April 2013

On the edge of Lake Nicaragua, bats wing across a mango sky.  Dusk settles over Granada.  Warm air moves over my skin as I sit among an expectant audience filling rows of plastic chairs.  Under the spire of a cathedral, we face a stage in the Parque Central. The International Poetry Festival is about to begin. Most travelers, it

I got word this week that six of my new poems are going to be published as a “micro chapbook.” I’d never heard of this term until a friend back East introduced me to the Origami Poems Project. This press has created a unique way to publish small books. They have designed books that consist

Leigh Newman, author of Still Points North I’d like to take a minute to talk about fear. Specifically, the black burning ball of fear that goes hurtling through my soul every time I think about writing. The ball gets larger and more insane-shaped in direct proportion to the form that I’m writing in:    

Christine Byl Our February guest blogger just released her first book, Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods on April 16! Dirt Work is a contemplative but unsentimental look at the pleasures of labor, the challenges of apprenticeship, and the way a place becomes a home. This book begins with Byl’s first season working as a

At one of my readings recently someone asked me if I minded being called a “local writer.” I’ve always loved being identified as a local poet. Although regionalism can imply a lack of interest or viewpoint toward the larger whole, it doesn’t have to. What I really love about the idea of local is the