This evening I am reading a short story at Word Virus Books, about a block from Powell’s in downtown Portland. The selection at Word Virus is utterly fantastic. I’ve booked my friends Kaya Noteboom and Violet Pitsker to read with me. One of the perks of being in charge is that I can do things like this. It’s hard being the girl who hosts all the events. Hopefully it doesn’t come across as pompous that I booked myself for my own reading. If you can’t book yourself, how the hell you gonna book somebody else?

My story, “Palm Springs,” was published by Breen Nolan in Hobart earlier this year. I’m looking forward to sharing it in-person for the first time. I met Breen at the Constellation reading series at Bishop & Wilde, the same night I met the wonderful Jaye Nasir, who will be reading at Bloomers tomorrow night alongside Josephine LaCosta and Jillian B. Briglia. So we’re looking at two days of literary events in the greatest city in the world: Poetland, OR.

If you missed the Bloomers RSVP form, make sure you sign up for the newsletter to be notified next time it opens. We’re at capacity with about 80 RSVPs! I would pretend to be “in awe” that people actually give a shit about what I’m doing, but that’s not really how I feel. It makes sense to me that my city wants to support me, because I believe what I’m doing for it has value.

I’ll admit it’s a lot to handle: planning and hosting two readings per month on top of two jobs, rent and student loans, dysphoria, dystopia, and so on. It leaves me little time for writing, yet I continue to pull time out of my ass because writing is an important part of my routine. They say when someone creative refuses to create, they can become violent or even crazy. My new chapbook, called Guttersnipe, is finished-ish and I’m waiting to hear back from someone about publication. It would be awesome to have it traditionally published, so cross your fingers for me! The manuscript is about poverty. It’s all about being a rotten, damned woman. I really like what I wrote, but maybe it’s ahead of its time. Either way, I had a ball.

Recently I was able to read poems from Index Letters at Secret Room, a very cool comic shop on Division St. I brought up my co-writer Nadia to read a couple of them with me. We are now completely sold out of the chapbook until the next print run! When we print more, you’ll be able to find copies at Secret Room. I feel like Index Letters finally got the love it deserves! It’s such a funny little book, full of cleverness, rhythm, and longing. Thanks a million times to the 45-ish people who now have copies out there in the world.

I’m planning something slightly harebrained for Bloomers next month, which will be the one year anniversary show. I’ll write a blog post about what Bloomers Poetry Club means to me soon, because as you can imagine it means a lot. Ta-ta for now!

Yours fictionally,
Judy