8 tiny pieces in New Flash Fiction Review

NewFlashAre they micropoems or microstories? I’m not sure — but eight of my tiny little prose works are now up in the latest issue of New Flash Fiction Review! Here’s one to whet your appetite:

The Good Day

I braced hard but what I feared did not happen.
For that I am grateful.

Each one’s about ten words long, so they’ll be a quick read. Hope you enjoy them! Let me know what you think —

Thank you to Nin Andrews, guest editor for this prose poetry issue. I’ve been a huge fan of Nin’s work since I read Why They Grow Wings back in grad school, so to have her read and take my work was a real treat.

Image from New Flash Fiction Review

Sumarr 1 reading in Los Angeles, April 17

Thanks to everyone who came to the first Sumarr reading of 2017 at The Pop Hop!

From left to right: Noah Warren, Margaret Ross, Siel Ju, Wendy C. Ortiz, Diana Arterian at Sumarr 1, Highland Park, Los Angeles, April 17, 2016
From left to right: Noah Warren, Margaret Ross, Siel Ju, Wendy C. Ortiz, Diana Arterian at Sumarr 1, Highland Park, Los Angeles, April 17, 2016

It was a super hot day but we filled the seats anyway. It was the first time I got to read with local author Wendy C. Ortiz (Excavations) — plus two Stegner Fellows, poets Noah Warren, and Margaret Ross.

Many thanks to Diana Arterian, who organizes the Sumarr Reading Series!

I’m Reading at Sumarr on April 17

The Sumarr Reading Series — hosted by Diana Arterian — returns this week for its 2016 season. I’m honored to be reading — Please come by!

sumarr

What: Sumarr 1, 2016
When: Sunday, April 17 at 3 pm
Where: The Pop-Hop, 5002 York Blvd, Los Angeles

I’ll be reading with Wendy C. Ortiz (author of Excavations and the woman behind the former Rhapsodomancy series), poet Noah Warren, and Margaret Ross.

Hope to see you there —

The Flash Sequence panel at AWP in Los Angeles, April 1

It was early but people came anyway: Thanks to everyone who woke up in time to make it to our our AWP Conference panel, the The Flash Sequence: A Reading and Discussion!

From left to right: Siel Ju, Irena Praitis, Sonia Greenfield, Jenn Koiter, Nickole Brown, Debra Marquart at Associated Writing Programs Conference, Los Angeles, April 1, 2016
From left to right: Siel Ju, Irena Praitis, Sonia Greenfield, Jenn Koiter, Nickole Brown, Debra Marquart at Associated Writing Programs Conference, Los Angeles, April 1, 2016

The panel was born out of the just-published flash sequence anthology Nothing to Declare, edited by Robert Alexander — who unfortunately couldn’t make it to AWP. Fortunately, Nickole Brown stepped in to moderate.

I read along with fellow contributors  Sonia Greenfield (Boy with a Halo at the Farmer’s Market), Irena Praitis (Straws and Shadows), Jenn Koiter, and Debra Marquart (The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere). And two other contributors, Kathleen McGookey and Lucas Southworth, joined us in the audience.

Hope everyone had as great an AWP as I did — See you next year in DC!

Best of the West reading in Los Angeles, March 31

Thanks to everyone who came to our AWP Conference offsite event, the Best of the West Reading!

From left to right: Catherine Pond, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, Corinne Manning, and Siel Ju at the Best of the West reading, Los Angeles, March 31, 2016
From left to right: Catherine Pond, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, Corinne Manning, and Siel Ju at the Best of the West reading, Los Angeles, March 31, 2016

We had a full house at Villains Tavern — even though that meant leaving the official AWP events early to get over to the arts district. I got to read with Corinne Manning (founding editor of The James Franco Review), Catherine Pond, Daniel Riddle Rodriguez, Madgalawit Makonnen, Jeff Walt, William Camponovo,  and Caleb Tankersley. Some of the readers left before we could take the group photo!

The event was presented by The Los Angeles Review (Thanks to Alisa Trager and Rebecca Baumann!), Pacifica Literary Review, and Cutbank!

Bindercon community panel at UCLA, March 19

Thanks to everyone who came to our Bindercon LA panel, How to Build a Writing Community!

From left to right: Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Neelanjana Banerjee, Siel Ju, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Michelle Franke at Bindercon LA, UCLA, Los Angeles on March 19, 2016
From left to right: Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Neelanjana Banerjee, Siel Ju, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Michelle Franke at Bindercon LA, UCLA, Los Angeles on March 19, 2016

And thank you to my fellow panelists — Michelle Franke of The Rattling Wall and Pen Center USA, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo of Women Who Submit, Neelanjana Banerjee of Kaya Press, and poet Lauren Eggert-Crowe — for sharing valuable tips and tools and for acting as community-builders in the Los Angeles literary community.

From left to right: Siel Ju, Michelle Franke, Neelanjana Banerjee, Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo at Bindercon LA, UCLA, Los Angeles on March 19, 2016
From left to right: Siel Ju, Michelle Franke, Neelanjana Banerjee, Lauren Eggert-Crowe, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo at Bindercon LA, UCLA, Los Angeles on March 19, 2016

The entire two-day event was fun and practical and aspirational and motivational. I especially got a lot out of Glendaliz Camacho and Grace Sobrenome’s panel on applying to residencies — and was inspired  by Pamela Redmond Satran‘s talk about pursuing a diverse writing career. A big thank you to the Bindercon LA organizers — Leigh Stein, Kima Jones, Andrea Guevara, and many others for putting all of this together.