Cotton Xenomorph\u2019s<\/a> last \u2018Cryptids and Climate Change\u2019 pieces have been published<\/a>! What a joy it was to edit this issue. <\/em>CX will reopen for submissions in July, so get your writing fingers twitching!<\/em><\/p> Another quick writing brag\u2014it\u2019s not Aimee Bender saying she liked my story, but it is actual publication, which rules! I\u2019ve got three poems in <\/a><\/em>The Rumen<\/a>. Wanna read about my brother and I getting ambushed by otters in the Grand Tetons? It\u2019s only sort of alluded to, but there\u2019s other cool stuff in those poems, don\u2019t worry. <\/em><\/p> Reading is so fun, y\u2019all. Yet summer is so full of parenting! Today, I took my kid to the Coretta Scott King\/MLK statue on the Boston Common, then the Margaritaville at Faneuil Hall, then finally to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox whomp the Phillies. Two days before this, I took the kid to Boston. Obviously, there hasn\u2019t been as much time for reading, but to go a day without reading is\u2014do people do that? Like even if I\u2019m not reading a book I\u2019m at least reading articles. <\/p> I also like lifting weights and high-fiving. Imagine all of us high-fiving, as you read this.<\/p> What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p> Gotta be honest, I started a truly incredible novel this week. I first read an excerpt in Mac Crane<\/a>\u2019s experimental writing workshop and was immediately taken. Bought the book a few months ago and it finally made it to the schedule. Then I got on an airplane, reached in my backpack, and\u2014Novel Not There. You know what, though? It\u2019s just more time I have to spend with it. That\u2019s exciting. If you want to read along with this blog, and your idea of a good book is a partially-third-person, interrupted-mid-sentence-by-first person novel about an Afro-Colombian trans woman who gained her freedom after an unjust 22-year bid in Ithaca and then trying to find her way in 2015 Brooklyn? You got a week to read Didn\u2019t Nobody Give A Shit What Happened To Carlotta<\/em> by James Hannaham.<\/p> In the meantime, we got a kickass book of poetry, written by a friend. I\u2019m talking, of course, about Refused a Second Date<\/em> by Maya Williams. <\/p> This book is a journey, in the sense that you can see Maya tracing family lineage (not just in the poems titled \u201cLineage,\u201d either). The poems are mostly short, and some take on a kind of \u201cfield notes on dating\u201d quality, with never-have-I-evers and recounted first dates after dating app matches and clinically logical arguments to not have children. This gets at two of the main things I associate with Maya: 1) what they called in their The Line Break<\/a><\/em> interview <\/a>\u201ccrispness,\u201d a trim-the-fat hold-the-tomatoes approach to line-writing and 2) ever-so-patiently explaining to incredulous family members eir outside-the-mainstream life. The book builds on itself, though: first date poems lead to The Last First Date poem, conflicts with family members evolve and resolve, and by the end, you feel like you\u2019ve just watched someone finally get to a point where they can close a certain chapter in life and move to a new chapter.<\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Something to listen to while you browse? I was really jamming on the 8-Bit Big Band a few days ago. Big band music can sometimes feel a little edge-less to me\u2014a campy, goofy version of jazz where individual expression is restricted to same-y sounding solos. Big band music can also be super exciting<\/em>, harmonies spaced out in strange ways, melodies and counter-melodies swirling around each other, all with the good, good vibes that come any time you get horn players having fun together (ask Earth, Wind and Fire, or the city of New Orleans). You already know I\u2019m a massive Animal Crossing<\/em> fan. Let\u2019s make like Quincy Jones and groove on some bossa, specifically, \u201cK.K. Bossa.\u201d<\/p>![\"Refused](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/370a4800-eef6-4f2c-8067-90a1ca52f8e2_3024x4032.heic\")
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