Happy December, y'all!!

Gotta kick off the 🎄 season right!!!

Take it away, DMX!!

a woman in a red dress is holding a microphone with her arms outstretched and screaming . Alt: a woman in a red dress is holding a microphone with her arms outstretched and screaming “SAGITTARIUS SEASON.”

YOU KNOW WTF TIME IT IS!!!!♐️♐️♐️♐️♐️♐️

Tonight! Don't miss this reading by Tiana Clark and Donika Kelly at 7PM at Black Pearl Books!

Free RSVP: secure.qgiv.com/for/torlitart/event/tianaclarkanddonikakelly/

Join us tonight at 7 pm for a double feature reading by @melissafebos.bsky.social and @donikakelly.bsky.social!

OMAR SAKR Walking to day-care in the genocide The primary selling point of a pram Has never been articulated by an ad. My son yells out his discoveries - Tree, rock, motorbike, cloud, a bee! I walk behind him unseen, grief-struck And let the tears come without fear That my weeping will drive him To worry. O holy carriage, hold fast His wonder, and my wet confession Of this, a father's sole reprieve.

A poem I wrote some months ago showed up at my door today in the first issue of the relaunched Southerly magazine.

The book cover for Derrick Austin's third book of poetry, This Elegance. A detail from a weaving by Diedrick Brackens. A kneeling silhouette poses against a yellow moon. The silhouette holds a long red candle in one hand and balances one small red candle on his head and two small candles on his other arm and one yellow candle on the heel of his foot.

My third book, This Elegance, is out from @boa-editions.bsky.social in May 2026.

Cover design by Sandy Knight with art by Diedrick Brackens.

Available to preorder now 🙏🏿

The Natural Order of Things: Poems Poems

🌈📚

📖 The Natural Order of Things: Poems

by Donika Kelly
@donikakelly.bsky.social

an extraordinary and unexpected book of finding happiness

Affiliate Link
bookshop.org/a/100590/978...

#booksky #queerbooks #poetry

Tomorrow on the show, I'll be talking w poet Donika Kelly about her new collection, THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS, an evocative cycle of poems that have much to do w happiness and love and embodiment, & what it's like to experience these sorts of things on the other side of a darkness.

Stay tuned...

I love how Rep. Joe Neguse reframed this question.

they just did this to millennials saying the reason we couldn't afford homes is because of coffee.

Join us for An Evening with Tiana Clark and Donika Kelly at Black Pearl Books!

Thursday, Nov. 6th
7:00 P.M.
Black Pearl Books
7112 Burnet Rd, Austin, TX 78757

RSVP: secure.qgiv.com/for/torlitart/event/tianaclarkanddonikakelly/

#ClipOfTheDay: “I was little and lost / the season I learned to be still...” In this Charis Circle event, Donika Kelly reads poems from her new collection, The Natural Order of Things (Graywolf Press), and speaks with Jericho Brown about family, home, and her writing process. at.pw.org/KellyCharis

Sharing for awareness: For those able and willing to help, the Embassy of Jamaica in DC is coordinating disaster relief in the U.S.

They have asked folks to reach out to them at disasterresponse@jamaicaembassy.org to coordinate support.

The government has info on donations supportjamaica.gov.jm

I'm sitting in the sun, sunnies on, smugly awaiting a burrito.

Awaiting a pre-reading burrito. See you at Skylight Books at 7!

I'm standing in the center of the photo reading from my book at a mic. On either side of me are bookshelves, and my book is on a stand on the left side of the image.

This was such a fantastic event! If you're in Boston, please check out Just Book-ish, a lovely Black queer bookstore!

Save the Date!

November 6 at 7pm
Black Pearl Books

Join us for a special evening at Black Pearl Books featuring Tiana Clark, author of Scortch Earth, and Donika Kelly, author of The Natural Order of Things!

RSVP: secure.qgiv.com/for/torlitar...

I'll be in Dorchester, Mass this Tuesday at Just Book-ish at 6:30-8pm. RSVP at www.justbook-ish.com.

#ClipOfTheDay: “So much has happened / that I would never have known / I could remember.” In this Silo City Reading Series video, Donika Kelly reads her poem “Suicide Watch: Spring,” which appears in her third poetry collection, The Natural Order of Things (Graywolf Press). at.pw.org/SiloCityKelly

In her latest poetry collection, The Natural Order of Things, out now from @graywolfpress.bsky.social, Donika Kelly (@donikakelly.bsky.social) celebrates joy as a simple yet radical means of resisting despair. “I have a high capacity for sensitivity to the sublime.” Read more: at.pw.org/DonikaKelly

Announcing our Nov/Dec issue! 🎉 Inside you’ll find a profile of poet Donika Kelly, author of The Natural Order of Things; our tenth annual 5 Over 50 debut author feature; a craft essay in appreciation of the longer short story; and the case for collective resistance to AI. More: at.pw.org/NovDec2025

Tonight!

The book tour continues! Tomorrow night at 7:30 eastern, I'll be in conversation with Jericho Brown at Charis Books. Register for the livestream here: www.crowdcast.io/c/the-natura...

POETRY FOUNDATION Beginning BY JAMES WRIGHT The moon drops one or two feathers into the field. The dark wheat listens. Be still. Now. There they are, the moon's young, trying Their wings. Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadow Of her face, and now she steps into the air, now she is gone Wholly, into the air. I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe Or move. I listen. The wheat leans back toward its own darkness, And I lean toward mine.

The moon drops one or two feathers into the
field.
The dark wheat listens.
Be still.
Now.

James Wright

From BOMB’s Fall 2025 Issue, @donikakelly.bsky.social’s poems from THE NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS (graywolfpress.bsky.social) evoke a visceral sense of the intimate. Read an excerpt.

tinyurl.com/2c8kpjew

Join us tonight at 7 pm for a reading at the Iowa City Public Library with Donika Kelly!

Congratulations to Torch Features Patricia Smith and Tiana Clark, and all of the finalists longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry!

See Tiana Clark and Donika Kelly at the Torch events at the Texas Book Festival in November!

Details at TorchLiteraryArts.org

please go look at the moon.

We can't wait to host Donika Kelly as she launches her wonderful new collection, "The Natural Order of Things"!