Let's Hang out at AWP!
+ 1,000 subscribers, Pain Baby Book Club
First and foremost, THANK YOU for being one of my first 1,000 subscribers! This newsletter is a labor of love that takes more time and effort than it might look like it does, and it means the world to me that you find my musings, announcements, and recommendations useful. This community goes a long way to making me feel less lonely in the solitude of writing while disabled, and I am so grateful.
Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. As a paid subscriber, you support not only the labor and development of this newsletter but my ability to support myself as a poet and writer whose disabilities prevent me from working in alignment with the expectations of late capitalism. Soon,, this will also give you access to Pain Baby Book Club, drop-in workshops, and offerings of poetry, poetry prompts, and other goodies.
I am writing to you from sunny Los Angeles before my first AWP. I am as excited as I am nervous. How does one market a book? Will I be overwhelmed and overstimulated or feel like a kid in a candy store after so many months of isolation in the New York City cold? Regardless, I would love to see you. Please join me at any one of the following events:
Epiphany Magazine Off-Site Reading
co-hosted by The New School and No, Dear Magazine
Thursday, March 27, 8 pm - 10 pm
Cole’s French Dip, 118 East 6th St, Los Angeles, CA
Featuring Christina Cha, Quincy S. Jones, Kristin Lueke, Marianne Villaneueva, Bri Stokes, & more! (including me!)
Unruly Bodies Off-Site Community Reading
Friday, March 28, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Pieter Performance Space, 2701 N Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90031
Featuring Amanda Choo Quan, Arianne Ayu Alizio, Carolyn Collado, Farihia Roisin, Kai Cheng Thom, Lupita Limón Corrales, Margaux Feldman, Raechel Anne Jolie, Tamar Bresge, and yours truly. I mean, come on.
HOW SMASHING, a Queer Off-Site Reading
Saturday, March 29, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Permanent Records Roadhouse, 1906 Cypress Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90065
Featuring Wo Chan, Carrie Hunter, Jennifer McKenzie, Jared Stanely, and Catherine Theis!
**For Conference Participants Only
Queer Crip Worlds: Poetry as Portal for Transnational Solidarity. (Heidi Rhodes, Ashna Ali, Sami Ghaus, Tala Khanmalek) Poetry Craft & Criticism. 3:20 pm - 4:35 pm, Los Angeles Convention Center, Room 407, Level Two
1201 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015
This panel brings queer and crip/disabled diasporic poets of color from Bangladesh, Colombia, Iran, and Pakistan to consider the possibilities for using poetry as a portal connecting us from word to world. In the context of the US-backed genocide in Palestine and intersecting histories of conflict in our respective homelands, we will explore how poetry has been a vital tool for organizing queer and disability justice, and a modality for building connection and solidarity across social movements.
Thank you for all of your enthusiastic responses to the possibility of a monthly Pain Baby Book Club! As I gauge interest and test structure, the first three months will be offered for free. We will be reading three gorgeous Palestinian books in English, two collections of poetry, and one novel, written by women whose work has moved and inspired me for years and feels particularly urgent as we in the U.S. navigate our complicity in the betrayal of Palestinian people and think anew about how to live in solidarity.
Monday, April 21, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm ET: Hala Alyan’s When the Moon Turns You Back
Monday, May 19, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm ET: Zeina Hashem Beck’s O
Monday, June 16, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm ET: Zaina Arafat’s You Exist Too Much
Recommended
Poems:
Amto remembers Hussein, Aljibbayn 1983 by Kamelya Omayma Youssef
prongs into the nation by Samah Serour Fadil
Alias by Chrysanthemum
Until next time!
Have a fabulous time at AWP, Ashna!
oh i'm gonna hug you!