I'm excited that two of my poems have been accepted for publication in THE HIGH WINDOW, a lit. journal I've long admired. The poems won't appear until the Summer 2024 issue but it's always worth the wait when you land a poem or two in a literary magazine that you love and this news comes shortly after I learned two more poems are to feature in Kathleen McPhilemy's excellent podcast POETRY WORTH HEARING.

Meanwhile, I continue to facilitate the Los Angeles Public Library's poetry workshop, which is fun and lively and brings me into contact with a diverse range of LA poets from all walks of life. We share poems and I provide the prompts and lead the feedback on writer's work. 
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I'm currently reading Ada Limón's LUCKY WRECK and among the many other excellent poems in this collection Limón tackles the technical demands of a Sonnet crown -- a sequence of seven sonnets in which each successive sonnet begins with the last line of the previous sonnet and the final sonnet in the sequence ends with the first line of sonnet 1. LUCKY WRECK was Limón's debut collection. It's extraordinary to read it in the context of her later work and think about this accomplished stellar start and how she continues to flourish. Her work is an inspiration. 

​GIRLPLAY at theSpace on North Bridge, Venue 36, is a perfect mix of spoken word, performance, and powerful storytelling. 
 
Lucy is average and awkward, but what she lacks in sexual experience she makes up for it in curiosity; wearing her heart on her sleeve and telling it like it is, unpacking the journey of her sexual and emotional development with fierce, unflinching honesty. 
 
The production is effective in its simplicity, the staging full of energy, and the three actors, 
Sarah Richardson (also the playwright), Laura Brady, and Martha Dunlea move around the stage sharing the story of Lucy’s life and delivering a superbly-crafted performance at the same time. There are moments of great tenderness as well as a lot of laughter. The piece is tightly choreographed and the actors never miss a beat. 
 
With so many shows to see during the fringe’s 75th year, this one is an excellent choice. 

What a great way to celebrate theatre and come back from the pandemic at the same time by bringing a show to the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. 
 
I’m so proud of the play, cast, and crew of Unseen Shepard, written by Nic D’Avirro and Matt Braaten. The piece imagines Sam Shepard’s last night alive, a fever dream in which Shepard is visited by various characters from his plays, all of them demanding a rewrite and they are not going to leave without a fight!
 
Unseen Shepard asks important questions about dramaturgy and the way male playwrights write female characters. 
 
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has invited us to premiere Unseen Shepard on the opening night of the 2022 Festival! The show runs Aug. 5-20 in The Space on the Mile (Space 3), Venue #39. Click HERE for tickets!

Besides the two theatre books I published in 2018, the literary and art journal HCE Review in Dublin published my poem The View From Here.  You can read it on the HCE Review website and while you stop by please check out the rest of the journal, edited by students of the MA and MFA Creative Writing programs at University College Dublin. Click here to visit the site. The cover art is titled “Dances of Nature” by Keith Moul.

I haven't posted on this blog since last October! Where did the year go? I'll endeavor to post more than an paltry annual update from now on but in my defense, this year has been busier than usual so lots to update you with.

Back in May my third book for Smith and Kraus came out. This came a week after I'd finished my second year as Associate Producer at Directors Lab West, a hugely rewarding yet time-demanding effort that brings 50 theatre directors and choreographers together for a week-long intensive series of workshops and performances.

We had a great book launch at Samuel French, which has hosted every one of my books so far. Here's me plugging the book ahead of the June launch:
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I was by Brainard Carey at Yale Radio back in August and in case you missed it here it is again: 
https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/martin-jago/
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By mid-summer, I was up to my neck in scripts. As part of Raze The Space's annual ten-minute international plays fest. we received and read well over 500. The final 8 were performed on the The Mark Taper Auditorium stage in downtown Los Angeles. Chip Bolcik's Take Me Out was a huge hit with the audience, both poignant and funny:

The festival took a lot of organizing since it featured the work of more than 30 international theatre artists but I still found time to write as I always have and for me the most exciting product of that effort this year has been a book-length collection of poetry, which I am submitting to various literary magazines and a few prizes. Thank you to John Fox for an excellent resource online that list an ample number of magazines worth submitting to:

https://thejohnfox.com/2016/05/poetry-submissions/
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A one-act play I write during my time at Oxford has also been edited and will get some rehearsal time in October. 

And if all that wasn't enough, I've just received a publication date for my fourth book, the third and fourth were part of a two-book deal with Smith and Kraus. This one is all about sonnets and another video gave me chance to show off my new haircut: 

Having conducted “extensive research” into whisky the world over, I'm delighted to announce my forthcoming book, a compendium on all things connected to 'the sovereign liquor' is ready. The proposal is polished and the search for the right publisher begins. Thanks to all the 'research partners' far and wide, and I raise a glass to whatever lies ahead!