I wanted to shine a spotlight on a great new site created for “sharing and discovering opportunities for first books of poetry” called Imprimatur- a wonderful new resource for people who are in the process of having a first book of poems published or would like to. It was created by our own Ivy Alvarez – here’s the link: http://ivyai.wordpress.com/
It has everything from tips on negotiating contracts to publicity information and prizes. I know I would have loved to have had a resource like that when I first started doing book research.
Also, the lovely and talented blogger Rachel Dacus has guest-edited an issue of kaleidowhirl, which contains poems by me, fellow blogger Kelli Agodon, and fellow-Steel Toe Books author and biochemist Jennifer Gresham.

Had a lovely day across the Sound with my island-and-peninsula poetry workshop, and since I hadn’t seen my island-and-peninsula poet friends since before Christmas, it was great to catch up. I brought one of my new weird prose poems about animé (um, sort of an obsessive series of poems on Miyazaki’s work…) I’m having a lot of fun writing about this subject. Anyway, I even got to see the sun briefly (a rarity here) and got to split some appetizers with the lovely and talented Kelli afterwards. Ooh, and my friend Annette lent me some old episodes of MST3K. Gamera is really neat! He is full of turtle meat! Good times.
I haven’t been sending out much work lately. I’m kind of letting the poems roll back in slowly. I did get a nice acceptance letter from the kind editor of the beautifully-produced Evansville Review (especially nice because they are publishing my book’s title poem! Yay!) along with a couple of rejections and the myriad tax info (w2s, 1099s, etc…ah the fun of freelancing at tax time…)
And I turned in the final, final proof of the book manuscript today too – a thousand nitpicky little things, like spaces around em-dashes and missing punctuation, that kind of thing.
Now to turn to the very scary NEA application…and return to my essay for school…which is still nine pages of incoherent thought…must read more of Jung on persona and archetype, analyze Gluck’s Meadowlands, and talk about why persona poems allow women to more freely express their shadow selves. Or something like that.
(For Deb Ager: I couldn’t get my blogger comments to let me post for some reason, so let me say it here: Happy New Year to you too! And you are welcome for scones anytime!)

First of all, a shout-out to my little brother, who turns 30 today – Happy Birthday Pumpkin!

Sorry I haven’t been blogging much – all of my accumulated words are going into the first draft of the dreaded “Essay,” pretty much the only requirement of my MFA program’s third semester. It’s on “Why We Wear Masks: Contemporary Women Poets and the Persona Poem.” Right now it’s nine pages of incoherent thoughts pasted together. Yesterday I used three dictionaries, the MLA handbook, a primer on Jung, and seven web sites, all to write about a paragraph on what persona means. I’ve also been trying to write up two poetry book reviews, long overdue, finally finish commenting on a friend’s manuscript, catch up on e-mail (and Hotmail has been having some glitches, I lost some mail – so if I haven’t responded to any one of your urgent messages please re-send! This includes people who sent over the web form from this site) recover from my ten-day-absence (and the thirty-day absence of sun, blessedly broken by yesterday’s amazing, if cold, day-long sunfest.)
More on Atwood – I didn’t notice this at first, but one of the reasons I think I enjoyed her novel “Blind Assassin” so much is that the main story is a re-telling of the Procne and Philomel story, from Procne’s point of view. Agree? Disagree? Let me know!
I’ve written three poems since I’ve been back, all on the themes of Japanese fairy tales and animé. Hmph. This doesn’t belong with the other poems I’ve been writing at all. One is very formal and structured, and the other two are prose poems, which I have just barely started to write as a form. I think I was influenced by reading Sandra Alcosser and Kristy Bowen, who both have some kickass prose poems.
I’m having some poet friends over tonight so must concentrate soon on cleaning. I am generally a creature of some chaos, and straightening up is often a Herculean task. I may have convinced the husband to make his famous scones for tonight. (Using Tom Douglas’ secret cherry-almond scone recipe – the best in Seattle!)

Everywhere I go, Margaret Atwood has already been…
Here I am thinking I’m all original and what not with my villainess obsession (See here for reminder of what I’m referring to) – and I randomly picked up a book at the library to read at my residency, Atwood’s hodgepodge book of essays Writing with Intent – and what do I see but a whole chapter called “Spotty Handed Villainesses” – talking about why it’s not anti-feminist to create non-100-percent-sugar-and-spice female characters, the importance of strong female villains, etc. Hrmph. Then, yesterday, I bought her new collection The Tent – and, after spending ten years writing poems (some of which will appear in the aforementioned book, Becoming the Villainess) about the rather obscure (I thought) myth of Procne and Philomel, what should I find but an Atwood retelling of the Procne/Philomel story called “The Nightingale.”
Speaking of sci-fi mistresses of goodness, I got the pleasure of seeing Ursula LeGuin at the residency, where she proceeded to rant about the lack of teachers teaching literary fantasy and sci-fi books, which she feels have been unfairly ghettoized.
And, while I was gone, I received contributor copies of the wonderful anthology of the erotic, The Bedside Guide to the No Tell Motel, which not only looks great but is a lot of fun to read, and the new issue of American Poetry Journal, which has one of my favorite poems (don’t we all have personal favorites among our poems?) called “The Conversation” – about a female comic book superhero breaking up with her boyfriend. Anyway, run out and get both immediately.
I also noticed that sadly, none of the poet candidates for the Nat’l Book Critics Circle were women. Sigh.

Back from the storm-squalled Oregon Coast and so many panels, craft talks, and readings that, sadly, I’m dying for television, some good coffee, and a little down time. This morning after a shower in my own bathroom (ah, heaven) I raced out, hair still all wet, for a walk beside the flooded river near my house in the brief January sunlight we in Seattle are suddenly experiencing – after about 26 or 27 days of rain, you know, you start to go a little stir crazy. I consider myself an extrovert but after 10 days of spending 12 or more hours a day with groups of people I am craving silence, solitude. Even the dogs barking was too much company. I’m looking forward to catching up on blogs today and tomorrow, and not looking forward to catching up on overdue work. One note from the residency: Madeleine DeFrees, who is, I believe, 87 and an ex-nun, is a surprisingly fun person. If you get a chance to talk to her, do it!
I noticed that while I was gone, I was tapped for some meme by Kelli, so here it is for you meme fans:
4 Jobs You’ve Had: Makeup Artist; botanical genetics lab research assistant; manager of web designers and programmers; food writer
4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over: Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind (see earlier post re: Miyazaki,) the first Star Wars, Grosse Pointe Blank, Joe Versus the Volcano
4 Places You’ve Lived: LA; Richmond, VA; Knoxville; Cincinnati
4 TV Shows You Love to Watch: Buffy; Alias; Lost; Futurama
4 Places You’ve Been on Vacation: Montreal; Paris; Big Sur; Vancouver Island
4 Websites You Visit Daily: aintitcool.com, MSN, Seattle Times, and someone’s blog from list at left
4 Favorite Foods: Lobster, St. Andre cheese, good dark chocolate, woodfired pizza with figs and prosciutto. And twinkies, damn it.
4 Places You’d Rather Be: Montreal, Hawaii, Barbados, Colorado
4 Albums You Can’t Live Without: Whatever, Aimee Mann; Oh, Inverted World!, The Shins; Rufus Wainwright; The OC Soundtrack volume 1

Well, my darlings, one post before I’m off to my residency until the 17th. I’ve been in a flurry – trying to recover from a nasty case of bronchitis, get some work done before I leave (grant application, interview, essay, and review) and get packed.
In good news, Turner Classic Movies is running a Miyazaki marathon in January:
Jan. 5 Spirited Away (2001) 8 p.m. Princess Mononoke (1997) 10:15 p.m.
Jan. 12 Nausicaa of the Valley (1984)) 8 p.m. Castle in the Sky (1986) 10 p.m.
Jan. 19 My Neighbor Totoro (1988) 8 p.m. Porco Rosso (1992) 9:30 p.m. Whisper of the Heart (1995) 11:15 p.m
Jan. 26 Only Yesterday (1991) 8 p.m. Pom Poko (1994) 10:15 p.m.
If you do not watch Nausicaa, or record it, you are missing out. One of Miyazaki’s first and best efforts, this eco-drama is beautiful and moving. With a kick-ass female heroine, I might point out.
And, Futurama may be geting new episodes!
So my geek heart is happy.
And, my poem “After Ten Years Together, We Sneak Off to Make Out in a Friend’s Closet,” is living in sin with a bunch of other poems in Rebecca Livington’s anthology, The Bedside Guide to the No Tell Motel.
The new issue of Diner contains wonderful poems by poet pals Kelli Agodon, Ronda Broatch, and Rebecca Loudon, as well as my review of Kate Gale’s Mating Season.
Also, congrats to Jenifer Lawrence, whose poetry book will be published by Blue Begonia Press, and Steve Schroeder, who just won the Laureate Prize from National Poetry Review.
Now, it’s off to rainy Seaside, Oregon, where I’ve heard the waves are 20 feet high, for ten-days of all-literary-all-the-time crazy time.