#functionally literate

[themadscene]

"I'm just gonna be decadent and sexy and black." Here's video of my reading for Functionally Literate.

[themadscene]

I Didn’t Look Away: an Interview with Derrick Austin

Erica Dawson and Derrick Austin discuss race, religion, Florida, and Austin’s debut poetry collection, Trouble the Water.

“There are folks out here writing about their families, friends, or loved ones, which is difficult work. There are folks who have been abused trying to write into that trauma. There are people in other counties who die for what they write. There are folks fighting and writing to survive. My life has been extraordinarily privileged and blessed despite living in a country as virulently racist and homophobic as this one. It would be disrespectful to be nothing less than truthful in my work. Why else be a poet? I want to write poems that endure, that say I survived, I thrived, and I didn’t look away.”

[burrowpress-blog]

Ilyse Kusnetz reads from her T.S. Eilot Prize-winning collection, Small Hours, at Functionally Literate in Orlando.

[iheartfailure]

Charging Around With A Juggernaut Brow

Charging Around With A Juggernaut Brow

The book release at The Geek Easy for The Bones of Uswas a blast. The readers were fantastic and the audience was pretty receptive to the “upbeat” set list I put together. The highlight of my evening was bantering with my mom during my reading, which turned out to be way more fun than I thought would ever be possible. I read the next night in Maitland in a festival setting and about halfway…

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[jaredsilvia]

Here you can read my interview with David James Poissant, part of theORLANDOAN's lead up to the March 29th, 2014 Functionally Literate event. Also check out DJP's new book, The Heaven of Animals, out now from Simon & Schuster.