After an extremely quiet April, the Library of Winkelman Abbey has hit the ground running with a fine collection of books and journals for this, the first week of the new month.

On the top left is Jericho Brown’s most recent book of poetry, The Tradition, published by Copper Canyon Press. This was an impulse buy when I visited my favorite local indie bookstore, Books and Mortar, this past Sunday. I first heard of Brown only a couple of weeks ago, when one of his poems arrived in my in-box via one of the several poem-a-day lists to which I subscribe.

The book in the top middle is The Essential June Jordan, published by Copper Canyon Press, which coincidentally  includes an afterward by Jericho Brown.

On the top right is the latest issue of Jacobin, which one of these days I will get around to reading, when my brain can handle political/economic deep thinking. So maybe in June.

On the bottom left is the new issue of Salvage, which I will read when my brain can handle really depressing political/economic deep thinking, which is probably a redundant phrase.

Bottom center is an inscribed copy of Hummingbird Salamander, Jeff VanderMeer’s new book, fresh from The Midtown Reader in Tallahassee, Florida.

And on the bottom right is James Attlee’s Under the Rainbow, a collection of writing and photography from the first year of the pandemic (and isn’t that a hell of thing to write – the first year of the pandemic), published by And Other Stories.

In reading news, I just finished Evan Winter’s excellent The Rage of Dragons, which was exactly the escapist literature I needed to let my brain cool down after the past month of dense prose.

I am still working on Darran Anderson’s Imaginary Cities, which is gorgeous, but my mental capacity is currently nearly nonexistent so I can only read a couple of pages a day. Still, I hope to complete this book by the end of the month.

In writing news, still not a lot going on. Too much of the mundane world pressing on that part of my brain. I have some vacation time scheduled for the end of the month, so with luck that down time will help reset my circuits.

With luck…