Hello friends!
My mom told me she received my last newsletter and that “there were so many words!” and I wanted to say, “Hey, I left Tiny Letter for a reason! That name had too much baggage around the length of one’s emails.”
This one will be shorter… maybe. It’s so hot in Taos right now, and has been for the past week, that I feel like my brain is melting inside my skull. I go outside for a few minutes each day to water my vegetable garden, but then I run back inside to the relative cool of my house. I live in a part of town without many trees, so there is hardly any shade in my neighborhood, which makes going for walks an ordeal of slathering sunscreen on my entire body, long sleeves, hats, etc. I do have an olive tree out back that I love to sit beneath because the sound of wind through the trees is one of my favorite things and if I close my eyes it almost sounds like I’m at the ocean.
The other day, while standing at the back door that leads from the kitchen to the garden, I spied a rabbit eating the leaves off my amaranth plants. Just sitting there in the little hollow I’d dug around the plant for better water absorption. Just a bunny in a bowl. My immediate instinct was that I should go outside and shoo the rabbit away because that’s what people do when animals are eating their plants, but I love them so much and I wasn’t planning on harvesting the amaranth anyway (I grew it this year because it’s a good companion plant for tomatoes and it’s beautiful and makes me happy) so I thought, hey at least they aren’t eating my tomatoes or my zucchini, and left it at that. I stood there and watched them eat for a while, though, because it was adorable.
A few nights ago I was eating dinner after dusk on the porch off my living room/kitchen and a coyote approached me in the middle of my meal! It was so bold. I think these creatures are growing slightly desperate because summer is nearing its end and their food options are running out. I’ve had other encounters with coyotes in the past (including one who curled up under the sagebrush in my yard and napped for an afternoon) but none who have come this close to me and seemed so fearless.
DREAM POP
Dream Pop is currently taking submissions for our first themed issue, the Speculative Diary Issue edited by Kenning JP Garcia! Submissions for this issue are open until October 5th and you can find full details of the submission guidelines on our website.
Everything in the Dream Pop Press catalog is currently on sale for 20% off! If you’re currently doing the Sealey Challenge, stock up on chapbooks from our 2019 run.
Use coupon code SUBSTACK at checkout.
I received an email from past Dream Pop Journal contributor Valerie Loveland today:
“I am doing the Sealey poetry reading challenge thing in August, and one of the first books is I read is The Mothercake Cycle. Everyone (poets, non-poets) I showed any of the poems was like "OMG I have to get this book."
ERASE THE PATRIARCHY
Erase the Patriarchy is now available from University of Hell Press! This book is printed in full-color and features erasures made with a vast array of materials including cooking spices, dirt, blood, paint, and collage. You can order through University of Hell above or from me if you’d like a signed copy (only 1 left!) I’ll be sharing erasures from the collection in these emails over the next couple weeks. This one is from Jodi Versaw and it opens the collection:
READ / WATCH / LISTEN
I am currently finishing up Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictée, which is beautiful, and next on my to-read list is Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave, which I just picked up from the library yesterday. The library in my town is still closed due to COVID, although it did open up recently for curbside pickup, but I was in a neighboring town that allows a handful of people in the library at a time and was able to do some solo book browsing for the first time in months.
I haven’t been listening to anything new this past week (so if you have suggestions, please let me know!) and what I’m watching is embarrassing but I can’t look away: Married at First Sight. I have to admit, though, that I have learned a few things from Dr. Pepper and Pastor Calvin.
That’s it for now!
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