The team at Crime Capsule has just learned that we’ve won a 2022 Gold Communicator Award of Excellence from AIVA for our launch series of episodes, our interview with Joshua Suchon on the murder of Tina Faelz. We’re incredibly honored, and as we approach the end of our first full season, we’re grateful for the encouragement to continue bringing these stories from the country’s past to light.

All current episodes of Crime Capsule can be streamed on all major platforms, or listened to directly on the Evergreen website.

I’m a proud supporter of One Book One New Orleans, a fantastic nonprofit devoted to community outreach and literacy efforts in the city, with a specific focus on adult education and supplying reading materials to incarcerated men and women. Their annual gala is next Wednesday, June 1, at Sidecar Patio and Oyster Bar, and is a great place to learn more about the organization and get involved. Details available at the OBONO website.

This coming weekend is the annual Mississippi Poetry Society conference, delayed from spring 2020 due to the pandemic. One of the oldest literary societies in Mississippi, dating back to the 1930s, the MPS maintains chapters across the state, and I’m honored to serve as their keynote speaker this year. The conference runs from Friday evening to Sunday midday at Lake Tiak O’Khata in Louisville, with readings, workshops, discussions, and the awarding of prizes to students and other category winners — for lovers of poetry in the state, there’s simply no better place to be.

For more information and registration, visit the MPS website at www.misspoetry.net.

Next Monday, I’m delighted to be speaking at the Pass Christian Historical Society on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, giving a lecture on the recent history of poetry in the state. The program starts at noon; attendance is open to the public for a small fee, and if the rumors are any indication, lunch is excellent.

Through the auspices of the Mississippi Humanities Council Speakers Bureau, I’m honored to be giving a lecture on recent trends in Mississippi poetry to two separate audiences in the coming month. This lecture takes a sustained look at the last decade of work by Mississippi poets, a term which is tricky to define but whose trickiness lends much of the joy of the topic.

On Monday, April 25, I’ll be speaking to the Pass Christian Historical Society at the Pass Christian Public Library. And on Saturday, April 30, I’ll be giving the same lecture (and a reading) to the Mississippi Poetry Society at their annual conference at Lake Tiak O’Khata.

If anyone is in the area and would like to join, please do contact the organizers of each event — I’ll post more details as they become available.