoon. I love that cavern at the…

After twelve years of teaching composition, creative writing, and poetry at Westfield State University, I decided not to return there last fall, so this past academic year was a major shift. The labor of running a small poetry press remains a joy and a challenge and is ever-expanding, so that keeps me plenty busy, and the first half of 2025 included many fulfilling experiences teaching poetry and working with students. In January, I taught “The Art and Business of Poetry” for the second year at Smith College over winter term. That month I also attended the winter residency at the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University…

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a post here, which means I’ve been working hard and living life! But there are several timely things to check in about, so here goes: I’m teaching a new class coming up through Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshop next month. It’s a four-week, genre-agnostic generative workshop exploring ekphrastic writing. I’d love you to join me on four Monday nights this fall. Here’s a flyer featuring my class and one offered by Perugia poet Gail Thomas: Two of my poems accompany woodcut portraits in the “Look Again: Portraits of Daring Women” exhibit by Julie Lapping Rivera up at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield,…

Spring has fully sprung around us, and like many teachers, I’m on the cusp of a new season in my work life. Summer is the time I spend editing the forthcoming Perugia Press book (The Book Eaters, by Carolina Hotchandani – out this fall!), working with summer interns, and opening our annual contest. Before I turn more toward editorial work, I want to acknowledge that it’s been a really special academic year: I’ve been teaching creative writing at Westfield State University in my eleventh year there, and for the first time I taught poetry workshops at Amherst College, this spring as the James Merrill Visiting Poet. Being part of classroom…

I’m deeply glad spring has arrived with more light and coming green. April is Poetry Month, but after attending the AWP Conference in Seattle earlier this month, I already feel steeped in poetry this March, especially poetry community. I loved the chance to spend time and share space with Perugia poets and all the folks that support our press, my CavanKerry community, and so many writer friends at the AWP bookfair and offsite celebrations. I’ve got a few readings coming up in the next week, so the end of March and the turn to April is feeling decidedly un-lamb like. As March roars to a close, I hope to see…