Practice Makes. June 2025

Happy Solstice, friends! Every summer, with the abundance of sunlight, I find myself keen to pack each day to the gills, to go all Thoreau (or Dead Poet’s Society) and “suck out all the marrow of life,” to catch every flower as it blooms and listen to every bird that wings by and visit with all my friends and protest and seed new creative projects and travel and cook elaborate meals and perform and pick up new hobbies and go on meandering walks and… well, you get the picture. If the waterlogged winter in Portland makes me feel like a hibernating hedgehog, summer makes me feel like a mayfly, engaging in perpetual activity, hyperaware of how ephemeral these bright, balmy days are.
 
At the same time, the raspberry canes that I planted beside my driveway a few years ago have, for the first time, fruited into an abundance of rubies that I diligently pluck one by one (as in, one for the bowl that will go in the fridge, then one for my mouth). And the tiny jasmine plant that went in the ground by the shepherd’s hook several seasons ago is producing its first headily scented starflowers that I stoop low to inhale each evening. And this newsletter, which I first composed and sent into the ether four years ago, continues to blossom and offer sweet returns from both new connections and familiar folks.
 
So, as the world beckons me to enjoy all its earthly delights, I’m practicing balancing ambition and patience, remembering that sometimes what’s needed is flurry and fuss, agitation and action, and other times, all that’s required is to slow down and wait for nature to take its course. For this summer’s newsletters, I’m taking a page from that latter book, offering a few updates and events and opportunities, but otherwise giving myself more space to kick back and do less. Whether you’re making like a mayfly or letting life ripen like a raspberry, I hope this solstice brings you wild abundance.
 
xo
JP ‪

I’d hoped to share one of those celebratory photos here of me unboxing and holding up a copy of my new book, but alas, the publication date for the book has been pushed back yet again. The new publication date is—fingers crossed—July 1, which is just around the corner. I’d anticipated this book being a Gemini baby, but with the slightly longer gestation period, turns out it’s actually a Cancer—the sign of home, family, parenting, caregiving, and nurturance. Perhaps that’s more apt for a book that was mostly written while I was isolating at home during the early pandemic, a book whose generative spark was seeded by my mother’s death, a book that—even (especially?) with all its grief work—is easily the one whose writing offered me the most nourishment and care. Of all my books, it’s also the one that’s made me think the most about lineage and what I’ve received, what new traditions I’m creating, and what I hope to pass on to future generations.
 
As I bring this new babe of a book into the world, all the publication delays have made it challenging to arrange the kind of publicity—reviews and launches and such—that help get a book into the hands of readers. If you'd like to give Beautiful Outlaw a warm welcome into the world, here are a few ways to help:

• Pre-order the book from my publisher, Kelsey Street Press

• Write a review of Beautiful Outlaw. Request a free review copy at info@kelseystreetpress.org

• If you’re a teacher who might like to use Beautiful Outlaw in your classes, request a free desk copy at info@kelseystreetpress.org. If you end up teaching poems from the book and want to share your writing prompts, discussion questions, or other invitations with a wider audience, send them my way! I’d love to include them in a future newsletter and/or on my website—with credit to you, of course!

• Ask your local public library to carry a copy. Most libraries have links on their websites where you can suggest books to add to their collections.

• Ask your favorite local bookstore to stock Beautiful Outlaw. Don’t have a favorite indie bookstore? Now’s a good time to find one.

• Invite me to read with you or at a series you host, to teach a guest workshop for your class, to do an interview on your podcast, or to otherwise collaborate on something nerdy and fun.

• Come out and celebrate with me after the book’s released! I’ll be organizing launch events in Portland in later summer and early fall, so stay tuned to future newsletters for more details.

Later today, on Friday, June 20, 3pm PT, at Portland Chinatown Museum, I’ll be in conversation with Ingrid Hu Dahl about her new memoir, Sun Shining on Morning Snow. Admission is free, and the event will be followed by a book signing. 
 
On a lark, I entered the Portland’s Funniest Person Competition, so I’ll be performing at Helium Comedy Club on Tuesday, July 1, 7pm PT, alongside an array of other talented comedians. Winners are determined by audience vote, so if you want to come out and help crown the winner, you can see the full list of each night’s lineup and purchase tickets here.
 
On Wednesday, July 9, 7pm PT, I’ll be forsaking my usual co-hosting duties to be one of the featured readers at Incite: Queer Writers Read, alongside Grey Traynor and  Eliot Feenstra. The last time I read at Incite was when it was online back in 2020, when the theme was “Together/Apart,” so I’m excited to be firmly in camp “together” for this one, where the theme will be “Play.” Join us and my co-host Vinnie Kinsella at Literary Arts, 716 SE Grand Ave, Portland. As always, the reading will be followed by a community discussion.
 
On Thursday, August 14, 7:00pm PT, at Hidden Creek Community Center, Hillsboro, OR, my comedy and poetry worlds will converge as I team up with improvisors from Kickstand Comedy, as they create a night of comedy inspired by my writing. Tickets are available here.
 
If you’re looking way out to this fall, on Tuesday, September 9, 5:30pm PT, I’ll be the guest speaker at the Central Oregon Writers Guild online meeting, which is free and open to the public. I’ll be talking about “Finding the Freedom in Form” (aka, what I’m always talking about), and there will be a couple of opportunities during the talk for everyone to experiment with some unusual formal constraints.
 
I’ll be following that talk with an in-person workshop, “Contents Under Pressure: Using Constraints to Stretch Your creativity,” on Saturday, September 13, 1pm PT at the Downtown Bend Library in Oregon. We’ll play with what I think of as “extreme” constraints inspired by everything from music to math, from dictionaries to daily walks, and invent some of our own constraints to try out after the workshop ends. Tickets for the workshop are available here.
 
Finally, on Saturday, October 18, 9:30am-1:30pm PT, I’ll be teaching an online class, “Assembling Your Poetry Manuscript,” through the Hudson Valley Writers Center. The class includes exercises to help you identify themes, experiment with sequence and structure, and recognize opportunities for further development. Find more details and registration info here.
 

Other opportunities I recommend:
 
For Folks with a Passion for Poetry and Asian American Literature:
 
Kundiman is looking for a Poetry Coalition Fellow, a 20 hour/week role beginning  September 2, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026 that offers hands-on experience at a literary arts nonprofit. The fellow will be working primarily with Kundiman's Development department to support grant writing, fundraising, donor research, donor events, and donor cultivation. The total stipend for the position is $20,000, plus $1,100 toward health care. The position is open to anyone in the U.S. The work will be remote, and the fellow must be able to attend virtual meetings and do the bulk of their work during weekday hours from 10 am to 6 pm ET. The deadline to apply is Tuesday, July 1, and more details and application instructions can be found here. 

 
For BIPOC Folks in the Portland Area:
 
Bea Yeh, a fellow forest bathing guide, is offering a free place-based program for a small group of BIPOC participants. “Breathe Under the Canopy - Connecting to Nature, Community, & Self” will take place at a private farm in Molalla, Oregon on Sunday, July 6, 11am-2:30pm PT. Activities include a 2-hour forest therapy walk and a 1-hour “love letter to future you” writing practice. Carpools are available and lunch is provided. Learn more and register here.
 
For Asian American Writers and Artists:
 
The Margins is accepting submissions for “Imagined Histories,” a new folio to be published in late 2025. The folio editors, Megan Pinto and Kiran Bath, are seeking poems in all styles, as well as visual art such as photo essays, maps, collages, and drawings, that expand how we write about lineages, using imagination to look backward—writing into the gaps that history, or silence, has left behind—and forward, into the future as a place that is informed by a reimagined history. Experimental and hybrid works are welcome as are traditional forms. All accepted work is compensated, and submissions close July 15. Learn more and send your work here.
 
For Trans Writers:
 
Sundress Publications is open for microgrant applications from trans writers with a chapbook or full-length book in progress in any genre. The microgrant will award $500, the potential for publication, and a one-week residency at the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, TN. To apply, send a sample of the work in progress (up to 15 pages) along with a brief artist or personal statement (no more than 500 words) about what this grant would mean to the completion of said work. There is no fee to apply. The application closes July 15.
 
For Rural Oregon Writers:
 
The Incite: Queer Writers Read series can now offer $750 stipends to writers from rural Oregon to cover the cost of their travel expenses to Portland to read in the series. For these purposes, “rural” is defined as locations that have fewer than 15,000 residents and that are at least 10 miles away from population centers of 40,000 or more people. If you’re an LGBTQIA2S+ writer who’d like to visit Portland to read in the series between September 2025 and May 2026, please respond to this newsletter with information about or samples of your writing.
 

If you’ve got an opportunity you’d like me to include in a future newsletter, please let me know.