I wish I knew how best to say something smart about Train Dreams by Denis Johnson. Maybe the smartest thing is simply to recommend it.

Today my daily visiting woodpecker and young ones returned to chip at the dying tree full of insects. But today there is no food because there is no tree. No fire risk, just LOA aesthetics deemed it must be removed. It was all I could do to save the living trees... I hate this place.

I feel this. Louise Glück, Proofs & Theories. And not only poems.

One of the books on my pile for the weekend. I’ll probably make more Louise Bogan posts than anyone wants, but I’m deep in a project.

Chores done. Back to prepping for participating in an upcoming one-day workshop. Reading Julio Cortázar for the first time.

So, I did a thing with 21 writers I've never met. Next month you can see what we did together at 34 Orchard. The literary street address for darkness and abandonment.

Another #NetGalley read. Lena Valencia's debut story collection, Mystery Lights, is full of trouble and full of women who find themselves on the precipice of the dangerous and uncanny as soon as they step beyond their familiar routines. #MysteryLights

I had the pleasure of reading the NetGalley ARC of Carl Phillips's latest collection, 'Scattered Snows, to the North'. Lovely and Brilliant.

I left a signed copy of my novel at a conspicuous spot @readercon.bsky.social today and a reader snagged it quickly. Tomorrow, someone else can do the same.

Woke up to my poem, "The One" in the latest Lorelei Signal this morning. The art by Lee Ann Barlow is exactly what I pictured. Thanks to Carol Hightshoe for seeing something in the poem.

www.loreleisignal.com/the-one

Recent books added to the TBR. Each recommended by favorite authors: Gabriel García Márquez was floored by Pedro Parma, and Italo Calvino called That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana the greatest Italian novel.

I wrote for Shepherd about my five favorite books where the real and unreal collide. The list contains Sofia Samatar, David Mitchell, Susanna Clarke, and Karen Russell, but there are many, many more...
shepherd.com/best-books/f...

Our longest conversation yet in today's episode of The Time is Right podcast, where @jdsampo.bsky.social and I discuss what we learned recently from our creative practices and how we'll apply the lessons. Encouraging all creatives to perform this evaluation.

eposbooks.com/podcast/epis...

Found this while going through my grandmother’s things and, well… does not appeal to me. Although, port wine cheese was once a treat.

I recently discovered this edition of John Crowley's novel, Little, Big and its associated illustrations by Peter Milton. If there was ever a book to buy based on its cover...

She must have made over two dresses per week because she earned enough to move her parents to Lowell. She lived to be 99 and was still sewing.

This is an autograph book she decorated for a grandchild.

My current reading stack. I always have multiple books going. Rereading 'Fifth Business' & certain stories in 'Best American Short Stories 2008' for craft reasons. Louise Glück's poems are an ongoing project with another poet. 'Best American Short Stories 2023' & 'Monstrilio' are my normal reading.

I still need to get The Time Is Right podcast connected to bsky but for now, let me just say, my co-host @jdsampo.bsky.social and I had some fun talking about arguing on the internet and getting distracted by the tools we should be using to get creative work done.
eposbooks.com/podcast/epis...

I've been reading Louise Glück with another writer and news of her death feels like someone let all the air out of the room. We were not ready. We would never be ready.