Autumn, finally

Well, maybe not true Autumn here in Southeast Texas. More like a slightly more tolerable Summer with hope on its breath. 
Here we are together at the very end of September. I've been wanting to include something like this on my website for a while now.  Just a way to share a little bit of what I've been up to, what I've been thinking about, reading, what I'm loving to listen to lately, and to hype up other poets that I admire.
The biggest news I have is that I've been invited to be a Fellow at MidMountain's Fall Residency in Virginia next month. Truly so excited to have a week in the Blue Ridge to write, relax, and meet new people. I'm getting to be there with a fellow Texan and dear friend, Sarah Gill. She's so great and one of the funniest people I know & I can't wait to yap with her about art for a week straight while baking Fall treats and downing apple cider till we puke.
This Fellowship news comes while I'm still riding the high from the scholarship I recieved to attend the Wildacres Writing Workshop, which was just such an incredible experience. The scholarship they offered was the only way I could have ever attended something like this, so if you are thinking about it, please apply! I got such incredible advice from the poet Mary Carroll-Hackett. She's a powerhouse of a writer and human being and I'm honored to have gotten to know her.
Other than all of this, I'm attending classes like crazy and reading until words come out of my ears. I feel like when my semesters start I enter a kind of hibernation in which no one sees me until I stumble outside sometime in December looking like I've been beaten over the head with every Norton Anthology you can think of. I think writing here is a bit of a way to combat that feeling and mantain a little sanity while I wade neck deep into academic writing and reading.
Okay, the fun part.

What I'm loving right now:

Music: Geese dropped their new album Getting Killed today and I have already listened to it three times. Standouts for me are the tracks "Au Pays du Cocaine" and "Long Island City Here I Come".

Reading: During the school year I hardly have any time to read for fun, but I do love a lot of what I read for my classes. Right now I'm really enjoying R.W. Franklin's authoratative collection of Emily Dickinson's poetry. She was such a genius (though not without fault) and dissecting these poems has been a highlight of this season so far.

Below are a few snapshots of life lately. Remember to look up. Love you.