March 25-27, The Oxford Conference for the Book, 4pm reading on flash at Southside Gallery with Steve Almond and Ira Sukrungurang

Hey y’all! Join me in New Orleans for this all-levels, interactive micro-memoir writing class! All class members get a signed copy of The Irish Goodbye: micro-memoirs!

Pass Books, Reading & Signing, 6pm

I’ll be on and AWP panel moderated by Paisley Rekdal on failing.

I’ll read with David Baker at the famed NYC series!

Lost Dog Coffee in Taylor, MS

Square Books event Join us for the release of The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs (W. W. Norton)

I’ll be in conversation with Summer Anderson at Ladybird Books, 299 King St, Charleston, SC 29401

Panel: The Explosion of Oral StoryTelling: The Power of Moving from Page to Stage

I’ll read poems Sunday Sept. 29 as part of the “Faulkner for All” gala in New Orleans.

I'll be part of Climate Aid's “Save Ancient Forests” concert and reading.

I’ll interview poets Clint Smith and Major Jackson Sat. Sept 15 in Jackson, MS.

I’l be in conversation with Randy Fertel' as he discusses "Winging It" at Octavia Books, 6 pm

Climate Aid: The Voice of the Forest, will be at the beautiful Merrill Auditorium in Portland on Sunday, October 15 at 7PM.  The Merrill is housed in Portland's City Hall and holds 1,908 seats.   Beth Ann will be there in support of Protect Ancient Forests, and Maggie Rogers will be playing a concert.

This reading will be held the Lindsey Young Auditorium of the John C. Hodges Library at the University of Tennessee.

MS State Starkville will host the first-ever MS Young Writers Poetry Festival for writers aged K-12. Fennelly will be leading an hour-long workshop for middle grades.

The Moth in NYC I’ll be telling a story, live, at the NYU Mainstage theater!

The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. The Moth celebrates the ability of stories to honor both the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection. It seeks to present recognized storytellers among established and emerging writers, performers and artists and to encourage storytelling among communities whose stories often go unheard.

What should we do when we have the urge to write our stories, but we can’t figure out how or where to start? This all-levels, interactive zoom masterclass, conducted through The Rowe Center, will provide strategies for those seeking to answer this question, and our main strategy will be this: start small.

Our inspiration for this class will be the hummingbird. The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly forward, backward, sideways, and, for short distances, upside down. Precisely because they are so small, hummingbirds can do things other birds can’t do. In this class, we’ll look at tiny texts and study the things that they can do because they are small. How can attention to the tiniest literary creations challenge and inspire us? How can writing small trick us into writing our big stories?

The schedule for this five-hour online class will go like this: Beth Ann will begin with an hour and a half craft talk that introduces you to word-hummingbirds such as the monostich, the 6-word memoir, the aphorism, the ten-second essay, and the American Sentence. In this first segment of the master class, she’ll intersperse ten things she’s learned from writing tiny texts. Then she’ll turn class attention to her favorite short form, the micro-memoir. In today’s increasingly heterogeneous landscape, cross-genre works that blend inheritances from multiple literary parents have a new urgency and popularity. Combining the extreme brevity of poetry, the narrative arc of fiction, and the truth-telling of creative nonfiction, the micro-memoir is an exciting hybrid. It’s also unusually user-friendly, especially for writers who feel overwhelmed or intimidated when faced with telling their truths. This portion of class will end with a writing prompt. You will have one hour to draft, take a break, or join Beth Ann, a certified Pilates instructor, in an optional stretch session. Next, when we come back together, you’ll have the opportunity to share your micro-memoirs in small groups. And the last hour will be a general discussion and time for any questions.

https://rowecenter.org/build-me-a-hummingbird-how-to-distill-your-life-in-a-micro-memoir/

Auburn University, Pebble Hill

www.aub.ie/thirdthursday

https://www.lafayettewritersstudio.com/adult-classes

Build Me a Hummingbird of Words: Micro-Memoirs. Length of Class: 2 hours

The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly forward, backward, sideways, and, for short distances, upside down—hummingbirds can do things other birds can’t do precisely because they are so small. In this class, we’ll look at tiny texts and learn what can be accomplished in a small space that can’t be accomplished in a bigger one. What can we learn by radically shifting scale? How can attention to the tiniest literary creations challenge and inspire us? We'll look at word-hummingbirds such as the monostich, the 6-word memoir, the aphorism, the ten-second essay, and the American Sentence. We’ll end with a focus on the micro-memoir. Combining the extreme brevity of poetry, the narrative arc of fiction, and the truth-telling of creative nonfiction, the micro-memoir is an exciting hybrid form that blends inheritances from multiple literary parents. I’ll share ten things I’ve learned from writing micro-memoirs, and we’ll end class with a prompt so students can write their own.