What joy to join an exceptional slate of readers for the lmnl Patron Party later this month, to support an incredible organization devoted to building community and hosting some of the best events here in the city. The event takes place at 6pm on May 31, at a private location; also reading are Christopher Romaguera, Annell Lopez, Wanda Noonan, Julia Carey Arendell, and Ariel Francisco. For more information about the event (tickets are still available) contact lmnl lit on Facebook or Instagram.

I’m delighted to interview Ellen Ann Fentress for the launch of her new memoir “The Steps We Take: A Southern Reckoning” next month. She’ll be reading from and signing copies of the book; the launch will take place on Saturday, May 11, at 2pm at the Author Shoppe in Hattiesburg.

The Pine Belt News posted a write-up about the event here — all welcome!

The flagship poetry event of the year here in New Orleans, the 2024 New Orleans Poetry Festival is just a few weeks away. With a full weekend of readings, panels, workshops, and more, featuring presenters from around the city, around the state, and indeed, around the world — this year’s festival has a guest lineup of poets from South Korea — for area poets and poetry lovers there’s nowhere else to be.

I’ll be participating in two events; one, a reading with our international poets in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, April 16, and moderating the Bagley Wright Lecture in Poetics given this year by poet Julian Talamantez Brolaski, speaking on “Towards an Epistemology of Rhyme.” Attendance at the festival is free, and all details and the current schedule are available at nolapoetry.com.

I’m honored to be visiting the English Department at Belhaven University next week, offering a workshop to their creative writing students and giving a craft lecture on the relationships between literary genres. Very grateful to the faculty for having me in, especially for the opportunity to teach out of the new Mid/South Sonnets anthology from Belle Point Press.

I’m delighted to be moderating a panel at this year’s Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival, held from March 20-24. The subject of the panel will be writers who have edited, translated, or otherwise stewarded other writers’ works to publication, as a form of literary citizenship or service to the profession. Representing Kendall Daigle’s posthumous poetry collection A Soul Under Construction, I’ll be speaking alongside Kayla Min Andrews, Ariel Francisco, and Gina Ferrara — and could not be more excited.

More details, schedule, and registration information at the TWF website.