Dear Gift Reader,
Wowee, we are two months into 2026! I hope you are healthy and in pursuit of what makes you happy. I am happy to welcome you to this conversation about reading and making books.
I have been thinking about why I write these dispatches, asking myself what matters and motivates. The answer is twofold. I write these dispatches to contextualize for myself and to share with you what is unfolding in my life as a reader and writer. I intend the dispatches to be both a record of what I am reading and writing and a welcome to my writing and reading world—and if we are both lucky, these dispatches will inspire your reading and writing. That is my highest hope!
Without further ado, in this ! Books ! dispatch, I will share the results of my 8th annual personal BigRead (#mypersonalBigRead2025) and I will share some words and photos from the events where I am introducing The Long Now Conditions Permit.
The Results of my 8th Annual Personal BigRead
I started my personal BigRead project in 2018 with a simple inquiry: to see what reading I could accomplish annually. The motivating nudge came from the towers of unread books surrounding my desk. Over the past eight years, I have read no fewer than 208 volumes each year. That is over 2000 books! In fact, because I am counting, it is 2,208 books! I have learned so much about myself, about our shared world, and because the majority of what I read is poetry, about what words and images poets are up to. I love how reading connects me to the imaginations of other writers and readers. Such abundances!
A beautiful outgrowth of my personal BigRead project has been the development of a reviewing practice. It is one thing to read for pleasure and inspiration, and another thing altogether to read as a process of thinking about a book for review. In 2025, I wrote and placed 48 reviews. 45 were published last year and three are forthcoming this year. To access the links to my reviews, toggle over to the Poet page on this site and scroll down a touch to find the list of reviews published in the previous years.
I have a lot to say about the practices of reading and reviewing. I have said some of it in these posts—2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025—and I will save some for later.
Introducing The Long Now Conditions Permit to the world
Since my last post on December 2, 2025 (the official publication date for The Long Now Conditions Permit), where I told the story of how the book came into being, I have been busy introducing the book and its poems to the world. I think of the event flyers above like postcards from the book’s travels.
I snuck in the first public reading from The Long Now Conditions Permit on December 20, 2025 for Tucson Arts Poetry Society. I and other Tucson poets—like Estella Gonzalez, Pamela Uschuk, & William Pitt Root seated behind me above—gathered to celebrate poetry and community then eat delicious Buñuelos (Mexican doughnuts). Merry fun!
Also in December 2025 The Writer’s Chronicle and NewPages generously helped me introduce The Long Now Conditions Permit to their readerships and communities. The December issue of The Writer’s Chronicle featured a Sneak Peek of the poems in The Long Now Conditions Permit. Later in the month, NewPages talked up my book in their New Books column. Grateful cheers for The Writer’s Chronicle! Grateful cheers for NewPages!
On January 10, 2026 I jetted to Portland, Oregon for my first reading of the year. At Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, I launched The Long Now Conditions Permit with poets Ching-In Chen (in black) and Jennifer Hasegawa (in red blouse), who were also launching their new poetry books. We joined together in the warm and friendly space full of patterned carpets, chic chandeliers, and old books. EJ Haley (in brown), our emcee, set the stage for a lively, lovely, and intimate reading. The audience was full of deep listeners. And I made new poet friends!
Later in January, The Long Now Conditions Permit and I traveled to the City of Angels. There, hosted by Beyond Baroque and Jimmy Vega (above left), executive director, I offered a generative writing workshop for eight dear souls and a poetry reading with marvelous poets Crystal Salas (above middle), Margarita Pintado Borgos (above right), and Karen Kevorkian (above lower left).
Alex Pretti had been killed earlier that day, and we were still reeling from Renee Good’s killing on January 7. It is absurd to read poetry in such times as these where US citizens are being executed in a US city, and it is also necessary to read poetry in such a time. So, we four women poets fired up our voices and sought to lift up everyone listening.
The Beyond Baroque reading was livestreamed and recorded, so you can watch and listen to it just as if you were there. Listen to the Beyond Baroque reading!
Since the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Fire Horse galloped in, I have been in an expansive conversation with poet Diana Marie Delgado for Tucson Festival of Books Insights speaker series. The Insights series brings together writers of all genres to “share the inspiration, ideas, and craft that shape their books from first spark to publication, while exploring themes of identity, culture, and human experience. This series offers an engaging, behind-the-scenes look at the voices and creative journeys shaping contemporary literature today.” In a session titled “The Power of Verse,” Diana talked about the poems in her debut collection, Tracing the Horse, and I talked about the poems in The Long Now Conditions Permit. We had a deep conversation spanning the “architecture” of our poems and the power of poetry to illuminate “the world around us.”
February closes with a special event at the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography. On February 28, CCP will host Coffee House: Reading Remix in conjunction with their new exhibition Making a Life in Photography: Rollie McKenna.
I am especially looking forward to this event because it gives me the chance to talk about Anne Sexton (above right, photo by Rollie McKenna). I love Anne Sexton’s poetry; her writing is a very important source of strength for raising up my voice, especially about issues pertaining to women’s lives. At CCP’s Reading Remix, I will read excerpts from Sexton’s poetry, talk about her life, and then read my own writing influenced by her. What a dream!
I will be joined by fab Tucson poets T.C. Tolbert, Diana Marie Delgado, and Mari Herreras who will read excerpts from Jean Garrigue, John Ashbery, and Elizabeth Bishop, also photographed by Rollie McKenna (above left, self-portrait), alongside original work that reflects on these photographs, the poets themselves, and the writers’ own personal responses to McKenna’s photographs. This event is free and open to the public. If you are in Tucson, join us!
Now, Gratitude
+ 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 life here!
One more thing, gentle, generous readers. Thank you to those of you who have shared your reader’s responses after spending time with The Long Now Conditions Permit. I would love to receive your thoughts on the poems and/or what the poems made you think. Write me!
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Gratitude, continuous
+ Thank you bows to the village of writers, readers, editors, and publishers who support my books: The Long Now Conditions Permit (University of Nevada Press, 2025), The Whole Catastrophe (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2024), The Minuses (Center for Literary Publishing, 2020), Instinctive Acts (Nomados Literary Publishing, 2018-OOP), Mind of Spring (Vallum Chapbook Series, 2017), and Landscape of The Wait (Finishing Line Press, 2017).
Jami Macarty 