I’m happy to have one of my poems featured on the Crab Creek Review blog! It owes a debt to Kevin Young’s beautiful poems in his “Book of Hours.” If you missed this book when it first came out, I highly recommend going back and remedying that. It is gorgeous.
I don’t know what hunger is for
or what to hunger for.
You can’t give me
any more anymore.
Read the rest of the poem here!
My debut full-length poetry collection “Blood Song” was longlisted for the Julie Suk Award (an award for best book of poetry from an independent or university press) not too long ago and that felt tremendous. It’s an amazing honor to be recognized like that. But equally humbling was the fact Stephen Furlong not only bothered to read my book but felt compelled to write a review of it. Reviewing seems to be an especially thankless genre of writing; I see why hardly anyone does it. Which makes this all the more heart warming to me.
“Vulnerability in Schmeltzer’s writing is one of his poetic strengths,” Stephen writes. As an artist who aims toward the vulnerable, who wants to enact vulnerability not just as craft but as a lifestyle, Stephen’s compliment means the absolute world to me.
Thank you Stephen, and thank you to those involved in the Julie Suk Award process. You all make the writing world a better place.
Ahh yes, it’s that time of year when writers with books post things like “You know what makes great gifts? My books!” They say this with a bit of hope and a bit of shame. I’m no exception. I’ve got books. They’d make great gifts.
BUT even better than my poetry books is the fact if you order through me I’ll donate part of the proceeds to your choice of either the Southern Poverty Law Center (a nonprofit org dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for t…he most vulnerable members of our society) or SafeBAE (a student-focused, survivor-driven campaign whose mission is to raise awareness about sexual assault in middle and high schools and student’s rights under Title IX.) Buy books, do good, win-win.
So, if you want either “Elegy/Elk River” (my prize-winning chapbook of poems) or “Blood Song” (my debut full-length) message me and let’s make the world a better place.
