A pre-birthday Spanish almond portal cake made by a dear friend, with a powdered sugar nod to the novel I’m working on

SO delighted!

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m now repped by @arleysorg.bsky.social at KT Literary. It’s already clear how insightful & skilled he is at helping a novel ms become the best version of itself before it goes out on sub. Feeling lucky. Back to revision! @ktliterary.bsky.social #sff #fantasy #specfic

facts are only ever as good as the stories we tell about them. we need scholars across fields who work to mine these facts but, equally, we need scholars studying these stories & how they’re told & how to read them critically the English major is not dead. it just might save us.

Packing for Punch Bucket Lit Fest in Asheville NC! I’m reading from Mycocosmic at 1:30 with Bruce Beasley, Patrick Paridee Samuel, & Brendan Walsh, then I hop into the publishing panel with these fine people. Excited! @saramoorewagner.bsky.social

Congratulations to Susan Rich on Blue Atlas, a stunning collection that troubles all the binaries around abortion. Couldn’t put it down. @susanrich-poet18.bsky.social #poetry #womenpoetry @redhenpress.bsky.social

Riveting! Breathtaking!! So grateful for this mycelially probing review by Laurel Kallen in the new Action, Spectacle. www.action-spectacle.com/summer-2025-... #poetry @tupelopress.bsky.social

The surrealness of this weekend’s beauty amid horrors around the world and threats at home—whiplash feelings. Hope you’re safe and hanging in there. lesleywheeler.org/2025/09/14/n...

Emily Dickinson

When my lecture at USAFA was canceled because the admin had been surveilling my politics, some people said it was to be expected at a military academy. My reply was that it's happening in every academy. And it is: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

And I’m so excited to read it!

Thanks to Jane Harrington for this in the wild sighting of Mycocosmic! @janeharrington.bsky.social @tupelopress.bsky.social

Catch in the throat as you read, release in the closure—congratulations to Lauren Crawford on this powerful poetic debut! Also, is #septemberwomenpoets not a thing anymore? I was looking forward to seeing what you all were reading…@laurencraw.bsky.social

Mycocosmic is 6 months old! If you’ve foraged for it already, THANK YOU. I’d love to see photos of it in the wild. www.tupelopress.org/book/mycocos... 🍄 @tupelopress.bsky.social #poetry #fungi #mushroom

Lots of great free stuff happening at the arts festival hosted by the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont in #charlottesville this month. My “Listening for Poetry” workshop is Sunday 9/7 at noon, free & open to anyone—you just have to register at piedmontgarden.org/2025-botanic...

Thanks for posting this beauty from @kelliagodon.bsky.social , Ali

Go Emma—a Shenandoah poet as well as novelist and editor!

A brain tumor opens a “bone window” to other worlds in After the Operation by Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr. What a pleasure to read with you in Bryant Park, Liz, and read this on the train on the way home! #sealeychallenge #sealeychallenge2025 @etgrayjr.bsky.social @fourwaybooks.bsky.social

So excited to be part of this Miami series!

I read with @haydensaunier.bsky.social at the VA Festival of the Book in March and I will again tomorrow, 8/26, 6 pm, in Bryant Park NYC—so Wheel is my #SealeyChallenge read today. Congratulations on your lovely new book, Hayden!

Periodic Reminder: If it weren’t powerful, they wouldn’t be trying to destroy it.

The end of summer is always a kind of gate or doorway lesleywheeler.org/2025/08/23/h...

Congratulations to Shenandoah author @casswhit.bsky.social !

“A rose is just a vegetable cat”: spending Day #22 of my sporadic #sealeychallenge with Hope Mirrlees. Love to everyone out there disappointed with various application results and feeling like there isn’t really room for a writer’s disappointment, considering.

Thanks so much to Donna, our fearless leader! Really looking forward to this convo

I read in the Bryant Park series once before, May 2012, with Richard Blanco & others—it was a blast. Please come if you’re in NYC! 8/26, 6 pm bryantpark.org/calendar/eve.... @haydensaunier.bsky.social @etgrayjr.bsky.social @tupelopress.bsky.social

“They did not die from COVID , they had preexisting conditions.” “They did not die from starvation, they had other health problems.” This is what eugenics sounds like.

As parents, we're supposed to remember the first time we did stuff with our kids, but the last time is equally as significant, if not more. This poem is from Whatever You Do, Just Don't (HappenStance Press, 2023), my second full collection...

What an astonishing playlist to find my track in. I’m a little star-struck. Congratulations to everyone involved! #sealeychallenge #poetry #bestamericanpoetry

Having work situated alongside the work of Billy Collins, @josehernandezdz.bsky.social & @mosababutoha.bsky.social feels surreal!! Check out the cover for the new Best American poetry anthology!! So grateful to be part of this.

What the hell? Checking horoscopes idly because our plane is delayed and my partner is a Gemini—guess who else is?

Day 5 of the #sealeychallenge finds me contemplating the beauties and shifty dualities of Steven Leyva’s excellent The Opposite of Cruelty. Traveling as of tomorrow but I’ll be back with more poetry faves later in the month! @sealeychallenge.bsky.social @stevenleyva.bsky.social

LOVED how this smart, funny chapbook responds to Denise Duhamel’s Kinky—and Susan Collins, Salome, the Golden Girls, Red Lobster, and some countermovements that need calling out. Go @dustinbrookshire.bsky.social ! @sealeychallenge.bsky.social #sealeychallenge

Prescription for end times: “make something lavender.” Tonee Mae Moll’s You Cannot Save Here is just what you need to read during the apocalypse. #sealeychallenge Day 3 @maemoll.bsky.social

On poetic pilgrimages with a sprained ankle lesleywheeler.org/2025/08/03/p...

A lyric investment in the largeness of small things—What Is Given by Brit Washburn for Day 2 of the #sealeychallenge from Wet Cement Press. @sealeychallenge.bsky.social

Keeping a list of what to defend: people: people of every gender, race, ability, religion, sexuality, national origin, economic means, system of beliefs, age knowledge: libraries, schools, universities, books, book stores, journalism, public access to news, public warning systems the rule of law

On Day 1 of the #sealeychallenge I’m rereading this badass poetry collection by the badass poet Jane Satterfield @diodeeditions.bsky.social @sealeychallenge.bsky.social

“The Sealey Challenge, at heart, is a big, raucous, joyful celebration of poetry.” —Laura Sackton Whether you're brand-new to the challenge or old hat, everyone is invited to read (more) 31 books in 31 days this August! www.thesealeychallenge.com

Having this poem out in the world is a little intimidating. But mostly I feel grateful for all this being & becoming, for my parts and my dear ones' and my therapist. And for the folks, especially Keetje Kuipers, who made room for this poem in Poetry Northwest.

The poetry of rainy summers, bad politics & more w/ @carolee.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @lesleymwheeler.bsky.social @grantclauser.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @teatimehaiku.bsky.social @roguestrands.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/07/poet...

Heading to DC soon to read at Kramers Books! 7 pm 7/22 with Tonee Mae Moll and Steven Leyva. In the meantime I give you ghost pipes: lesleywheeler.org/2025/07/20/a...

Two gorgeous little collections that are bigger on the inside. Thanks, Daniel Tobin, Nat Anderson, Lisa Sewell, & Susan Hagen! #poetry

Tomorrow!

Such a powerful collection that it’s hard to believe it’s a debut. Congratulations @nadiaalexis.bsky.social —and I’m so glad to be doing a virtual reading with you this Thursday 7/17! Register here: www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/phosphoresce...

Reading with @nadiaalexis.bsky.social this Thursday 7/17, hosted by the Emily Dickinson Museum—it’s free & virtual! Sign up here: www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/phosphoresce...

Some speculations about Dickinson’s The Mushroom is the self of Plants as I prepare to read with the amazing @nadiaalexis.bsky.social in the virtual series hosted by the Emily Dickinson museum! lesleywheeler.org/2025/07/13/d...

Tonight, 7/9, reading poetry at 7 pm in Fergie’s Pub in Philadelphia, thanks to Moonstone Arts

It is not lost on me that we currently don't have a United States Poet Laureate. Ada Limón's second term ended in April. I don't know if there have been other gaps; all of the information I can find suggests that the Poet Laureate position has been filled officially since 1985. 1/3

Words from Audre Lorde I--we--need to keep remembering: when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed but when we are silent we are still afraid