“Let’s just be grown-up and pretend magic is real.” I interviewed several of Chicago’s biggest magic acts to write this in-depth story of today’s magic performance scene. Magic shows appeal to the kid in all of us, which I mean in the least dismissive way possible.

Micro review of “Paper Money” by Winshen Liu! www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8B16wSB/

Bill Knott: Beat poetry, but make it short A micro review #poetry #sealeychallenge www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...

Ever adjuncted? Read this and fear for your kidneys (if you haven’t had to sell them yet)! First book of August: “this abattoir is a college” by Orchid Tierney #sealeychallenge

Subscribe to my newsletter at reshoemaker.com! This month's installment includes thoughts on AI as well as announcements.

Say you’re teaching African American lit—which I may or may not be saying myself—what is your must read book from the last 20 years?

What are you most excited to read during this August’s #SealeyChallenge? Convincing myself I’m gonna do it by continuing to ask others about it. Accountability!?

Roses, such deep heat Wall of poems, each frame a friend Time stands still, staring #poetry #haiku #poem #amwriting #letterpress

I’m beyond pleased to be featured in Spoon River Poetry Review 49.2 - even though my “Hex on Elon Musk as a Portrait of Humanity” is so unfortunately ever-relevant!

Just joked with my best friend who helped me get here that my sponsor was Heineken 0.0 and my twelve step was 6 packs of NA. #sober #sobriety #nonalcoholic #NAbeer

Just Buffy floofin out #cat #floof

I now have a window unit Which dehumidifies I must bleed it twice daily To let out the bad waters Please any god Send central air I sacrifice this condensation to you (again, maybe a poem) #amwriting #lifeupdate #amnotcryingyouare

AC broken Rain outside If I can’t sleep anyway, why not take a shower? (a poem, maybe, but also very real life)

New article with @queerkentucky.bsky.social ! So much fun talking throuples and art

New article @queerkentucky about Hollyn-Reid's queer Community Filing Cabinet! It was interesting chatting with him about archives and the very down-to-earth processes by which we preserve our memories. Check it out! queerkentucky.com/ashland-arch...

I had the honor of interviewing author Garth Greenwell for Queer Kentucky! Read the article here: queerkentucky.com/cruising-ken...

Yesterday was poetry mail day! So excited for new poetry by @alinaetc.bsky.social and @elliephantshoes.bsky.social and the beautiful new issue of Tiny Spoon! Go read all that gorgeous goodness.

I'm excited to share that I'll be a guest editor for this fall's issue of The Louisville Review! Send in your work for consideration. Submittable opens June 1 and closes June 6, and submissions are capped at 200. Get in there! thelouisvillereviewfleur-de-lispress.submittable.com/submit

Why I Haven’t Replied to your Message on Social Media and other May Whatnots If you'd like to catch up on previous posts, visit "newsletter posts" from the menu on my website and enter the password: poetryismagic! Highlights: Why I Haven't Replied to your Message on Social Media Update on Magical…

Publications day! Thank you William and @barelysouthreview for publishing "Again," my lil desirous poem, and @srpr_news for including my Hex inside this beautifully-covered volume! It's a lovely day to read a poem :)

Flufflet mourning dove chicks Puzzle over each other Ruffle wet feathers in fog Mother flies off Robins nearby, watching The children find their way Subscribe to my newsletter to read the rest! reshoemaker.com/2025/04/30/f...

Frostburg State, Some Poems, and April Publications If you'd like to catch up on previous posts, visit "newsletter posts" from the menu on my website and enter the password: poetryismagic! Highlights: Featurette:… http://reshoemaker.com/2025/04/30/frostburg-state-some-poems-and-april-publications/

"Does it bear stating that history, like all knowledge, does not develop by decree? Nor does it belong to any one entity, least of all the state. Rather, it is developed through debate, discussion, and dialectic, fuelled by reflexivity, doubt, and an awareness of our limitations."

Wouldn't this be amazing

Don't get excited. But maybe you can get a little excited about the possibility of getting excited. (Also, this is exactly the sort of stuff the current administration is planning to defund. Fuck those dudes.) Gift article. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/s...

In this moment when resistance and action can feel difficult or futile, it's important to remember that little things can make a big impact.

I'm excited to read at Main Street Books in Frostburg next week! Check out the event in my bio/Linktree if you're around the Frostburg area!

We did it! Thank you to everyone who donated to Tupelo Press on my behalf in March; I raised $375 with your help, and I’m so grateful for your support and readership. Thank you Tupelo for the opportunity, and Kirsten Miles for shepherding us! My orchids bloomed in celebration!

Here are a few of my latest poems intermingled with some poems by other writers throughout the month! Go to the March page to read them in full (screenshots are partial). #poetry #amwriting

Only $55 until I reach my donation goal for @tupelopress and 30/30 this month! One week left. Please donate if you're able, and remember, if you donate $25 or more I'll write a poem based on a prompt you give me AND send you a postcard. What a deal! Give me the silliest prompt you can come up with!!

it followed with swarm in her. she altered the quest ion, said, Will anyone                      beautiful           left say                      Farewell? For the scoop on how I'm writing these and instructions to write your own, hit up my newsletter! reshoemaker.com

My self-loathing is loathsome, especially to me. I try to remind myself that it’s okay to be thirsty, okay to ask for more, okay to bare a raw throat and say, even this hurts: my pain is only comparable to what I remember of pain. From today's 30/30 poem with Tupelo Press

Will anyone    beautiful    left in her three generations tell her "goodbye," say "farewell"? I’ve written some poems for Tupelo’s 30/30 using a cutup divination technique that I’d love to share! Check out the videos in my story and on TikTok, where I read the poems and talk about my process.

“I am part of the war The War is part of me I, too, was born in a time of war, war-without-time, war-without-sense I was taught to see enemies everywhere” More in “Your Poetry is Required Here,” today’s poem on Tupelo’s March 30/30 page—linkinbio

The illustrious and LUMINOUS CAConrad will be talking poetry and shouting out my book, MAGICAL POETICS, on the radio tomorrow! Tune in with me to Poet Talk tomorrow, 3/6 at 6 EST: www.umass.edu/wmua/ Thank you, CA, for your support and light!

I'm especially excited about my poem today, "Golden in the Morning," inspired by conversations with the luminous, generous CA Conrad: www.tupelopress.org/the-march-20... Please donate to Tupelo to support my poems! tupelopress.networkforgood.com/projects/247...

30/30 with Tupelo Press has begun! I’ve written two poems so far, one an ode to my cat Buffy and one to a plant (shocking, I know). Every share and dollar counts. tupelopress.networkforgood.com/projects/247...

Publication announcement: my book MAGICAL POETICS is under contract with Bloomsbury Academic! Dumbfounded. Wowzer.

I’m performing from the shiny new version of Ca’Venezia with MUSIC on Zoom February 26th! Registration link in bio; please join us for this very cool reading series featuring artist's books! (This baby photo of me and Laura Sousounis from the Venice Film Festival)

Join us in celebrating the Annette Allen Prize awardees! It was a pleasure and an honor to judge, which you can read more about in my newsletter if you sign up!

“like us they look to the sky for answers like them we find none having only the garden to sustain us” Don Domanski, “The Garden is Secretive and its Wounds are Light to the Touch”

“The Idea of Purrfection: Furetry and Prrrs” by Pawl Valery Buffy was reading but had to hide to get some solo time (she self-isolated, don’t worry, I got her right back out)

I love a good orchid Or a weird one Maybe a bad one Any orchid will do

Infectious Shines, Inspiring Students, Hexes on Billionaires, Exciting Announcements, and Readings Readings Readings Welcome to my newsletter! For anyone new to this space, thanks for coming, and to any of you who've stuck around, a deep bow of gratitude. If you'd like to catch up on previous…

WE’RE ENGAGED! At the beginning of January, I asked Corey to marry me! It was very cold, and we were at the Chicago Botanic Gardens near one of our favorite spots, the Japanese gardens, and he said yes even though I kept him outside for pictures.

Just a reminder that this is what a dictator does: Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, said Tuesday on CNN, "The 2 million employees in the federal government are overwhelmingly left of center."

I'm reading at @tuesdayfunk.bsky.social next week at Hopleaf in Chicago! Come hear some poems!

I love America; you love it, too. A command, not a statement. An agreement: scratch my back, I won’t bury you. … America, you cannot take my love, And you do not have it. You are the peril; we are the promise You broke. I’m working on a gut-punch poem shaped from Biden’s gut-punch farewell address