Dear False Potato Mother,

I'm typing this in the little RV in the backyard of our house that is my bedroom. Did I mention that last time? I'm still not over it. I quit smoking like four months ago now and I don't regret it one bit. I've been listening to a lot of dub, ska, reggae, rocksteady, etc while I write grants from my little trailer for my day job. I'm back to a dumb phone and a paper planner, an mp3 player, and I'm barely on social media (there's a bluesky account out there with something like my name on it, it's fine if you find it and follow, but I'm not going to advertise it as I only check it a couple times a week)...all of which is to say I'm living the early millennial dream of scaling a part of my life back to the way it was when I was 25. And you, dear friends, are my LiveJournal.

Recent news

I was in this issue of WANTED, a literary magazine the writer Blake Butler put together. My contribution is a chapbook-length series of interviews and dreams with different characters. Give it a peek, maybe you'll like it.

I am reading in the Bay Area on June 6th! I helped choose the poems for this literary magazine and we're doing a launch reading. If you live there you should come and say hello to me! I hope to have at least a couple copies of some of my books. I'm thinking of just filling my carry-on with books and shoving a few changes of underwear in my purse. Details here.

My next book Sara, or, 'I lived my life as a cloud that followed overhead' comes out from Inside the Castle on August 17th unless something changes--that said, I haven't yet sent in a final draft of the cover art, so if it ends up taking an extra month that's absolutely on me.

Also, I juuuuuust made an agreement with another editor to put out the book after that book. I can't disclose full details yet, but the title is Black Hole Science is Filled with Apologies and it's the first un-themed collection of poetry I've put out since my first book Wolf Doctors came out nearly twelve years ago. On the promo tour for that book I realized that I was trans...who knows what will happen after this one comes out.

Here's a taste of my media consumption habits (sorry the list is so long, I didn't have time to make it shorter):

Reading:

• Girlfriends by Emily Zhou
• Realm of the Elderlings Series by Robin Hobb (I'm on book 7 and I cannot get enough! So queer! So well-written!)
• Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture by Simon Reynolds
• See a Little Light by Bob Mould

Watching:

• Babylon 5
• Sex and the City (my first time!)
• Rebel Dread (2022)
• Deep Roots (1980 BBC series on Reggae on youtube)
• Gilmore Girls

Listening:

• Prince Far I - Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapters 1-4
• Toots & the Maytals - Funky Kingston
• Trojan Lovers Box Set
• Weatherday - Hornet Disaster
• Kaho Matsui - S/T
• Venetian Snares - Rossz Csillag Alatt Született
• Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising/Flip Your Wig/Zen Arcade
• The Selecter - Too Much Pressure
• He Was Eaten by Owls - Incohate with the Light Go I
• Gingerbee - Our Skies Smile

According to the television I watch, I guess I really am living in other decades. I guess who can blame me, given...*gestures at everything*.

Love you,

Never Angeline North the Author