Photos from a walk in Uzès, France, respite from the news. My admiration & gratitude to those with courage & vision to lead with love when it is easy to feel only anger & fear--my alderwoman, @ward33chicago.bsky.social, my Congressista, @ramirez.house.gov, @indivisiblechicago.bsky.social, others.

PLEASE contact your Congressional representative and ask them to speak out and to vote against Section 226 of H.R. 5300! This provision would allow the Secretary of State to revoke passports from U.S. citizens based on alleged “support” for terrorism — without due process or a criminal conviction.

I am grateful to Action, Spectacle for publishing one of my zuihitsu. You can find it here: www.action-spectacle.com/summer-2025-...

The AP got much better photos than I did! Good to see accurate reporting on a demonstration. Most media reported "hundreds" at the Chicago Labor Day march, when it was clear from their aerial photos that we had thousands.

Engaging panel yesterday on "writing refuge," moderated by Third Coast Translators Collective member @izidoraangel.bsky.social at Printers Row Lit Fest. It was a mini-reunion of TCTC translators Collective--I was sitting with Shara Kronmal and Jason Grunebaum.

Chicago says NO to ICE and the National Guard! No apocalypse in this city.

Thanks to Farol: Journal of Literature and Other Arts for publishing my translations of Hélène Dorion's poems, from her collection Hearts, Like Books of Love. So happy to bring her luminous voice into our country (and beyond), in a dark time! faroljournal.com/2025/08/22/h...

Chicago is a labor town! Spirited rally and protest--Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a strong speech. The unions turned out in force; Cappy & I joined our @indivisiblechicago.bsky.social friends. This city is not accustomed to being treated like a rug to walk over, and we don't intend to get used to it.

I'm so proud of the work we do together in Third Coast Translators Collective! Thanks to @izidoraangel.bsky.social for putting together this blog post in World Literature Today: worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/lit-lis...

At a moment when Americans are turning away from the rest of the world, translators still look outward. Join us in celebrating Women in Translation Month at Women and Children First Bookstore (Chicago), this Wednesday, August 13, at 7 pm: womenandchildrenfirst.com/event/2025-0...

If you'll be in Chicago, come celebrate Women in Translation Month with Third Coast Translators Collective: we're reading and talking about our translations of women writers at Women & Children First Bookstore, 7 pm next Wednesday, 8/13. Details here: womenandchildrenfirst.com/event/2025-0...

You'll want to read Book of Potions by Lauren K. Watel--these poems are truly for this moment we're living. rhinopoetry.org/reviews/laur...

Chicago, join me at the Women in Translation reading organized by Third Coast Translators Collective. Wed., 8/13, 7 pm, at Women & Children First Bookstore. Susan Harris, (Words Without Borders), will moderate. I'd love to see you there!

Thanks to Thimble Literary Magazine for publishing this poem! It's bittersweet for me to reread it, as these mothers have all boarded that plane and flown where I cannot (yet) follow.

Good Trouble in Portsmouth, NH

Thanks to Painted Pebble Lit Mag (formerly Little Free Lit Mag) for publishing one of my zuihitsu in their summer issue: paintedpebblelit.com/s-lang-presc...

I'm escaping into poetry so I don't have to read news of the Big Ugly Bill, soon to be law. Neither of these poems, published by Thimble Literary Magazine (and I thank them for it!), has anything to do with the current miserable state of affairs in our country. www.thimblelitmag.com/author/slang/

So pleased to be able to share this poetry collection: For now I am sitting here growing transparent by Yau Ching, translated by Chenxin Jiang. Read my review here: rhinopoetry.org/reviews/yau-...

I am proud to have two poems included in this forthcoming anthology--and congratulations to the contest winners!

After two months out of the country, I came back to piles of mail, most to be recycled. But also three journals with my work: in order, my poems from Grub Street and Clackamas, and translations of poems by Souad Labbize and Béatrice Marchal in ‪@atlreview.bsky.social.

Mid-90's at the @mdlpparis.bsky.social yesterday, but I had some good conversations and sold a few books. Thanks to Éditions des Lisières for the opportunity! And a lovely dinner last evening with a group of poets and editors from Editions L'herbe qui tremble. Good to be here, despite the heat!

Thank you to @elsewherejournal.bsky.social for featuring my work!

Hugo could have been writing about our own time, instead of his own mid-19th century. And La Fronde, which began publication in 1897, was remarkable for that time because everyone involved was a woman. At the Musée d'Orsay this morning, an exhibit called L'Art est dans la rue (Art is in the street).

Friends who will be in Paris next weekend: I look forward to signing my translation of Unfasten the silk of your silence by Souad Labbize on Saturday, June 21, 3-3:30 pm at the Marché de la Poésie (Place Saint-Sulpice). Meet me at stand 102 Éditions des Lisières!

Thanks to @elsewherejournal.bsky.social for including three of the hybrid pieces that I have been working on for nearly a year: www.elsewhere-journal.com/adrift/2025/... This is a new direction for me--I was locking my poems up too tightly, & Kimiko Hahn's essay on zuihitsu helped me loosen up.

This is what we want to see more of.

No Kings Day in Montpellier, France. There are gatherings in many of the French cities: Toulouse, Grenoble, Perpignan, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, Paris, Bordeaux, Nice....Bon courage, you who are protesting in the States!

I am so happy to have @ramirez.house.gov as my Congresswoman!

Mes amies et mes amis, friends and neighbors: If you're in Paris for the ‪@mdlpparis.bsky.social‬, come find me on Saturday, June 21, 15h-15h30, at Éditions des Lisières, stand 102. I'll be signing copies of this beautiful trilingual edition of poems by Souad Labbize, and I'd love to see you there!

Just yesterday, ICE arrested two men in Pilsen without judicial warrants. Two more disappeared without due process. How many more will be disappeared before we can re-establish rule of law?

The collection I reviewed this month for @rhinopoetry.bsky.social , Love Prodigal by ‪@tracibrimhall.bsky.social‬, is especially beautiful--and also helped me think through my own poetics. Maybe it will do the same for you? rhinopoetry.org/reviews/trac...

STOP BOOK BANS!! We made it easy to send an email to your representative to fight against book bans in your state! action.everylibrary.org/nationalaccess via @everylibrary.bsky.social

Heartwarming to see the city hall in Lyon draped in pride banners, when support for the LGBTQ+ community in the States has become such a flash point. France has its own conflicts that are similar to ours, but in this city with its Ecologist mayor, they are not afraid to stand up for everyone.

The capitelles--18th-19th century dry stone structures where farmers storee tools, and sometimes stayed with their sheep or goats during the summer season--above the village of Blauzac. A lovely walk.

Narbonne--the cathedral in the center of the city, largely destroyed; and the Abbaye de Fontfroide about 20 minutes' drive away. An ancient abbey restored in the early 20th century, with an extraordinary rose garden.

Thanks to @allisonpoet.bsky.social for including these poems in the most recent Crab Orchard Review. I'm especially happy to see this elegy to Helen Degen Cohen in print. Helen was a an irreplaceable friend & writing colleague; it's been 10 years now that she's gone. www.siucraborchardreview.com

This is Monica: she was in my classroom for 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Not an easy student, especially in 6th grade. Now she's graduating from the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago with a BA in education. She will be a sympathetic teacher to her struggling students because she struggled. So proud of her!

Arles, a day to relax after I finished 2 pitch sessions for translation projects (thanks, @littranslate.bsky.social !) Great resource, but stressful. We went for the Festival du Dessin (drawing) but always spend time at the cloister and just wandering. The last photo is our new friend in Uzès.

Collias--the hermitage, the natural spring and the Gardon river. This site has been inhabited since neolithic times; the chapel of Notre Dame de Laval is from the 12th century. An ancient, peaceful place, especially on a cool cloudy day.

Today's walk up the rise across the river from Uzès, where I forage wild thyme for our roast chicken.

I love discovering new poets from readings, and then exploring their books for reviews. Keeps my mind open to new possibilities! See my review of the new collection by @andimuse.bsky.social, Museum of the Soon to Depart, on Rhino Poetry: rhinopoetry.org/reviews/andy...

Villeneuve-lez-Avignon on a festival day

Thanks to Cagibi for publishing this poem of a poppy that brought comfort in the midst of the pandemic--now that we are in a different kind of crisis, and I am surrounded by bright fields of poppies. cagibilit.com/poppy/

Look what arrived--my copies of Unfasten the Silk of Your Silence, by Souad Labbize! I'll bring some back to Chicago in June, so contact me if you want one. Bonus photo: lilacs from my walk today. My lilacs had tight buds when I left almost a week ago, but spring is further along in southern France.

I'm looking forward to seeing Cagibi Issue 25 next Wednesday (4/25), with a poem I wrote during lockdown, when I could only dream of being where I am today, in southern France, surrounded by poppies. (The poem is titled "Poppy.") cagibilit.com/issue-25-in-...

Thanks to Little Free Lit Mag for publishing my attempt at zuihitsu--a Japanese genre without formal rules, so I can't tell if I'm doing it "right" or making up my own hybrid form. Trying to follow Kimiko Hahn's thoughtful exploration. See what you think: littlefreelitmag.com/s-lang-rescue/

Thanks to @jesselkercheval.bsky.social & Lori DiPrete Brown for inviting two Third Coast Translators Collective members to participate in Read the World in Madison! Alex Niemi & I found a very responsive audience in a beautiful space, & loved hearing the Madison translators read as well.

It's tomorrow, Wednesday, April 9: If you're in or near Madison, WI, come out to hear poetry in translation, and celebrate how literature crosses boundaries even when the walls are growing higher! Alex Niemi will join me as featured readers, alongside local translators. artlitlab.org/events/read-...

The Sun-Times reports 30,000 at the Hands Off protest in Chicago, & we only stretched 8 blocks. NYC reached 20 blocks according to the NYT; the 2 handsome protesters in my photo are my son & his fiancé in NYC. Three hundred came out in Troy, Ohio, a small conservative town.

Chicago: The weather demons have relented--no more rain forecast for Saturday. We need the Hands Off! protest to be as big as big can be, to build on the momentum of the electoral victories and Cory Booker's extraordinary speech on Tuesday. Join us at noon in Daley Plaza: indivisiblechicago.com