So @essaydaily.bsky.social is doing our yearly Advent calendar this year and we have a few more spots if you'd like to write about visual media (games, movies, shows, anything visual is ok). Drop me/us a line.

"Leaf Town Forever celebrates community in a most beautiful way." hanks to @lhertzel.bsky.social for this lovely review of Leaf Town Forever by @bethrooney.bsky.social & me & illustrated by Betsy Bowen in the @startribune.com! www.startribune.com/art-coulson-...

"Loretta Haiku" a typewriter haiku by yours truly from the Connections for Abused Women & Their Children gala: poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/8000161...

at night, all cats are Gary

Deborah Shapiro, Watching the Detective.

This Saturday, November 8 at 10:00 am at the Rain Taxi Twin Cities Book Festival! Come see Beth Rooney & Betsy Bowen & me read and do an activity from LEAF TOWN FOREVER from University of Minnesota Press! twincitiesbookfestival.com/leaf-town-fo...

Flying squirrel cam

"Leaf Town Forever is the perfect book to let go of “real” and enjoy creating and imagining with a child." Thanks to Nancy Bo Flood for this amazing review of LEAF TOWN FOREVER! nancyboflood.com/lets-pretend/

"Love" a typewriter poem by yours truly from Randolph Street Market: poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/7992001...

The theme of the Halloween party was "childhood idols" & we did the assignment

Many thanks to Amran Gowani for this hilarious haiku-filled write-up of the launch party for Leaf Town Forever last weekend! www.amrangowani.com/harrowing-ha...

"Everybody thinks this about their favorite celebrities, but I truly believe that Christ and I could be friends." Thanks to @lespritlit.bsky.social for providing an excellent home for my poem-essay about Jesus! lespritliteraryreview.org/2025/10/26/c...

Thanks to City Lit Books in Logan Square for having @bethrooney.bsky.social & me read from Leaf Town Forever at story time today & thanks to all the cute families & one adorable pup for coming!

Are you scared of the ocean? Do you wonder what is up with men? Ever wish you could talk to dolphins? If you answered yes to any of these, then my fifth novel Man Overboard! is for you. It now has a cover! And is available for pre-order from Gallery Books! bit.ly/ManOverboard...

Suburban Chicagoland! Beth and I will see you at Anderson's Bookshop in Downers Grove this Tuesday at 6:00 pm for LEAF TOWN FOREVER from @uminnpress.bsky.social! Register here! andersonsbookshop.com/event/2025-1...

New book, Watching the Detective, ostensibly about the year I got weirdly obsessed with watching Columbo, but really about so much more. Out 11/18/25. Available to preorder on www.bsideeditions.com 🖤

Love my city

Thanks to @largeheartedboy.bsky.social, @bethrooney.bsky.social & I got to make a Book Notes playlist for LEAF TOWN FOREVER from @uminnpress.bsky.social, including Ella Fitzgerald, Prince, Edith Piaf, Joni Mitchel, the White Stripes and more. Check it out here! tinyurl.com/yhhycr7x

I’m sorry but is the dog the hero or the villain here

Cracking up so hard at the old Western prank of baby mixing

Hey @marchxness.bsky.social fans! It's cover reveal + preorders day for HIT REPEAT UNTIL I HATE MUSIC: THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY, edited by @angermonsoon.bsky.social and @meganc.bsky.social! Available for preorders (+ ARC requests) NOW, link in our bio or www.splitlippress.com/march-xness-anthology

"What an outsider sees is a vague space, but, inside the mind and wonder of the child, the building is substantial and organized and beautiful." Huge thanks to Patrick Reardon of the @thirdcoastrvw.bsky.social for this dreamy review of LEAF TOWN FOREVER! thirdcoastreview.com/lit/2025/10/...

Do you like cities? Do you think they're miraculous instances of collective creativity, not despite but because of the fact that they always involve complex & improvisatory negotiations among dissimilar individuals? Would you like to explain that to kids? Allow me to recommend LEAF TOWN FOREVER:

It's publication day for LEAF TOWN FOREVER, the picture book I co-wrote with my sister @bethrooney.bsky.social, illustrated by Betsy Bowen & published by @uminnpress.bsky.social! See you at one of our upcoming events, & in the meantime, add to cart! www.leaftownforever.com/news-and-event

"The children Fiona, Rose, & Lucinda, are Leaf Town Forever’s main characters & Leaf Town’s architects. Paco, the cardinal, is there with them the whole way. Was he there when the real Leaf Town was built too?" Thanks to Christine Sneed for this interview! christinesneed.substack.com/p/inside-the...

I’ve followed @inauthenticity.bsky.social ‘s amazing, sharp rundown of horror oddities every October & it’s a revelation every year. Plus, I have a four year old so this is really the only way I get to experience movies these days.

Thanks to @mrdankelly.bsky.social for inviting me to contribute to this @thirdcoastrvw.bsky.social feature for Banned Books Week where "Writers Recall the 'Forbidden' Books of Their Youth"--I recall the Anastasia series by Lois Lowry. Check them all out here! thirdcoastreview.com/lit/2025/10/...

"New Ghost Out on the Town" a typewriter poem by yours truly from the American Writers Museum poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/7963010...

Oh hey! The author copies of Leaf Town Forever, the picture book that I wrote with @bethrooney.bsky.social arrived in the mail this weekend from @uminnpress.bsky.social! @martinseay.bsky.social thinks it’s pretty good.

Baby flying squirrel alert

"Spider Season" a typewriter poem by yours truly from the Chicago Botanic Garden! poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/7954848...

Our night blooming flower is blooming!

Well it’s showtime at @kathleenmrooney.bsky.social’s & my place again for Phyl, our epiphyllum oxypetalum! Thanks as always to @chutson99.bsky.social for bringing him into our lives.

If you are in Chicago, you should go see this hilarious musical that has nothing to do with Stephen King! The next two Fridays at the Facility Theater!

"Leaf Town's residents suggest that the aggressors join them, a gesture of kindness in an all-too-unkind world." Thanks to Lisa Farver of Patch for this feature on @bethrooney.bsky.social's & my picture book from @uminnpress.bsky.social & 10/21 event at Anderson's in DG! patch.com/illinois/dow...

"It Turns Out that Shakespeare" a typewriter poem by yours truly from Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest! poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/7939454...

Thanks to Mary Ann Grossman of the Pioneer Press for including LEAF TOWN FOREVER--co-written with @bethrooney.bsky.social & illustrated by Betsy Bowen--from @uminnpress.bsky.social on her reading list for a thrilling Fall! www.twincities.com/2025/08/31/r...

Tomorrow at the Chicago Botanic Garden from 10 am to 2 pm! Come get a hot, fresh Poem While You Wait! poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/7925845...

Sweet baby flying squirrels!

Big news for authors with out-of-print prose books looking for a new home: We're opening up submissions to our Lost/Found imprint on 9/3! We were so happy to rehome Brooke Shaffner's COUNTRY OF UNDER last year + now we're ready to rehome more. Full details forthcoming, but the pertinent ones are:

So fun to listen to the conversation between @martinseay.bsky.social & @amrangowani.com at the Book Cellar about Amran’s fantastic debut novel LEVERAGE!

sucks to your sleep apnear

Tomorrow! From 3:30 to 5:00 pm at the Glenwood Avenue Arts Fest at Farwell and Farwell in the Outrageous Open Arts tent! Come get a hot, fresh Poem While You Wait: poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/7920387...

I got to interview @amrangowani.com about his hilarious, angry, satirical debut novel LEVERAGE for Chicago magazine! Come see him at the The Book Cellar in conversation with @martinseay.bsky.social on Tuesday, 8/19 at 7 pm! www.chicagomag.com/arts-culture...

"Mise en Abyme" a typewriter poem by yours truly from the Chicago Botanic Garden: poemswhileyouwait.tumblr.com/post/7918549...

Happy 20th anniversary to @martinseay.bsky.social! And to @bethrooney.bsky.social & Nick with whom we are so honored to share the day!

Hey, y'all should come to this! It'll be fun!

At the @awpwriter.bsky.social Book Fair in LA, I happened upon the magazine @doesithavepockets.bsky.social & loved what they were doing, so when I got home, I sent them a few poems. I'm so excited to have these 5 cinquains in the August issue! www.doesithavepockets.com/poetry/kathl...