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Where art meets the Line (take 5)

| M. Mack

It’s the centennial celebration of the Poetry Society of Virginia! The northern region is holding its festival this weekend, with readings in-person on Saturday March 25 by Jennifer Atkinson, David Anthony Sam, and Kindra McDonald and a virtual event on Sunday.

I am reading as part of Where Art Meets the Line (Take 5) this Sunday March 26, from 1-2:30pm EDT on Zoom.

Where Art Meets the Line is an event series organized by Cathy Hailey. For Take 5, I will join writers and artists Henry Crawford, Kathleen Decker, A. Logan Hill, Hannah McCarthy, and Kelly Sue White.

Email the organizer at haileycp@gmail.com for the Zoom link.

I’ll be discussing the intersections of art and writing for three of my projects.

Mack at Fall for the Book in Fairfax, VA

| M. Mack
Fall For The Book, the best literary festival in the world (what?), is starting, and many of my life roles come together! Here is a schedule of where I will be in the next week in official capacity as author, gallery curator, and small press editor.
Sunday, September 25, 3:00 p.m.
Sherwood Center: 3740 Old Lee Highway, Fairfax, VA.
Gazing Grain Press book launch for Brianna Low’s Drift, also featuring Kelly Lorraine Andrews
Wednesday, September 28, 3:00 p.m.
Fenwick Library, GMU campus, Fairfax
main reading room (2001)
Call and Response Artist and Writers’ Discussion
The gallery show, an annual exhibition from the School or Art and the MFA program in creative writing, is up in Fenwick Gallery (in the new wing, on the first floor, by the circulation desk) from today until October 30. This year we’ve put our collaborative show together in conversation with The 100th Meridian Project, an interdisciplinary arts and science performance, which will be happening on Thursday the 29th at 7:30 p.m. in Harris Theater.
Friday, September 30, 7:00 p.m.
Epicure Café, 11104 Lee Hwy, Fairfax, VA 22030
Poets Night Out with M. Mack, J.K. Daniels, and Nancy K. Pearson
This event means the world to me. Dream come true.
And finally, I will also definitely be attending ***PATRICIA HILL COLLINS*** on Tuesday the 27th at 1:30 pm in Research 163 and Natalie Diaz and Oliver Bendorf on Thursday the 29th at 6:00 p.m. at George’s in the Johnson Center (both on GMU Fairfax campus).

Mack at AWP 2016 in LA

| M. Mack

I’ll be in Los Angeles next week for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference. I’m still working out where I’ll be other than these times, but here is my official list!

Thursday, March 31, 3 to 5 pm
Signing Theater of Parts at Sundress Publications bookfair table 1438
Thursday, March 31, 7 to 9 pm
City Tavern Downtown Los Angeles
735 S Figueroa St Los Angeles CA 90017
Thursday, March 31, 9 to 10 pm
Reading from Theater of Parts at
The Lexington
129 E. 3rd St Los Angeles CA 90013
Friday, April 1, 2:45 to 5:00 p.m.
Gazing Grain Press bookfair table, George Mason University booth 708
Saturday, April 2, 9:00 to 10:15 a.m.
Gazing Grain Press bookfair table, George Mason University booth 708
I’ll have copies of Theater of Parts, Traveling, and Imaginary Kansas with me. If you want to meet up, let me know!
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“What Toast?”: Gender, Sexuality, and Language in the Poetry of M. Mack

| M. Mack

Milquetoast has found his way into Tropics of Meta.

Tropics of Meta

grayscale milquetoast

Milquetoast, n.

a bland, timid, or ineffectual person easily dominated

from Caspar Milquetoast, character in H.T. Webster’s

The Timid Soul comic strip, 1924 to 1931

and later, Milquetoast the cockroach, purple crossdressing character in

Berkeley Breathed’s comic strips Bloom County and Outland, 1980 to 1995
And now, this.

What Toast?

When Milquetoast became a cockroach, he lost his mustache. He tried fulfilling this lack of apparent gender with a penchant for what he and many others understood as crossdressing, in a wig and an ugly green dress, but this became an occasional activity: the Christmas special, big fights or fancy dinners with Opus the penguin.

*

When Milquetoast was a man with a name given and not received, he longed for the silent middle syllable to assert itself in conversation. When given the opportunity, he pronounced it as the Spanish what or the English wuh? When folks called for Milktoast…

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Three poems from Imaginary Kansas at Melancholy Hyperbole

| M. Mack

melancholy hyperboleThree poems from Imaginary Kansas, forthcoming from dancing girl press in spring/summer 2015 went up at Melancholy Hyperbole: Poetry About Longing on March 12. I love longing. Well, my poems love longing. Or, I’ve always said that Imaginary Kansas fragments and queers longing. So.

The micro-poems featured are “[In this one, I imagine myself as a],” “Why can’t we be married and live in the farmhouse your parents bought on a whim?,” and “Undressing in front of your photograph in the evening.” These are some of the tiniest fragments in the project and, especially in the case of “Why can’t we…” some of my (terrifying) favorites. I’m really excited by the format of Melancholy Hyperbole, which invites direct commenting from readers. What a thrill!