I am excited to report that my new poetry chapbook, A Thin Line has a cover! And I am in the process of proofreading. It’s nearly done!
A Thin Line is a small collection of poems that focus mostly on the thin line between love and hate, as Chrissie Hynde sang in her famous song by that title. In particular, I wrote about my parents as they both came to their final chapters. I felt resentment at having to be in charge of seeing them off. I never stopped loving them, though. And the more distance I get from them, the more human they become in my memories. But I was surprised that my grief took the form of anger once they were gone. After all, the things that happened between us all and between them happened long ago. Still, I always knew they loved me. Now when I think of them, I see that we all have lived in volatile times, where social norms have been shifting rapidly.
This reading was for Madville’s eighth anniversary fundraising event, which was held over Zoom in September, 2026. (We’re still working toward our annual fundraising goal of $8888, if anyone feels inclined to chip in! Click the link above, or:
You will be taken to our secure page on the FunRaise website to complete the transaction. (Also, please note that Madville Publishing is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and donations are tax deductible.)
I was on a podcast! haven’t bragged about this in advance because I’ve been kind of busy this season running from festival to conference to book fair. And it’s been a really good time all around–despite the weather! In the middle of it all, I found an afternoon in August to talk to my friend Brian Petkash and my new friend Aki Liao.
The player above leads to my episode on Spotify.
If you prefer to listen to podcasts via Apple, here is a link to listen to it there:
I haven’t done a podcast before.
We talked so long that they have broken this podcast down into chapters!
The entire experience was good, and I’m so glad Brian was there, a familiar face and friend. I say face, because we made the recording over a zoom call, so we could see each other while we were talking. In this talk we covered a lot of territory. I mentioned all sorts of people, so check it out. You might be mentioned…
Here’s the Description
On this episode of the NoNaMe Storyteller Podcast, Aki Liao welcomes co-host Brian Petkash, and his friend and publisher Kim Davis—publisher of Mistakes by the Lake—for a conversation about writing, publishing, adventure, and the stories that keep pulling us in.
Kim’s journey to becoming an author and publisher has been anything but ordinary. Inspired by high school teachers who encouraged her curiosity and sense of exploration, Kim went from an early fascination with oceanography to attending five different undergraduate universities, pursuing an MFA while teaching and working at a press, and eventually starting her own publishing company (partly because she really wanted to make good use of those 100 ISBNs!).
Her latest collection, Trust Issues, features 20 stories about women facing difficult—and sometimes dangerous—circumstances. Along the way, we talk about what goes into creating a book cover, Kim’s adventures working on yachts, her wide-ranging interests in stories and genres, and how those interests have shaped the books she publishes and the stories she writes herself.
It’s an adventure story in its own right—and Kim Davis is the kind of adventurer who always seems ready to see where the next story leads.
Join us for another NoNaMe Storyteller conversation about the people, experiences, and unexpected turns behind the stories we tell.
Keywords and Mentions
Kim Davis, Madville Publishing, Cornerstone Press, book covers, Jacqueline Davis, Scott Miller, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Ross Tangedal, Vincent D’Amico, Ernest Hemingway, Jacque Cousteau, Doris Conte, Crewing Aboard A SuperYacht, Book Locker, MFA programs, nycmidnight.com, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, George Drew Chapbook Contest, Bass Clef Books, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, magical realism, Tiphanie Yanique, Micah Dean Hicks’s Vulture Gold, Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo, expermental fiction, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, accountability sessions, Cornerstone Press Legacy Series, romantasy, Ron Kenney’s An Englishman in Texas, Jan Cole, Rick Campbell, Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), Thomson-Shore, IngramSpark, Sean Carberry’s Passport Stamps, Linda Parsons, Arthur Smith Prize, Mike Hilbig, grief poetry, Michael Martin Murphey, “Wild Fire,” Karla K. Morton, Alan Birkelbach, Santa Fe Trail, Michael Amos Cody, Michael Simms’s Bicycles of the Gods
Enigma by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 license. Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100241 Artist: http://incompetech.com/
You read that right! I have a new chapbook entitled A Thin Line coming out. I’m as surprised as you may be because I really don’t consider myself a poet, but I gathered some poems that seemed to go together and submitted them to a contest at Bass Clef Books. I submitted because the contest was judged by and honors a longtime poet friend of mine, George Drew. Here’s an interview with George. Like me, George loves the sound of language, the musicality.
What is A Thin Line about?
My slim collection deals with my parents and the ends of their lives. I wrote all sorts of things while I was sitting in waiting rooms with them. There are so many feelings to process as a care giver. I lost both parents in 2019: Dad in January, Mom in December. They’d been divorced for something like fifty years by then.
I didn’t WIN the George Drew Chapbook contest, but I made the list of finalists. I suspect that as Madville does, Bass Clef likely offers contracts to the top two or three collections, because, why not? I as a publisher always think that I’ve had all these really good submissions, and a) it’s a shame to only publish one of them, and b) I have had the advantage of some really smart readers selecting from those submissions.
With that in mind, I’ll take my wins where I can get them! My new publisher at Bass Clef tells me that A Thin Line will be out late this year, or early next! I will let everyone know when it is available.
I have accolades and invitations to report! They say these things come in threes, but today, I have four pats on the back to report. They are all surprising to me, since I suffer with imposter syndrome. I think a lot of us who do creative things suffer similarly. That and I stay pretty busy just conducting business between Madville Publishing and Sublime Design Studio. I’ve been working on a new novel as well. So, sometimes news gets past me! I may have missed a notification along the way, particularly with the Eric Hoffer prize.
I went looking for a fresh link to my book, Trust Issues, on the Cornerstone Press website, and discovered that a) there isn’t a direct link to the book, and b) I picked up a prize medallion I didn’t even know about! Trust Issues was a finalist for a 2026 Eric Hoffer prize in the short stories category!
I was accepted to Bread Loaf! This is a big deal, because Bread Loaf is a very old and competitive. Here’s what they say on their website: “With a distinguished literary and intellectual tradition dating back to its founding in 1926, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference [brings] emerging writers together to work with a diverse and talented faculty. … For ten days in August, Participants and Fellows will experience the opportunity of working under the guidance of notable writers, including MacArthur Fellows, U.S. Poets Laureate, and recipients of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.”
I was invited to present at Untitled Town, in Greenbay , Wisconsin, September 25-27.
I learned that my poetry chapbook, A Thin Line made the finalists’ list for the George Drew Chapbook Contest at Bass Clef Books.
It’s funny how we say good things come in threes… This week and last week have been insane for me. Of course my calendar is crazy busy, so I’ve hardly had a chance to take it all in. But I got good things in four this time!
I read this amusingly sad piece by Christine Rhein this morning. Now, I will admit to some “woo-woo” tendencies myself, but I tend to maintain a healthy degree of skepticism as well. And this account has the right degree of tongue-in-cheekiness.
Book reviews are always important when one wants to propel a book out into the world. New authors often overlook this important step by trying to rush publication. It is this need for book reviews that drives early promotion of books. Those of us who know, start sharing our book well before it is available, physically.
Sure, it has become relatively easy to self-publish, but there are some more traditional pearls of wisdom that still bear repeating. Old school publishers know that book reviews take time. Relationships with others in the industry are key to getting books reviewed, because we all receive a lot of book review requests. If you know someone, it can make a difference to getting your book reviewed.
To get book reviews, we give ourselves some lead time prior to publication. This allows for a few different things to happen:
We (as authors) have time to build or revamp our online presence, our platform. That includes our websites and our social media spaces.
In that process, we extend our reach, get to meet new people. You never know when one of those new friends might “get it,” and be exactly the reader you want to read your work and possibly write a book review.
We attend events and we give some books away in exchange for book reviews. (Authors, expect to give away some review copies.)
You all know I’ve been involved in publishing for some years, and I know folks. And as writers, editors, publishers, we help each other out when we can. It’s a tough business. I don’t say this to disparage my work. There is still some peer review going on in this process! If a book is NOT worth reading or reviewing, we simply don’t review it. So, I’m glad my stories were worth the read for these folks. I don’t know the reviewers, but I do know who gave them my book to read. (Thank you, Jianqing Zheng! A sidenote about Zheng is that I have had the distinct pleasure of publishing three of his books now. One while I was at Texas Review Press, and two with Madville.)
So, with some help, my new Mississippi friends are reading my book! I’m really grateful to North of Oxford for this thorough review of my work. Knowing the publishing business as I do, it still blows my mind to know that my own work is out in the world and somebody, anybody has read it! My heart is in these stories.
This review of Trust Issues by Bob Kunzinger talks about strong women, and one of the main ones is a character called Nell. Nell appears in three different stories in the book. The review came out today on the Vox Populi website. I love it when authors I respect “get it”! I feel humbled to have them even read my work, but then to say nice things? Imagine me blushing… Many thanks to Bob for writing the review, and for Michael for publishing it.
And there’s this thing I really enjoy about Vox Populi… Editor Michael Simms is such a good curator. To accompany this review, he shared a short story from the book, with my permission of course.
I still remember the morning of January 7, 2025. I awoke to an odd scent of burning … both natural and chemical. I went downstairs and opened my kitchen door, like I do most mornings. Typically, I’m greeted with the joyful sounds of children heading to school, but this time I found the air thick, the density burning to my eyes and seemingly layered onto my skin, my clothes. The streets were oddly vacant.
I hadn’t heard about the fires yet. Something inside me said to close my doors and windows, and do whatever I could to stay inside. Later, I saw the reports. Friends desperately texted one another for days to ensure each other were okay. Each moment, we reiterated to one another that no matter what, if anyone was impacted, they always had a place to stay … a second home.
Later, dear friends had a need for that second home and continue to do so. The loss caused by such devastation so much more than a physical home, but a place of emotional strength, stability, comfort, joy. All gone in what felt like mere moments.
This anthology is for those who have experienced such loss. To continue to provide a place of solace, words of comfort, and knowledge that somewhere, somehow, others continue to have them in their minds, hearts, and prayers.
The International Impact Book Awards have just informed me that Trust Issues is a winner in their Contemporary Fiction category for 2025.
I am delighted to extend my heartfelt congratulations to you for being selected as a winner at the International Impact Book Awards! Your exceptional talent, dedication, and creativity have set you apart in a competitive field, and it is an honor to recognize your remarkable achievement.
This award is a testament to the impact your work has made in the literary world. Your story, your voice, and your commitment to excellence have resonated with readers and judges alike, and we are proud to celebrate your success. Winning this award is not just a moment of recognition but a significant milestone in your journey as an author. A reflection of the countless hours, passion, and perseverance you’ve invested in your craft.
Paperback
