A Welcome from the God of the Desert Books Poetry Editor

I don’t think I’d imagined I’d ever become a poet, let alone a poetry editor. 

But here I am.

A little about me, before I get into the nitty-gritty of this website. I began writing as a kid. I did picture books. My dad got me the game Storybook Weaver–which was last released in 2004 and was a kind of Sim City for young authors–and I was hooked. I wrote all kinds of things, but mostly fantasy, if I can remember correctly–knights and dragons and all that. My elementary school had us do storybooks, too, and I did a horror story about a vampire and a thriller about a guy attempting to rob my house. I did poetry, too, and there’s one particular poem that stands out:  a dream one, somewhat modeled after Lewis Carroll. My teacher loved it. Perhaps that was the beginning of my career.

Now let’s flash forward. I continued writing both fiction and poetry, but if you’d asked me what kind of writer I wanted to be, I would have initially said a horror writer. Then I would have said a literary writer. 

I didn’t think of myself as primarily a poet a few years ago, mostly because I started to have more success as a poet. But it was also because I began to realize my talents are best suited for poetry. Even so, I’d said poetry was something I’d written as a second language. 

Now, though, I can’t get enough of it. I love all forms, both metered and unmetered. It’s a craft, and it’s one I’d like to dedicate my life to mastering. (Which is why I’m in the middle of an MFA at the University of St. Thomas–Houston. Check us out!) So I’m happy to help run the poetry section here at this new venture we’re calling God of the Desert Books.

Send us your work. (Dave and I are particularly looking for newer poets!) We can’t wait to read it.

To submit your work to God of the Desert Books - poetry or any other content - simply subscribe to our Substack (free is fine!) and then reply to any email with a query describing what you are interested in submitting.