This Semester Has Been Amazing

Hola All,

I hope spring is treating you well. I wanted to take a moment to update you on the impressive accomplishments of my super-talented students here at Salisbury. I'm already sad to see some of them go and am bracing my self for the 15-16 graduating class' leaving, but I am buoyed by how well I know they will do going forward. I can't wait to follow their budding careers. Here is some of what they have done this semester:

Kathryn Merwin won Mississippi State University's Jabberwock Review's 2015 Nancy D. Hargrove Editors' Prize for Poetry for her poem "Intracoastal, 1995." The magazine also accepted her poem, "Heirloom Centenary." Kathryn's poem, "A Forwarding Address," is forthcoming in burntdistrict and her poems "The Estuary Psalm" & "Benning Ridge Road" are forthcoming in Wayne Literary Review.

Caroline Chavatel's poem "Cryogenics" will appear in the next issue of Crab Creek Review and her poems, "Notes," "Passage," & "To Build a Home on These Stilts," are forthcoming in North Central Review.

Melinda Ruth has been named a new journal reviewer for New Pages! She also has her poem, "Through the Viewmaster," forthcoming in Runestone, her poem, "Regrowth," forthcoming in Red Earth Review and her poems, "Etymology," "This Is How I Write You," & "Step 5," are forthcoming in Broadkill Review.

Erin Traylor's poem "Love Story" appears in the newest issue of Permafrost and her poem, "Jamie Christine in the Tack Room," is forthcoming in Red Earth Review.

Kyle Shaw's story, "Inosculation," is forthcoming in Catfish Creek and his story, "Without a Number," is forthcoming in Sun and Sandstone Review.

Shelby Vane will begin attending Chatham University's MFA program in the fall! Her poem, "Contemporary Omens," is forthcoming in Pif Magazine.

Alex Thomas' poem, "Anatomy of a Hook-Up," will appear in Words Dance, and his poem, "Equinox, Solstice, Equinox" is forthcoming in Green Blotter.

Kristen Beck's poems, "Helo Dunker," "Comforter," and "Incumbent," are forthcoming in Red Earth Review.

Charlotte Covey's poem, "boundless grace," is forthcoming in Night Train.

Danielle Green's poem, "Amber," is forthcoming in Polaris.

I hope I didn't forget anyone. Grats to all the students in Salisbury's creative writing program. I am humbled by your energy, effort and professionalism. It is an honor to work with all of you. I'll have a new post later this summer with some exciting news about my own work. Now off to teach summer one! High fives all.

Some Cool Stuff That's Been Happening

Hi All,

So March has been a really cool month for me. It began with this awesome feature collaboration with artist Meghan Keane at Broadsided. I was also honored to be a part of the poetry and conversation series at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore with Steven Leyva and Rebekah Remington. You can listen to the reading and subsequent wide-ranging discussion here (the March 12th entry). I'm also excited to report that work from Curio will be featured on Delmarva Public Radio (our local NPR) March 27th at 9 am with the work of three of my students: fiction writer Maxi Garte, poet Emmanuel Flores and essayist Tyler Tennant. The show is hosted by the legendary Hal Wilson of Delmarva Review. I will also be posting student accomplishments by semester instead of by year from here on out. Salisbury students are doing amazing things nearly daily. So look for that post in mid May.

I also want to take a second to give a shout out to one of my former students, Jordan Durham. She has had an incredible run as of late with poems recently published or forthcoming in Phoebe, Superstition Review, Painted Bride Quarterly and Indiana Review. So proud! She is also doing an incredible job with Fugue where she is the editor in chief. Kudos, JD!

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for all the interest and support in my projects. Your emails and messages have meant so much. Well, back to work. Happy Spring everyone!

Props to My Amazing Salisbury Students

Hi all! Sorry it has been so long since I posted, but I have been crazy busy (in a good way). I am deep into working on my third full length project and have just started circulating some of those poems, so hopefully that goes well! Today I am really excited to extend congrats to my super-talented students here at Salisbury. Here is a list of their accomplishments this year:

Shelby Vane has eleven poems published or forthcoming in Polaris, The Quaker, Softblow, Summerset Review, Sun & Sandstone Review, Vermillion Literary Project and Word Dance. She also was accepted and received a scholarship for the prestigious Vermont Studio Center writing residency.

Lauren Yarnall's poem, "Spell for Reconstruction," is forthcoming in Harpur Palate and her poem, "L'appel du Vide," is forthcoming in Barely South Review.

Kristen Beck's poem, "Early-Onset Postpartum," appeared in the newest issue of Arcadia and her poem, "Strati," is forthcoming in Lullwater Review.

Emmanuel Flores' poem, "I Asked You to Paint a Portrait of Me, So You Asked Me to Write a Portrait of You," is forthcoming in Cider Press Review.

Melinda Ruth's poem, "Viewmaster: the Highlands," appeared in the newest issue of Summerset Review.

Erin Traylor's poems, "Hopping John," "Love Story," and "Sixteen," are due out in Germ Magazine soon.

Kathryn Merwin's poems, "Cohabitation," "The Lightness," and "Things You Didn't Realize," were recently published in Germ Magazine. Her poem, "Continuum," is forthcoming in Barely South Review and her poems, "Ein Sof" and "An Awakening Song" are forthcoming in Catfish Creek.

Caroline Chavatel's Poems, "Against Wind" & "Splintering," are forthcoming in Potomac Review.

Jessica Michaels' poem, "Just Let Me Break It Down," won second place in the 21st Annual Artists Embassy International's Dancing Poetry Contest.

I know more great things are to come. I am so lucky to be working with such a talented crew!!!

Upcoming Readings (with some seriously awesome folks)

I'm not gonna lie, I am really digging the snowy winter. I am also really digging reading season getting underway. Below I will detail three upcoming readings to support the release of Curio (you can get a copy here or here) and all the amazing people I am reading with. Please follow the links and check them out. Their work is breathtaking. I am truly lucky to be in their company.

On 18 February at 6pm, I will be doing my hometown book launch at Salisbury, Maryland's own Pemberton Coffeehouse! Books will be on sale for a discount off the cover price and I will be signing copies.

On 27 February in Seattle, Washington at the famous Crocodile back bar, I will be reading with six other amazing first book folks to support the charity First Book Seattle. This is an AWP off-site reading. Here is a rundown of the readers:

Katy Didden

Tarfia Faizullah

Benjamin Landry

Tomas Q. Morin

Jessica Piazza

Meghan Snyder-Camp

Also, on 16 April at 6pm, I will be reading in sunny Tampa at the University of South Florida in a National Poetry Month Event with the fabulous Alexis Orgera.

I look forward to seeing you there! Please hit the contact page and send me a message if you have any questions.

Curio Now Available!

Hi All! I am proud to announce that Curio is now available for order through Small Press Distribution. It is also available through Amazon. You can see a preview there now. It is a beautiful book. Elixir has done a fine job. I hope you will check it out and let me know what you think. Here is a preview of the cover with amazing artwork by Madeline von Foerster:

Here are the blurbs from the back of the book:

“Augury—the bones / can only reveal what is asked of them,” John A. Nieves writes in this stunning first book. Part scientist, part shaman, Nieves is unswervingly intelligent and deftly imaginative at knowing what to ask of the world. Human-scale, empathetic, and far-reaching, these poems engage the full range of the curiosity at the root of curio: the epistemological work of a mind turning/returning. From a father’s machine work to Schrodinger’s cat, archeology, bloodwork, and language, Nieves reminds us of the “magic/ in the artifact” and “in the making.”—Alexandra Teague, author of Mortal Geography

John A. Nieves’ Curio is a cabinet of strange relics. In his poems, the detritus of human life serves to prove that we matter, in both senses of that term: both that we are significant and that we leave ourselves in traces through the world. In these carefully wrought poems, rust and dust and sediment layer together to offer a historiography of artifacts, excavated against our inevitable vanishing. The machine floor is evidence that a father lived and worked, the scab confirms that a lover made some kind of mark. “I should leave / something as proof that I was here,” the poet writes in “Landing.” In Curio, the poem itself becomes that something.—Kimberly Johnson, author of Leviathan with a Hook

To enter the world of Curio, John A. Nieves’ compelling poetic debut, is to enter a world shaped by a curious and ravenous intellect, a world where “Morning/is the cold, rigid face of a coin, shining/in spite of all those dirty thumbs.” It’s a space of copious gathering—one that shares in the rich tradition of the Cabinet of Wonders where collections of memory, history, and language are pondered for their exquisite, revelatory nature, never losing their luster, but invoking, instead renewable facets of awe and inspiration.—Jane Satterfield, contest judge, author of Her Familiars

I am also happy to announce that you can hear me read three of my poems on Superstition Review's iTunes channel. I also want to take a second to thank everyone who made my first full semester at Salisbury amazing. You all rock. Have a happy new year all & thanks for your support.