I talked with Garret Schuelke for his podcast and it was relaxed and fun.

Garret is fantastic, and I'm honored to have been interviewed for his podcast. Below is the link, and I hope you enjoy!

That Time In a Writer's Life an interview with Sheldon Lee Compton

Amy-Jean Muller published my piece "In My Father's Father's House" in Outcast Press's new issue

My piece "In My Father's Father's House" was difficult to write. As with most all of my writing, there's a lot of autobiographical material in this piece. It had been rejected by a ton of journals before Amy-Jean told me she liked it for Outcast. Below is the full issue:

POETRY | Outcast press (outcast-press.com).

It's been a while since I rambled

Made a reconnection I'm really excited about. 

My great friend Peter Schwartz and I have bumped into one another again along this cosmic interstate. Peter and I have been writing and corresponding since 2014 but had hit a long lull - too long - and then there he was, right there on Twitter. 

We talked on all the subjects and, of course, writing was included, if not the centerpiece most of the time. In fact, we wrote a few poems together in collaboration. One was published way back when. Here's a link to that one:

Poor Road Trip by Peter Schwartz and Sheldon Lee Compton — NAILED Magazine

What's next? Who knows. But it's going to be fun. 

For now, go have a look at of his merchandise. 

Conceptual art to make you think and feel. by ParadoxBoxArtStore (etsy.com)

My cosmic piece "There's Nothing Special About SN 1987 A" was published by trampset and I'm aglow

I love cosmic stuff. Cosmology. Not basic cosmology, though, if there even is such a thing. I love the deep mystery of the universes and whatever the next level is beyond universes, as this is as big as our brains have allowed us to consider the vast darkness to this point. 

Sometimes I write about it.

The most recent piece I finished was one called "There's Nothing Special About SN 1987 A." SN 1987 A is was a type II supernovae first observed in, well, 1987. It was the first time since the Kepler's Supernovae that one had been observed. The Kepler happened in 1604 and was the only known supernovae able to be seen by the naked eye, thus the recorded event that far back. 

I love SN 1987 A. It was a good year, to begin with. But also I just love a good supernovae. They are pretty mysterious, so I decided to write from the point of view that they are not so special because I like to mix it up. But the piece makes the case by comparison. 

I hope you go read it at trampset, a journal I absolutely love and one that is top of the market on all fronts. I'm grateful to the many fine editors there for enjoying the piece enough to share it with their readers. 

Favorite lines from Leigh Chadwick's DAUGHTERS OF THE STATE

Leigh Chadwick's book Daughters of the State is a linked collection of pieces I thought worked really well. It's strong and poetic and well-made. 

Here are my favorite lines/pieces.

1. It's one paragraph with a single, repeating sentence that put me in mind of Michael Ondaatje's famous, reoccurring line, "Passing wet chicory that lies in the field like the sky," from Coming Through Slaughter.

Chadwick's sentence repeats 14 times to complete the piece. It is: "The girls kiss the sky and the sky laughs." It's a bold  decision and shows a conviction of vision I also appreciate every time I see it in good literature.

2. "Sad girls touching light with their tongues pressed against the sun."

3. "The girls dream their bellies full."

4. "They dream the pantry is so tall it goes starling."

5. "When the girls wake up, they open their mouths and birds fly out. They don't know how long the birds were there."

6. "The seconds between the lightning and thunder shorten. The girls hold their breath. They wait for their faces to explode..."

7. The following passage I love for its specificity. And accuracy: "She'll tell you about the time she ran out of meth, so she peed on eight slices of Wonder Bread, waited for the bread to dry, and then ate the slices while chugging a 2-liter of Pepsi, all to keep herself high. She'll tell you about how she ate her own scabs to keep the fix."

Daughters of the State is a worthy read. Buy a copy here and enjoy.

Two new pieces appearing in journals this week

 I've been lucky to have a lot of pieces published the past two months. Two of the most recent have been "The Scout" and "The Thing about a Brain."

"The Scout" was published at Schuylkill Valley Journal Online on July 15. It's my experiment in trying to get into the head of a man who nearly kidnapped me (and probably would have raped and murdered me) one summer day in 1985 while I tossed a baseball to myself off a brick wall near my home. He just walked right up and told me he was a scout with the Cincinnati Reds. Most of the rest, not all but most of it, is in the piece.

"The Thing about a Brain" was published at Triggerfish Critical Review for its Issue 26. I've wanted a piece published there since 2009. They consistently publish good pieces and also good critical reviews of those pieces. It's a really unique approach; contributors volunteer to write short critical reviews on two or three other pieces in that issue. This means that most of the contributors will have their piece looked at and written about several times for the issue. Truly a generous and creative way to fully engage people in your journal. I also love the name of the journal. 

"Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants" published today at Bear Creek Gazette

My piece "Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants" was published today at Bear Creek Gazette. I love this journal. Read the whole issue and then get into the past issues. Stuart Buck is working this journal into beautiful directions.