Rebecca Lehmann

Contributor Publications Winter 2024-2025 By Staff

Sharing the latest publications from MR contributors, including David Ricchiute, Amanda Hawkins, @rebeccaslehmann.bsky.social and more!
themassachusettsreview.substack.com/p/contributo...

Thanks!

Thanks Ashley!

Thanks Alison!

Publisher’s Marketplace description of the forthcoming novel The Beheading Game, by Rebecca Lehmann, acquired by Crown.

Publisher’s Marketplace description of the forthcoming novel The Beheading Game, by Rebecca Lehmann, acquired by Crown.

I’m thrilled to announce my forthcoming novel, The Beheading Game, about my girl, Anne Boleyn 🎉🥳🍾🗡️

A photo of the Newly Published / Poetry page from the 2/16 New York Times Book Review. Encircled portion describes Rebecca Lehmann’s new collection The Sweating Sickness.

The Sweating Sickness got a mention in last weekend’s @nytbooks.bsky.social !!! @upittpress.bsky.social

A flier advertising a reading with Rebecca Lehmann and Ruben Quesada, featuring pictures of each author and details of the event.

Chicago!!! I am reading from The Sweating Sickness TONIGHT at 6:30pm at City Lit Books with @rubenq.bsky.social —come join us for an evening of poetry in the Windy City (but hopefully not too windy…).

Look I’ve thrown a lot of shade at Thomas Cromwell but the man had a pet leopard and loved to dress in black velvet so…irl I probably would have been his friend.

upittpress.org/books/978082...

Valentine’s Day is a great day to order a copy of The Sweating Sickness, and dream about the spouse awaiting us all one day: death ☠️ University of Pittsburgh Press (link to order below)

@upittpress.bsky.social

The Sweating Sickness by Rebecca Lehmann propped against house plants.

Rebecca Lehmann holding The Sweating Sickness against a brick wall.

Rebecca Lehmann holding The Sweating Sickness against a brick wall.

The Sweating Sickness propped against a window.

It’s official!! The Sweating Sickness, my third book of poetry, is out today from @upittpress.bsky.social! I’m so proud of these poems, and hope you love them.

I mean, standard spelling rules are that you should double a consonant before adding “ing” so in addition to looking better it makes more sense. But ditto with towards & colour!

My tragic flaw is that I revert to British spellings when stressed because I read too many British/Canadian novels as a kid.

Chicago! Start your New Year with Poetry & Biscuits!
Carrie and I are excited to bring you readings by Natalie Eilbert, Donato Loia, Ruben Quesada, and Deborah Shapiro along with biscuits and cozy company.

Fri, Jan. 17 @ 7pm
2145 W Walton
RSVP to the biscuit maker: mailto:carrieolivia@gmail.com

INTO THE FIRMAMENT Into the firmament I stitched my farewell. The crocuses I planted while pregnant got eaten by deer. I’d be eight months in now, if I hadn’t lost the baby. What is the firmament, anyway? What is fire? I wonder when I lie in bed half awake/aware. The same student comes in with her poem about how hard it is to write a poem. I imagine placing her in the firmament too, joints pressed into stars that litter the sky. It was the morning the secretary’s son broke three ribs in a car accident, the day I got cheap carnations at work from a man in the hall I didn’t even know. I made tape into circles and stuck the circles to the backs of children’s drawings about peace, stuck the drawings to butcher paper to hang in the hall. Everyone said, “I’m so sorry about what happened to you with that student.”

They meant the one who wrote a poem about my pussy and turned it in for a homework assignment. I wore a polka dot dress. I know how to dance the polka, a little bit, having grown up in Wisconsin. Soon, I’ll move back to the Midwest, and leave bone cold New England far behind. I can imagine all the tattered houses fading from sight over the back of my son’s car seat as we drive down the tollway, the mountains receding like sad contractions, the popcorn I’ll spill on the car floor as I check the route on my phone, the car pushing to the boozy forever of winter sun and forgetful grey Lake Michigan, who will signal hello with each crested wave, who will welcome me home with a smile of mussel shells and alewives, and innumerable tan brick lighthouses, swaddled in steel railings that will make my son’s hands smell like hot pennies. Rebecca Lehmann.

“I’ll move back/to the Midwest, and leave bone cold/New England far behind. I can imagine/all the tattered houses fading from sight/over the back of my son’s car seat as we drive/down the tollway, the mountains receding like sad/contractions” — @rebeccaslehmann.bsky.social “Into the Firmament”

Oh I would love to go to that specific pairing.

Ah yes, memories of MLA Boston coming back to me, when I ran from hotel room to hotel room, and the last interview where the person kept yawning bc it was 5pm and they’d been doing it all day. After that year I refused to go to MLA and just Skyped or didn’t interview…

Consuming arts and culture is good for health and wellbeing, research finds Engaging with arts improves quality of life, increases productivity and creates financial ‘dividend’

It’s official: engaging with art and culture benefits health & wellbeing. In the UK, it generates £8bn/year in quality of life improvements & higher productivity. Starving the Arts won’t help Canada’s productivity gap. #cdnpse
@ucalgary.bsky.social #ArtMatters www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Reading my first Sally Rooney novel and can I just say I love her attention to clothing? I love clothes, and the way she details what people are wearing is deeply satisfying.

Oh god so true! And later I’ll take my dog on a walk through her favorite streets and praise her for peeing on everyone’s mailbox posts…

it’s all the purest distillation of the idea that society doesn’t actually exist. the only thing that exists is some amorphous “liberty” that entitles you to a life without obligations or responsibilities or anything that might impose a duty on you or a limit on your conduct

NT Times headline saying Trump will pardon Jan 6 insurrectionists in the “first hour” of his presidency.

Let me get this straight: you can now literally take a shit in the halls of Congress, and it’s not a crime? Cool cool cool cool cool.

I feel like at this point you could probably find The Paris Review more easily.

Tbh I wasn’t aware Time magazine still existed 😮‍💨

Forgot about this banger from last winter! Still relevant this year as I remain deeply obsessed with Anne Boleyn.

A picture of part of a larger of a book. White background black text NIKKI GIOVANNI Winter Poem once a snowflake fell on my brow and i loved it so much and i kissed it and it was happy and called its cousins and brothers and a web of snow engulfed me then i reached to love them all and i squeezed them and they became a spring rain and i stood perfectly still and was a flower

Consider yourself to have been blessed to be alive in any kind of overlap with Nikki Giovanni, May Allah be pleased with her.

She has left her voice with us. This is one of my favorites.

Photo credit: @jana_m_mader on X

Rest in poetry: one of America’s finest poets. I know I will be rereading her work today.

Yes, and also the economics of it. There is a NINE percent gender pay gap at the assistant level at my college. If your spouse makes more money (and could make more in a more desirable location) why tf would you stay??

SPACE SPIDERS SLIDE SHOW!!! This is not a drill! If you’re in the South Bend area come join us for what is sure to be a memorable evening with @jillchristman.bsky.social as part of the Visiting Writers Series.

Haha I had to look that up but it does look like a commercial I probably saw. “Calgon take me away!” cry women in their 40s across time and space…