Category: Tamp

Wrapping Up National Poetry Month

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I don’t ever remember a past April where I could visibly see poetry celebrated so often and in so many ways. Maybe one of the things we couldn’t predict about living in a dystopian world is how people would turn to poetry. Regardless, it was beautiful.

For my part, I had the privilege of reading poems to the monthly book discussion group, All Over the Page, at Lawson McGhee Library in Knoxville, Tennessee. I read poems from Tamp, as well as some new poems from a new book that will coming out in August.

Yeah, I sort of just buried the lede there, didn’t I? But that’s right. I have a new collection of poems coming out in August from Mercer University Press. It’s called Feller. I just saw the cover for the first time this week, and I love it so much. I can’t wait to share it with you all very soon.

In the meantime, that reading at Lawson McGhee Library was recorded as an episode of their podcast The Beat. You can listen to the episode here: https://the-beat.captivate.fm/episode/denton-loving-joins-us-live-for-all-over-the-page.

Special thanks to Alan May, Lawson McGhee librarian and host of The Beat, who invited me. Alan has a great book of poems out himself: Derelict Days in That Derelict Town: New and Uncollected Poems, published through BlazeVOX Books. I hope you’ll check it out.

There’s another lovely book recently out that you should know about, and that’s Beneath Occluded Shine by Claudia Stanek, published by Finishing Line Press. Claudia will be celebrating an online book launch on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at Jules’ Poetry Playhouse. I’ll also be there reading a couple of poems along with poets Gail Hosking and Catherine Faurot. The reading is at 6:00 p.m. Pacific / 9:00 p.m. Eastern. It would be so nice to see you there.

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A Celebration of Place Poems and More

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Tonight, July 6th

If you’ve read almost any of my writing, you won’t be surprised that place is a central element in both my prose and poetry. So I couldn’t be more excited to be part of tonight’s Celebration of Place Poems, part of the Be Well Reading Series from ELJ Editions & Redacted Books. I’ll be reading alongside J.D. Isip and P. Scott Cunningham.

Tonight’s celebration of place poems begins at 7:00 p.m. EDT. The event is online, and it would be lovely to see you there. The event is free, but you must register in advance through Eventbright: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/be-well-reading-series-a-celebration-of-place-poems-tickets-666444412177

Sylva, North Carolina, on July 8th

If you’re in western North Carolina, please come out to the fantastic City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina, on Saturday, July 8th at 3:00 p.m. EDT. I feel so lucky to be able to return to City Lights, one of my favorite book stores and one of my favorite places to read. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s more. I’ll be there with my friend Patti Frye Meredith who will be reading from her novel South of Heaven, a great book about a familiarly-dysfunctional family in a small Southern town. (You can read my past conversation with Patti about her book.) South of Heaven was so much fun to read, and it’s always a joy to be in Patti’s company. We both would love the chance to see you in person at City Lights!

Tamp in Chapter 16 & Change Seven

Finally, I want to say how grateful I am for the writers who give their time to reviewing other writers’ books. And especially those who review my book! It was great to see Tamp receive some love in the past few weeks, and I truly appreciate the generous views they’ve taken to my work.

Emily Choate at Chapter 16 said, “…each poem stretches taut between our perception of the material world around us and the ineffable, inescapable pull of a deeper world.”

And Ace Boggess at Change Seven said, “Tamp is not a book to be entered lightly. The poems have been crafted with the grave digger’s precision.”

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Thanks also to all of you who subscribe to this newsletter, and for all of the ways you’ve already shown support for me and Tamp! Stay tuned for new posts in the coming weeks as I share a new list of summer submission opportunities, as well as my recent conversation with Salvation South‘s new poetry editor.

The Artist’s Statement Podcast

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The Artist’s Statement has only been around for a little over 2 years, but in that time, some amazing writers have been featured there, writers such as Nikki Giovanni, Kathy Fish and Colm Toibin, just to name a few. Somehow, I am fortunate enough to now be included on that list. Huge thanks to my friend Davin Malasarn for inviting me to talk about Tamp, and some of the ideas that Tamp explores such as ancestry, mythology, and our interactions with both the natural and dream worlds.

You can listen to The Artist’s Statement wherever you find podcasts or at The Granum Foundation’s website: https://www.granumfoundation.org/podcasts

In addition to producing awesome podcasts that talk about writing, The Granum Foundation is also doing wonderful work to support writers and their projects through the Granum Foundation Prize and the Granum Foundation Translation Prize. The Foundation Prize is a $5,000 award for one writer, and up to three finalists are awarded $500 or more. The Translation Prize is an award of $1,500 or more.

Applications for both awards are open now, and you can find out more on The Granum Foundation website: https://www.granumfoundation.org/granum-prize

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Coming up later this week, I’ll share a new list of submission opportunities for writers. And next week, I’ll be in conversation with Erika Nichols-Frazer about her memoir, Feed Me, sponsored by Birch Bark Editing. The online event is free, but registration is required. Hope to see you there.

Tamp Ranks #4 on Amazon’s New Releases in American Poetry

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I can’t say thank you enough to all of you who have ordered a copy of Tamp, as well as for the number of other ways you’ve already shown your support for me and this book! There are hardly words to express how much this book means to me and what a gift it is to know so many of you are reading it.

Tamp’s first week out in the world has been a real whirlwind. It began last week when Marc Jolley, my editor at Mercer University Press, let me know that Tamp had gone into an immediate second printing just before our April 4th publication day.

On Friday, the Southern Review of Books published this thoughtful, generous review of Tamp by Matthew Duffus: https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2023/04/07/tamp-denton-loving-review/.

What was an even greater surprise was to see Tamp pop up in Amazon’s rankings. Over the weekend, the book went as high as #4 for new releases in American Poetry! It ranked as high as #27 in American Poetry overall! (See Tamp there at #27 just behind Maya Angelou and Amanda Gorman?)

If you’ve read or are reading Tamp, I’d be so grateful if you could leave a rating or review on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tamp-Poems-Denton-Loving/dp/0881468738/. Everything to do with algorithms is a mystery to me, but Amazon reviews make a huge difference and will help keep Tamp in the eyes of new readers.

You can also help raise awareness of Tamp by posting on social media and tagging me. Send me photos of Tamp with your dogs and cats, with your adorable children and beautiful landscapes in the background.

And if you’d like to hear me read some poems from the book, please come hang out with me this week from the comfort of your living rooms. I’ll be speaking with Damian Dressick and Christina Fisanick on WANA Live!, the reading series for the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia. You can watch live on YouTube or Facebook on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Again, thank you for all of the ways you’ve already shown support for me and Tamp!