Maryland Writers Association’s 2020 Conference Trailer
I’m really excited about this trailer I created for the Maryland Writers’ Association’s 2020 conference. Watch the video, then register.
Tag: authors
Melanie Hatter and Derrick Weston Brown’s Book Launch at East City Bookshop
Yesterday, Melanie Hatter and Derrick Weston Brown launched their books with a reading at East City Bookshop. Melanie is the author of Malawi’s Sisters and Derrick is the author of On All Fronts, which is part of the Flood Gates Poetry Series Vol. 5 by Upper Rubber Boot Press. I’m glad I was able to […]
How to Market Your Manuscript (Without an Agent and Book Contests)
When I sent the manuscript for my first book out, I spent a grip on submission fees for book contests. My first book was eventually published, but not because of a contest. So when it was time to send out the manuscript for my current book, I took a different approach that I share in […]
The HoCoPoLitSo Experience
My friend, Truth Thomas, recorded this interview on his smartphone. I put together a mini doc of my final experience as HoCoPoLitSo – The Howard County Poetry & Literature Society’s 2018/19 Writer-in-Residence at Howard Community College.
Closing Out My Run as Writer-in-Residence
Last Thursday, I did my final reading as the Howard County Poetry and Literary Society (HoCoPoLitSo)’s 2018/19 Writer-in-Residence. During my tenure, I had a great time visiting Howard County schools and sharing my love of poetry with the students. Those visits gave me something else to look forward to on my Friday mornings. I’m honored […]
DRIFT book trailer
Here’s a trailer for my debut collection of poems, DRIFT (Aquarius Press/Willow Books, 2012).
The Residency II
Jaed Coffin drew a diagonal line on an easel pad and called it the spine. That’s the idea of identity, he told a room of writers at a presentation Friday. Coffin drew a wavy line that curved along the diagonal one, and called it the narrative. Then he shaded in dots where the lines intersected. […]
Kevin Simmonds’s *Mad for Meat*
A guy walks into a bar. Or is it a Middle Eastern novelty store? A coffee shop? Well, he’s somewhere in northern Japan, nursing a drink and tapping his fingers as “Lady/ Day simmers overhead”. The guy’s an expatriate, disillusioned by his country’s prejudice against people of color and the queer community—both of which marked him […]
Redefining Nature: Mary Oliver, Al Young, Ross Gay, Ed Roberson and Lucille Clifton
My introduction to nature poems came 11 years ago, when I was a freshman in a poetry class at the University of Maryland-College Park. Reading those poems by a handful of white writers was like looking at a painting of a bowl of fruit. Nothing moved in their poems. There was no narrative or deep […]
Derrick Weston Brown’s “Wisdom Teeth”
Snagglepuss is bitter. He airs his frustrations with the Pink Panther on E! True Hollywood Story, after their short-lived love affair: “When the big money came calling Ol’ Pinky packed his bags and gave me some song and dance about how I’d never have to work again […]” (from “Snagglepuss Spills his Guts on E! […]
Alan W. King 