I’m delighted to say that a chapter from my memoir-in-progress, “On Pandemic Gastronomy,” has been named a finalist in the 2024 Patty Friedman Writing Contest in Creative Nonfiction. Thanks to lmnl arts and to Leah Myers!

The fall issue of 64 Parishes magazine has just arrived, and in it is a profile of Abdalla’s, the chain of department stores in southwest Louisiana owned by the same Lebanese family for over a century. It was a genuine pleasure to research and write this piece, and I couldn’t be more grateful to the editors and to the Abdalla family in the region.

I can hardly believe it, but this past weekend, “The St Joe Brick Yard” won first place in the Lifestyle Reporting category of the 2024 New Orleans Press Club awards. Thanks again to my editors at 64 Parishes magazine, and to the Schneider family at St Joe for their hospitality as I wrote the piece.

Delighted to get to interview Laura Mullen for Jacket2 about her collection EtC, out from Solid Objects Press this past year. I first encountered this book at the inaugural New Orleans Poetry Festival– was such a joy to finally get to discuss it with her.

I’m honored to join Dylan Krieger for the July installment of the Lucky Bean Poetry Night at Blue Cypress Books. She’ll be reading from her new collection, Predators Welcome, and I’ll be asking her a few questions about it as well as emceeing the open mic. The reading will take place at 6.30pm on Monday, July 15.