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MoSt Poetry reading, Bookish in Modesto - Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Photo by Will DeBoard

Last night, I was lucky enough to be invited to read at Bookish in Modesto in an event hosted by the Modesto-Stanislaus Poetry Center (MoSt Poetry). This event has been running for close to 20 years (what an amazing run!). Every second Tuesday, folks meet to listen to invited poets and then they stick around for an open mic. It was such a gift to be a part of such a nourishing literary community and to share the mic with such a dynamic poet like Moira Magneson, who had me longing to write Oakland love poems. Big thanks to Stella Beraltis & Gillian Wegener for inviting me and hosting me, and to my friends Will & Paula DeBoard, Bookish co-owners for helping to bring me here (Paula also gave me a wonderful surprise introduction).


As I sit here - in a Starbucks with music so loud I may as well be in a club in the 90s - I am struck by the amazing whirlwind of the year. My book was launched last summer, and this event marks my last planned event of this beautiful book's first year. And what a year it has been - I have had 11 different readings or talks since the book's launch, roughly one a month if you skip the holiday months, and visited 4 different classrooms, including two at the local prisons (no wonder I'm so exhausted). This is my first book, and I have no idea if that is a lot or more or less average. All I know is that I'm pretty dang exhausted but also just so happy to have had so many opportunities to read from this book and share the poems and connect with so many new and established writers over words.


My publisher also, let me know that the book had SOLD OUT on both Amazon and his website. He has had to order two additional printings, and we are about to do one more. I haven't been tracking the maths, but that means we sold 250 copies, and he's putting in an order for 50 more. For those publishing fiction who seek to sell copies of 5 to 10 thousand, that might not seem like much, but my publisher says that for a book of poetry, that's "very respectable" and "which is more the the great majority of our titles," so I'm pretty proud of that!


Anyway, not sure what the future holds for this little book, but just wanted to take a moment to pause, in gratitude, for the book, the year, the event last night, and all the events I've been lucky to have been a part of. And now...onwards!


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Unfortunately, my friend and fellow Plume conspirator, Dawn Sperber, had a health flare up and will be unable to join us for the Books on the Bosque reading. BUT, the good news is that my long time friend Carmela Starace is able to step in and take Dawn's place. Carmela just finished her MFA in Creative Nonfiction and is an amazing writer and good friend.

As a sidebar: Carmela, Dawn, Melanie (who will be hosting the reading a la Plume), and I all started this writing journey together in our MFA program years ago. We had a Thursday night workshop with Daniel Mueller, and that set the tone for what has become 16 years of friendship and writing. It's wild that it's been that long - I had to do the math twice because my mind couldn't believe that it's been that long. To say that I am excited for this reading is an understatement. Thanks, Dan, for bringing us all together!