"In the Saddle" Feature + A MIGHTY BLAZE Poet's Cafe with Allison Adair!

April is "National" "Poetry" "Month," as you may know. So far I've been walking around Lakeview Cemetery listening to David Naimon's beautiful conversation with Jorie Graham on Between the Covers, reveling in all the flowering trees, and my love (and Poet Salon co-host) Luther Hughes published one of my favorite *favorite* love poems in Southeast Review. In more personal news, my contributor copy of Iron Horse Literary Review came in the mail, in which I contributed a piece for "In the Saddle," and I got to chat with Allison Adair for A Mighty Blaze's Poet's Cafe, which features short, daily videos of poets chatting and reading a single poem over breakfast. Cute!

I'd never met Allison Adair in person before, but I love her poems and we've had some interactions on Twitter that led me to believe we were kindred souls in some ways. When she invited me to help kick off her Poet's Cafe series for A Mighty Blaze, I got the opportunity to find out she is in fact just as wonderful as I'd hoped. If you're in the mood for a very short poetry-and-breakfast-related video, you might enjoy watching us talk about oranges and CD Wright for a few minutes here.

[happily attacked by coffee beans]

IHLR's "In the Saddle" has previously featured such icons as Samatha Irby and Benjamin Percy, so I was wildly honored when they invited me to contribute. Basically, writers provide an image or two of their workspace (I drew mine, because of course) and then write short reflections on various objects in the image. I wrote about my Sakura Koi travel water color set, a bag of pipe tobacco, candles, a creepy orchid, and lots of other things. Series editor Sara Ryan provided an incredibly kind introduction for it too, for which I'm super grateful. Here are some glimpses of the piece (but I should say, if you want to read the whole thing, the issue is just $5!).