Events and News
Check here for what I am doing and have done!
Upcoming Events
POETRY ANTHOLOGY
OCTOBER 15 DEADLINE!
BAD CATHOLICS ANTHOLOGY
CALL FOR POEMS
Deadline extended to October 15, 2026
This anthology is in the preliminary stages; I will be submitting a proposal with poems this autumn. I hope it will be accepted, of course, but there is no deal as of now.
I am looking for poems by poets with some Catholic connection—you are, were, are sometimes somewhat adjacent; you used to be a nun or priest, attended mass with next door neighbor as a kid, obsessed over saint biographies; you married into, divorced out of; you saw and were traumatized by The Exorcist; you hero-worship Mother Teresa, Father Damien, or another well-known cleric, you have a great poem about Madonna, an Irish Catholic, wake, or visiting the Vatican, etc.
Any form, style, perspective, attitude EXCEPT
no Catholic bashing*
no CSA (I am not there right person to edit an anthology focusing on CSA)
no preaching (see the proposed title—this is not a preachy anthology)
no sing-songy greeting card verse
no catechism lessons (I know, same as no preaching—this is how much I mean this)
I love free verse and traditional forms, but I also love lesser-known forms, nonce forms, modern forms, neo-forms (broken sonnets, reverse abecedarians, etc.), and experimental forms.
Length is open as well, but please—no epics!
Humor and irreverence are welcome, obviously, as are the serious, the philosophical, the mysterious, and the questioning.
Published and unpublished poems are fine. Please include full publication information if your poem/poems have been published and make sure you have the rights to your poem.
Possible topics: venial and mortal sins; church rituals and family traditions; Catholicism; poems about famous Catholics, Catholic places, Catholic holidays, Catholic buildings, and/or historical Catholic events; Catholicism in high art and literature; saints; Catholics and Catholicism in popular culture; Catholic school; growing up Catholic memories of important Catholic-related life events; persona poems; poems that have little or nothing to do with Catholicism but include Catholic iconography, language, symbols, saints, etc.;
Deadline for poems is October 15, 2026. Earlier is better!
Send 1-5 poems as a Pages, Word doc, or pdf to
Christine Delea at marychristinedelea@yahoo.com (Subject line: Bad Catholics)
*this does not mean you should stay away from lapses in doctrine and such, just no "all Catholics suck" or "the Pope is secretly running the world with the Jews"(yep, I am old enough to remember when Rush Limbaugh said this on the radio)
Sunday, October 18, 2026: Online reading of poems that won and placed in the New England Poetry Club's Annual Contest. One of my poems was a Finalist in the Amy Lowell contest and will be reading my poem. If you would like to attend, you can register at New England Poetry Club in early October. 2:00 Eastern, 11:00 Pacific
Ongoing Events
Voice Over Internet Podcast
Celeste Thompson interviewed me for her new podcast. Click here to listen on Spotify.
Peeled Citrus Prompts
You can subscribe to my Substack, Peeled Citrus Prompts. I post a prompt twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is free to subscribe, and most of the prompts are geared towards writers of all genres, visual artists, and crafters. Click here.
Ohio Reading Road Trip
In 2002, two of my many poems about Marietta, Ohio, were published in a wonderful anthology entitled I Have My Own Song for It: Modern Poems of Ohio (edited by Elton Glaser and William Greenway). One of the poems, "Leaving Downtown Marietta, Ohio, 1983" has been included on the Ohio Reading Road Trip web site, along with a poem by Ron McFarland, for a lesson called Contemporary Ohio Poets Extension Activities: The Poetry of Leaving. Click here for this classroom/workshop activity.
Past Events
Saturday, August 29, 2026: Celebrating 70 Years of OPA! Prompt Party & Playing with Forms Workshops (Generative)
In-person as part of the Oregon Poetry Association's Annual Conference
Thursday, February 27, 2025: Poems of Childhood (Generative Workshop)
Online
Thursday, January 16, 2025: Writing with Carl Sandburg (Generative Workshop)
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site Virtual Workshop
Online
Friday, October 18-Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Astoria Creative Writing Festival
Astoria, OR (Workshop and Reading)
Sunday, September 8, 2024: Reading with Judith Montgomery
Ross Island Grocery and Cafe
Friday, April 19, 2024: Beyond the Ekphrastic Free Poetry Workshop
Oregon City Public Library
Saturday, December 16, 2023: Connections Cafe Poetry Discussion--Winter Poems
Rose City Book Pub (Sponsored by Thrive Guides)
Saturday, August 12, 2023: Find Your Voice Through Persona Poems Free Poetry Workshop
Oregon City Public Library
Sunday, February 19: Love Is Strange Online Poetry Workshop
Another fundraising online workshop. Benefits For Goodness Cakes, PDX Chapter
Sunday, May 15, 2022: Food, Glorious Food! Poetry Workshop
Fundraising online workshop. Benefits For Goodness Cakes, PDX Chapter
2009: Poet in the Schools
Pratum and Butte Creek Schools in the Silverton, OR area
October 2021: All Month
I was a 30/30 poet this month, which meant that I wrote one poem each day and raised money ($500) for Tupelo Press, where the poems by each month's poets, are posted.
Previous Readings
Portland, OR
Oregon City, OR
Salem, OR
Vancouver, WA
Lexington, KY
Richmond, KY
Seaside, OR
Grand Forks, ND
West Islip, NY
Previous Workshops
Roseburg, OR
Oregon City, OR
Hillsboro, OR
Lake Oswego, OR
Richmond, KY
Grand Forks, ND
Huntington, WV
The Sealey Challenge
I have participated in The Sealey Challenge for 3 years and plan to continue. The challenge is to read a book of poetry each day in August. Of course, folks are free to change that to reading the poems in a literary journal or just a poem each day in August. The point is to make reading poetry--particularly poetry by living poets, BIPOC poets, folks often underrepresented in literary circles, and lesser-known poets--a habit. You can read more about this challenge, and the woman who created it, here.
I was unable to participate in full in 2026, but check back next year!
Books read for The Sealey Challenge, 2025:
August 1: A Detail in That Story by Sondra Zeidenstein (Chicory Blue Press, 1998)
August 2: The Sinks by Ryan Walsh (Midwest Center Press, 2011)
August 3: Cold Work by Cecily Parks (Poetry Society of America, 2005)
August 4: Salt Pier by Dore Kiesselbach (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012)
August 5: Take Me with You by Andrea Gibson (Plume, 2018)
August 6: The Sky Was Once a Dark Blanket by Kinsdale Drake (University of Georgia Press, 2024)
August 7: Everyone I've Danced With Is Dead by Mamie Morgan (JackLeg Press, 2024)
August 8: Bright Wings edited by Billy Collins (Columbia University Press, 2012)
August 9: Falling Off the Empire State Building by Jimmy Pappas (Rattle, 2012)
August 10: Is This My Final Form? by Amy Gerstler (Penguin Books, 2025)
August 11: Eye Level by Jenny Xie (Graywolf Press, 2018)
August 12: What To Make of a Diminished Thing by Marjorie L. Manwaring (dancing girl press, 2012)
August 13: The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths by Sandy Longhorn (Jacar Press, 2013)
August 14: Citizen of Metropolis by Christine Howey (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2018)
August 15: The Fight Journal by John W. Evans (Rattle, 2023)
August 16: Ancestral Demon of a Grieving Bride by Sy Hoahwah (New Mexico Press, 2021)
August 17: The Last Mastodon by Christina Olson (Rattle, 2019)
August 18: Half Wild by Mary Rose O'Reilley (LSU Press, 2006)
August 19: Teeth Never Sleep by Ángel García (University of Arkansas Press, 2018)
August 20: Dark Blonde by Belle Waring (Sarabande Books, 1997)
August 21: How the Sky Fell by Denise Duhamel (Pearl Editions, 1996)
August 22: Ordinary Beast by Nicole Sealey (Ecco, 2017)*
August 23: The Alphabet Not Unlike the World by Katrina Vandenberg (Milkweed Editions, 2012)
August 24: [ . . . ] by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions, 2024)
August 25: The Forward Book of Poetry 2004 (Faber & Faber, 2003)
August 26: How to Live on Bread and Music by Jennifer K. Sweeney (Perugia Press, 2009)
August 27: A Thousand Bonds by Eleanor Swanson (NFSPS Press, 2003)
August 28: View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska (Harcourt Brace, 1995)
August 29: Start from Home by Hollis Summers (Rutgers University Press, 1972)
August 30: Homage to Clio by W/H/ Auden (Random House, 1960)
August 31: Guarding the Violins by Misty Harper (Poetry Society of America, 2005)
*Yes, this is THE Sealey of the challenge
Books read for The Sealey Challenge, 2024:
August 1: The Orange and Other Poems by Wendy Cope (Faber and Faber, 2024)*
August 2: From From: Poems by Monica Youn (Graywolf Press, 2023)*
August 3: Dear Future by Jennifer Richter (The Word Works, 2023)*
August 4: Portrait of the Alcoholic by Kaveh Akbar (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017)
August 5: Spineless: Memoir in Invertabrates by Melody Wilson (Finishing Line Press, 2023)*
August 6: The Morning You Saw a Train of Stars Streaking Across the Sky by CooXooEii Black (Rattle, 2022)
August 7: Snake Lore by Jane Morton (Black Lawrence Press, 2024)*
August 8: Walking Backwards: New Poems by Shirley Geok-lin Lim (West End Press, 2010)*
August 9: The Ferry Keeper by Judith H. Montgomery (Grayson Books, 2024)*
August 10: Habitat Threshold by Craig Santos Perez (Omnidawn, 2020)
August 11: Lock Her Up by Tina Parker (Accents Publishing, 2021)
August 12: Pietà by Frank Paino (Jacar Press, 2023)
August 13: Sweet Mercies by Dianne Stepp (Finishing Line Press, 2017)*
August 14: Peculiar Heritage by DeMisty D. Bellinger (Mason Jar Press, 2021)
August 15: for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enough by ntozake shange (Macmillan Publishing, 1977)*
August 16: Praise to Lesser Gods of Love by Noor Ibn Najam (Glass Poetry Press, 2019)
August 17: Always Filling Always Full by Margaret Chula (White Pine Press, 2001)
August 18: Shouting from the Book of Orange by Sue Ranglack (Utah State Poetry Society, 2006)*
August 19: The Garden of Persuasions by Maura High (Jacar Press, 2013)
August 20: Holy Moly Carry Me by Erika Meitner (BOA, 2018)
August 21: Baiting the Void by Penelope Scambly Schott (Dream Horse Press, 2005)
August 22: My Kindred by Paulann Petersen (Salmon Poetry, 2023)
August 23: Maps You Can't Make by Mariella Saavedra Carquin (June Road Press, 2023)
August 24: Acadiana by Nancy Reddy (Black River Press, 2018)*
August 25: Each Unkept Secret (Moon Path Press, 2024)*
August 26: Instructions for Killing the Jackal by Erica Wright (Black Lawrence Press, 2011)
August 27: The Naked Room by Willa Schneberg (Broadstone 2023)
August 28: Night Ocean by Carolyn Oliver (Seven Kitchens Press, 2023)
August 29: Ghose Exhibit by Melissa Atkinson Mercer (Glass Poetry Press, 2018)
August 30: X/EX/EXIS: poems for the nation by raquel salas rivera (Bilingual Press, 2020)
August 31: And Now, Nowhere But Here by Andrea Hollander (Terrapin Books, 2023)
*these are all books that have poems with the word "orange" in them, a commonality that I started noticing almost immediately
Books read for The Sealey Challenge, 2023:
August 1: The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser (Graywolf Press, 2020)
August 2: A Place So Deep Inside America It Can't Be Seen by Kari Gunter-Seymour (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2020)
August 3: The Night Divers by Melanie McCabe (Terrapin Books, 2022)
August 4: For My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes (Penguin Poets, 2018)
August 5: American Zero by Stella Wong (two sylvias press, 2019)
August 6: I Will Pass Even to Acheron by Amanda Newell (Rattle, 2021)
August 7: Mothman Apologia by Robert Wood Lynn (Yale University Press, 2022)
August 8: Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith (Coffee House Press, 2008)
August 9: Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón (Milkweed Editions, 2015)
August 10: Still Life with Mother and Knife by Chelsea Rathburn (LSU Press, 2019)
August 11: Earthwork by Kristin Berger (The Poetry Box, 2022)
August 12: Forest Primeval by Vievee Francis (Triquaterly Books, 2016)
August 13: The Animal After Whom Other Animals Are Named by Nicole Sealey (Northwestern U Press, 2016)
August 14: All the Flowers Kneeling by Paul Tran (Penguin Poets, 2022)
August 15: Partial Genius by Mary Bidding (Black Lawrence Press, 2019)
August 16: Late Wife by Claudia Emerson (LSU Press, 2005)
August 17: Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey (Moon City Press, 2016)
August 18: And So Wax Was Made & Also Honey by Amy Beeder (Tupelo Press, 2020)
August 19: Tips for Domestic Travel by Hayden Saunier (Black Lawrence Press, 2009)
August 20: They Speak of Fruit by Gary L. McDowell (Cooper Dillon Books, 2009)
August 21: Dialogues with Rising Tides by Kelli Russell Agodon (Copper Canyon Press, 2021)
August 22: Buffer Zone: Snapshots From an Abortion Clinic Escort by Christine Taylor (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2020)
August 23: The Wendys by Allison Benis White (Four Way Books, 2020)
August 24: Saltwater Demands a Psalm by Kweku Abimbola (Graywolf Press, 2023)
August 25: Obit by Victoria Chang (Copper Canyon Press, 2020)
August 26: Did You Know? by Elizabeth S. Wolf (Rattle, 2019)
August 27: Silt by Erica Wright (dancing girl press, 2019)
August 28: Exploded Assembly by Karen Donovan (Sow's Ear, 2020)
August 29: To Drink from a Wider Bowl by Joanne Durham (Evening Street Press, 2021)
August 30: A Plucked Zither by Phuong T. Vuong (Red Hen Press, 2023)
August 31: The Blue Hills: Poems after the Life of Maud Gonne by Lucinda Grey (The Comstock Review, 2011)