Fellow poet and SFPA member Matt Betts asked me to do a "poetry post-mortem" for his blog! This is basically a behind-the-scenes of one of my poems, how it came to me, what inspired it, and why I wrote it. I chose "Two Hundred Fifty-Seven," a poem from my new chapbook Glimmerglass Girl. 

Read the poem and it's post-mortem here . . .

This fall I'm hitting up a few book events in Texas. Here's where you can find me, pick up a copy of Glimmerglass Girl, and say hi!
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​Join Writespace and Spider Road Press as we celebrate the release of Glimmerglass Girl, the debut poetry chapbook written by dedicated Writespace volunteer Holly Lyn Walrath. The collection’s publisher, Finishing Line Press, describes the work as a “unique visual collection of speculative poetry [that] addresses femininity, feminism, and the intersection of womanhood and nature."

To celebrate Glimmerglass Girl, we are inviting women-identifying writers to share their own work alongside Holly at our Women’s Voices Reading and Open Mic. We are excited to hear work that examines all aspects of womanhood, and we especially welcome historically marginalized voices.

DATE: Friday, October 19th, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Writespace (2000 Edwards, Studio #208, Houston, TX 77007)
PRICE: Free to all! If you are interested in reading, please send an email to cassandra@writespacehouston.org.

I have a new prose poem up today at Terse Journal: What it Feels Like to Play Video Games as a Woman. 

Read the full poem here . . . 

My tarot-inspired story "Tarot of the Animal Lords" is now available on Amazon in the Shards Noblebright anthology by Spring Song Press. This story is about a woman trying to find her way out of a dystopian future where a mysterious illness has devastated the countryside. Along the way, she reconnects with her wild roots and the boyfriend she left behind. 

Get your copy today:

I got to share some fun pics of my bookshelves over at The Coil Magazine as part of their #Shelfie series. 

​As I'm moving, books have been on my mind because my current shelves are bursting at the seams. I finally convinced my spouse to get me yet another bookshelf for the new house. (We now have 6?) But there's something magical about your whole house feeling like a library. Books are a safe harbor in the storm. Check out my copies of Jane Eyre, The Eyes of the Dragon, and of course, now I get to add my own chapbook Glimmerglass Girl. 

​Read the article here . . . 

I have a new poem up today at Liminality: A Magazine of Speculative Poetry. It's called "Dead-Eye Girl" and it's nice and creepy for the upcoming month of October! 

I am seeking you in the blood on my tongue
in the rims of shattered bottles under bridges
in the blossoms of storm clouds in summertime
in the songs of cicadas swarming.

Read the full poem here . . .

The Coil Magazine has five poems from my chapbook Glimmerglass Girl up today! It's really cool to see these poems out in the world. 

Read them here . . . 
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I wrote a little creative nonfiction piece over at Cotton Xenomorph today on my secret food love: sweet pickles! Yes, I am a Southern girl and I love these little sweet nuggets of goodness. I am ashamed/not ashamed. 

Read the full essay here. . . 

I had the pleasure of chatting with fellow Finishing Line Press poet Andrea Blythe about what it means to be a weird writer, how Melville's poems are way better than that whale book, and refusing to cater to genre rules. 

Read the Interview here!

Today I have an interview up with Katie Lewington, a UK-based poet and book blogger! Katie and I chatted about my upcoming projects (Spoiler: Space Pirates!), how I balance writing/life (Spoiler: I suck at it.) and what poetry means to me.

My book will release on Amazon this Friday, August 24th! Pre-order a copy and then leave a review. It makes your favorite poet love you dearly. 

Barnes & Noble: 

You can also pick up a copy at B&N. Does your local store not have a copy? Just ask an associate to place an order for you! It helps stores know what books to order and helps indie authors! 

Other Indie bookstores offering pre-order sales: 
Search your local bookstores at IndieBound!

Houston: 
Brazos Bookstore
Murder by the Book
Blue Willow Bookshop
Katy Budget Books

Austin & Texas
Book Woman
Book People
The Twig (San Antonio)
Interabang (Dallas)
The Dock (Fort Worth)

Nationwide
Cavalier House Books (Louisiana) 
Watermark Books (Wichita, KS)
​Left Bank Books (St. Louis, MS)
BookWorks (Albuquerque, NM)
Village Lights (Madison, IN) 
Book Soup (West Hollywood, CA)
Green Apple Books (San Francisco, CA)
Skylight Books (Los Angeles, CA)
Tattered Cover (Denver, CO)
Politics & Prose (Washington, DC)
Print (Portland, ME)
Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY)
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As always, Glimmerglass Girl is also available from the publisher at Finishing Line Press. 

​I'm excited to share that my story "Tarot of the Animal Lords" will appear in the Shards anthology edited by C.J. Brightley. This is a story that I worked very hard on and always hoped would get picked up for publication. It's got a unique structure based on tarot cards. I hope you pick up your copy!

Pre-order a copy on Amazon!

My story "After the First Comes the Last" is up at Daily Science Fiction today. 

Read it here.

This piece was written in a flash fiction class by the queen of flash, Kathy Fish. I really would suggest anyone wanting to generate some new flash to take one of her online classes, which sell out very fast. (ba-dum-cha.) When I wrote this piece, I was playing with the prompt of "firsts and lasts". Somehow, that got to be the question of "What if a witch only had a limited amount of spells in her lifetime? How would she use them?" It's a personal story for me. Someone in the DSF Facebook page has already called it a #MeToo story, but I think if we think in terms of that it limits how we view the world. This isn't just a today story. 

TW: Assault/Consent

When I wrote it, I was thinking of Haruka Weiser, a freshman at UT who was raped, strangled, and killed, her body left in Waller Creek. I went to UT back in 2003-2007. The campus holds a very special place to me. It was one of the few places I felt safe and comfortable. I felt like the trees were my friends and that the other students were people I could talk to and relate to. I'd never had that experience in a school before. Waller Creek, for those of you that don't know, is a beautiful creek that runs below campus (Most of the paths are built above it.) For my Victorian lit class, we went down to Waller and looked at the footprints of dinosaurs that are preserved there, and wrote while sitting on the rocks. It's like a hidden world. So I was devastated to learn of a student's death and assault in that sacred place. I was even more devastated to learn that the person arrested was a homeless man with mental illness. There are no easy solutions to these problems. When I went to UT, the homeless population was everywhere. I never would have thought to be afraid, but I never walked the campus at night because I lived off-campus. Every so often when parent's weekend came, the police would round up the homeless population and get them off the streets for a while, for show. But they never seemed to care about finding a solution that worked in a human, caring way. 

For me, we can make big choices and try to change things on a larger scale, but it all starts small. With tiny choices. Tiny actions that reverberate. We are humans living in this place together. How we help each other can mean more sometimes than the stalled work of congress. I really believe that by helping one person you can make a big difference. 

Anywho, I've gotten off topic, but I hope you read my story and enjoy it.

Save the date! I'm celebrating the launch of my book Glimmerglass Girl in Houston at Writespace on October 19! And, because I love this community of writers, it's also an open mic for other women who want to come read their work. I can't wait to hear all the amazing writers who I know will be in attendance. This is not an event you'll want to miss!

RSVP or Share on Facebook!

I've got a new post for subscribers up at Curious Fictions on how art can be an entry point for writing. Curious Fictions is a platform similar to Patreon where you can subscribe to receive updates from me including reprinted short stories and writing-related exclusive posts, previews of upcoming projects and early releases! 

Subscribe today for just $2/month...

Glimmerglass Girl was reviewed by Stefani Cox and here's what she had to say about it: 

"There are meditations on heart and soul, with a tender probing of loneliness underneath. Many of the poems have a mirrored and echoing quality—they seem to come from the borderlands of the psyche, where who we know we are meets the subconscious and mysterious currents below."

Read the whole review . . .

Glimmerglass Girl was reviewed at The Coil Magazine. Here's what reviewer Laura McKenzie had to say about it: 

"The notion of the “instapoet” is one that looms over the work of any contemporary female poet, and parodies of poems by writers such as Rupi Kaur often have a punchline that frames poetry as nonsense that teenaged girls scrawl in diaries. But Walrath’s collection suggests an intelligence that retaliates through showing the beauty, complexity, and tragedy of modern womanhood — a butterfly that can haul 40 times its own weight seems an apt metaphor for the unifying strength and delicacy of femininity we still struggle with. As visceral and violent as certain moments are, Walrath’s poetic voice is never dwindling. Glimmerglass Girl flitters seamlessly between the abstract and the digital age, undeniably placed in 2018 while feeling timeless. She gives into the “act of self-interrogation” not in her reflection but in her selfies, asking “is this what I look like to him.” Of course, anyone could tell you that no selfie is an accurate portrait, but then, does that stop any of us from trying?"

Read the full review here . . . 

Today I am featured on the NetGalley Insights blog, where I was interviewed about #GlimmerglassGirl being a top-requested book in poetry. I love getting to share some behind the scenes info on how I market my book for new poets who might be looking for tips and tricks. And of course, I'm blown away by the response to my book and the kindness of reviewers on Goodreads and NetGalley!

Read the whole interview...
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I was interviewed at South Florida Poetry Journal in their "Interview with a Poet" series about my favorite books on writing, what I'm reading right now, and whether poems have ever made me cry. 

"One of my favorite books is Edward Hirsch’s How to Read a Poem. Hirsch says “These poems have come from a great distance to find you.” He talks about how poems are a message in a bottle. As a writer, I send out my work into the world because I want the one person who needs it to find it.  The distance between the poet and the reader is a great gulf, crashing in the darkness, and I get to shine a light into the crevices and weird places of the world with my words. This is why my work is so often speculative in nature—because it’s the undiscovered country that excites me."

Read the full interview here...

I have two new poems up at Isacoustic - "When Darkness Leaves" (after Mark Strand) and "Diary Outside of April" (after Sylvia Plath).  These are both poems which reference other poets and if you can pay attention closely you might be able to figure out where the inspiration comes from! They are what I call "mirror" poems where I replace each word from another poet's work with an opposite word, eventually compiling my own poem. 

Read them here...

I was interviewed at Freethinking Ahead, a blog about science fiction, feminism, and free thought, as part of their Speculative Poets in Conversation series. 

It was fun to get to talk about my new book, Glimmerglass Girl, in the context of feminism and resistance, as well as dip into my history as a Texas author and what that means for me as a woman. 


Read the full interview here...

My chapbook of speculative feminist poems was reviewed by Christina Rosso over at Rag Queen Periodical: 

"​The language in Glimmerglass Girl is seductive, soft to the touch, yet stabbing. You feel like a knife is twisting in your gut as your read through each poem. Walrath uses the collection to explore her experience as a woman, shedding light on the insecurity, desire, and self-love she has faced. The collection looks at the business of disappearing, of splintering one’s female self, while also showing a woman’s desire to be noticed, to be seen as beautiful. In the poem “In Rejoice of Kindred Grief,” she writes, “for anyone to truly / see her drunken starlight as female beauty / for a body that’s not a four-letter word / for one true kiss.”

Read the full review...

I have three new poems up at Nice Cage journal, as part of their "Climate Change And/Or Die" issue: "Boll Heart," "And Farther Death Goes," and "A Deep Enough Abyss"

Read the poems here...

What what! I'm giving away 10 signed, limited edition copies of #GlimmerglassGirl on Goodreads! 

While details are still being finalized, my publisher is planning on printing gorgeous hardcover versions of my chapbook, Glimmerglass Girl. If these are available in time, I'll be signing 10 copies for Goodreads readers! 

Enter to win!

If you just can't wait, be sure to download a free ARC version from NetGalley. 

I was interviewed by the kind editors over at Literary Orphans about my new book of speculative poems, Glimmerglass Girl, which is due out in August! Scott Waldyn has been nice enough to publish two of my pieces in the past, In the Dark World, a tiny microfiction about adolescence, and Peony Red, a poem which appears in my book and is about living a childfree existence as a woman. 

Read the whole interview here...
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