I have three sonnets, “2026.05,” “2026.07,” and “2026.08,” in Anthropocene. Thanks to Charlie Baylis and Tom Blake for publishing!
Poem
Remembering Rachel Blau DuPlessis (1941–2026)
So this “now”
now emerges, shadows be-fallen here,
and we debate
how vast the eulogy we need.
—Rachel Blau DuPlessis, “The Entanglements: a representation”
The zone between the living voice
and the posthumous voice
is poetry.
—Rachel Blau DuPlessis, “The moon and modulations of lonely”
I am so very deeply saddened by the passing of Rachel Blau DuPlessis on September 2, 2026.[1] After hearing from her partner, Robert DuPlessis, I found myself weeping in my office for nearly a half hour last week, staggered by the magnitude of losing her. And so I wanted to write a little about how I got to know Rachel and her work, hoping it might provide a small glimpse into just how incredible a person, artist, and scholar/critic she was and the kind of massive positive effect she had on the people around her, even to someone who was only lightly connected to her.
***
Continue readingReview of The Poetics of Scale: From Apollinaire to Big Data, by Conrad Steel
Thanks to Justin A. Sider for inviting me to write a review of Conrad Steel‘s excellent new book, The Poetics of Scale: From Apollinaire to Big Data (University of Iowa Press, 2024). The piece was just published in issue 59, volume 2 of Genre and should be free to read for at least three months.
“2025.01” in The Alexander Review: Did I Just Get Published by an AI Journal?
One of my sonnets, “2025.01,” has just been published in the second issue of The Alexander Review (if you scroll down, my poem is sixth down or you can “ctrl+f” “Bradley J. Fest” or “2025.01”). But this may be my strangest publication ever because I am not sure that the journal is real.[1]
Continue reading“2025.13–14” in Dazed Santa
Happy to have a multisonnet, “2025.13–14,” in Dazed Santa (a very cool new little journal) that I wrote on my (very rare!) recent return to Tucson, Arizona in November reflecting a bit on the half of my life I have now spent away from there and what it means to return. Thanks to the Emma Grey Rose, Jeff Edwards, and Melinda Snyder for publishing!
“2026.01” in As of Fire: Poets and Pentecost (Bainbridge Island Press)
Another sonnet from the third volume of my ongoing sequence, “2026.01,” was just published in As of Fire: Poets and Pentecost, edited by Tamarah Rockwood and published by Bainbridge Island Press.
“2025.02,” “2025.04,” “2025.05–06,” “2025.07,” and “2025.11” in Other Rooms Press
And lo, today is one of those great good days in which I have two publications. “2025.02,” “2025.04,” “2025.05–06” (p. 2), “2025.07,” and “2025.11,” some of my most recent sonnets that most directly comment on this moment we find ourselves living through, just came out in Other Rooms Press. Here‘s a page that gathers the poems together (and then right click the images and open them into new tab so you can zoom in) or else click on the individual poem links above.
“2023.20” in The Colby Review
“2023.20” (also here), one of the last unpublished sonnets from the second volume of my ongoing sonnet sequence, is in the inaugural issue of The Colby Review. Thanks so much to Zach Peckham and the student editors of the journal for including my work.
“2025.12” in bethh
Poetry Reading at The Gatehouse in Morris, NY
I’ll be reading a small handful of poems with some other poets on Saturday, July 5 from 1:00–3:00 p.m. at The Gatehouse, 129 Main Street, Morris, New York. Hosted by Julene Waffle, also reading will be Robert Bensen, Racheal Fest, Julie Suarez-Hayes, Vicki Whicker, and Teresa Winchester.
