Pretty much an entry where I geek about the awesomeness of other editors

AWP was, of course, a fantastic time. I always worry about it and then it's always in the top ten favorite weeks out of the year. I realized while I was out there that I absolutely love other editors. Matt and Roxane of Pank are lovely, lovely people - they put so much work and time and energy and awesometude into Pank and it really, really shows. I endeavour to be more Roxane-and-Matt-ish.

Also, shout out of Aaron Burch of Hobart (who I may or may not have creeped out by declaring "oh my god, be my new best friend!" mid-panel). I certainly hope that he is able to make it out to Pittsburgh and read his amazing work at a TypewriterGirls show in the future. I was gunning for his presence at TypwriterGirls Gone Furry, but we shall see.

Bill and Lisa of Slack Buddha are also on my The AWP Would Have Been Significantly Less Awesome Without You list. They made the TypwriterGirls show at the Mercury a fun time. Lisa is one sexy whiskey runner. Also, good at quieting down a drunk and rowdy audience.

Also! Ohmygoodness! I got to meet Yusef Komunyakaa, who has been my favorite poet for about ten years. He was gracious and very kind and he signed my book happily and was touched when I told him that reading his poetry about the Vietnam War has made me feel closer to my father and he's going to be in Pittsburgh this year!!!! I'm really hoping that, if nothing else, they will need volunteers to help out with that reading. 'Cause I'll be first in line.

Also also! I got to meet Anne Waldman (who is lovely and sweet, too) and Gary freakin' Snyder! Gary Snyder. For reals. More book signing occurred. More rambling by me. More gracious and kind reactions from totally awesome famous poets who are probably used to fangirls like me at this point.

At some point I'll make a more substantial post wherein I talk about Deep Things regarding writing and poetry - but for now, people are awesome. Editors are awesome. I love Yusef Komunyakaa, Anne Waldman, and Gary Snyder. Yay, AWP.

I'm a little sick today, but that's not going to stop me! I feel better than I did yesterday and am going to trust that a good night's sleep tonight will fix me right up.

Tomorrow my super-talented friend Crystal Hoffman and I will be heading to New York City to perform at the Dada Poetry Salon at the Cornelia Street Cafe. Crystal is my partner in crime for the TypewriterGirls, and is an amazing poet to boot. (You can read her poetry in Weave issue 01 - only 7 copies left!, FRiGG, and soon in A cappella Zoo's sure-to-be-fabulous 4th issue! I do love A cappella Zoo. If you order issue 4 by March 20th you can get a free copy of issue 1, and, lo and behold, that's the one I'm in! It's the TypewriterGirls Special!)

In less than a month the AWP will be upon us. Weave and the TypewriterGirls will both be heading to this writer party to end all writer parties. Weave will be sharing a table with Open Thread, Caketrain, Pear Noir!, and a couple other Pittsburgh literary lovelies and I will be speaking on the panel The In Sound from Way Out: From Submission to Publication along with editors from Pank, Hobart, Lumberyard, and Bateau. It's way more fun and awesomeness than should be allowed on a Thursday morning, quite frankly.

That very same day Crystal and I will have to crash in some famous poet's hotel room for a nap (we're thinking Gary Snyder), because Thursday night the TypewriterGirls are performing at the Mercury Cafe along with an eclectic array of poets, including TypewriterGirls favorite, Sandra Beasley! Yay! Come witness TypewriterGirls Do Dead Poets - we promise to be entertaining. Also to give you whiskey.

Reading in 2009

I've seen a lot of people making lists of their favorite books of 2009 and I was trying to think of what my favorite books of 2009 might be when I realized something a little bit depressing -- I didn't really get to do all that much reading purely for pleasure in 2009.

I did make sure that I sat down and read At Night, the Dead by Lisa Ciccarello, and this weekend I plan to give The Spare Room by Dana Guthrie Martin my full attention, but maybe it would be better to just list the books I read for pleasure this year. period.

I did a lot of reading a poem here and a poem there from books, so I'll really only be listing books I actually read cover to cover. Not all of them were even published this year. I am made of book reading fail.

- The aforementioned At Night, the Dead by Lisa Ciccarello from Blood Pudding Press
- No Water by Renée Alberts from Speed and Briscoe
- The Ice Lizard by Judith Johnson (one of the best books of poetry I've ever read. Judy Johnson is fantastic.)
- Inside Bone There's Always Marrow by Rachel Mallino from Maverick Duck Press
- Buffalo Dance: the Journey of York by Frank X. Walker (one of my top 10 favorite poets of all time. I gushed at him at AWP last year. Yes, I totally fangirled.)
- Horrific Confection by Juliet Cook (get your copy to hold in your hands while you can! She's running out!)

Oh dear lord, those might be the only books that I chose to read this year and actually read cover to cover. That is extremely depressing. This is one of the problems with being an editor and review writer - I am constantly reading books and work that are not necessarily of my choosing, and there seems to be a constant influx of this. I've actually fallen woefully behind on some of my reviews due to all the other craziness of the past few months, and in addition, there are many people who have been waiting for a response from Weave for a lot longer than I would like. If you're out there reading this, we haven't forgotten you!

To be fair, if I wasn't a review writer, I would never have discovered Frank X. Walker and there would have been no AWP fangirling.

If your book is not on the above list and I purchased it this year, do not be sad. I probably read it in parts and stare at it longingly as I dash from room to room of my apartment, either chasing after my son or trying to locate something that has gone missing at just the moment I need it. Or it is currently in the possession of one of the Weave assistant editors, waiting to have a review of it written. Joel just absconded with I think three more books. For the most embarrassing life of me I cannot remember which ones. I do recall being very happy about one of them, thinking, oh but it would be lovely if he wrote a review of that one!

I did a bit of writing on Tuesday. Not much, but I've begun, at least, to get myself back in the poetic head space.

My just-before-the-new-year resolution is to read more just because I want to. I will start this weekend. I will let you know how it goes.

Busy busy busy

I finished up two drafts of poems this weekend, which is quite a lot for me. I usually don't work on more than one poem at a time, either, so this is sort of a breakthrough in a moderately pathetic kind of way.

I know I don't write nearly as much as I should and this has been proven by the fact that I am literally out of poems that I am happy enough with to send out the door in hopes of publication. I have five poems that are in varying stages of completeness, but none that are truly submission-worthy right now. And of course there is the glut of poems that will never see the light of day.

I was looking forward to doing a round of submissions to a number of literary journals I really like that are open during the summer months, but, barring a miracle, this will clearly not happen. My writing hasn't been able to keep up with my submitting.

Submitting is so easy, so, so much easier to do on my lunch break when my mind is still half auditing. It's quicker, it gives me an instant sense of accomplishment, and it doesn't involve switching from that part of my brain that deals with numbers and the rules of hospital accounting to the part of my brain that works creatively. I also get a weird sort of high from having five to ten submissions out at a time, even when they come back as rejections. I can't quite explain it, but I definitely get some kind of rush from it.

Lately I've been feeling pressure (from myself alone) to produce more, as though I am not busy enough already between the TypewriterGirls, Weave, being a mother, working for 8 hours a day, the Pittsburgh Small Press Festival (SPF), and the writing that I do do. Clearly I need to put more pressure on myself.

There is just so much that I want to do, so much that I want to write. I don't have enough time each weekend to get it in and still relax a little bit, and I certainly don't have time during the week.

This is all very frustrating. And let's not even get in to my chapbook angst.

In other new altogether holy crap Gary Snyder is going to be at next year's AWP. I must shamefully admit that I have only recently begun reading Gary Snyder's work, and in part because I saw him in a documentary on Buddhism, but really The Call of the Wild is just as lovely a poem as my dear friend Crystal assured me it would be.

I'm in a panel proposal for the 2010 AWP, so there's a decent likelihood that I will have to be there (oh, the tragedy). Crystal and I are already looking into plane tickets. Hah.

I feel like something is about to happen.

Post-AWP wrap up

My third AWP was by far the best yet. Here are some highlights:

- I got to meet Frank X. Walker, perhaps my current favorite poet. He ranks up there, for sure. He signed my copy of When Winter Come and I got to tell him his book was the best I had read in a very long time. He also stopped by the Weave table and was very, very sweet.

- The whole Affrilachian poetry reading, in fact. Every one of those readers was fantastic. Patricia Smith read an absolutely amazing crown of sonnets. I got the chance to tell her this.

- The Weave table! I burned out a little by the end of each day, but I got to meet a few more of our contributors for the first and second issues there; Michael Ogletree, Karen Schubert, and Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán. Also, Weave sold fairly well (especially, I have been told, for our first AWP!) and we have some new subscriptions! Yay!

- Getting to escort Mary Biddinger on stage at the Anti/diode poetry reading.

- Meeting the absolutely lovely Dana Guthrie Martin (another issue 01 contributor) at the Anti/diode poetry reading.

- Talking to M. Bartley Seigel, the editor of Pank, whose third issue features two of my poems. He is also lovely. I'd gone to a panel he was on last year and recall completely agreeing with his editorial policies. Also, he gave me a free Pank tshirt! It has a typewriter on it!

- The one and only panel I was able to go to; Poet as Oracle. It was amazing. They talked about stepping out of the ego when writing poetry and poetry written during meditation (among other things, of course). The panel really spoke to me and reflected a lot of what I have been trying to do in my own poetry lately. It was wonderful.

- Starting up the dance party on Friday and Saturday night with Crystal. There were people who thought we had been paid to do so.

- Spending part of Saturday with my old friend Natalie who I literally had not seen in ten years. We worked at Girlscout camp together. It was wonderful to get to catch up with her.

- Hanging out with the lovely people of Akron; Mary Biddinger, Jay Robinson, Frank DePoole, and Eric Morris. Hopefully I will get to see all of them again very soon!

- Guerrilla poetry readings for Judy Johnson. Fantastic. Also lunch with Judy Johnson. Also being informed that the TypewriterGirls can now "officially" be affiliated with 13th Moon Press. Also planning a reading with Judy Johnson for April.

And, of course

- Spending the week with my two favorite girls; Crystal and Laura

I know a lot of superlatives were used in this post, but it's because I had such an amazing time and got to meet and spend time with so many amazing people that I can't help but gush a little bit. Pictures to come.

Hope your AWP was fantastic, too!