I still can’t quite believe it, but my poem ‘The Dream of Light’ has won the 2021 Words & Music Writing Competition for poetry. How grateful I am, and how humbled, especially to be in the company of such wonderful poets as Andrea Young and Nicole Eiden, both perpetual inspirations — and that this poem, which is based on a painting at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, was chosen by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, whose book “Oceanic” is easily one of my favorite collections in years. What a thrill—thanks to Aimee, to the Words & Music Festival, and to The Peauxdunque Review, where all the winning entries will appear.

The 2021 festival runs from Wednesday to Saturday this week, with killer lineups each day, so don’t sleep on it. The finalists in each category will be reading their entries on Friday afternoon at 2.30pm. If you’re out there in TV land, we’d love for you to join us – there’s going to be some exceptional work on offer. Tickets are free, at Eventbrite.

Grateful to see the recent interview with Catherine Baab-Muguira at the Millions picked up both by the Library Journal and by Poets & Writers magazine. It’s a perfect book for spooky season– and for stuffing stockings, too!

A dear friend, Catherine Baab-Muguira, has just published her debut work of nonfiction last month, and it’s a winner. The Millions graciously gave us space to talk about Poe For Your Problems, which was a total joy, and featured nowhere near the requisite number of actual Edgar Allan Poe ghost stories. Next time!

This summer I was grateful to get to sit down with Brett McCracken to talk about his new book, The Wisdom Pyramid (Crossway). Two articles have come out of that conversation: a review of his book, as well as a longer transcript of our conversation, are now available at byFaith magazine online.

Even for those who don’t count themselves churchgoers, Brett engages heavily with contemporary sociological research on the ills and perils of digital overindulgence — well worth perusing for his insights there alone.

This one is a true thrill — Lithub has an essay written after my tenure as an enumerator for the 2020 Census, an exercise that, as I argue in the piece, is riven with flaws yet still harboring immense potential for our democracy. Thanks as always to the editors.