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✨ CLOSE RED WATER is out today! ✨

Having my book come out feels like a milestone birthday—they always put me in mind of how many people have given their time, company, energy, and love for me to get there. I wrote the oldest poem in this book ten years ago. It's impossible to say how lucky I've been since then, and how grateful I am to have known the people I have. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I’ll end with one last lovely book blurb:

“It’s fitting that the first phrase in the first poem of this superb first book is ‘The place I know…’ CLOSE RED WATER is so authentically and so movingly focused on a single and loved locale that even the occasional poem that begins elsewhere almost always finds its way back to Virginia. And yet, there is always in this collection the sad recognition that one cannot return, not really. Aylor’s poems, to their great credit, are attuned to what can’t be fathomed without sustained and unwavering attention. What a rarity—and what a delight—in our fractured and unfocused age.” —Davis McCombs

continuing the accidental/delightful 2026 theme: horse encounters with Bridget & Kaila (this is Dozer)

photos from my great-aunt Louise’s travels in places I’ve been since 🖤

"Even when we try to do the same thing over and over, variations naturally occur. That’s the magic of being human," Maggie (@maggiesmithpoet) writes in episode 1497 of The Slowdown.

Read "Intaglio" by Emma Aylor (@emmaylor) and our full episode transcript by visiting the link in our bio.

Episodes of The Slowdown are released each weekday wherever you listen to podcasts!

"Even when we try to do the same thing over and over, variations naturally occur. That’s the magic of being human," Maggie (@maggiesmithpoet) writes in episode 1497 of The Slowdown.

Read "Intaglio" by Emma Aylor (@emmaylor) and our full episode transcript by visiting the link in our bio.

Episodes of The Slowdown are released each weekday wherever you listen to podcasts!

Just arrived in the mail—thank you to @rosemclarney, @ekbrousseau2, and the rest of the team at @southernhumanitiesreview!

Just arrived in the mail—thank you to @rosemclarney, @ekbrousseau2, and the rest of the team at @southernhumanitiesreview!

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Last night was the opening reception for Line Work, an exhibit of art and poetry made between @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop—22 poets, 17 visual artists, months of collaboration, 57 pieces displayed in the gallery, hundreds more made in the process. I’m so grateful to have been able to work with all these creative, kind people this semester!
Thanks to Dylan, Kaila, and Bridget for snagging some of these photos from the reception; to my colleagues and friends for their support; to my students for being not only brilliant but also game to experiment, listen to me ramble about ekphrasis, and even ramble about ekphrasis themselves; and to Lindsey for being a dream collaborator 🕯️

Here's an excerpt from our Spring poem! To read the full poem, see our comments on the piece, and explore our other poems, please click "Read the Lit Fox Poetry Series" in our linktree.

Nac folks (or anyone who wants to drive deep into East Texas), I hope you’ll come to the opening for Line Work, an exhibit of art from @lindseycreelcherry’s Expressive Drawing class and my Advanced Poetry Workshop. I’m so proud of our students’ creativity and hard work, and so excited to share it with the campus community!

What a dream to bring my dear friend @jenniferwashingtonloyd to Nacogdoches last week to read from GHOST IN THE ARCHIVE, A my Qs, tell students about the “snap, juice, and funk” of good poetry, and ogle azaleas! Thanks, Jenn 💜

What a dream to bring my dear friend @jenniferwashingtonloyd to Nacogdoches last week to read from GHOST IN THE ARCHIVE, A my Qs, tell students about the “snap, juice, and funk” of good poetry, and ogle azaleas! Thanks, Jenn 💜

One of Helen Frankenthaler’s London Memos and my poem after it—thank you to @oceanstatereview for giving a couple of my poems a good home in this issue!

One of Helen Frankenthaler’s London Memos and my poem after it—thank you to @oceanstatereview for giving a couple of my poems a good home in this issue!

One of Helen Frankenthaler’s London Memos and my poem after it—thank you to @oceanstatereview for giving a couple of my poems a good home in this issue!

Pretending I’m further west today (and an excuse to share a favorite disposable camera shot from my artist residency at Petrified Forest a ways back)

Thank you to the @mcneesereview for taking good care of this strange solstice poem from a windier time!

Thank you to the @mcneesereview for taking good care of this strange solstice poem from a windier time!