What do you like most about MOTHER, LOOSE?
I like its cohesion—the combination of poems inspired Mother Goose rhymes with poems about the death of my mother.
What did you have to overcome to publish it?
The poems in Mother, Loose were part of a larger manuscript that ultimately did not cohere. I, consequently, decided to pare down the full-length manuscript and turn it into a chapbook. While it was hard to let go of so many poems, I saw that there were two kinds of poems that needed to be brought to the fore and that could complement one another. Once I made the decision to focus on “mother” in its two forms, I wrote additional poems toward that theme. Some of these newer poems ended up being distillations from essays I’d written.
What do you hope people learn/experience from the book?
I hope that Mother, Loose helps people see some of their most primal fears in a new light. Nursery rhymes, Mother Goose rhymes, and fairy tales help elucidate, normalize and lighten the burden of those fears, at times making light of them. Humor is a form of intelligence, and dark humor shows us how to live with death.
Favorite interaction with a fan or reader?
I think my favorite interaction with a reader was with a reviewer, the writer, Hannah Rodabaugh. She wrote a wonderful review of Mother, Loose in Pank that made me feel seen—as though my poems had truly landed.
What are you working on now?
My second full-length book, Locomotive Cathedral, came out last year (March 2025). It was selected in the Backwaters Press contest and published by Backwaters Press, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. It had been ten years since Mother, Loose, so I had a blast doing readings and am pleased with the book’s reception. Right now, I’m finalizing a new collection of poems titled Fade Away & Radiate, which address or write toward what Buddhists call “the five remembrances” (e.g. this body is of the nature to age; I cannot escape aging). I’m still adding and removing poems and working on the order but I expect to be sending it out by the spring of 2026.
