Poems Soon In A Woods Near You (Maybe)
Since we mentioned it: events! I have two poetry readings in June.
- One is virtual: a group reading for Pride month with Interstellar Flight Press, linked to Ennis Rook Bashe's Beautiful Malady, which I had the pleasure to blurb. It is nonbinary-queer-disabled-chronic-illness speculative poetry, very relatable for yours truly and probably some of you as well, as well as being poetically solid. I haven't met these poets before; I am excited to join them. Registration is free but required. June 5, 7pm Eastern.
- One is in person: I am kicking off Vermont Humanities' "Words in the Woods" series this summer! If you are in the area, you can join me at Kingsland Bay State Park in Ferrisburgh on June 25 at 11am. This is an outdoor event; masks will still be required. It's my first public appearance in person since the pandemic began, which is kind of a lot, emotionally. (I will have maxed out my risk tolerance to be gathering among strangers, even with these precautions, so if you come, please don't ask for a hug/other contact at this time.) This is also my first time soloing a reading! Which is a whole different kind of a lot! But exciting. I hope it goes well. If I find out there will be a recording, I'll let you know. Advance registration is requested, and free. There will be a PA system to help make sure I'm audible. If you need other accommodations, please do not hesitate to ask Vermont Humanities.
I am still puzzling along about how to exist in the world, in the endemic-pandemic state. I am still grieving our collective losses (not just the deaths) and systemic abandonment in a time when interdependence was (is) more obvious and necessary than ever. I am trying to figure out how to interact with a world that has moved on. If I go one day at a time, it mostly works, most of the time. It is easier to bear now that I can be alone-together with plants and frogs and insects again, and there's sunlight, and it's not so cold that it hurts to go out. I have more clarity than ever about what has meaning to me personally; but the chasm between that and what has meaning to the rest of the world feels vast. ("what cannot be held" is one of my attempts to make a bridge.)
In April I had a poem come out in Strange Horizons - "When You Read This Debris" is short and spooky and you can read it for free. I have a few other pieces looking for homes, one story sold and waiting to release (but I think it'll be a while), and a few stuck in editing purgatory, where I can tell something is wrong but not how to fix it. I wrote a long science-fantasy poem a few weeks ago about disability identity, community continuity, social and medical models, and what it means to have shared words and understandings for things. It's a banger. I hope somewhere will take a chance on it - long poems are tough to place.
Oh! I nearly forgot: I was interviewed during the winter for the National Endowment for the Arts' magazine and the piece is now live. Interviews where the interviewer gets erased in the editing process always feel kinda weird to me, but we had a nice conversation and I got to talk about my various art forms, the way media ebb and flow, and my trans/queer/disabled perspective on things.
My Passacaglia quilt is nearing its finish line! I thought I was about done with the piecing(!!) but when I got the big chunks joined up and laid out on the floor to check with rulers, there turned out to be more little edge gaps than I expected. So, there's a bit of a ways to go yet, but the end of piecing is in sight (to be followed by borders, backing, and - eep - hand quilting) and I now have a map of all the filler bits I need to make. It's on hold for a little bit though since the new Zelda game, Tears of the Kingdom, just dropped and it is consuming all of my "sit still, use hands" downtime :D
What are you doing with your hands this spring (or fall, if you're below the equator)? Fun games? Creative projects? Gardening?
Until next month,
Toby