Updates from Early 2019!

So much is happening!

- Spuyten Duyvil is going to be publishing my poetry collection Shelter in Place later this year. I'm over the moon! I'll post more details as I have them!

- On March 2, I'll be leading a workshop on poetry comics as part of Death Rattle Writers Festival's "Four Words" event. It's somewhat inspired by my dissertation! Here's the description:

Inner Landscapes: Poetry Comics, Metaphor, and Visual Emotion

In our day-to-day lives, we use metaphor to describe emotion all the time: We might say a day was full of smooth sailing, or that we have a tough row to hoe. Often, these metaphors center on nature—terrains, animals, weather, and more. We get butterflies in our stomachs and feathers in our brains, stars in our eyes and warmth in our hearts. In this short workshop, we’ll write about and illustrate some of these feelings using the genre of poetry comics. Inspired by linguists and manga artists alike, we’ll explore our inner landscapes and see what climates and creatures dwell there, waiting to be let lose. Watercolors will be available, but feel free to bring your own supplies as well!

- Later in March, I'll be reading at Boise's Storyfort festival on a panel called "Telling It Strange" with the incredible Janalyn Guo. Here's the panel description:

Telling It Strange

Fabulism, Fairy Tales, and Weird Worlds

Sisters who send postcards from deep underwater. Women who rent caves and converse with prophetic fungi. Parallel universes where ballgowns set hedge mazes ablaze. Careless twenty-somethings who take selfies with demons. Janalyn Guo and Catherine Kyle have written weird stories, wild poems, and choose-your-own-adventure sagas. They’ve drawn inspiration from surrealist composers, the expanses of Utah, virtual reality, and manga. In this reading and discussion, learn about Janalyn’s adventures writing an AI guppy, Catherine’s reasons for always teaching comics, and the beauty and value of strangeness.

I am thrilled to be part of this panel--Janalyn's writing is absolutely amazing.

Last month, I had my second residency at NEC, which was wonderful. A prompt led by professors Allison Titus and Paige Ackerson-Kiely got me thinking in new ways about magical girls in pop culture, so I'm working on some new poems about that.

Also, I've been teaching in two 5th and 6th grade classrooms as part of The Cabin's Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. The focus is on comics. It's been a delight.

In short, it's been an outstanding start to the new year!

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