Another BLUE ATLAS Enters the World 🦚

In less than a week, everything changes ...

First, I fell in love with this font—so easy on the eyes, stylish, and literary—all at once. Certainly substack intended for writers to notice, and, reader, I did.

Naming my substack Blue Atlas over 14 months ago was an intentional act. I wanted to welcome this forthcoming book of poems into the world. Frankly, I needed to get used to the fact that this collection, which has taken every scrap of strength and vulnerability I have inside of myself, was coming out whether I was ready or not.

My small joke is this: imagine the most traumatic, private, thing you’ve ever lived through—and now imagine that it will be available in bookshops across the country. For the price of a modest meal, anyone can read about the worst experience of my life. Why did I write this book again? I’ve asked myself this many times recently. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

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And now I’m days away from Tuesday, April 2nd, when I will read from Blue Atlas on Zoom alongside the amazing, kind, and brilliant, Diane Seuss, 5 PM Pacific Time sponsored by The Weekly Muse of Two Sylvias Press. You can register for free here.

This might also be good spot to offer something useful to those of you who are poets.

The world of books keeps changing and thankfully, we are in the center of a poetry

renaissance. More people are reading, writing, and discussing poetry than ever before.

That has to be a good thing. One way is through Instagram. This is still new for me,

I am very much the novice. Today I meant to create a carousel and instead I produced

a reel. Oh well. I am interested in this no cost way to make a mini film clip (one

minute max) or a poster with snow falling to let people know about my new book.

The images you see above are all created by the super talented Chloe at Red Hen Press.

I’ve used them as single postings and sometimes altogether because they’re

spectacularly beautiful. At least to me.

This tile design created from cover art of Blue Atlas by Narajan Vaidyanathan

My rule of thumb when trying to let poetry admirers find out about my book is to only do things that feel good. Like this posting.

You won’t see photos of me jumping in the air for joy or the many other things that writers I know do. What I will do is to continue to share with you stories of the dead poets that have meant so much to me: Elizabeth Bishop, Lucille Clifton, Seamus Heaney, Linda Pastan, Anne Sexton, and so many, many more.

Thank you for reading this far. If you would like your own copy of Blue Atlas, it is available wherever you buy books. If you would like to support my favorite bookstore on the planet and receive a signed copy, Elliott Bay Book Company has a large stock of Blue Atlas's on hand. Thank you for being here with me as I begin the craziest book journey of my life.