I’ll be reading from my new poetry book, Hold Still, for the Grown Ass Woman Brigade, a support network of 
smart, funny women who look out for one another. Everyone is invited — even grown ass men! — and the fun starts at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 19, at a Victorian house at 115 Maitland Ave. in Altamonte Springs. I wrote about this spunky, big-hearted group in Orlando magazine a year ago (“Rebels With a Cause”), and I can’t wait to spend more time with them. You don’t want to miss this.
I’ll be reading from my new poetry book, Hold Still, at The Warehouse on Brookhaven in the Lake Ivanhoe area of Orlando on Saturday, March 29. I’m thrilled to be reading alongside two authors with new books of short stories: David James Poissant (The Heaven of Animals) and Vanessa Blakeslee (Train Shots). The readings will start at 7 p.m. at 1300 Brookhaven Drive, just off Virginia Drive. There will be an after party featuring literary-themed cocktails (an F. Scotch Fitzgerald or Tequila Mockingbird, anyone?) at The Matador bar on Virginia Drive. Drink proceeds will benefit Burrow Press. For more about Functionally Literate and to watch videos of past readings, check out functionallyliterate.org.
Here is my interview in the ORLANDOAN blog by Functionally Literate co-host Jared Silvia.
And here is the video of my reading on YouTube.
Many thanks to Martin Achatz, an editor at Passages North, for this review of Hold Still in his Saint Marty blog. An excerpt:
“These poems are a testament to anger and humor, despair and joy. They are psalms of survival. Breast cancer. Childhood. Motherhood. Hurricanes. Godbey’s insights are razor-sharp, cutting open the reader’s heart and pumping it full of music and hope. … In the middle of a long winter of heartbreak and ruin, her poems push through the impossibly frozen ground, unfolding petal by petal, syllable by syllable, into the promise of spring.”
One of my photographs, “Osprey on a Windy Day,” was accepted for inclusion in Orlando magazine’s 12th annual Paint the Town exhibition at the Gallery at Avalon Island in downtown Orlando. The three-week show opens with a reception Thursday, March 20, from 6 to 9 p.m. and will include paintings, sculptures and other artwork. Entertainment will be provided by local singer and actress Krystal Gillette, and there will be free wine and beer. The opening coincides with downtown’s Third Thursday Gallery Hop. The Avalon gallery is at 39 S. Magnolia Ave., and convenient parking is available at the nearby city-owned garage across from the library on Central Boulevard. If you can’t make the opening, you can see the exhibition during regular gallery hours — 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays through April 11.
