For their first special issue, the editors at Rawhead, a Journal of Art and Literature, asked for work on the theme Bloody Bones. The issue delivers. Discover a variety of takes on this provocative theme; dive in.
I’m happy to share my poem “Beneath the Bones” was selected for publication in the issue. Rawhead’s editors offered such kind words about my poem; I’m honored, humbled, and so glad this poem appears in Bloody Bones. Read it here.
I’m also grateful to the folks at Chestnut Review, whose feedback service I used earlier this year. Their reviewers’ astute observations helped me see my strengths, weaknesses, and inconsistencies across a small body of work. This, in turn, changed how I write and edit and specifically aided me in forming the published version of Beneath the Bones.
If you are not in a working group or engaged in some sort of external feedback process, I encourage you to consider it. Almost all of the poems I’ve had accepted this year underwent such processes. (To be fair, such poems were also rejected. Regardless, peer review often helps me clarify or improve my work.) Participating in working groups can also expose you to more and different styles of poetry and lead to friendships. Poetry group days never fail to lift me.
Reading Rawhead’s Bloody Bones issue is another great way to discover new writing and new writers. I invite you to peruse the entire issue.
More Poetry & Photography
Want to explore more of my work?
- From Florida: Emerald Coast Review, an anthology from northwest-Florida based Emerald Coast Writers, includes three poems and two photographs. Having spent about half my life on Florida’s Emerald Coast, I’m thrilled to be included in this anthology. And it’s sweeter having work appear alongside my Northwest Florida poet friends.
- From Tennessee (now my home for about a quarter of my life!): Tennessee Voices Anthology, 2024-2025 (Poetry Society of Tennessee) includes several of my poems, along with poems of fellow society members, Tennesseans from elementary students to octogenarians, and poets from across the United States. Being in a collection with poet friends: always more fun.
- And more photography news: Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative’s literary magazine has selected one of my photos for an upcoming issue!
- Find a listing of previously published work here. Hear my poems on SoundCloud, where I’m slowly populating published poems in audio format. View more photography on FineArtAmerica.
Want to explore more poets? Check out the Poetry Society of Tennessee bookstore here and see why we say poetry is alive in Tennessee. You’ll find chapbooks and collections from Deborah Zenha Adams, KB Ballentine, Danita Dodson, Connie Jordan Green, Natalie Kimbell, John Mannone, Cynthia Storrs, and many others. (And if you’re looking for a poetry community, stop in for a visit.)
About Rawhead Journal
Rawhead, a Journal of Art and Literature, is named (in its own words) after “folkloric bogeymen used to frighten children into obedience.“ Even as Rawhead reminds us of the “monsters among us,” it demonstrates how how great art and literature has always, can, and will (rightly) provoke fear in such monsters, and how a literate, awake, connected and courageous public can resist and defeat them. Explore more.
Rawhead is open for submissions for their spring issue. Get details.