Recent Updates & Upcoming:

I have 4 EVENTS coming up in April!
New Publication: So pleased to have a prose piece in Dogwood Alchemy's most recent issue! Now online here.
Check out "Same" displayed in Winnipeg, Manitoba by Roostertown Poetry.
Review of Midlife Calculus in 2026 North Carolina Literary Review
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FORTHCOMING WORK in 'Zine Machine & Dogwood Alchemy
Two poems in Ink to Paper Vol. 10
"Where Two or Three are Gathered" in Northwest Indiana Review
Another 3rd Place from Poetry Society of Indiana--this time in the winter Ekphrastic contest-- for "A Small Greif, But It Is Mine"
Review of Midlife Calculus by Richard Allen Taylor in Main Street Rag
Nice little write-up in Anabaptist World 10/25
Moss Puppy & Hyperbolic Review collaboration! HERE
Collection of mathy poems and lesson plans for using them in a Math or Language Arts classroom in Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.
"Tattoo Parlor Before Launch" in the scifi poetry issue of Snakeskin.

Interested in having me read or talk at your school? I'm as comfortable in a high school setting as anyone can be. Likewise, I'd be happy to join your book club, reading series, author fair, or literary event. Just reach out.

UPDATE: In February, I learned that the Arkansas Writers MFA program at the University of Central Arkansas had named Midlife Calculus as the 2025 Phillip H. McMath Award for Poetry Winner!

In January 2026, I received the great news that Midlife Calculus had been recognized for two awards! I am so thankful to the judges at NAIWE and IPNE for thinking so highly of the collection. As always, I am grateful to Press 53 for publishing this quirky book of mathy poems.

I'm trying something new by using Substack to deliver writing-related news to your inbox: new publications, recent book reads & recommendations, reviews, upcoming readings, etc. So sign up if you're interested. You're likely to get fewer than one email in a month. It won't be spammy, I promise.

2025 Reading List

Current:

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland

Tender by Sofia Samatar

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera

Completed:

Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

The Complete Worm Farming Manual by Felix Raymond

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Never Let Me Go by Kasua Ishiguro

Heritage Lost by S.M. Wright

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

American Estrangement by Said Sayrafiezadeh

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer

Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

2025 Reading List

Because I Did Not Drown by Pat Riviere-Seel

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Salt by Helen Frost

The Garden by Nick Newman* (42)

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. *

Nombono: Speculative Poetry by PIPOC Poets edited by Akua Lezli Hope

After the Flood by Kassandra Montag*

Sweep of Stars by Maurice Broaddus

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders

Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis

The Poppy Fields by Nikki Erlick

Trying to Catch a Flame in this Windstorm at the End of the

World by Steve Henn

On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner

Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch *

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaicovsky (30)

The Bear by Andre Krivak

How to Steal a Galaxy by Beth Revis*

North Continent Ribbon by Ursula Whitcher

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis*

The Artists' Way by Julia Cameron

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

False Vaule by Ben Aaronovitch*

The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard*

The October Man by Ben Aaronovitch*

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch*

Counterweight by Djuna*

Crosstalk by Connie Willis*

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin*

The Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis*

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Moonbound by Robin Sloan

A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladsone*

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey*

Deep Sky by Yme Kitasei*

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie*

Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie*

The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean*

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch*

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch*

Math Therapy by Vanessa Vakharia

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch *

Scientific American's 2024 Recommended List

Midlife Calculus gets a mention! Check out the complete LIST.

image by Francesco Zorzi

2024 Reading List

Moon Over Soho* Ben Aaronovitch
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Once Upon a Prime by Sarah B. Hart
Tales from the Folly* by Ben Aaronovitch
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
Even as We Breathe by Annette Sanook-Clapsaddle (re-read)
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Hagitude by Sharon Blackie
Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age by Alec Wilkinson
Shae by Mesha Maren
Demise of Pangea by Claudine R. Moreau
Stop and Smell the Fractals by by Caroline Jennings
Rivers of London* by Ben Aaronovitch
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar
Akata Woman* by Nnedi Okorafor
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
Binti* & Binti: Home* by Nnedi Okorafor
Gideon the Ninth & Harrow the Ninth* by Tamsyn Muir
Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower* by Tamsyn Muir
The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Witch King by Martha Wells *
Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science by Jessy Randall
Building the Life You Want by Arthur C. Brooks & Oprah Winfrey
Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling *
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin

2023 Reading List:

Systems Collapse by Martha Wells
A House Between Earth and the Moon by Rebecca Scherm *
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
Playing Big by Tara Mohr
The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz*
Under this Forgetful Sky by Lauren Yero
The Last Astronaut by David Wellington*
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu *
Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys *
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Menopause Manifesto by Jen Gunter
Upgrade by Blake Crouch*
Goldilocks by L.R. Lam*
Hellbent by Leigh Bardugo
Winter World by A.G. Riddle*
The Last Watch by J.S. Dewes
How to Be Both by Ali Smith
Activation Degredation by Marina J. Lostetter
Black Sun & Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.