In Memory of Len Roberts

Just a quick note from Jamaica. I was checking my email and discovered a message from my colleagues at Muhlenberg College informing me the poet Len Roberts passed away this past Thursday night.

Len was one of the first poets to mentor me and I can safely say he was probably one of the best poet-teachers I worked with. Looking back, I think I learned the most from him. Len made his breakthrough in 1989 when his book Black Wings was selected by Allen Ginsberg for the National Poetry Series.

More on Len, and Calabash, and Jamaica in the coming days...

Here is a link to Len's Obituary: Len Roberts

Frank O'Hara Award Runner-up

Just a note to say my long poem Platos de Sal was a runner-up in the Frank O'Hara Award Chapbook Competition this year. Last year I came in Fourth for Pear Slip and the year before I was a Semifinalist for Narcissus Resists. But next year the contest will be going away (only for a year, though) as Jim Elledge plans to restructure it into a full-length book competition for queer writers...