Out for Stars
is a place for those of us who want to pay attention, a home for those of us who find poetry and literature a compass to making sense of life. That true-north needle often makes us feel a little different, and I know something about being different: chronic illness and late-diagnosed autism have set me on a course that doesn’t often fit with others’ expectations.
Do you feel the same? Do you walk through this astonishing world in a unique way? Then stay. By the lights of story and poem, personal essay and autistic special interest, we will remain astonished by the world—and ourselves—together.
(Why “out for stars”? Read my Robert Frost-filled first post here.)
Poetry Any Place
is where I indulge my desire to share every poem that crosses my path. You’ll find recordings once or twice a week of, say, Frost, Whitman, Harjo, or Limon, along with brief musings on why each poem grabbed my attention. You’ll find me reading in different locations (but never while driving!), because I want you to remember that you can read poetry—you guessed it—any place.
Who am I?
Walt Whitman might answer that question one way (something about containing multitudes) and Emily Dickinson another (“I’m nobody. Who are you?”), and both are true, but you’re here for details:
In recent years (aka middle age), I have learned that I am autistic, and my current writing projects turn on that dime. (Special interests including but not limited to Dorothy Sayers’s mystery novels and Indigo Girls song lyrics.)
I’ve lived in Athens, Georgia, Asheville, North Carolina, and Blacksburg, Virginia, with a number of cities in between; that’s why I write so much about houses and home.
I currently live in Lynchburg, Virginia with my husband and two daughters and teach Creative Writing and American Literature. Once upon a time, I got a Master of Arts in (no surprise) English Language & Literature from the University of Georgia, where I wrote about whether or not words can actually do what we want them to. God, I hope they can. I’ve staked my creative work on it.
My memoir in essays titled At Home with Books is being published every other Friday during Fall 2024 here.
Find me on Threads as @mrsmartinreadsbooks.
A Sampling of My Published Writings
The Second Time I Laughed during Holy Communion, The Other Journal Spring 2024
Losing the Mask in English Class, Midstory Magazine 1.4.2024
Mortar and Bones, Susurrus Magazine 8.20.2023
The Birth of America’s Adam and Poem for Farid, Bridge of Lament 6.2023
At the Bakery, Isele Magazine 12.21.2022
Portrait of Anna Hyatt Huntington, The Curator Fall 2022
Teacher Stories: the Form for Me, Tweetspeak Poetry 6.17.21
The Writer Makes Coffee, Brevity blog 1.25.21
A Line of Words, Tweetspeak Poetry 12.16.20
Prepare Yourself, The Curator 8.21.19; originally published in longer form in Relief, Spring 2016
Older, Coffee + Crumbs 3.20.17
Supplication, Proximity 2016
All That We Can't Leave Behind, Makes You Mom 3.11.16; The Curator Fall 2011
Safe as Houses, The Curator 2.4.15
Certain Tides, The Curator 8.11.14 and The Equals Record in print Fall 2013
Watching for Trains, The Curator 2.17.14
Chimneys Dark and Spirits Bright, The Curator Winter 2012
The Bearable Lightness of Letting Go, The Curator Summer 2012
Open Your Eyes Wide: The Generous Vision of Marilynne Robinson The Other Journal Spring 2012
Mountain Roads, Sing Me Home, The Curator Summer 2011
