James Allen Hall
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jamesallenhall.bsky.social
James Allen Hall
@jamesallenhall.bsky.social
860 followers 810 following 47 posts
Poet. Essayist. Co-host of Breaking Form: A Podcast of Poetry and Culture. All opinions are my own.
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Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
We get out our pair of big crystal balls and predict the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry. Tune in for the tea at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your piping hot awards gossip served.
November 5, 2025 at 1:06 PM
jamesallenhall.bsky.social
I have a new essay (about gay porn, cicadas, internet time, and longing as mourning) up at @anotherchicagomag.bsky.social.

The piece comes from a collaborative book-length essay written alongside poets Aaron Smith & David Trinidad.

anotherchicagomagazine.net/2025/11/04/d...
“Draw Me Back Again, a porn elegy” by James Allen Hall
I like art best when its artifice dissolves. Pull back the curtain: It’s me, looking sheepish. Which me is almost irrelevant: I’ll answer to any name you call. Surrendering is only erotic when what…
anotherchicagomagazine.net
November 4, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
Cherry Tree is published once per year. Subscriptions to are $15 for one year and $26 for two. More information here: washington-college.square.site/literary-hou...
October 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
Cherry Tree is delighted to reveal our second Pushcart Prize nomination: Julie Marie Wade's "From the Jeopardy! Category, THE SUBJUNCTIVE:" which appeared in Issue 11. We know we can always turn to Julie's work for the exact right questions!
October 22, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
We're revealing our Pushcart Prize nominations this week. Follow along and help us to celebrate these terrific writers!

And you can subscribe here, if you're so moved:
washington-college.square.site/shop/cherry-...
October 21, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
Check out our interview with David Duchovny, author of the poetry book _About Time_ (@akashicbooks.bsky.social).
You can listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you find your podcasts (& sure, we absolutely 100% coincided this release with the character Fox Mulder's birthday.👌)
October 13, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
The queens visit Pittsburgh for a big dose of poetry -- occasioned by a weekend of events held in tribute to Ed Ochester (1939-2023). It's a dishy episode, despite the elegiac occasion. Listen online at
breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com
or wherever you mine your poetry.
September 29, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
literaryhouse.bsky.social
HUUUUUGE congratulations to Lit House Associate Director Roy Kesey for winning this prestigious prize for his new book, LORE, out from Sarabande in May 2027.
sarabandebooks.bsky.social Sarabande Books @sarabandebooks.bsky.social · Sep 25
Congratulations to Roy Kesey (@roykesey.bsky.social)
whose collection LORE was selected by Ed Park as the 2025 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction winner and is scheduled for publication in May 2027!! Learn more here: www.sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p...
Cream background. Black text at top reads: Winner of the 2025 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. In the center is a headshot of the author. Bottom left in script text is the author’s name: Roy Kesey. Bottom right is the white Sarabande logo.
September 25, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
Two weeks left to submit to Cherry Tree! Check out our guidelines at

cherrytree.submittable.com
September 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
What Senior Fiction Reader @nicanstett.bsky.social is enjoying when not reading submissions: fabulous books by @riggstah.bsky.social and @tonytula.com

Cherry Tree is open for submissions until October 1!
cherrytree.submittable.com/submit
September 17, 2025 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
When she's not reading submissions, CNF Editor Sufiya Abdur-Rahman is reading recent books by Rachel L. Swarns @rachelswarns.bsky.social and by CT 9 contributor Kristin Keane.

Cherry Tree is open for submissions til October 1 at cherrytree.submittable.com/submit
August 27, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
We asked our editors to name 2 books they're reading (when they're not reading Cherry Tree submissions). Fiction Editor extraordinaire @sarahblackman.bsky.social recommends books by former CT contributor @alvinlu.bsky.social and by Thalia Field.

We're open til Oct 1!
cherrytree.submittable.com
August 16, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
We asked our editors: what are 2 books you're reading when you're not reading Cherry Tree submissions?

Poetry Editor Alyse Bensel's answer: Rara Avis by former CT contributor @blasfalconer.bsky.social & Anelise Chen's Clam Down.

Cherry Tree is open til October 1
cherrytree.submittable.com
Cherry Tree logo joined by book covers for Blas Falconer's Rara Avis (poems) and Anelise Chen's Clam Down: A Metamorphosis. Other text says "what we're reading when we're not reading your work" that these picks are by Alyse Bensel, Cherry Tree poetry editor.
August 13, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
This week's episode takes place, places place, and plants poetry in your [placeholder]. Poets mentioned include @tracibrimhall.bsky.social @joseolivarez.bsky.social & @adrianmatejka.bsky.social among others!

Listen wherever you get your poetry podcasts, or online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com
August 11, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
Cherry Tree is open for submissions through October 1. Send us your poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. All accepted pieces are considered for our special section of Literary Shade!

cherrytree.submittable.com
August 9, 2025 at 3:57 PM
jamesallenhall.bsky.social
Many thanks to @rubenq.bsky.social for curating a terrific poetry section in Best of the Net 2025, and for including a poem of mine first published in @adroitjournal.bsky.social!
bestofthenetanthology.com/2025-2/2025-...
Inheritance At Corresponding Periods Of Life, At Corresponding Seasons Of The Year, As Limited By Sex – Best of the Net
bestofthenetanthology.com
August 4, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
Smoke 'em if you got 'em! "Poetry Babies" is now streaming on Breaking Form. You can listen wherever you get your cigars and strollers, or online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com.
July 29, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
simeonberry.bsky.social
“The father parks outside the Pleasure Place / but does not turn off the ignition. / Tells his son, I’ll just be a second. An hour later, / is found among the lifelike vaginas” — @jamesallenhall.bsky.social, “Fantasy” @fourwaybooks.bsky.social
FANTASY. The father parks outside the Pleasure Place but does not turn off the ignition. Tells his son, I’ll just be a second. An hour later, is found among the lifelike vaginas: your mom wants something but I can’t do it, and when his kid asks, my father says, rape fantasy, and his good son buys the video while he sits in the car. No big deal, I lie, handing over the paper bag that means it’s a sin to see inside. The movie plays inside my head. Every time I take to my bed alone, begin the ritual, private tenderness, I can’t stop unreeling it, can’t stop the man, his chest above my face so close I could punch him in his ribs, scrape off skin or a nipple, anything not to replay it exactly. James Allen Hall
July 22, 2025 at 11:26 AM
jamesallenhall.bsky.social
All aboard for Season 3 of @breakingformpod.bsky.social !
Listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com/1865753, or wherever you get your bags packed.
June 16, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
We join Edmund White's partner, Michael Carroll, as well as the legion of Ed's & admirers in mourning his passing. We had the privilege of interviewing Ed, & we're glad his voice will continue to be heard.

He made queer life more possible.

breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com/1865753/epis...
June 13, 2025 at 2:47 PM
jamesallenhall.bsky.social
I have some new work about anal douching, the extra/ordinariness of grief, and sexual assault

(you know, LIFE)

in the newest issue of Plume.

plumepoetry.com/weird-wild-a...
Weird, Wild, and Fabulous: James Allen Hall in Conversation with Amanda Newell - Plume
Weird, Wild, and Fabulous: James Allen Hall | In Conversation with Amanda Newell   AN: James, thank you for joining us here at Plume—I’ve really been looking forward to this conversation! But first, s...
plumepoetry.com
June 11, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
simeonberry.bsky.social
“my mother dismantles / the false wall with the plastic crucifix, she explores / the passage from the dreamworld to the one / whose reign I herald, the world of hoarded women.” — @jamesallenhall.bsky.social, “Portrait of My Mother as Rosemary Woodhouse” pbqmag.org/james-allen-...
James Allen Hall: Portrait of my Mother as Rosemary Woodhouse - Painted Bride Quarterly
My mother dreams she’s adrift on the Adriatic Sea. Naked men and women lounge all around her. Blue waves slap against her thigh and stones fall from unspeakable cliffs. I am dropped into her, boulder ...
pbqmag.org
May 16, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
While we're working on Season 3 of Breaking Form, please enjoy a few encore presentations that you might have missed, or might enjoy revisiting.

This week: Fan Fic Poetry. You can listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.
May 19, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
cherrytreelit.bsky.social
Scholarships available!

Find your voice & your writing kindred at the Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conference for high school students (rising sophomores, juniors, & seniors). July 15-18.2025 on the @washcoll.bsky.social campus.

More info at www.washcoll.edu/ywc
May 7, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by James Allen Hall
breakingformpod.bsky.social
Literary submissions are sometimes mysterious to folks, so in this episode, we're giving some of our favorite advice to people submitting to literary journals and book publishers (mostly poetry).

Listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you plant your eggplants. 🍆
May 7, 2025 at 10:13 AM