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July 22, 2008
Finally an update! There has been little to report, but I apologize
for the lack of updates. The summer continues to fly by. Not a lot
of events to report yet, but there will be some happenings starting in the fall.
Right now, I'm currently writing poems for the second manuscript. Progress
is slow and steady.
I also added some links to the Links section. I hope to upload my recent
appearance on The Poetry Show on the website, so anyone can listen to it.
Stay tuned.
Back in early June, I ran a poetry workshop for the Southern Colorado Writing
Project's Summer Institute, which was a lot of fun. It was a real pleasure
to meet all the hard working teachers and writers during the workshop.
Speaking of SCWP, there will be a workshop scheduled in the fall. Details
to come as soon as they are available.
May 22, 2008
After surviving the spring semester blitz, I am in the midst of teaching two
summer classes during a four-week session, which has been a great and enjoyable
experience. I'm working on some upcoming events that will be spread out
over the next few months. Once they are confirmed and book, I will be
posted them here. Keep your eyes peeled because I still plan on adding new
bells & whistles to the website. This coming Sunday, take some time to fire up
the computer or sit around the radio like the good old days because
Dona
Stein’s “The Poetry Show” (KRFC 88.9fm Sundays, 6:00-6:30 p.m., also
heard on the web at www.krfcfm.org by
hitting the "Listen Now" button) features Juan Morales reading poems from
Friday and the Year that Followed.
More soon...
May 1, 2008
It has been a little quite around here due to a dead laptop, spring
cleaning, and the chaos that comes with the end of the spring teaching semester.
Now that I gained access to the website again, here's an update. I'll be
finishing my teaching for the spring semester and resuming summer teaching for
the month of May. For the time being, events have slowed down but
hopefully will pick up later this summer. I will be doing a lot of writing
and other work for the upcoming academic year, including setting up the line-up
for the 2008-09 Southern Colorado Reading Series. Email if you have
questions or if you would like information. Updates in the Events section
will be posted when they develop, and I will be gradually adding new features
(like resources, audio, and other experimental ideas) to different sections of
the website as the days of summer get closer.
It might be delayed, but I wanted to give my thanks to all the kind people
in Ft. Collins, who came to Bas Bleu's Poetry and Prose Series. I also
wanted to thank Dona Stein, who was kind enough to invite me for the Poetry
Show, which can be heard every Sunday on KRFC in Ft. Collins. They also
have an online feed too. My reading will be featured on Sunday, May 25.
 Some
time in the month of May, three new poems will be coming out in the journal
Eleven
Eleven! I'll let you know when the issue is released.
Another poem was also published recently in the SCWP Anthology Write On!,
which is available here.
Another note of celebration is my students are releasing the latest issue of
The Hungry Eye! The Hungry Eye is an annual journal that features the
creative writing of students from Colorado State University-Pueblo.
Today at 6:30, there will be release reading and signing in OUC
Underground on CSU-Pueblo's campus to celebrate the new issue. Free
food and issues will be available! This is my first year as the faculty
sponsor, so it's been a real pleasure to see my staff assemble such a beautiful
issue. If you cannot make the reading and want a copy, send me an email.
One last note of congratulations goes out to my friend Aaron Anstett, who
was recently appointed as the new Poet Laureate of the Pikes Peak Region,
including Colorado Springs. It's very exciting to know the town where I
grew up is starting to develop a strong poetry presence! Click
here for
more info.
April 8, 2008
Just a quick update. If you are in Ft. Collins or the surrounding
area, I will be reading tonight at the Bas Bleu Poetry & Prose Series with
fiction writer Anne MacDonald at 7:30. I also will be reading for The
Poetry Show, a radio show featuring poetry every Sunday on KRFC. I will
post the date it will air and a link soon because I can streamed online.
You can find more details on both events under the Events section.
March
29, 2008
Regretfully, I will not be able to read tonight
for release of the new issue of Many Mountains Moving, but it still
promises to be a wonderful event including
great writers like Diane Glancy,
Aaron Anstett, Jeffrey Franklin, John Latham, and others! Check my
previous update for more info on the reading.
If you haven't seen it yet,
Latino Poetry Review has been
launched! It promises to be a great avenue for dialogue and
poetics. Check out all the great interviews, essays, and reviews. I
am humbled to the core that Friday and the Year That Followed was
reviewed by Daniel A. Olivas for this inaugural issue. Wow!
The start of National Poetry Month approaches.
Here's a link with a basic FAQ.
Any one up for the challenge of making it National Poetry Writing Month where
you write one poem a day for the entire month of April? I saw this
challenge on a several poetry blogs. Kudos to the brave souls who
undertake this challenge.
If you're in the Pueblo area next Saturday, April 5 from 2-6, the
Southern Colorado Writing Project will
be sponsoring a Writing Marathon. Participants must confirm a place by
April 2 by contacting the Southern Colorado Writing Project at (719) 549-2595 or
scwponline@gmail.com. The
Writing Marathon is always a great experience to meet local writers and to
support the community.
March 20, 2008
Belated thanks to the folks at Copper Nickel for giving me the
opportunity to read some of my poems at their recent release reading. I
had a lot of fun, and who wouldn't with a release party that included great
people, a keg, and a sheet cake all in a cool art studio/gallery in LoDo Denver?
If you haven't yet, check out and order the latest issue
here.
I'm finally entering Spring Break, which should
give me time to rest from what's been a packed semester. Next Saturday,
March 29th, I'll be reading with some other great writers for the Many
Mountains Moving
Volume VIII
Release Reading at
St.
John's Episcopal Church, 1419 Pine St., Boulder, CO. I hope you
can make it because the folks at
MMM always have
wonderful readings!
Another reading is coming up on April 8 in Ft.
Collins, which should be an exciting one. Recently, some poems were
accepted by two journals. I'll give you some details when I can, and I
hope to update some other sections of this webpage soon. Wherever you are,
I hope the thaw of winter is treating you well.
February 29, 2008
Happy Leap Year and bring on March! This may be short notice, but if you're
in the Denver area next Friday, March 7, I will be reading for the release party
for Copper Nickel 9! It should
promise to be a great reading with so many other talented writers there.
I will also be reading later in March for the
Many Mountains Moving
Volume VIII release party. Many thanks to the nice folks who invited
me to participate!
February 17, 2008
I recently received a call from a writer at The Pueblo Chieftain, and
she interviewed me about love poetry. Even though I am not an expert on
love poetry, it was a fun interview, and I got quoted. You can read it
here.
In other news, I'm giving a workshop to some students from the Colorado Springs
School on Wednesday the 20th here at CSU-Pueblo, and then I'll be giving a
keynote address at a conference for the same school the next day in Colorado
Springs. It should be a great opportunity to foster more interest in
poetry for some students and teachers.
February 09, 2008
AWP in NYC was a wonderful experience. It was great to connect with
old friends and make new friends too. Many thanks to the folks who
attended our panel.
The new issues of Copper Nickel
features four of my new poems, and latest Many
Mountains Moving has published another one. They both have been
released and look oh-so very nice, so check them out! A few events are in
the works, so I shall post more updates soon.
January 24, 2008
Happy belated New Year! A week from yesterday I'll be in NYC for the
AWP Conference, presenting on a panel. If you're there and reading this, I
hope to see you. I hope to take pictures while I'm there too. It
looks like there will be some other events sprinkled about 2008 including a very
exciting reading in Chicago for the
Palabra Pura Series.
I'm honored to be a reader for such an impressive series. Other than that,
the focus has been on teaching and work at the university, which has been great.
Plenty of poem packets are out in the world right now, so let's hope we hear
back from them soon.
December 3, 2007
This place has been dark for the past few weeks, so I thought it might be a
good time for an update. The semester and year are coming to a close, so
the events are slowing down for now. My hope is to add more features to
this website once classes are done. There are a few events spread out over
2008, including AWP in January. On an unrelated note, five poems from the
second collection have been accepted for publication by two journals! More
details will be available soon on these acceptances.
For anyone in the Pueblo area tomorrow, there is a Latino literary discussion
scheduled for tomorrow in the First Year Center, featuring Friday.
I will be reading a few poems with a book discussion following. Hope you
can make it. Happy Holidays to all and good luck with the the semester's
finish for those of you wrapping it up!
October 25, 2007
Coming up this Saturday from 10 to 12 in Pueblo, CO, there will be a writing
workshop sponsored by the All Pueblo Reads Series and the Southern Colorado
Writing Project. Check out the details under the
Events section. Go Rockies!
October is almost over, so that means I survived several readings and workshops
this month. Thanks to everyone who attended and invited me! It's
been a real pleasure!
October 18, 2007
Looks like I will be presenting at a workshop for the
Author Fest of the Rockies in
Manitou Springs this weekend. Info can be found on the
Events section.
Congratulations are in order for
David Keplinger, who won the Colorado Book Award last night for his book
The Prayers of Others. If you haven't read it yet, you should!
October 5, 2007
Two other events are being added to the Events section, and there are a few
others on tap for the month too. If you are in Colorado Springs tomorrow,
I will be leading the Poetry West
workshop from 10-12.
Thanks to everyone who attended the first Southern Colorado Reading Series event
of the semester and thanks to Chas and Aaron for reading. The next reading
for the SoCo Reading Series will be on November 7, when Lisa D. Chŕvez
will be reading.
If anyone reading is in the big city of Denver,
Tattered Cover, one of the coolest
bookstores in the region, will be carrying Friday and the Year That Followed
in the near future. More soon!
September 21, 2007
 If you're in Pueblo or in Southern Colorado, the first reading for the
Southern Colorado Reading Series will be next Wednesday, September 26. The
reading will be in the First Year Center, on the second floor of the CSU-Pueblo
library at 7 p.m. This reading should be considered a sort of semester
kick-off reading. I will be reading with Chas Clifton and
Aaron Anstett.
There's a flier too.
More events will be added soon too.
September 16, 2007
In the small presses category, Friday and the Year That Followed was
number four in sales for the month of August:
http://poetryfoundation.org/journal/bestsellers.SmallPress.html. Woo
Hoo!
September 9, 2007
It looks like things are starting to fall into place. Feel free to
click around on the menu bar below. A few events have been added including
some workshops and a reading. I still hope to add a comment feature to
this news/updates section and add other bells and whistles.
September 1, 2007
Welcome! This website has been a long time coming (since it sat for
months and months with my book cover on a white page). I haven't built a
website in a few years, so I'll be learning and re-teaching myself a lot in the
coming weeks with the hope my web-building skills come swirling back into
memory. I am working on the content of each section and plan to also add
audio, video, and more in the near future.
This section is where I will post updates to the page and general news.
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