Lesley Wheeler
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lesleymwheeler.bsky.social
Lesley Wheeler
@lesleymwheeler.bsky.social
Poetry Ed of Shenandoah. Author of Poetry’s Possible Worlds, Unbecoming, The State She’s In, Radioland, & the forthcoming Mycocosmic—poetry, fantasy fiction, CNF, scholarship. She/her. linktr.ee/lesleymwheeler
I know these lists only show a fraction of the great new books out there—but how lovely for Mycocosmic to be on one! I just followed the article’s Bookshop.org link to order books in small press solidarity! lithub.com/100-notable-... @literaryhub.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Happy to have a new governor AND to be on my way to Santa Fe New Mexico for this 11/7 reading at Entropy Gallery. Reading Art’s poems on the plane I discovered his family name, Bontempi: aha! 🍄 #fungi #poetry #santafe
November 6, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Santa Fe in a week! 7 pm, 11/7, Entropy Gallery, very 🍄 in theme. Excited to read in the new Floating Words series with Art—and about seeing lots of lower-case art and scenery over the November 7th weekend.
October 30, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I read with these powerhouses in Bainbridge and am wowed by their books: What We Do by Michele Bombardier and If Nothing by Matthew Nienow. Recommended! #poetry @poetfish.bsky.social @alicejamesbooks.bsky.social
October 28, 2025 at 5:24 PM
This handsome book arrived, full of essays by poetry scholars I admire wildly. Thank you @bloomsburybooksus.bsky.social and editor Mike Chasar! Here’s the song I chose, “Talkin’ New York,” in case you want to give it a listen: m.youtube.com/watch?v=rxIJ...
October 27, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Looped around the outrageously gorgeous Olympic Peninsula today. Tomorrow, 10/22, BookTree in #Kirkland WA: free workshop 5:45, reading at 7, open mic after. #poetry

@chrisbooktree.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Tonight, 10/20, I read at 6:30 in Port Angeles Library with Nellie Bridge! Meanwhile we’ve wrapped up the haiku contest at the OlyPen Fungi Festival. The voters elected this little beauty.
October 20, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Poets, Shenandoah reading periods are coming up fast! The one for Virginia poets will stay open till 10/31, but Samyak’s great call for formal experiment will hit the cap fast (I’d guess 3 days). www.shenandoahliterary.org/submissions/
October 7, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Warm thanks to Alexis David, Jenny Grassl, KB Kinkel & Kristina Marie Darling for this critical symposium on Mycocosmic in Tupelo Quarterly. Inspiring reviewers to read about mushrooms while in the bathtub: life goal unlocked. @tupelopress.bsky.social www.tupeloquarterly.com/tq36-table-o...
October 6, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Headed to WA, NM, FL!

10/16, 7 pm: Bainbridge Island Public Library with Matthew Nienow
10/17-19: Olympic Peninsula Fungi Festival, Port Angeles WA
10/20, 6:30 pm: Port Angeles Library
10/22: BookTree in Kirkland, WA: 6 pm workshop “Writing From the Underworld,” 7 pm reading followed by open mic
October 3, 2025 at 5:40 PM
So grateful to be part of this new anthology—The Nature of Our Times is hopeful but real, full of warnings but also inspiration. Luisa A. Igloria, Aileen Cassinetto, and David Hassler: thank you for your generous, careful, timely work. @thepoetslizard.bsky.social #ecopoetry #poetry #nature
September 30, 2025 at 7:21 PM
“My hoarse throat, my blue heart.” The book of Jenn’s near my desk today is My Tarantella, picked up at a June event when I realized it was missing from my little Martelli library. Her voice is so vivid and searching, anything but a “whisper”—so good to spend time with these poems on a sad day.
September 26, 2025 at 8:49 PM
A pre-birthday Spanish almond portal cake made by a dear friend, with a powdered sugar nod to the novel I’m working on
September 24, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Packing for Punch Bucket Lit Fest in Asheville NC! I’m reading from Mycocosmic at 1:30 with Bruce Beasley, Patrick Paridee Samuel, & Brendan Walsh, then I hop into the publishing panel with these fine people. Excited! @saramoorewagner.bsky.social
September 17, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Congratulations to Susan Rich on Blue Atlas, a stunning collection that troubles all the binaries around abortion. Couldn’t put it down. @susanrich-poet18.bsky.social #poetry #womenpoetry @redhenpress.bsky.social
September 16, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Riveting! Breathtaking!! So grateful for this mycelially probing review by Laurel Kallen in the new Action, Spectacle. www.action-spectacle.com/summer-2025-... #poetry @tupelopress.bsky.social
September 15, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Thanks to Jane Harrington for this in the wild sighting of Mycocosmic! @janeharrington.bsky.social @tupelopress.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Catch in the throat as you read, release in the closure—congratulations to Lauren Crawford on this powerful poetic debut! Also, is #septemberwomenpoets not a thing anymore? I was looking forward to seeing what you all were reading…@laurencraw.bsky.social
September 8, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Mycocosmic is 6 months old! If you’ve foraged for it already, THANK YOU. I’d love to see photos of it in the wild. www.tupelopress.org/book/mycocos... 🍄 @tupelopress.bsky.social #poetry #fungi #mushroom
September 4, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Lots of great free stuff happening at the arts festival hosted by the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont in #charlottesville this month. My “Listening for Poetry” workshop is Sunday 9/7 at noon, free & open to anyone—you just have to register at piedmontgarden.org/2025-botanic...
September 2, 2025 at 1:20 PM
A brain tumor opens a “bone window” to other worlds in After the Operation by Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. What a pleasure to read with you in Bryant Park, Liz, and read this on the train on the way home! #sealeychallenge #sealeychallenge2025 @etgrayjr.bsky.social @fourwaybooks.bsky.social
August 27, 2025 at 8:08 PM
I read with @haydensaunier.bsky.social at the VA Festival of the Book in March and I will again tomorrow, 8/26, 6 pm, in Bryant Park NYC—so Wheel is my #SealeyChallenge read today. Congratulations on your lovely new book, Hayden!
August 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
“A rose is just a vegetable cat”: spending Day #22 of my sporadic #sealeychallenge with Hope Mirrlees. Love to everyone out there disappointed with various application results and feeling like there isn’t really room for a writer’s disappointment, considering.
August 22, 2025 at 7:35 PM
I read in the Bryant Park series once before, May 2012, with Richard Blanco & others—it was a blast. Please come if you’re in NYC! 8/26, 6 pm bryantpark.org/calendar/eve.... @haydensaunier.bsky.social @etgrayjr.bsky.social @tupelopress.bsky.social
August 19, 2025 at 5:43 PM
What an astonishing playlist to find my track in. I’m a little star-struck. Congratulations to everyone involved! #sealeychallenge #poetry #bestamericanpoetry
August 18, 2025 at 9:15 PM