What a week it's been. On Wednesday, I taught my three classes. My students are preparing to switch from workshop to presentations. It's been a full month and half of reading their narrative essays and critiquing them—training them to be analysts of their own written work and careful stewards of one another's experiences. After I got off work on...
On November 5th at 7:30 p.m. I am performing the eleventh installment of a reading series called Evenings at perfect lovers in Durham. A few days later I will also participate in the Griot and Grey Owl Conference as part of their Editors, Writers, and Authors Publishing Roundtable on Saturday, November 8th at 11:00 AM at American Underground...
This year I was selected to be a faculty fellow in the AWP HBCU Fellowship Program. I wrote a reflection, which can be found below. The edited version was published by the Writer's Chronicle along with reflections from our creative advisor Tayari Jones, the other faculty fellows, and the five mentees.
A couple of weeks ago, on the Friday that grades were due for NCCU, I decided to head up to Warren County to check out the First Friday reading series spearheaded by my colleague Thomas Park. I've seen the Facebook invites for these events and have always wanted to go, but couldn't make the time during the school year. This...
It's been a week now since my most recent reading at Larema Coffee House in Wilson, NC. When I read there last time I made the trek by myself. There was an accident on the road and I feared I would be late, so I messaged Rob, the organizer of the event, from the road, and was worried as...
In an early post on this site, I promised you all that one day I would write a blog post that was describing a story that wasn't about basketball. My first two published stories centered hoops and, for a while, it seemed like that was all people would know me for. I'm here to say that something else bearing...
What a beautiful night! There were fifteen of us who responded to Cortland's call to participate in his outgoing celebration for his term as Chapel Hill's poet laureate. Omaria Sanchez Pratt (who I read with last summer) and I were the only ones who read fiction. Omaria read a flash piece that really resonated. The poetry offerings were...
My friend and comrade Cortland Gilliam invited me and several others to read at The Cave in Chapel Hill this Tuesday, November 19, in celebration of his two years as Chapel Hill's poet laureate which are unfortunately coming to a close. I've seen Cortland do amazing things as laureate including having the idea for our reading last summer, which...
I set out for Wilson almost two weeks ago and hoped I'd find listeners, community, and revelry or some combination of the three. I think this was the farthest I've traveled for a reading, not counting when I read at an impromptu open mic at AWP in San Antonio back in 2020. The drive was peaceful and surprisingly suburban....
I've been invited to and will read at yet another Noir at the Bar reading at Larema Coffee House in Wilson, NC on October 5 at 7 p.m. This one is organized by Robert Creekmore who was the first reader at the Yonder reading I did back in July. I'm excited to be reading with Rob again. P.M....
On Thursday of last week, I read a piece of my novel manuscript TOKEN at Yonder: Southern Cocktails and Brew in Hillsborough during their Noir at the Bar event. This manuscript has been a work in progress since 2021. I received representation in summer of 2023 and have been working on the novel with my agent since then. The last...
I was invited to read at Noir at the Bar by fellow writer and parent of my grade school classmate Katy Munger and Eryk Pruitt. This reading will take place at Yonder Southern Cocktails & Brew (114 W King St. Hillsborough, NC) at 7 p.m. on July 18. I got to meet Eryk the other week at his...
A week before yesterday, I mounted up in the car I got after my Honda Civic was hit and totaled in December while I was idling behind a garbage truck. I bought my current car with some miles on it and was, honestly, a little worried about taking it all the way to DC. But I'd heard so much...
The reading yesterday was a success. I was joined by Omaria Sanchez Pratt, Cortland Gilliam, and Mtende Roll–each of whom had a unique and compelling aspect to what they read. Omaria's novel about the Greensboro Massacre made me want to know more. Mtende's poetry was uplifting and celebrated blackness and black identity. Cortland's work is always...
I will be reading fiction at Back Lot Garden Spot on Friday, July 14 at 6 p.m. There will be great food AND great art. The reading is entitled "Picking up the Pieces," and will contain poetry and fiction reading showcasing local writers Mtende Roll, Isaac Hughes Green, Omaria Sanchez Pratt, and Chapel Hill's Poet Laureate, Cortland Gilliam. We will...
Last week, I participated in a digital humanities workshop put together by my colleagues at NCCU Dr. Rachelle Gold and Dr. Kathryn Wymer and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Two PhD students from Duke, Pratishta Bhattarai and Warren Lattimore, conducted trainings during the five day workshop. We were schooled on how to use...
On March 28th, in a month full of birthdays and anniversaries, I set out for Barnes and Noble in New Hope Commons (Durham, NC). But, this wasn't a regular trip to the bookstore. You see, just a few years back, I'd been living with my parents. They'd been worried I wasn't achieving at the highest level I could have and...
I had a productive summer in which I barreled through writing a novel and then immediately burned myself out afterward. I was going through a lot when I got a message that the NC State Friends of the Library wanted me to moderate a conversation with Jason Mott about his career and his new book Hell of a Book....
This Thursday, September 15, I will be a moderator for a discussion with National Book Award winner Jason Mott about his career and novel Hell of a Book. This discussion will be happening at Duke Energy Hall in the James B. Hunt Jr. Library as part of the Friends of the Libraries Fall Reception which begins at 6:00 p.m. ...
Last Tuesday I was invited to something called the 10:40 break in NCCU's Alfonso Elder Student Union. A nice woman from NCCU's Women's Center told me they were having a program honoring my relative Annie Day Shepard who was university founder Dr. James E. Shepard's wife. I agreed to attend, be recognized, and receive a gift as a relative of...
Lately I've noticed a lot of friends shying away from getting vaccinated for Covid-19 because of their distrust of the government and/or medical field. With numbers soaring, it's clear that the only way out of this pandemic is for people to face their fears. While yes, there have been instances of medical malpractice in the past, particularly...