Dear Friends,
April has nearly slipped past me without sending word to you. Unlike Maya the cat, who has been all about the first sunbeams of spring, I’ve been all response and motion with very little stillness of mind or body to compose a thought. But I can’t let Poetry Month go by without sharing a few notes about books I’ve spent time with this month. So, here are a few brief recommendations:
by Mihret Kebede and translated from Amharic by Anna Moschovakis
When’s the last time you read an Ethiopian poet? Or poetry translated from Amharic? Well, it was a first for me, and I continue to be impressed by the incredible work that the good people at Circumference Books are doing. So many of their books are from regions and languages that are so rarely represented in English translation, and thus, feel so very new and surprising in all the right ways. And if you, like me, are looking for an activist poetics for our times, these are politically engaged poems that provide a very personal model for literary resistance.
Yes & Now
by Yvette Nepper
Yvette may be one of my earliest friends in poetry land—we met our freshman year, when we were both at Ohio University for a time. I greatly admire Yvette’s work within the poetry community in Cincinnati, and we share a Gen X love of DIY and zine culture that continues in many of Yvette’s chapbooks and projects. Yes & Now is one such limited edition chapbook (in this case produced by FTP), “printed on a mimeograph machine in Mike Cowgill’s mom’s basement.” I love Yvette’s ability to balance profound thought with humor and play that makes one feel like it’s totally okay and maybe even preferable sometimes to have a dance party within what feels like an apocalypse. Come hear Yvette read at my house this September, and while you can’t buy Yes & No online anymore, check out her other chapbooks.
by Francesa Wade
I’m only halfway through this biography of Stein, but I’m recommending it anyway. The first half of the book is Stein’s life, and presumably, this second half will be the afterlife of the subtitle, and I’m curious to see where Wade takes this. What has stood out to me the most about Stein is her unflagging confidence in herself and her work. She believes in her own genius and in the afterlife of her work from the very start. You don’t get the sense that the ego that comes along with that confidence is necessarily the easiest to get along with (and I wouldn’t want to be her publicist), but I do so envy her lack of self-doubt. Did she influence James Joyce as much as she thinks she did? Probably not, but I love her desire to take that credit.
Where You Can Find Me
Read about the making of the Poetry & Biscuits reading series in Lit Hub.
Read about why (unlike Gertrude Stein) my writerly ego is almost nonexistent in this interview in Poetose.
The Book of Marys and Glaciers: Event Calendar
More dates to be added. Stay up to date here.
Recipes for You to Try
I haven’t been up to my usual cooking projects this month due to book travel and a very heavy workload, but that hasn’t stopped me from daydreaming about all things I’d like to make and bookmarking countless recipes in anticipation of the farmer’s market season to come. Here are a few I think you should try first and tell me how they are:
Upcoming Poetry & Biscuits Reading
Mark your calendars! And send me your ideas for readers!
May 1, 2026: Timothy Ashley Leo, Erika Meitner, Christine Poreba, Sandra Ruiz, Elizabeth Zuba, and Anna Zumbahlen
July 24, 2026: Keith Jones, Winshen Liu, Kathleen Rooney, and Rodrigo Toscano
September 2026: Naoko Fujimoto, Yvette Nepper, Isaac Pickell, Christy Prahl, and Sara Wainscott
November 2026: Steve Halle, Meghan Malachi, Ben Niespodziany, and Jacob Saenez