Love getting to be part of this cool series & complain about Southern stereotypes!!!

Truly a gift to be held & understood like this 🩶🩶🩶🩶🩶🩶🩶🩶

I'm so excited to share that my book, What Good Is Heaven, has won the Weatherford Award for Best Appalachian Poetry! This is the highest honor in Appalachian literature & it's validating to be recognized as part of this tradition, to have my deep love for my Southern Appalachian home seen & known.

"The mountain / doesn't know any of our names" @rayehendrix.bsky.social

The third time????!!!!!!!!! I'm so lucky wtf

“This commission statement refers to people with Autism, ADHD, asthma, auto-immune disease, and chronic illness as a “dire threat to the American people and our way of life”. This is a manifesto against disability. This is the language of eugenics.” - Erin Biba www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

It is mind-boggling to me that people say "but I had to comply with the fascists because otherwise there would be some cost—" NO FUCKING KIDDING. Did you think you'd never have to make a hard choice in Fascist America? That you wouldn't be asked to sacrifice someone and be rewarded for it?? JFC

Check out @sfmontgomery.bsky.social 's essay, "Unlearning the Ableist Writing Workshop," and if you're inspired, reach out to interview her about her new craft book, Nerve: Unlearning the Ableist Writing Workshop to Develop a Disabled Writing Practice! Email [email protected] for more info!

Dis/Connect is on Bluesky! Follow us here!

"There's no reason to build this in Guantánamo unless you want to do things you don't think you could get away with on the U.S. mainland. It's easy to put tents in Florida. But they're putting them in Cuba. Ask yourself why." www.commondreams.org/news/gitmo-c...

THIS IS HUGE! Researchers have developed a nasal COVID-19 vaccine that BLOCKS transmission of the virus. This suggests vaccines delivered directly to the nose or mouth could play a CRITICAL role in containing the spread of respiratory infections. Phase I clinical trials HAVE BEEN APPROVED! 🧪🧵⬇️

Here’s a link to a scanned copy of RIOT by Gwendolyn Brooks, published in 1969 by Broadside Press in Detroit. “It arises from the disturbances in Chicago after the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968” #BlackHistoryMonth eclipsearchive.org/projects/RIO...

I can't apply this year because I left the South for a few years for grad school (heartbroken, tbh) but I know lots of southern poets who would be great for this! ***Note that you have to have lived in the same state for two consecutive years, though!

Any university that voluntarily shutters a DEI program, office or personnel “Because of Trumps Executive Order” is making a PR decision. Not a legal one. Trumps EO does not change anti discrimination law. If anything, the EO is unlawful. Universities should treat it that way.

This is what the government did with 120K+ Japanese Americans in 1942. I know. I was there in those camps.

People who hate diversity know that on an even playing field they can’t compete. It’s really that simple

SHARE WIDELY. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS. With mass deportations starting today across the country, it is vitally important - for both citizens and non-citizens - to know your rights. You have the right to remain silent. Assert it. You have the right to a lawyer. Ask for one. (1/3)

I joke about my students often thinking I'm younger than I am, but truly I'm so weary of our cultural obsession with youth. I want to hear things that you're glad you got to do or experience because of when you were born. I want to celebrate aging. That feels sortof radical right now.

Seeing reports of ICE trucks in Knoxville TN the last couple days. Y'all be safe out there.

This is the red scare witch hunt shit that was supposed to be the blaring klaxon for all decent right minded people.

It may not seem like it but it's SO hard for me to talk about my book. & I think the smaller your press the harder it is because you do most of it yourself, & the vast majority of the time that means getting ghosted by venues for coverage, especiallybigger ones. This shit isn't easy!!!

Reading the latest Poet Lore & this poem by @jamesolearypoet.bsky.social floored me—those final 8 lines! “RIP John Keats, You Would Have Loved Hormone Replacement Therapy” by James O’Leary

In HS in AL after the first Obama election, my history teacher was crying because of the things people were saying about him. She scrapped our lesson & taught us bluntly about racism. She definitely wasn't supposed to. I was a politically unengaged teen until that day. She set me on a new path.

"How to be a trans ally in academia today" www.insidehighered.com/opinion/care...

Today and in the coming days, remember

You’re all about to be gaslit about that Nazi salute and I’m begging you to spend no time on it. You know what you saw.

how we feeling about tomorrow besties

Tomorrow is my birthday! I have a request! ❄️🤍

Hi friends! If I haven't followed y'all back on here it's not because I don't like you, it's because I look at the list and get overwhelmed! I'm workin on it!!!

New tour dates! Let's hang out!!!

I'm trying to find words for what it feels like to watch live footage of fires in California while in the Deep South while under the threat of historic winter storms.

Absolutely heartbreaking overhead of the LA fires.

If you'd like to support your fave authors in 2025 but you're skint, you could: - make a social media post about the book, just as basic as "i enjoyed this" and a picture (don't forget alt-text) - rec it in a relevant reddit thread or Goodreads forum or Facebook group Word of mouth has an impact!

All, the Pasadena Humane Society is asking for donations - they're taking in animals right now, and are also preparing to evacuate if needed. Please consider helping:

Sorry but how the fuck is anyone affording AWP in LA

See you tonight, New Orleans!!!

Hey! I'll be in New Orleans this Sunday to finish out the fall leg of my book tour, but here are a few dates coming up in the Spring! Working on finalizing stops in Texas (Houston), New Jersey, & other stops as well! Let me know if you want me to come to your city!!!

If you have a review copy of What Good Is Heaven & you're looking for a place to submit a review, here are some ideas! (* = they've published my work!) Southern Literary Review Southern Humanities Review* 32 Poems* Poetry Northwest* Heavy Feather Review* Barrelhouse* swamp pink

I LOVED @rayehendrix.bsky.social 's debut full-length collection WHAT GOOD IS HEAVEN, and I aaaalsssoo LOVED writing into that feeling!!! Check out my review of WHAT GOOD IS HEAVEN, out now in North American Review: northamericanreview.org/open-space/r...

"What Good Is Heaven shines in the many gems it is made of; too numerous to mention. This is one fine bestiary with the cover of an ageless hymnal, too beautiful for no other feeling but wonder.” Martins Deep on What Good Is Heaven, @pinchjournal.bsky.social www.pinchjournal.com/blog-posts/e...

Your favorite cryptid-in-training (me) opened the internet to find not zero not one but TWO Pushcart nominations today!!!! I'm so so so grateful to the folks at @gnashingteethpub.bsky.social and The Journal for this kindness 🩶🩶🩶

Alright this has slowed down a lot but please keep sharing! We are trying to get 100 blankets for ppl in Gaza. There are over a million people in the south alone.

I'm not but 26 pages into WHAT GOOD IS HEAVEN by @rayehendrix.bsky.social but Y'ALL. (When I say Y'ALL, that's southern for GO BUY THIS BOOK RIGHT IMMEDIATELY NOW.) www.tamupress.com/book/9781680...

Just finished this beautiful book by @rayehendrix.bsky.social and I related so deeply. Here are a few of my favs. It’s a must read!!

Today!

I've got an essay I've been loosely working on, that I'm itching to finish revising over winter break, about losing my religion and college football in the deep South. Where would one submit something like that?

Sundress Publications is open for submissions for grant applications from Palestinian writers with a chapbook or full-length book in progress. All eligible authors are welcome to submit during our application period which closes on December 31st, 2024. www.sundresspublications.com/submit#pgrant