Marathon

The past 4 weekends have been nothing but running around and travelling, and this upcoming week is going to be the most grueling yet, but also the last weekend of crazy, I've-got-obligations travel for, I think, at least a month. Possibly a month and a half. I have double date dinner plans for the weekend after next with a friend who lives in Johnstown, but that's loose and I'm not required to perform at any point or stay up for 24 hours in a row.

The last weekend in January I was filming a zombie movie that is directed by my dear friend Blair Murphy, owner, artist, and magician of the Grand Midway Hotel - one of those is more a metaphor than fact. I've known Blair for only 5 1/2 years, but he is very very dear to me and he and his girlfriend Deanna are really just a perfect match and it's lovely to see. He's been through a lot in the 5 years I've known him and things seem to be heading into a really good space. This zombie movie has been incredible fun and I'm going to be quite sad when it's all over.

The weekend following I went to Dayton with my husband to spend time with a bunch of friends of his. I had never before met the couple we were staying with. They are lovely men - extremely kind and funny and I'm just sorry I hadn't met them sooner. They have nothing but nice things to say about Mihnea and he has nothing but nice things to say about them. We went to see a play that two of Mihnea's other friends were involved in, and had lunch with two more of his friends.

The weekend after that I was on Staten Island for the first of two TypewriterGirls performances in New York City this month. The turn-out was amazing and I was so very happy to get to see friends I hadn't seen in a long time (Huang Xiang performed with us and was, of course, an audience favorite, and I went out to lunch and to brunch with one of my best friends from high school, Sarah Reck, who works as a web publicist in NYC for a major publishing house because she is just that awesome and hard working. We are so very different, and yet so very very the same).

This past weekend, more zombie filming. I got chased up the stairs by a big ol' hoard of zombies. It really got my blood pumping. I was a little worried about me when my zombiefied friend Chad got ahold of my ankle a couple of times. He's scrappy. Film making is amazing fun when Blair's in charge.


I like to link to presses and people who I feel are doing amazing things here. I've honestly no earthly idea if anyone is reading this blog, but if you are, check out these amazing amazing things going on in the literary world:

Roxane Gay and her associate publisher xTx have a fabulous new press called Tiny Hardcore Press. That's pretty much the most awesome press name you've heard in a while. Their first release, xTx's Normally Special is sold out of it's first run, but a second printing is on the way! In the mean time, there's an e-book version. They are taking submissions from those who wish to be hardcore with them. Roxane also writes one of the best blogs out there. It's about her life and her publishing and sometimes men and sometimes movies and I always get a little extra happy when I see she has updated.

Juliet Cook's Post Stroke chapbook is now available from the Blood Pudding Press shop. It's her collection from the latest Dusie and I have already ordered mine. For those who don't know, Juliet suffered a stroke a bit over a year ago. Her recovery has been astonishing, and these poems map that recovery as only Juliet could map such a thing. I absolutely cannot wait to read it. I will also be publishing Juliet's chapbook, Thirteen Designer Vaginas through Hyacinth Girl Press in the next couple of months. Hooray!

Speaking of Hyacinth Girl Press, I'm taking submissions until the end of next month! The deadline is the same for Make it So. After this weekend, I am officially declaring the call for submissions a success. Make it So submitters, you rock my futuristic socks.

Reviews and kindness

I exercised on my elliptical machine last night. It was abbreviated (30 minutes instead of the usual 45-55) because around the 23 minute mark I was hit by the need to write and sort of forced myself to keep exercising for the following 7 minutes.

I don't think it helped that the chapbook I was reading through most of those 7 minutes was, I felt, a real stinker.

Prior to reading the stinker chapbook, and when I was initially hit with the need to write, I was reading Kristen Orser's Folded into Your Midwestern Thunderstorm from Greying Ghost Press (I would link, but their website seems to be having problems), which I greatly enjoyed. I don't think I'll be able to write a full review for it right now - I feel like there was something I missed in it when I read the collection through the first time. I love the wordplay that Orser uses and her language is always engaging. She also works with line breaks and page placement in a way that I really appreciate and that I myself am not nearly as skillful with. I got a very strong sense of atmosphere from the collection, but not a strong idea of movement or what was going on. I don't think it has anything to do with Orser's writing, though - I was a bit distracted and tired. I really enjoyed the experience of the poems, though, if that makes any sense, and I can't wait to give the chapbook a reread.

Orser's chapbook really got my poetic mind moving, her deft language put me into the space and rhythm where I feel like I want to write, and I was all excited to read another chapbook and then get off the elliptical machine and run straight to the typewriter. However, the next chapbook I started I just did not like at all.

I won't say what the title of this book was or who the poet was, because in all honesty I didn't finish it. I read a few poems, realized that I had the exact same problem with all of them, and quit. Nothing that I enjoyed about Orser's work was present in this book - there was no sense of rhythm, the language felt sort of lame, and the line breaks and stanza breaks (what few there were of the latter) were honestly boring and added nothing to the poems. I used to finish books like this, but now I just don't. I don't have time for reading things I dislike and feel are not skillful. I am more than happy to go outside my comfort zone (John Grochalski's book, for example, is not my typical fare, but I read the book, felt there was skill and purpose behind it, and enjoyed it), but bad writing goes beyond going outside of one's comfort zone.

I could write reviews of these books that I genuinely think are not good, but 75% of what I read these days is put out by small or micro presses. Their books don't get reviewed at as high of a rate as the work put out by the larger presses, and I would absolutely hate to have my review be one of the only ones out there and for it to be bad. How heartbreaking would it be for that poet?

I'm usually not someone who wants to spare everyone's feelings at all costs, but I'm not mean. I have done mean things, thoughtless things, but I am not mean. I feel that to eviscerate a chapbook put out by a micro press or small press is not only sort of mean to the poet, but is also doing that press, which also put a lot of time, love, and money - perhaps most of their extremely limited resources - into this chapbook, a huge disservice. I know that we can't all be nice all the time and we have to be honest and promote the good stuff and blah blah blah, but that is what I try to do - I try to bring attention to the good stuff. If someone asks me about the chapbook I did not finish last night in conversation I won't lie to them about it (I will also mention that I only read 5-6 of the poems). If I am asked for a recommendation, I will not recommend this book. I'm just not going to rip it apart on my blog.

I'm not saying this as if to imply "everyone look at me! I'm so awesome!" because A) I'm not and B) I'm not sure that what I am doing is 100% the right thing. As much as I want to be kind and only say nice things, I really have a bit of distaste for the kid gloves that I see everyone having to wear all the time. Yes, we are artists and we are sensitive and what one person likes another person might not, but isn't criticism one of the vehicles through which we ultimately improve? But then this makes me think of visionary art and the "workshop poem" and argh! I don't know. I am so very conflicted - I keep going back and forth in my own head.

I am also saying these things to make it clear that while I write a lot of very positive reviews (I think) I do not have universal love for all poetry. Quite the contrary - I am extremely hard to please. If I don't review your chapbook, though, it's not necessarily because I deeply disliked it and think it is a blight on contemporary poetry and all copies should be burned. I often just don't get around to reviewing everything in a timely fashion. I have 3 reviews I need to write that I can think of just off the top of my head, and I adored two of the books and really really enjoyed the third. I'm crazy-busy, and now I have a press, too. That was smart of me.

Speaking of which! I just picked out the second chapbook I will be publishing! Announcement soon! I think I'll be publishing more like 3-4 chapbooks this year!

Micro Reviews

I've got 3 reviews today, mostly because I read a lot and slacked when it came to review writing. Three very different poetry chapbooks by three awesome lady writers.

Instructions from the Narwhal by Allison Titus (Bateau Press, 2007) I picked this chapbook up at Bateau Press’ table at the AWP this past year. I love the journal Bateau (it is one of the very few journals to which I always am sure to subscribe) and wanted to check out their chapbooks, all of which are selected through their annual Boom Chapbook Contest, which, I found out upon looking at their website for this review, is open right now. I believe it was Ashley Schaffer, the managing editor of Bateau, who directed me toward Instructions from the Narwhal, and for that I am in her debt. As you may or may not be aware I read these chapbooks aloud to myself while working out on my elliptical machine. I read through the entire chapbook in order (if I find myself unable to get through a poem or two I usually drop the chapbook and start on a new one) and I try not to go back and reread anything until I’ve read the whole chapbook once. Often I will reread poems silently later, but I try to base these reviews on the impression I get from these books from one straight through out loud read. This was extremely difficult with Instructions from the Narwhal, in part because the poems are complex and more interconnected and multi-layered than I think I’ve perhaps even realized yet, but mostly because they were just so goddamn good and I wanted to reread every single one as soon as I’d finished it.

The chapbook is broken up into two sections. The first is made up entirely of a series of poems with the overarching title of Instructions from the Narwhal, with subtitles for each piece. Now, in addition to being poems addressed to the audience from a pretty badass looking animal, this series of poems was absolutely lovely in that it seemed to mix magic and science, myth and history, man and nature, seamlessly and beautifully in its puzzle-like instructions. Narwhals live in cold northern waters, and a sense of the silence of ice and snow permeated this entire chapbook. Even the feelings of the words on my tongue seemed round and soft. Though there may have been a chilly melancholy to the poems, they were far from cold, and while the thread of each poem may have doubled back over on itself, twisted around, and run me through complicated sailor's knots, each poem seemed to be less a tangle, and more a complex and powerful spell. The second half of the chapbook shifted from the voice of the narwhal to the voices of men and women, but still with the chill of cold water and the silence of snow in them. In fact, it was not until the final poem in the chapbook that I felt sharp sound in the poems, like the snap after hypnotism. I don't know if I am doing a particularly good job of describing this, but I did feel as though I was discovering some soft mystery throughout Instructions from the Narwhal, and I can't wait to reread it and hopefully experience that sensation all over again. This chapbook is neck and neck with Soft Foam for my favorite read of 2010.

Angel Face Trailer by Juliet Cook w/translations into Italian by Letizia Merello (Blood Pudding Press, 2010) I've reviewed Juliet's work before, and if you've read those reviews it should come as no surprise that I greatly enjoyed Angel Face Trailer. The poems in Angel Face Trailer start out reading as a call for women to participate in the filming of what is to be a strangely sexual and exploitative film. With the eye for gross-beautiful imagery that I so appreciate in Cook's work, she describes women desired and devoured in this slim chapbook. In addition to some pretty awesome poetry, what's interesting and different about this chapbook is that Juliet's work has been translated into Italian by Letizia Merello. Now, being unable to read Italian I cannot comment on Merello's translations, but in spite of my only speaking and writing in English, I do firmly believe that poets should translate more work and read more poetry in translation. I also understand how difficult and time-consuming it is to translate poetry having worked on the translation of some Buddhist texts a couple of years ago. But whether you read Italian or not, Juliet Cook's Angel Face Trailer is definitely worth picking up - and, per Blood Pudding Press usual, it's a lovely art piece to boot.

Virginia is for Lovers by Karen Lillis (Words Like Kudzu, 2007) Virginia is for Lovers is not a collection of poems about a beloved so much as a chronicling of the beloved's absence. It is clear, in reading this collection, that Lillis is both a skilled poet and fiction writer. The poems are written in a narrative style and set up in such a way as to tell the story of a young woman, the man she falls in love with, his sudden departure, and, perhaps most prominently, her despondence at the void he has left in her life. One thing I noticed while reading this chapbook is that Lillis really has a way with endings. She knows precisely both when and how to end a poem, and I never felt like she rushed an end or tacked anything on unnecessarily. Lillis' main character falls passionately in love with a man who hops a train, and she spends the remainder of the collection trying to come to terms with what he has done - the why, the wherefore, and even the how. Each poem following his departure chronicles a way in which she experiences aloneness, though not necessarily loneliness. While a part of me wanted to see the collection end with the main character definitively "getting over" the man who abandons her, it is perhaps more honest what Lillis does - show how often, there is not a point where we turn a sharply defined corner but rather a slow process of the edges of things getting worn smooth.


Both Lillis' Virginia is for Lovers and Titus' Instructions from the Narwhal are sadly not available online at this time, and it doesn't seem that Titus' collection will be available again any time soon, which is truly a tragedy. Lillis, however, is in the process of putting together an Etsy shop for Words Like Kudzu, which I linked to the in the review, so Virginia is for Lovers might show up there!


In other news, after a bit of a dry spell I've had three poems accepted for publication in the past week! Hooray! Two will appear in New South, and the third in Barge Journal. I'm excited!

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.

On the radio!

I had the great honor and pleasure of being part of an interview on The Moe Green Poetry Show with Naomi Shihab Nye and two of the other lovely poets in Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25.

I didn't ramble too embarassingly, I don't think, though I did babble a tiny bit about Facebook (ah, the youth of today!). I also talked about my ex-boyfriend's cat. And Mihnea's ex-girlfriend's cat. And the universal cat. It totally applied to poetry. For real.

Some semi-intelligent things came out of my mouth too, about the concept of the other in the anthology, and I might have called Naomi the nicest poet ever (I stand by this statement).

Also, Naomi Shihab Nye called my poetry edgy. I've wondered before if I'm an edgy poet...

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.

Just a very quick post to say...

...the anthology's out!

Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25 edited by Naomi Shihab Nye

I'm in there along with a whole bunch of other super-talented ladies and gentlemen. I actually haven't received my contributor copy yet, but I've seen a copy and it is quite lovely. A local bookstore has already agreed to carry it. Hooray and joy!

Radio Silence

I've been a bit non-present again, I realize.

I was working pretty hard on an entry on mentorship that's gotten completely off track as I've been unable to get ahold of one of the subjects of the entry. It has made me a bit glum to look at an entry which is primarily about someone who hasn't emailed me back in two months.

I'm not dead, really. Weave issue 03 is ready to ship from the printer, the TypewriterGirls are heading to the Bowery Poetry Club in January and I wrote a draft of a new poem recently.

Mihnea and I will be heading out to Cook's Forest for three days after Christmas for some relaxation time in a cabin. Though, I wonder if it still counts as a cabin since it has a whirlpool tub. Tiny hotel, maybe? I've joked that it's our honeymoon/Christmas/Valentine's Day. We opted for no TV in the cabin. There will be lots of writing. Lots of snuggling. I'm using that whirlpool.

I have a bunch of submissions floating around out there right now. For some reason I'm on the edge of my seat about them over the past couple of days. I have one submission that's been out there for four months. I used to get upset about these things. Now I'm an editor.

Whirlwind

It's a wonderful week and it's a crazy week at the same time.

First, the happiest of news - my husband got his green card yesterday!!! Hooray! This is the most wonderful of news and overshadows any bad news/feelings. Seriously. One of the bad things that happened on Tuesday, thought, was that my car got towed (a $45 lunch for two turned magically into a $200 lunch) and I couldn't even really get upset about it.

Other happy news - two TypewriterGirls performances this weekend! The first one is this Friday at Remedy in Lawrenceville - Karen Lillis and Laura Davis will be reading, and there will be various other TypewriterGirl shenanigans. Doors open at 9:30.

On Sunday it's TypewriterGirls Save the Libraries! Doors open at 5:30pm at the Carnegie Lecture Hall in Oakland. It's for a good cause. You should be there. Sandra Beasley and Nancy Krygowski will read, Phat Man Dee will sing, Christiane D. will perform, Dave Doyle will balance things on his face, Moquette Volante will perform, and Crystal and I will be up to our zany antics with guest appearances from Sean Collier and Franco Dok Harris. You for sure want to be at this one.

My friend Kevin is coming out to Pittsburgh this weekend to see the TypewriterGirls shows and hang out in the city. I don't get to see Kevin too often and it will be very nice to have him around!

I've actually taken off work tomorrow to get ready for the upcoming TypewriterGirls shows. This is not the first time I've taken off for a show, but it's the first time I've taken off for show rehearsal.

Very Good Things are, of course, happening elsewhere in the poetry world, too.

- The lovely Rachel Mallino has just had her next chapbook picked up by Dancing Girl Press! Hooray and congratulations, Rachel!!

- My Weave co-founder Laura Davis has a new blog. Check it out -- it's all poetry-related and stuff

- The New Yinzer Presents has a reading coming up! I'm in it with fellow Weave editor Joel Coggins, the always-amazing Renee Alberts, and much much more!

- Juliet Cook has a new chapbook coming out from Slash Pine Press called Fondant Pig Angst. I have ordered it. You should order it, too.

- Dana Guthrie Martin's chapbook The Spare Room is out right now from Juliet's press, Blood Pudding Press. It's another one that I demand you go purchase right now. Dana's work is absolutely stunning. Always.



I haven't been writing as much as I should, but I have ideas and after this weekend I'll have a little breather. And that will be good.

Also - my chapbook from Tilt Press, Barefoot and Listening, should be coming out soon!!

Of course, the real question here is why I can't get my husband to wear a skirt.

I sent out some submissions yesterday, something I haven't done in a few months. It feels good, primarily because submitting means that I have new poems that I'm happy enough with to send out into the world.

Worked on editing yesterday, so no new poem last week. I will write one this week.

I have (yet another) project idea bumping itself around in my head. The second chapbook manuscript I'm working on is taking itself in a different direction from where I thought it would go and is taking a much longer time to put together than I thought it would, so of course the best thing for my creative energies to do is to want to switch gears. Of course. Mid-project.

Perhaps (no, for sure) I should just be happy that my brain isn't devoid of ideas. I did go through a very brief period there where I had that terrifying thought of "oh god, what if I'm just out of ideas for poems?" It's funny, really, but because I'm not the fastest writer when I go through exceptionally long periods of poetic silence I do get that nagging voice in the back of my head. It's right up there with the "you're not really a poet" voice. Very silly in the light of day.

The TypewriterGirls' October hiatus is almost over and we will be coming out of it with a bang. Crystal and I are performing at the annual Chattering Bones party in Windber, and on the 10th we'll be taking our comedy to The Alternative Comedy Show at the Brillobox. Then, at the beginning of December we'll be holding a show as a benefit for the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh. Funding's been reduced and they're going through a difficult time, and we love an excuse to have a crazy show for a good cause.

I have decided to dress in drag for Halloween. It makes me quite happy, really, and Halloween is as good an excuse as any to do it. I tried to convince my husband to also go in drag and I almost had him, but he's decided against it, tragically. I swear, we would have been adorable.

Boo, husband. Boo.*











*not really. He's awesome.

Catch up

My son will be spending the whole week in Cleveland and I have committed myself to doing some major catch up while he's away. There are many things to do;

• Get issue 03 of Weave finalized and sent out to the printer (!!!)
  
• Work on my 4 drafted poems
  
• Write up an evaluation for one of my interns (this really should be the first thing listed)
• Do some housework. The husband would be so pleased.
  
• Read! I have a book on Allen Ginsberg's Buddhist poetry that I'm really enjoying, that whole literary theory thing to plug away at, and more poetry than I can realistically shake a stick at.
• Do my best not to go overboard purchasing books this week. I can only read so many at a time.
• Obtain cover art for my chapbook. Very important.

There's also (conveniently) a poetry reading to go to on Wednesday, time to spend with my friends, and exercising that must be done now that I'm not constantly coughing.

It's good to know that even when I don't have a 4-year-old to worry about I can still run myself ragged.




Other Lovely Things

• If you haven't done so yet, you should head over to the Tilt Press website and purchase their 2009-2010 chapbook subscription -- and not just because my chapbook will be a part of it!
• GUD is having a pumpkin carving contest. Had I any skills at all I would enter this. You may have skills. You could enter. You could win books.
• There's a nice review of Weave issue 02 up on New Pages.
  

The seemingly monthly update

And again it's been a Very Long Time since I last wrote. But I will persevere! Even in the face of clearly not being the best at keeping up with a blog I will continue to -- um -- write once a month?

In my defense the past 30 days have been a whirlwind of crazy. Weave closed for submissions, I've been working on layout, trying to write a little bit (failing mostly, to be entirely honest. It's not been a productive month in the world of poetry), I decided to give myself a crash course in literary theory (we're only up to deconstruction. It's clearly not going very quickly), and I had 3 TypewriterGirls events the weekend before last (yes! three!). And of course there's my 40-hours-a-week job that's got nothing to do with poetry/publishing and my child needs some attention, you know, every now and again.

Oh yes, and I'm sick.

I decided to do this crash course in literary theory because I'm trying to get back into academic reading so that when I do apply for graduate school (whenever that may be) it won't be a huge shock to go from reading just poetry and little else to suddenly reading critical work by the bookfull. I've come up with a little "class" for myself on poetry, prophecy, and shamanism that I'm pretty excited about. Hopefully I can finish with my book on literary theory at some point and start reading the books taunting me from my shelf.

And of course all is not doom, gloom, and lack of time to breathe! Many wonderful and awesome things are happening in the world!

First, this year's chapbook subscription from Tilt Press is now available and my chapbook, Barefoot and Listening is first up! My lovely friend Heidi is working on a cover design, about which I am very excited. I'd already been thinking to ask her when I mentioned the book to a couple other friends, both of whom said "Oh! You should ask Heidi to do the cover!". This is because she is just that awesome.

My lovely, talented, fellow TypewriterGirl, and all-around best friend Crystal Jean Hoffman was nominated for her very first Pushcart Prize by Goldfish Press! She is an amazing poet and it is a well-deserved nomination.

Also - how excited am I to see this? Very very.





In other fun news the new issue of Goblin Fruit is up and the fine ladies who edit Goblin Fruit are switching journals with the editor from Mythic Delirium and for one issue will be editting one another's journals.

Also, Pank has one more day left in their chapbook competition! Hurry! There is still time!

My Big News

I've been practically busting with the news that my chapbook, Barefoot and Listening, will be published by Tilt Press as part of their 2009-2010 series of chapbooks. I could not possibly be more excited. Ever since I first picked up Julie Platt's In the Kingdom of my Familiar I wanted Tilt to be the press to publish Barefoot and Listening. I'm extraordinarily excited, honored, and lucky that they chose my manuscript.

Here's the full list of poets and manuscripts as posted on Tilt's website;

Margaret Bashaar, Barefoot and Listening
Dan Rosenberg, A Thread of Hands
Krystal Languell, The Mean Particle
Susan Yount, House on Fire
Rachel Abramowitz, One's A Crown

Now I have to decide what cover art I would like -- a very exciting dilemma!

The Manuscript (again) and submissions

Still working on poems for the second manuscript. However, the more I work on it, the more poems I want to write for it, so in spite of having written two poems and drafted one over the past week or so for this project, I'm still standing at 5 that need to be written. I wonder if I will ever be done. The main character has also shifted from one character to another, completely unintentionally. I'd be a little upset (I liked the original main character a lot) if it were not for the direction that this gets to take the writing itself.

I don't have any outstanding submissions right now and that is a very strange feeling. I'm the kind of writer who always has work out at one journal or another. I feel like I must be slacking or something. I'm hesitant to send out these new poems because I want to work on publishing this manuscript once I'm done with it (but who knows when that will be, really) and I'm hesitant to break from work on this manuscript to work on poems on a different theme (and what's the point of writing something just so you can send it out? That may be one of the stupider thoughts that has come to my head in a very long while - writing something not for my current project just so I can have something to send out. I've had a couple of requests for work, but seriously. Bad idea.). Still, it's a very strange feeling. It makes me antsy.

I've been making some new writing friends, which is also a very good feeling. I've been having lunches with some lovely people and I can't wait to spend more time with them. It's always wonderful to find new, fantastically creative and talented people you can connect with.

And on that fuzzy note, it's time I went back to work.

Manuscript the second

So I'm working on manuscript #2 and I actually wrote two new poems for it in one day. I'm pretty excited about working on this second one now. I'd like to write maybe 2-5 more poems for it. I feel like there's a bit in the middle that needs some work. The end is lovely -- it's everything I wanted from this manuscript. The manuscript itself is a sort of a story of one character who has evolved and changed names in my poetry over time. She used to be a replacement for me but now she has a whole life of her own and this set of poems tells her story. Now that I have some distance from the poems that started the whole thing I've really been able to edit them and sculpt them into what I've wanted them to be all along.

A couple of these poems are up at Thirteen Myna Birds. However, I think only two of them remain up as of right now, so check them out before the next flight formation makes them fly away!

I never thought I'd actually be working on two manuscripts at once. Though perhaps it's just a way to avoid having to write every day -- instead of getting the writing together I organize and re-organize the manuscript, add poems, delete poems, love poems and hate them in the same 24 hour span of time, try to decide if that poem from my junior year of college is awful or awesome, you know. It's all very engaging and fun for me, especially this group of poems. The first chapbook was more laborious -- I knew what was going in the manuscript but didn't quite know where or when. This one has just been fun - tossing poems in and out, shuffling them around, writing new ones to fill in the blanks and steer my girl where she needs to inevitably go. The poems aren't playful -- they're actually much darker on the outset than my other set (check out the first poem of mine over at Thirteen Myna Birds if you wish for an example), but I love working on it nonetheless. My husband was worried that working on these poems was going to make me all dark and dreary, but instead of a dark and dreary wife he's got a poetry-obsessed wife right now. (Well, all the time, really)

SPF went very well. We at Weave met some really awesome people, sold a good number of copies, and generally had a lot of fun. Adam and the others over at Open Thread did some amazing work and I really appreciate everything they've done for the literary community in Pittsburgh with this festival. It was also lovely to hang out with some of my favorite writing people for a couple of days.

There are a lot of lovely things on the horizon.

Subscription Drive over at Weave, SPF, publishing, etc.

First, if you have not yet checked it out, I would like to direct you to Weave Magazine's subscription drive. We're attempting to get 30 subscriptions in 30 days and we've fallen a couple subscriptions behind, so we'd really appreciate the purchase if you were to make one! Subscriptions are at a discounted price for the next 4 days only! $12.00 gets you two issues of Weave. $19.00 gets you issues 1-3. So go forth and purchase!

I'm also very excited to say that four of my poems are going to be published in an anthology edited by Naomi Shihab Nye titled Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25. I'm thrilled to get to be a part of this anthology and cannot wait to read the rest of the anthology. The book is to be published by Greenwillow Books, which is an imprint of HarperCollins. Exciting stuff.

In some local poetry news, Pittsburgh will be hosting a small press festival called SPF this upcoming July. The festival is being directed by and was conceptualized by the good people over at Open Thread. If you have a small press and are in the area you should consider getting a table before the July 1st deadline. There are a lot of presses already signed up and, of course, Weave is happily one of them.

I am so very thankful that it is Friday and I am no longer at work. It is a bit sad that I go through the entire week anticipating the weekend. Don't get me wrong - I am extraordinarily grateful for my job. I like my boss. The work isn't terrible. But auditing is certainly not something that makes me get up in the morning all excited. Ever. Maybe some day I'll be able to afford to go to graduate school and get my career redirected somewhat. Or perhaps it's just a grass-is-greener sort of thing and I should be happy with the work I am doing. I'm editing Weave with Laura, I'm running The TypewriterGirls with Crystal, I'm writing, and I'm publishing. Really, I've got nothing to complain about. I just get so despondent at work sometimes. This heavy feeling between my chest and my stomach. If only I could just get past it.

On a less depressing note, this weekend my friend Bill and I are sitting down to talk about the cover art for issue 03 of Weave. I've sent him a bit of the poetry we've accepted and he may be creating a response to the work as the cover. He also does portraits with the poet Huang Xiang that you can take a look at through the above link, and we're also talking about potentially using one of those. I'll also be heading to Windber this weekend for my friends' performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is bound to be an interesting time.




I've noticed I'm terrible at titling my blog posts. Perhaps I should just abstain entirely.

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.

New Issue of Goblin Fruit...

...is live and contains a lovely poem by the ever-so-talented Susan Slaviero.

Apotropaism is also an interesting one -- though my favorite part of Goblin Fruit is always listening to the readings posted with the poems. I haven't had the chance to take a listen yet, but certainly will at work tomorrow. I always find a poem that I didn't properly appreciate until I heard it.

This is one of the things that I love about journals like Goblin Fruit, The Dirty Napkin, and The Pedestal Magazine (to name a few) -- they give the poet the opportunity to send in a recording of them reading their poem, which I think is a simply lovely idea. It's one of the advantages of the internet. Not only is a poem readily accessible to the general public, but it can also be multimedia in such a way that it shows a poet's multiple talents and gets not only the poem out there, but also the poet's voice and reading. I don't think it is an idea that is properly appreciated by enough poets.

So take a look and a listen!

New Issue of Pedestal Magazine...

...is up and I'm in it! You can read and listen to me here. I love that Pedestal will also post an audio file of the poet reading their work and am very surprised that not many people seem to take advantage of that opportunity. Then again, I needed my lovely boyfriend Mihnea to help me record myself and it is quite likely that not every poet has a Mihnea in their life.

Also, I am, as always, smirking in my photo. I can't seem to stop doing that.

A Lovely Poetry Day

Sunday was a very lovely poetry day. First, Laura and I hosted another poetry workshop through Weave where I got to meet some really cool local poets who I perhaps would never have met otherwise -- there was a great variety of styles and subjects. I love workshopping and it was wonderful to get to hang out and read some pretty awesome poems.

Also on the Weave front, Laura and I have begun working with one of our fiction readers and I am simply blown away by him. He is very serious and very skilled and clearly highly motivated. I can't wait to get the chance to work with him more.

When I got home from the workshop I had an acceptance from Hawk & Whippoorwill sitting in my inbox. I'd submitted about 5 months ago and it was very exciting to hear back from them. I write a lot of poems about woman in nature and am very glad they decided to pick one of them up. It was a lovely way to start off my evening!

No sooner had I sent out a couple of withdrawals for the poem Hawk and Whippoorwill picked up, than The Pedestal Magazine sent me an email accepting "Barefoot and Listening", the title poem to a chapbook I'm putting together.

I'd been feeling a little down about the submissions I've sent out lately - I've been trying to push myself and have gotten a lot of rejections of late. It's been a little demoralizing. To be honest, these acceptances have really lifted my spirits a lot and have shown me that pushing myself is what I need to do.

In other news, Juliet Cook over at Blood Pudding is putting together another multi-writer project. There are only about 7 slots left and I'd like to snag one of those, but I've been struggling with putting together my submission for her. I know I do have poems that would fit with her aesthetic, but the problem is finding and editing all of them.

Also! The Winter Issue of Arsenic Lobster is up! Hoorah!