Last week, I was honored to be invited to read some of my poetry at Louisville's Youth Detention Services Center. Here's a link to the article, by Ashlie Stevens at 89.3 WFPL.
Photo by Tasha Golden
I made a Spotify playlist for Poetry Magazine.
The editors of Poetry magazine asked me to make a Spotify playlist to celebrate the February 2017 issue. Here it is!
I wanted to make a playlist about longing for another world, or maybe: that longing for a better world-within-this-one.
New Essay Featured on Poetry Magazine Blog
My essay, "Immaculate Heart," was published on the Harriet blog of Poetry Magazine.
My essay, "Immaculate Heart" on the Harriet blog.
New Poem in Poetry Magazine
My poem, "Nursery," was published in the February 2017 issue of Poetry. I'm thrilled to share the link.
February 2017 issue of Poetry Magazine
New Essay in Off Assignment
I wrote a "Letter to a Stranger" as part of a recurring feature in the on-line travel writing journal, Off Assignment. You can read the letter & hear my recording of the piece by following the SoundCloud link on the site. My letter is addressed to my late grandmother, Cleopatra, and it's about the summer we spent together in 2001.
My grandparents in the 1940s
New Villanelle & Essay in Prac Crit
Sarah Howe and the editorial team at the innovative UK-based journal Prac Crit asked me to compose a Deep Note feature for their latest issue. I've been working on villanelles lately, so my poem "Scarlet" and the accompanying essay-in-footnotes talk about recursiveness (of dream and of line). Read & enjoy & enjoy & read.
Essay Series on Ploughshares Blog
I'm a 2016 blogger for Ploughshares! Approximately once a month, I'll progress query-by-query through Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, seeking poetic connections. This month is all about water (and villanelles).
The recurring image for this series is the Fry-Jefferson map of 1753. This map was produced by Peter Jefferson (TJ's father!) and Joshua Fry, both accomplished surveyors. Their work became the definitive map of 18th century Virginia, and Thomas Jefferson often refers to it in his Notes.
Open Letter to Scalia: on Salon
I had a few things to say to Justice Antonin Scalia, and I said them on Salon.
Two poems in Crazyhorse
Two new poems, "Lament" and "I Married a Horseman," have appeared in Crazyhorse Issue 88. You'll have to buy the print issue to see my poems, but you can read several wonderful pieces by other contributors on the website.
Two New Poems in The Spectacle
The Creative Writing Department at Washington University in St. Louis has started a new literary journal called The Spectacle, and I have two new poems in the inaugural issue: "First Girdle" and "Bikini Bridge." The artwork for this issue is really incredible. I'm honored to have my work included!
Pushcart Nomination from Crazyhorse
Many thanks to the editors of Crazyhorse for nominating my poem "Lament" for a Pushcart Prize. The poem will appear in Issue 88 of the journal.
New Poem in The Journal
My poem, "Vigil," has appeared in Issue 39.3 of The Journal, the literary magazine of The Ohio State University.
Three Poems in Memorious 24 →
"You buy the chestnuts because you want me to enjoy this trip but then never to come back"
Read moreInterview on the American Short Fiction blog →
I'm grateful to Nate Brown for inviting me to reflect on Baltimore for the American Short Fiction blog. This piece is part of their "Things American" feature. Other Baltimore writers who have contributed include: Jane Delury, Michael Downs, Derick Ebert, Kenneth Morrison, Lia Purpura, Deborah Rudacille, D. Watkins, and Khaliah Williams.
For my part, I decided to interview my mother, Patricia Petrosino, a former teacher/administrator in Baltimore City Public Schools. Scroll down for her wonderful / terrifying description of Baltimore's meat wholesale district in the 1970s!
Essay on the Iowa Review Blog →
I wish to put my blackness into some kind of order. My blackness, my builtness, my blackness, a bill. I want you to know how I feel it: cold key under the tongue. Mean fishhook of homesickness that catches my heart when I walk under southern pines. And how I recognized the watery warp of the floor in my great-grandma’s house, when I dreamed it. This is what her complaining ghost said: Write about me.
Read moreTwo new poems in Tupelo Quarterly →
My exes shall rise up from their Mazdas
& adorn themselves in denim
New Review on SCOUT Poetry
Kiki Petrosino’s baroque line and her focused somatic history of literal and figurative darknesses make the three sections of Hymn for the Black Terrific satisfyingly coherent.
Read moreNew Poem on Pangyrus →
My poem, "Pastoral," has appeared on Pangyrus, a new arts journal. Click below the poem for a brief explanation of its origins.
