Author: benjaminalanmorris

After only nine years of submitting, I’m beyond thrilled to say that the Southern Review has two poems in its spring issue (audio available at the link).

Pelican Bomb has a review of Jockum Nordström’s new show up at the CAC, on view till June. If you’re in the area, be sure to drop in– his work is full of surprises.

For anyone out there interested in submitting an application for the 2018-2019 residency cycle at A Studio in the Woods, on the theme of “Adaptations: Living with Change,” the deadline is April 16. More details available here.

This week, Antenna is hosting the first annual Fossil Free Fest, intended to inspire residents of coastal Louisiana with ways to engage and hopefully reduce their dependence on petrochemicals. Screenings, talks, discussions, tours, and workshops fill the schedule; registration for some events is still available.

I’m grateful to have spent a half-hour on WRBH radio this past week, on their new show ‘Figure of Speech‘ hosted by L. David Benedetto. Particularly delightful was the chance to bring a selection of contemporary British writers to an American readership, poems and poets I came to love during the many years I lived overseas. A full setlist and archived recording of the broadcast is available on Soundcloud; if you’d like to listen live, the program airs each week on Saturdays and Mondays.

I’m delighted to serve once more as a judge for the 2018 Mississippi Poetry Out Loud state contest. Few are the pleasures greater than a room full of people who love poetry; one such room will be cohering tomorrow at 1pm at the Mississippi Public Broadcasting studios in Jackson, as high school students from around the state gather to recite great poems by canonical and contemporary poets alike. Mississippi has a strong track record of national winners, and it’s always a thrill to see the talent on display. For anyone in the Jackson area, the contest is free and open to the public, and will be aired on state media in days to come. Come watch!

I’m honored that Ecotone was chosen as one of the books for the winter reading list of Louisiana Cultural Vistas, the magazine of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. From their books pages:

“By turns sublime and twisted, this collaboration … takes the reader to an eerily familiar post-apocalypse, inhabited by mutants, miscreants, and earnest missionaries. There are hints of post-Katrina New Orleans, but the scarier prospect is the future the words and paintings foretell.”