Panelist on Translating Poetry at the New Orleans Poetry Festival — April 2025

This April, I am thrilled to be returning to New Orleans as a panelist on Translating Poetry: Between Authenticity and Creativity at the New Orleans Poetry Festival. Lisa Pasold will be hosting Frédéric Forte, Amanda Murphy, Michelle Noteboom, Virginie Poitrasson, and myself as we discuss “how [our] individual [approaches to translation] confront bilingualism, intermedial translation, and the question of authenticity.”

Amanda and I will follow this panel with a presentation of our co-translation of Cassandra at point-blank range at the Lavender Ink / Diálogos reading. Hope to see you on Saturday, April 12th at Café Istanbul.

Paris Heretics at Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series

I am thrilled to be reading this coming Saturday, March 15, 2025, with the Paris Heretics — Richard Dailey, Alison Grace Koehler, and Jason Stoneking — on Lit Balm: An Interactive Livestream Reading Series. Everything kicks off at 22h Paris time / 5 pm Eastern Standard. If you'd like to attend, please follow the Zoom link here,

Guest Poet at Nicolette Daskalakis's Launch for Tell Me I'm Not on Fire

On Friday, January 31, 2025, I’ll be reading a few poems to open the launch event for Nicolette Daskalakis’ Tell Me I’m Not on Fire. I hope you’ll come out to celebrate Nicolette’s newest collection. We’ll see you at 19h at Galerie Echomusée (21 rue Cave, 75018).

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Thong" on YouTube

This past August, I wrote and recorded “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Thong” for Spiritual Material: Musings from My Second-Hand, Parisian Wardrobe.

Part II: Interview on Translation Experiments with Hélène Bessette's Garance Rose

It was a pleasure to be invited back to Elliot KB’s This Is Not a Poem for a second discussion on my translation experiments with Hélène Bessette’s Garance Rose. In this talk, we dive deeper into the world of what she calls her “administrative novel.” You can hear our conversation here.

"Robe bleue," for Hélène Bessette, on YouTube

"Robe bleue” is an essay I wrote for Hélène Bessette in June 2023. A recording of the text is now live on YouTube. Piano accompaniment by Baptiste de Chabaneix. The original text can be read at Spiritual Material: Musings from My Second-Hand, Parisian Wardrobe.

Interview on Translating Hélène Bessette on This Is Not a Poem

I was delighted to discuss my personal translation of Hélène Bessette’s Garance Rose on Elliott KB’s This Is Not a Poem, a podcast dedicated to translation and hosted by Worldradio.fr. Thank you for having me, Elliott. You can hear my talk here. And I hope you’ll give all of Elliott’s episodes a listen - they’re doing beautiful work for this still undersung art form!

"Ogresse" Published in Quarterly West, 111

I have an ekphrastic, persona prose poem in the newest Quarterly West. I first drafted it last summer at the Musée de la Vie romantique while staring at Françoise Pétrovitch’s "L’Ogresse," a statue installed in the courtyard during her show « Aimer. Rompre ». At that time, I was in the inspired company of my Oxbridge creative writing students— Ellie, Tyler, Claire, Julia, Kate, Logan, Mahika, Charlie, Lucinda, and Ava. Thank you to them for their intention and care of our collective writing space. And thank you, of course, to Francoise Pétrovitch, for your oeuvre, which continues to intrigue and play in my mind. I am grateful to Brandon Young, Erin O’Luanaigh, Jasmine Khaliq, and the entire QW editorial team for including and being so attentive to my work.

“L’Ogresse” by Françoise Pétrovitch

"Lipsticks" on YouTube

“Lipsticks,” the sestina I wrote and published in Spiritual Material: Musings from My Second-Hand, Parisian Wardrobe, is now online on my YouTube station.

Featured Artist at Paris Lit Up Open Mic, March 21st

I’m looking forward to joining Paris Lit Up on March 21st to share some Spiritual Material poems. Hope to see you there. Open Mic sign-up starts at 20h and performances will begin around 20h45.

SPECIAL GUEST AT SPOKENWORD PARIS—MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26th

I’m looking forward to being the special guest at Spoken Word Paris on Monday, February 26th. I’ll be reading some brand-new work. Hope to see you at La Cave Café.

The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume X: Alabama

I’m honored to have two poems in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume X: Alabama (TRP: The University Press of SHSU 2023). To be among so many I admire — Gabrielle Bates, Emma Bolden, Tina Mozelle Braziel, Joel Brouwer, H.M. Cotton, Juliana Gray, Carolyn Hembree, Raye Hendrix, Elizabeth Hughey, Ashley M. Jones, Rodney Jones, Kwoya Fagin Maples, Jason Mccall, Lauren Goodwin Slaughter, Patti White, Jake Adam York — and so many I have yet to discover is a dream come true. I would have done anything to find a collection of voices like this when I was living in Alabama and stretching into the idea that I could make a real go of this. Thank you forever to J Bruce Fuller, Taylor Byas, Adam Vines, and William Wright for including me. I love what Byas says in her introduction: "The poems in this anthology walk alongside one another in a procession, bump into one another, converse, join hands." Yes, I hope so, and we do.

Chaussures à boucles (The Shoe Sonnets) on YouTube

I spent some time over the last few weeks recording my shoe sonnets and making "step tracks" to accompany them. The whole crown, all seven sonnets, is up now on my YouTube channel. I hope you’ll have a listen! After nine years of Paris walking, it meant a lot to make a little something out of all the dreamy kilometers.

Video Interview with Paris Heretics

Thank you to the marvelous Paris Heretics for giving me the opportunity (with amazing backdrop) to speak about my poetics and artistic journey.

Guest on City of Muses from Paris Underground Radio

I was delighted to appear on City of Muses with Jennifer Geraghty on Paris Underground Radio. In this episode, we discussed translation, my poetics and obsession with alliteration, confronting the classism of conversations on artistic influence, and the beginnings of Loving Tallulah Bankhead. You can listen to the whole thing here.

Loving Tallulah Bankhead Reviewed at Alabama Writers' Forum

Loving Tallulah Bankhead was reviewed by Bee Baldwin for Alabama Writers’ Forum! That this book continues to touch readers in my home state is a dream come true.

“In this book, the relationship between poet and muse is tangible and intimate. Tallulah is a physical presence in the poems as she stands at the side of the speaker as they wear only pearls in the Alabama night (‘Tallulah Sits Beside Me on the Banks of the Cahaba River’), ride wild down Alabama highways and cartwheel like ‘nymphs’ in ‘Tallulah and I Drive the Hoop Skirt,’ and share a bath together in ‘Lifeboat.’ Tallulah Bankhead is ‘a haunted house.’ She acts as another voice in the poems, showing off her quick-as-a-whip wit and humor in many of the pieces: ‘Well, certainly Alabama isn’t all mud puddle! / Just look at me! Oh, Darling! Whatever chigger bit me, I bit back!’ Tallulah Bankhead is alive once again in Chappell’s poetry, untamed and boisterous as ever.”

You can read the entire review here.

Interview on Translation in Four Way Review

Thank you to Four Way Review and Translations Editor Marissa Davis for giving Amanda Murphy and me the opportunity to share so much about our personal and shared path in translation. Marissa asked us tough but illuminating questions! You can read the full interview here and find three poems from our translation of Sandra Moussempès’ Cassandre à bout portant in their newest issue.

Spiritual Material: My New Substack

Friends, I have been toying with the idea of starting a Substack for over a year now. The problem was always with what angle to take, with how to initiate a real-time writing project to which I could bring real-time passion. And have you real-time reading me. But I think I've found something.

Spiritual Material is my brainstormed result. I hope you'll come along.

You can sign-up below:

Loving Tallulah Bankhead in Screen Door Review: Literary Voices of the Queer South

When I read this review by Rachel Nix, I believe I felt an inner quiver. To be seen, in the self I bring to my work and that I brought to this text in particular, by this poet and editor is such an immense gift. Thank you, Rachel and Screen Door Review: Literary Voices of the Queer South, for embracing my collection. Love the beautiful shoutouts to Paris Herectis and Lauren Patterson within.

Paris Heretics Artists Traveling to The Netherlands

I’m delighted to be taking a bus to Rotterdam with my fellow Paris Heretics artists—Alison Grace Koehler, Lesteria, and Jason Stoneking—to join Uitgeverij Opwenteling and Yes The Void for the VoidVoices Poetry Festival in Rotterdam. We’ll be performing on March 18th with Dutch poets Edwin Fagel, Josse Kok, Joris Miedema, Arnoud Rigter, and Anouk Smies.

Then, on March 19th, we’ll be sharing poems in Utrecht at ACU.