My Updated DNA Results

AncestryDNA just updated my results with more specifics.

Interestingly, however, a different DNA company, 23andMe, gave me slightly different results in 2021:

November 5th at the Center for Inquiry Libraries in Amherst, New York

Buffalo friends, I look forward to returning to your area on 5 November 2025 to read with Susan Nusbaum for the Literary Café at CFI (Center for Inquiry) in Amherst, New York. My final in-person reading of 2025!

Many thanks to Ryki Zuckerman for the invitation!

Center for Inquiry Libraries
1310 Sweet Home Road
Amherst, New York 14228

My poem appears in Stormwash: Environmental Poems, Volume 2 (released this week!)

Good to receive my contributor's copy of Stormwash: Environmental Poems, Volume 2 (Seaker Press). My poem "Potential Energy" appears in it. Thank you to editor Hiromi Yoshida for doing this important work. The book release happens this Thursday, October 9th, at Backspace Gallery in Bloomington, Indiana.

Info: Stormwash: Environmental Poems Showcase

Contributors also include Susan Kay Anderson, J.I.B., Jonathan S. Baker, Tony Brewer, Mary M. Brown, Chris Dean, John Epic, Jessica Reed, April Ridge, Kerry Trautman, Nick Wentzel, and many more.

September 25-27 in Frostburg: Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival

I'm thrilled to be taking part in the 19th annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival, presented by the Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts this weekend in downtown Frostburg.

Thursday 9/25: Savage Mountain Punk Arts' Fall Poetry Slam featuring Lori Jakiela (7 p.m. at Clatter).

Friday 9/26: Indie Lit Kickoff Reading featuring Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh (7 p.m. at Main Street Books), followed by a punk show by the Downstrokes with Controlled Chaos (8 p.m. at The Deep End).

Saturday 9/27: Indie Lit Bookfair Panels and Workshops (11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at City Place, Mountain City Traditional Arts and the Frostburg Public Library). I'll be representing Crisis Chronicles Press in the bookfair all day as well as reading at 1 p.m. at City Place (more details below). And finally, there will be an Indie Lit Open Mic hosted by Chuck Joy (6 p.m. at Clatter). 

October 6th in Fairview, PA: Screening of the Spoon River Anthology Film I Appear In

On Sunday, 19 January 2020, I was part of a diverse cast performing a staged reading of Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, Selected Poems, presented by Erie County (Pennsylvania) Poet Laureate Chuck Joy at the Erie County Public Library. My part was "Theodore the Poet."

Fast forward to now and at long last, on 6 October 2025 at 6 p.m., CAM-Erie will present a screening of the film from that event at the Lincoln Community Center Library, 1255 Manchester Road, in Fairview, Pennsylvania. 

For more info, visit facebook.com/events/1068924485091970.

Crisis Chronicles Press This Fall

We may not have published a new title in two years, but we've remained busy behind the scenes with a couple of highly anticipated and long-awaited projects still in the works (more on those later). But Crisis Chronicles Press is delighted to be coming out of the closet, literally, to take part in three wonderful book fairs this fall and we'd love to see you at all of them.

September 19-20: The Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA) Annual Conference at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Wheeling, West Virginia.

September 27: The annual Western Maryland Independent Literature Festival, hosted by the Frostburg State University Center for Literary Arts at City Place and other venues in Frostburg, Maryland. (I'll be reading there at 1 p.m. as well.)

October 17-19: The annual Fall Literary Festival hosted by Lit Youngstown in Youngstown, Ohio.

September 10 in Erie, PA: Chuck Joy presents John Burroughs at Werner Books

Looking forward to returning to Erie, Pennsylvania, this Wednesday at 6 p.m. to be the featured poet for Chuck Joy's new series at Werner Books & Coffee (3608 Liberty Street).

My "Allen Ginsberg Wants You" appears in Cum Punk

Happy that my poem "Allen Ginsberg Wants You" (which I began writing in 1997 and finished, first published in 2008) is finding a new audience. Fair warning: this publication, as you might have guessed from its title, is "not safe for work" and not to everyone's taste, but I'm grateful to Kum V. for including my work alongside that of such luminaries as Jennifer Browne, Dylan Krieger, and Gina Tron. Dig into it at cumpunk.me.

Word on the streets is that a launch reading will be scheduled soon. Stay tuned.

My "Prayer" featured by Poets Against Racism and Hate USA

"Prayer," a short poem I wrote on the back of a Catherine Joslyn art postcard during the April “Fighting Firehose with Fire” workshop presented by Pauletta Hansel and Tabassam Shah (and sponsored by Poets Against Racism & Hate USA) appears here: https://poetsagainstracism-usa.org/featured-poem.

Poems by Jennifer Browne, Pauletta Hansel, Pam Campbell, Donna Wojnar Dzurilla, Janet E. Irvin, and Dory Macguire are also featured.

August 29-31: National Beat Poetry Festival in Connecticut

I very much look forward to being part of this year's National Beat Poetry Festival featuring fine poets from across the country and around the world. Labor Day weekend in Connecticut. Hope to see you there!

Friday evening's event will be held at 7 p.m. at the Canton Town Hall Auditorium, 4 Market Street, Collinsville, CT. 

Saturday's and Sunday's events will be held at 22 River Road, Barkhamsted, CT.