! BOOKS !

Posted on October 21, 2025October 22, 2025 by Jami Macarty

Hello, Gentle Reader!

Thanks very much for meeting me here to talk about writing, making, reading, and reviewing books!

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. | Oscar Wilde

Lately, I have been thinking about artistic attention, luck, and obscurity—and how each shapes creative expression. I gravitate toward intransigent, nonconforming artists (Gertrude Stein, Leslie Scalapino, Diane Arbus, Ana Mendieta, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson…) who create on their own terms. Despite pressures to conform, I take inspiration from their windy lead and endeavor to do my own thing in the lines of my poems and in their forms on the page.

One can perhaps please one’s self and earn that slender right to persevere. | Marianne Moore

Honestly, few people pay much attention to my writing, which is sort of a gift. This freedom allows me to conduct experiments and make discoveries according to my own creative process and standards without being swayed by external expectations or trends. Without the anxiety of meeting an imagined reader’s standards of quality, I find joy and fulfillment in wordplay for its own sake. That often leads me to push language further to meaning’s margins and make a word-thing that surprises and pleases me.

Obscurity grants me artistic freedom and playfulness, and occasionally, my writing resonates with the “right” reader. That feels like true luck—when someone gives my writing their attention.

The lucky gift of attention! Judges MA|DE and Kevin Spenst named my chapbook The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024) a finalist for Meet the Presses 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award! Woohoo! What an excellent surprise!

This recognition as a finalist is especially special because the poems in The Whole Catastrophe are, to my mind, not trying to be anyone else’s or other than themselves. They are doing their own sonic linguistic idiosyncratic thing on the page.

I’m oodles grateful for the 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award judges’ acknowledgement.

Above is a screenshot from wee three-minute finalist video—the background cover photo of The Whole Catastrophe by Dennis A. Boyd, features thousands of sandhill cranes at Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area—shown at H of the Night.

Hosted by Meet the Presses collective, H of the Night celebrates Canadian small press publishing and the glory of chapbooks! Hurrah chapbooks! This year’s H of the Night announced the 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award finalists and shared excerpts from our short-listed chapbooks.

I couldn’t have made my three-minute video without pre-production assistance from JRW and post-production stichery from the collective’s Aaron Tucker. Thank you! Thank you!

You’re cordially invited to tune in to H of the Night! Click to 38:51 to listen and watch my reading from The Whole Catastrophe which includes a dawn liftoff of birds in the thousands! It has to be seen to be believed in your heart!

The gift and luck of attention! From generous editors of literary magazines to whom I am grateful for giving my writing airtime: Two poems—”Once Upon a Time According to the Promise” and “What moves in the river is only the river”—in Diode; Four poems—”Two Autobiographies,” “To the Jury,” “Dual Scythes,” and “Mind of Snow”—in BlazeVOX-Poetry Extra Extra section; “The Fire Walker” in Taos Journal of Poetry; “Cold Record” in Action, Spectacle; “Snow is” in JMWW; “Backyard Fable” in SWIMM Every Day. You’re cordially invited to read some poems!

These publications are important to me because they are tangible artifacts of writing new or revising draft poems and sending out those poems for consideration, even while I am between projects—The Whole Catastrophe (September 2024) and The Long Now Conditions Permit (December 2025).

“Start a new project,” a writer friend advised me in a long-ago conversation about what to do when a book project is resting in completion. I took that to mean: Don’t wait! Write! So, I write. Of course the “rejections” (71 poem batches!) outweigh the “acceptances” (8 poems!), but both offer me what Marianne Moore called “that slender right to persevere.”

Some more lucky attention from organizers of readings and their audiences! Gathering with other poets—just look at those shining faces above—to read my poems aloud to an audience is nerve-racking and heart-special. It’s not like anything else.

If writing poetry is an inward-reaching gesture then reading poetry aloud to precious others is an outward-reaching gesture—two partner energies coming together in a gorgeous wholeness.

I and my poems have been out and about! In Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Tucson, and on Zoom with Mercy Street Readings and Lit Balm: An Interactive Reading Series. Click on the live link to watch my reading at Lit Balm!

At each event, I read a different mix of poems from The Whole Catastrophe and The Long Now Conditions Permit, adding in poems from The Minuses, Landscape of The Wait, and Instinctive Acts (out of print). It was creatively gratifying to connect themes across collections and discover what’s still relevant to me in the continuum of writing poems.

This year, I have also given my attention to other writers. In addition to teaching creative writing courses at Simon Fraser University, I moderated a panel at Tucson Festival of Books and offered workshops and a reading at the Mining for Gold Writing Retreat in Gold Bridge, British Columbia. These conversations were filled with the sweetness of learning and having fun with words!

A metaphor could change your life. | a fortune I received recently

Whether I offered a reading, moderated a poetry panel, or taught in a writing retreat, each of these occasions required accepting invitations, showing up, giving attention, and receiving attention. The luck of attention! The gift of attention!

: : : :

The Pluses!

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention! Welcome, welcome to those of you new to these dispatches on reading and writing books. May you find inspiration for your writer’s life here!

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to my community of women/women-identified writers for not coveting or competing, but sharing and supporting.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Vallum Chapbook Series and Eleni Zisimatos, Editor, and Leigh Kotsilidis, Designer, for making my chapbook The Whole Catastrophe (2024) with me.

+ Thank you bows to Meet the Presses and the judges of the 2025 bpNichol Chapbook Award for their support and acknowledgement of The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024).

+ Thank you bows to the intrepid organizers for making space for me and my words at Sandbox Music, Chatter: Contemporary Chamber Music, form & concept gallery, Tucson Festival of Books, Tucson Arts Poetry Society, Interim, Mercy Street Readings, Lit Balm, and to the very fine writers who joined me and shared space.

+ I bow to the editors who supported the publication of my poems and the publications where they were published: Jen Karetnick at SWIMM; Jen Michalski at JMWW; Adam Day at Action, Spectacle; Catherine Strisik at Taos Journal of Poetry; Geoffrey Gatza at BlazeVOX; Patty Paine at Diode.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Claudia Keelan and Andrew Nicholson, series editors, and the series board Sherwin Bitsui, Donald Revell, Sasha Steensen, and Ronaldo Wilson of Interim’s Test Site Poetry Series, who selected The Long Now Conditions Permit (forthcoming University of Nevada Press, 2025).

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to my publisher Stephanie G’Schwind, and Mountain/West Poetry Series editors Donald Revell and Kazim Ali, et al interns at the Center for Literary Publishing (CLP) for making The Minuses (2020) with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Beth Svinarich et al staff at University Press of Colorado for their beautiful support to me and The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to monsoon storm chaser and marvelous professional photographer, Liz Kemp, whose monsoon photograph storms the cover of The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Nomados Literary Publishers, Meredith and Peter Quartermain for making my chapbook Instinctive Acts (2018) with me.

+ Thank you bows to (continuous!) Vallum Chapbook Series and editors Leigh Kotsilidis and Eleni Zisimatos for making my chapbook Mind of Spring (2017) with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Finishing Line Press and editors Leah Maines and Christen Kinkaid for making my chapbook Landscape of The Wait (2017) with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Vincent K. Wong for his friendship, creative collaboration, and for taking my author photos.

+ This bears repeating: Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention! If you have any questions or comments, write me! I would love to hear from you!

! Books !

Posted on November 14, 2024November 19, 2024 by Jami Macarty

Gentle Reader,

We meet again here, where I share with you another word-ante into our ongoing conversation about making and reading books. Hurrah, you are here!

What makes a chapbook or full-length collection? Individual poems! They are the building blocks of poetry chapbooks and full-length collections. Individual poems act as gateways from poem to poem, and engender conversations between poet and editor, poet and publisher. Individual poems have their own lives and are part of the lives of chapbooks and full-length collections. Individual poems are a beginning of a book and they point to a book when it comes into being.

Behold Interim – A Journal of Poetry and Poetics (Since 1944!) Issue 41.1, the “Winners & Finalists” Issue, featuring the eight finalists and the winners of the Test Site Poetry Series Award—Jami Macarty!—and the Betsy Joiner Flanagan Award—Geoffret Babbitt.

The issue features five of my invidual poems. Four of the poems are from my Test Site prize-winning manuscript The Long Now Conditions Permit (forthcoming University of Nevada Press, 2025). The fifth poem, “Whole Catastrophe,” is from my September-published chapbook The Whole Catastrophe (#38, Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024). This Interim issue is an example and celebration of how individual poems lead to and become books.

Discovering individual poems and poems that make up a manuscript is the purview of editors of literary magazines and presses. In Interim‘s case, that is poet and editor Claudia Keelan. Poem by poem and book to book, Claudia has changed my life as a poet. She has published indivual poems from my first and second full-length collections and my fourth chapbook in Interim. She endorsed my first full-length collection, The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020):

“The poems in Jami Macarty’s devotional collection swing upon a hinge that is the recurring site of the poet’s perception in time, where what is seen shows the inherent connection of each thing to its other: ‘honey given : honey taken.’ The Minuses‘ brilliance lives in what the poet is able to give up for the possibility of finding a wholeness that is ongoing: ‘I come and go / from myself as I am / I will not return.’ A seer is, after all, one who sees. Jami Macarty is one who sees.” -Claudia Keelan

It takes a seer to know a seer. Claudia Keelan is also a seer. Under her penname, Lucy Aul, she wrote a review of The Minuses that made birds take flight in my heart. Her words blew me off my perch. I tell you true; I fell off the couch when I was reading her review of my book. And Claudia was part of the editorial team that selected my second full-length collection The Long Now Conditions Permit (forthcoming University of Nevada Press, 2025) as winner of the Test Site Poetry Series Award.

I do not know Claudia but in her I find a dream-come-true ally to my poems; Claudia understands and reads for the devotional spirit of my poems. Her readership is a poetry-expanding and heart-expanding gift.

Gentle Reader, your readership is also a gift! I cordially invite you to read my poems in Interim – A Journal of Poetry and Poetics. To whet your reader’s appetite, I offer “Harbinger” (above). Read my poems and be introduced to The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024) and The Long Now Conditions Permit (forthcoming University of Nevada Press, 2025). While you are visiting Interim Issue 41.1, visit my colleagues, the other poets whose individual poems join mine. May your reading kindle inspiration for your pages. Happy Reading!

: :

The Pluses!

+ Thank you bows to my community of women/women-identified writers for their generous, loving support, inspiration, and encouragement.

+ Thank you bows to Vallum Chapbook Series and Eleni Zisimatos, Editor, and Leigh Kotsilidis, Designer, for making my chapbook The Whole Catastrophe (2024) with me.

+ I bow to the editors who support my reviews and the publications where they were published: Denise Hill at NewPages; Stephanie G’Schwind at Colorado Review, and Jay Ruzesky at The Malahat Review.

+ I bow to Claudia Keelan and Andrew Nicholson, series editors, and the series board Sherwin Bitsui, Donald Revell, Sasha Steensen, and Ronaldo Wilson of Interim’s Test Site Poetry Series, who selected The Long Now Conditions Permit (forthcoming University of Nevada Press).

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Beth Svinarich et al staff at University Press of Colorado for their beautiful support to me and The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to monsoon storm chaser and marvelous professional photographer, Liz Kemp, whose monsoon photograph storms the cover of The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows to Nomados Literary Publishers, Meredith and Peter Quartermain for making my chapbook Instinctive Acts (2018)with me.

+ Thank you bows to Vallum Chapbook Series and editors Leigh Kotsilidis and Eleni Zisimatos for making my chapbook Mind of Spring (2017) with me.

+ Thank you bows to Finishing Line Press and editors Leah Maines and Christen Kinkaid for making my chapbook Landscape of The Wait (2017) with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Vincent K. Wong for his friendship, creative collaboration, and for taking my author photos.

+ This bears repeating: Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention! If you have any questions or comments, write me! I would love to hear from you!

! BOOKS !

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Jami Macarty

Dear Gentle Reader,

Hello! It has been a while. Where have I been? Paddling on the river of words, of course!

How about you? How do your words flow? And, what words flow to you through books you are reading? I’m curious.

One idea I have for flowing your words: Join August’s Write, Write, Write, the five-day generative writing course I offer in person at Simon Fraser University. Writers in the course meet for 2.5 hours Monday-Friday to experiment with language, engage in word-play, and pursue their stories, poems, and memoirs, while dissolving writing blocks and befriending the sometimes cranky inner critic. Is one of the remaining seats available, yours? I would love to write with you!

Invitation: Join me in Write, Write, Write this August.

Publication news to share

Haiku Hike 2024 | Serenity

2024 marked Tucson’s Fifth Annual Haiku Hike Literary Competition. The 2024 theme: Serenity. Haiku entries were judged by Tucson’s Poet Laureate, TC Tolbert. The Stats: 2,069 haiku were submitted; 1,385 submissions came from Tucson; 29 different states were represented in the submissions; 27 different countries were represented in the submissions.

I entered three haiku in the competition. And, one of my haiku won! Tralala! Of the 2,069 haiku that were submitted, there were 20 winners. Each of the winning poems was embossed on clear plaques which were then planted in big pots of flowers that line one of Downtown Tucson’s major corridors for all pedestrians to read (See map below).

A wee story: The day I took myself on the Haiku Hike to see and read each of the 20 haiku when I arrived at my haiku there was a lovely person there already visiting with my poem and I overheard her say, “Oh, I like this one.” Is there sweeter music to a poet’s ears?

Preview each winning haiku in the 2024 Haiku Hike Literary Competition with accompanying images taken for the Downtown Tucson Partnership (DTP) by JJ Snyder Photography.

Invitation: Then, after you take in the 20 haiku, write some of our own.

Cascadia Zen

To celebrate the publication of Volume one of Cascadian Zen: Bioregional Writings on Cascadia Here & Now, anthology co-editors Paul E. Nelson, Tetsuzen Jason Wirth, and Adelia MacWilliam came to Vancouver and convened with contributors Kate Braid, Daphne Marlatt, and me (Jami Macarty) at People’s Co-op Bookstore for a lovely and loving community-based celebration of Cascadia. Image L to R: Kate, Paul, Adelia, Jason, Daphne, and Jami.

Invitation: Listen to the reading’s audio.

A Journal of the Plague Years

Some of you know that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote the essays “Endangered Species” and “Protest, Police, Pandemic & Palimpsest—Tucson, Arizona” accompanied by poems for The Journal of the Plague Years, Susan Zakin, Founder and Editor.

Then, for a while, I served as the Poetry Editor for the journal. In that capacity, I had the chance to acquire a group of terrific poems written by poets I respect. Four of those poets—Lauren Camp, Maxine Chernoff, Paul Nelson, and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer—and their poems join my essay, “Endangered Species” in the journal’s anthology A Journal of the Plague Year (Blue Books, 2024), which Dean Kuipers at Red Canary Magazine called “A fascinating and cathartic read about an experience that is not over, but keeps getting weirder and more dangerous.”

It is gratifying for me to see my efforts as a writer and poetry editor come together in one volume.

Invitation: Read my and the poets’s poems.

“Comfort Food,” by Lauren Camp
“Zonal,” by Maxine Chernoff
“Endangered Species,” by Jami Macarty
A COVID-19 Sonnet: “Sonetos De Cascadia 16-March-2020,” by Paul Nelson
“Still Swimming,” Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Orbis International Literary Journal, #208-Summer ’24

A poem I started writing in January 2020, “The Giant Redwood Addresses Subhradeep Dutta” was given space in Orbis #208. This is my writing’s second appearance in Orbis, and I am grateful to Carole Baldock, Editor for her kind attention to my poems. All in good time, my prettys!

Reading & Writing Practices

I have been keeping up with writing a poem ish thingy each day. As for my reading practice, I am not reading as many books as I sometimes do, but what I am reading feels just right. Since I last wrote you, one long-form and seven short-form reviews have joined the words of the world. You can find all of the reviews I have offered, among other things on this site’s Poet page.

Invitation: You are cordially invited to peruse!

Forthcoming! Forthcoming!

Soon, Interim – A Journal of Poetry and Poetics (Since 1944!) will be publishing their “Finalist Issue,” featuring the semifinalists, finalists, and winners for the Test Site Poetry Series prize. That issue will feature some poems from my Test Site prize-winning manuscript The Long Now Conditions Permit (forthcoming University of Nevada Press) and a poem from my forthcoming chapbook The Whole Catastrophe (#38, Vallum Chapbook Series, summer 2024). I am right now in the process of proofreading the galley for the chapbook, so stay tuned for more about that process and and my fourth chapbook’s publication…

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The Pluses!

+ Thank you bows to my community of women/women-identified writers for their generous, loving support, inspiration, and encouragement.

+ I bow to hardworking editors, publishers, readers, and printers at literary magazines and anthologies who publish individual poems and who have supported my writing, especially TC Tolbert at Haiku Literary Competition; Paul Nelson at Cascadia Zen; Susan Zakin at A Journal of the Plague Years, and Carole Baldock at Orbis International Literary Journal.

+ Thank you bows to Vallum Chapbook Series and editors Leigh Kotsilidis and Eleni Zisimatos for making my chapbook The Whole Catastrophe with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Beth Svinarich et al staff at University Press of Colorado for their beautiful support to me and The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to monsoon storm chaser and marvelous professional photographer, Liz Kemp, whose monsoon photograph storms the cover of The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows to Nomados Literary Publishers, Meredith and Peter Quartermain for making my chapbook Instinctive Acts with me.

+ Thank you bows to Vallum Chapbook Series and editors Leigh Kotsilidis and Eleni Zisimatos for making my chapbook Mind of Spring with me.

+ Thank you bows to Finishing Line Press and editors Leah Maines and Christen Kinkaid for making my chapbook Landscape of The Wait with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Vincent K. Wong for his friendship, creative collaboration, and for taking my author photos.

+ This bears repeating: Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention! If you have any questions or comments, write me! I would love to hear from you!

! BOOKS !

Posted on December 22, 2023December 22, 2023 by Jami Macarty

Dear Gentle Reader,

Welcome, may you be well, and in these sorrowful days of wars across and the warming of our planet, may you be doing all that you can to care for yourself, your family, and your community.

As Earth’s poles reach maximum tilt away from the Sun, I want to share with you the light I have been basking in this year. The light I refer to is the sparkle and warmth from the connections my writing made with editors, publishers, and readers. It is truly something wild and special for me to contemplate how my dreams of writing manifested from my imagination to words on pages the eyes of readers held. Fireworks blossom in my heart! These connections are ways I am keeping my faith and hope for the future. A future where the destructive impulse is if not eclipsed then matched by the creative impulse.

During this time when open, honest communication seems ever so fragile, easily breaking down, words seeming to fail us, join me and let us celebrate our connection to words, to the expression and connection language makes possible between us. In this dispatch from my writing desk, like others I offered this year on January 27, 2023, April 23, 2023, and June 30, 2023, I focus on making and reading books. The full-length collections and chapbooks of poems I am making, the books other writers have made that I read, and the books I reviewed.

Books, so full of wonder and the possibility of discovery. Books, such portable art objects. O, what they hold! They hold individual poems, reaching out their hands to readers. The book’s provocative cover art illustrates and associates the writing within. Here are the covers of the anthology and literary magazines where my writing found homes in 2023!

Poems from my first and second books, The Minuses and The Long Now Conditions Permit, respectively, along with a poem from a forthcoming chapbook, have been published since my last post. Allow me to share the details of those sparkling occasions with you here.

In October, Vallum 20.2, an all-online issue with the theme “Endings and Beginnings,” featured my poem “Late afternoon autumn, a trembled alternative.” If I am counting accurately, this is the eighth poem of mine since 2015 that Vallum‘s editorial team has selected for publication. Hurrah time eight! For your ears and eyes: Read or listen to me read “Who the Strummer” from 16.1, “Lustrous Fugitive” from 18.1, and “Is Occurring” from 19.1. The Vallum team also selected my chapbook Mind of Spring (no. 22: out of print, but available digitally) as the winner of the 2017 Vallum Chapbook Award. Vallum‘s ongoing support is not about numbers; it is about what those numbers suggest: Vallum‘s ongoing confidence and belief in my writing. That is a gift precious to me. A gift for you: You can read (download, too!) the entire 20.2 issue, chock full of beautiful, lyric, elegiac poems, including excerpts from Vallum‘s latest chapbooks—Wellwater (no. 37), by Karen Solie and Lifecycle of a Mayfly (no. 36), by Maya Clubine—on Vallum‘s website. I am ever grateful to Eleni Zisimatos, Poetry Editor, and T. Liem, Managing Editor for their kind attention and for the Vallum team’s ongoing support of my writing.

Also, in the tenth month, “Equals Rains,” a poem from my first full-length collection The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), came to print in Volume One of Cascadia Zen: Bioregional Writing on Cascadia Here and Now (Watershed Press, 2023). In this anthology, my poem is in conversation with the writing of Vancouver’s Daphne Marlatt, Meredith Quartermain, and Fred Wah, and writers from California, Washington, and Writer’s Heaven, respectively, such as Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Tess Gallagher, Joanne Kyger (1934-2017), and Denise Levertov (1923-1997), among others. Writers I love! Writers I am thrilled to share space with. My many thanks to editors Tetsuzen Jason Wirth, Paul E. Nelson, Adelia MacWilliam, and Theresa Whitehill for including my writing in this beautiful book!

In November, Colorado Review 50.3 | Fall/Winter issue featured “From Hill’s Slant,” another poem from my second full-length collection, The Long Now Conditions Permit. This is a special accomplishment because I have wanted to be published by Colorado Review for a long time. I persisted and kept sending them poem batches. I love the feeling of my persistence meeting their “yes.” Gleefully, “From Hill’s Slant” rubs shoulders with the writing of Cole Swensen, John Gallaher, and Brandon Krieg, among other writers I admire. I am grateful to Matthew Cooperman, Editor, and Lauren Furman, Managing Editor for their time and care with my poem.

And, in this twelfth month, Laurel Review 56.1 features my poem “For L,” an elegy for my friend and poet, the late Lusia Slomkowska (1954-2014). I have in mind that this poem will gather together in a chapbook with some other elegies I have written. By sweet confluence, “For L” shares space in this issue of Laurel Review with a poem by Matthew Cooperman, Poetry Editor of Colorado Review (above), where my poem shares space with John Gallaher, Poetry Editor of Laurel Review. Hurrah, these connections, these stitched-together shapes and patterns in the great quilt or poetry! Hurrah the good company of these readers, writers, and editors in my Writing Practice!

Now, to share a bit about this year’s Reading Practice. Since 2018, I have been conducting a year-long reading extravaganza with a simple goal: To see how many books I can read. I wrote about the discoveries from previous years of #mypersonalBigRead in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. This project is a sort of numbers game, though I do not read just to rack them up. I maintain my integrity while reading books I have always wanted to read, books I have been coveting from my once extra-to-the-bookshelves, towering, and now mostly shelved stacks, books recommended to me, books I am invited to consider for review, classic and hot-off-the-presses books, books that appear as if by mysticism in the field of my attention.

This year marks the sixth year I have challenged myself in #mypersonalBigRead. Each year has had a different personality—from 2018’s beginning excitement to 2020’s trouble concentrating to 2022’s grounded breadth. 2023 has been the most personal, intimate reading year. I have read more of what I most wanted to read, more slowly, savoring, and I have read everything I could get my eyes on by the poets Jane Hirshfield, Joanne Kyger (1934-2017), Sharon Olds, Sylvia Plath (1932-1963), and C.D. Wright (1949-2016). That deep reading and study expanded my thinking about language’s possibilities and bolstered my writing of poems and reviews.

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While some years I reached a tally of over three hundred titles, so far this year I am at two hundred twenty. Of those books, I have reviewed one chapbook (for Amazon), one mixed-genre book, and twenty poetry collections. The reviews of the poetry and mixed-genre books found homes in Canthius, The Malahat Review, The Miramichi Reader, NewPages, and Vallum.

How do you decide which books you will read? Might a review pique your interest? Consider yourself most cordially invited to read my reviews as a way to consider whether or not you would like to add any of those books to your reading list. The links to those reviews can be found on the Poet page (scroll a bit) on this (my) site.

If dear Reader, you have read to this next word: “amazing,” then thank you! I am thrilled by and grateful for your attention. And, I hope what you have read inspires you in your writing, publishing, and reading endeavors.

Read! Write! Persist in and with words!

: :

The Pluses!

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention! Welcome, those new here. May you find inspiration!

+ Thank you bows to my community of women/women-identified writers for their generous, loving support, inspiration, and encouragement.

+ I bow to the editors and existence of the anthologies and literary magazines Cascadia Zen, Vallum, Colorado Review, Laurel Review, Puerto del Sol, The Ocean State Review, where I gratefully find support and community.

+ I bow to the editors who support my reviews and the publications where they were published: Denise Hill at NewPages; Manahil Bandukwala at Canthius; James M. Fisher at The Miramachi Reader, and Jay Ruzesky at The Malahat Review.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Beth Svinarich et al staff at University Press of Colorado for their beautiful support to me and The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to monsoon storm chaser and marvelous professional photographer, Liz Kemp, whose monsoon photograph storms the cover of The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows to Nomados Literary Publishers, Meredith and Peter Quartermain for making my chapbook Instinctive Acts with me.

+ Thank you bows to Vallum Chapbook Series and editors Leigh Kotsilidis and Eleni Zisimatos for making my chapbook Mind of Spring with me.

+ Thank you bows to Finishing Line Press and editors Leah Maines and Christen Kinkaid for making my chapbook Landscape of The Wait with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Vincent K. Wong for his friendship, creative collaboration, and for taking my author photos.

+ This bears repeating: Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention! If you have any questions or comments, write me! I would love to hear from you!

! BOOKS !

Posted on July 1, 2023December 21, 2023 by Jami Macarty

Dear Reader, Hello! May your summer days be just the sort of days of your dreams.

I am luxuriating daily in long river walks, deep writing sits, and comfy-chair reading spells—three necessities to sustain my writing practice. Sharing candid conversations, getting good rest, and eating nutritious food contribute, too!

As the months of 2023 roll on, reviews and poems get written and revised, then go out, offering themselves to editors. Some get returned, and when a writer is lucky, some get accepted for publication. Then, there’s the lovely anticipation of soon seeing the writing in print.

*The* *Ocean State Review,* Vol. 12 No. 1, front & back covers; cover art by Igor Moritz

June marked the publication of “Asterisk to What Branches in the Perfect Including” in The Ocean State Review. This poem was written in March and April 2020, the early days and weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, it has been tinkered with, tweaked, torqued and such since then, and up until the day in September 2022 I sent it to The Ocean State Review for consideration. Perhaps one of the things the poem is attempting is a real-time record to understand the great strangeness of everyone at home and nothing public open.

“These odd, slow, own hours”
-from “Asterisk in the Perfect Including,” by Jami Macarty

“Asterisk in the Perfect Including” is a long poem, spanning five pages. Long poems can be tricky to place in literary magazines. So, I am extra thrilled Charles Kell, Editor gave the poem space in The Ocean State Review Volume 12, No. 1. Plus, scroll the back cover (above) for the writers whose company I am lucky to be keeping—Devon Balwit, Rick Barot, Lindsay Turner, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Joseph Lease, Jesse Lee Kercheval, et al!

*The* *Ocean State Review,* Vol. 12 No. 1, magazine’s front cover & poem’s first page

To whet your reading appetite, above is the poem’s first page. To read the rest of my poem and the writing of the other marvelous writers, order your very own copy of The Ocean State Review. In doing so, you would be supporting me, the other writers—one or two who may change your life—as well as the life of a vibrant literary magazine—all that for $12! Seriously, we would be ever grateful for your readership and support. If you purchase a copy, let me know and I will send you a treat.

What’s next for this poem? Stay tuned here! The Ocean State Review plans to feature the poem along with an interview with me on their website sometime in the future. So, hurrah this poem! I am grateful to Charles Kell, Editor for his attention to my writing.

Other what’s nexts for the poem. At the moment, I am of the mind that it, along with two other long poems, will reside in a fourth chapbook I have planned. But, who knows? The poem may have other ideas about where it will live. You know how poems can be!

When I know more, I will be sure to share the information here. In the meantime, I will be writing new poems and reviews to share with you. And, later in the month I will be attending Napa Valley Writers’ Conference to bask in the company of writers, take classes with Ilya Kaminsky, and admire the straight rows of grapes.

Until soon, take best care. Read! Write! Persist!

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The Pluses!

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention!

+ Thank you bows to my community of women/women-identified writers for their generous, loving support, inspiration, and encouragement.

+ Thank you bows to Charles Kell, Editor et al at The Ocean State Review for their support of and confidence in my poem.

+ I bow to the existence of The Ocean State Review, where I find community.

+ I bow to the editors who support my reviews and the publications where they were published: Denise Hill at NewPages; Manahil Bandukwala at Canthius; James M. Fisher at The Miramachi Reader.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to my publisher Stephanie G’Schwind, and Mountain West Poetry Series editors Donald Revell and Kazim Ali, et al interns at the Center for Literary Publishing (CLP) for making The Minuses (2020) with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Beth Svinarich et al at University Press of Colorado for their beautiful support to me and The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to monsoon storm chaser and marvelous professional photographer, Liz Kemp whose monsoon photograph storms the cover of The Minuses.

+ Thank you bows to Nomados Literary Publishers, Meredith and Peter Quartermain for making my chapbook Instinctive Acts with me.

+ Thank you bows to Vallum Chapbook Series and editors Leigh Kotsilidis and Eleni Zisimatos for making my chapbook Mind of Spring with me.

+ Thank you bows to Finishing Line Press and editors Leah Maines and Christen Kinkaid for making my chapbook Landscape of The Wait with me.

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to Vincent K. Wong for his friendship, creative collaboration, and for taking my author photos.

+ This bears repeating: Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention! If you have any questions or comments, write me! I would love to hear from you!

! BOOKS !

Posted on April 17, 2023April 18, 2023 by Jami Macarty

Happy Poetry Month!

One of the gifts of this month is the image of my book covers above bestowed on me by a constant supporter of my word-work; thank you, JRW! I love seeing the covers accumulating and conversing.

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Dear Reader, I am popping in to share with you publishing news and poetry reviews.

Three poems from The Long Now Conditions Permit, my second manuscript of poetry seeking a beloved publisher, are included in the Spring 2023 Puerto del Sol.

Whoo hoo!

Amplifying the publication of these three poems: I am now included in the community of the long-running literary magazine Puerto del Sol, who “seek work that presents authenticity, sincerity, and respect,” and I have the good company of poets Cedar Sigo, Jess Turner, John Gallaher, Maureen Thorson, and Vi Khi Nao et al in this issue. Hurrah!

Above, a collage that offers you excerpts of my poems “Watching Fall Which Leaf,” “Winter’s Change of Self,” and “Following What Searches.” It is my poetry hope that you will support Puerto del Sol, their staff, and the writers they publish by ordering the issue. Happy reading!

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While I am here, I want to let you know that I have been continuing my reviewing practice. Three reviews of poetry collections are forthcoming this month. In The Miramichi Reader my review of Entre Rive and Shore (icehouse poetry, 2023), by Dominique Bernier-Cormier; in NewPages my review of Disbound (University of Iowa Press, 2022), by Hajar Hussaini; in Canthius my review of Trinity Street (Anansi Books, 2023), by Jen Currin. Look for them! You know, just in case you are looking for more poetry to read… Plus, I would love to know what you think of the books and my reviews of them. Happy Reading!

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The Pluses!

+ Thank you bows (continuous!) to you, dear reader, for the gift of your attention!

+ Thank you bows to my community of women/women-identified writers for their generous, loving support, inspiration, and encouragement.

+ Thank you bows to Richard Greenfield, Editor-in-Chief, Shane Inman, Managing Editor, and Anthony Gabriel, Poetry Editor, et al at Puerto del Sol for their support of and confidence in my poems.

+ I bow to the existence of Puerto del Sol, where I find community.