Out for Stars
is a place for those of us who want to pay attention, a home where poetry and literature are a compass to make sense of life. That true-north needle often makes us feel different, and I know something about being different: chronic illness and late-diagnosed autism set me on a course that doesn’t often fit expectations.
Do you also walk through this world in a unique way? Then stay. At Out for Stars, you will find me exploring meaning through poetry readings, flash meditations (often nature-oriented), creative essays on women writers, and bookish memoir chapters. By the lights of poetry and nature, personal essay and autistic special interest, let’s remain astonished by the world—and ourselves—together.
(Why “out for stars”? Read here.)
Who am I?
I have lived in Athens, Georgia, Asheville, North Carolina, and Blacksburg, Virginia, with a number of cities between; that’s why I write so much about houses and home.
In recent middle age, I have learned that I am autistic. (Special interests including but not limited to Dorothy Sayers mystery novels and Indigo Girls songs.)
I currently live with my family in Lynchburg, Virginia, where I am a museum docent and sometimes teach Creative Writing and American Literature.
Once upon a time, I got an English M.A. 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, At Home with Books, is available here.
Find me on Threads and Instagram as @mrsmartinreadsbooks.
A Sampling of Published Writings
Nothing Like Peach Blossoms in February, Asterales Journal 4.2025
The American Lit Teacher Tries Her Hand at a Creative Writing Class, Porcupine Literary 10.2024
Down Here in Time, I Grow Strange, Dappled Things Fall 2024
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
At the Bakery, Isele Magazine 12.21.2022
Portrait of Anna Hyatt Huntington, The Curator Fall 2022
The Writer Makes Coffee, Brevity blog 1.25.21
Prepare Yourself, The Curator 8.21.19; originally 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
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
Mountain Roads, Sing Me Home, The Curator Summer 2011
