Reading Tomorrow in Tacoma and Writing Poetry in Dark Times

Reading in Tacoma

Tomorrow I’ll be reading with San Francisco poet Kendra Tanacea, at King’s Books in Tacoma at 7 PM. I hope to see some of you there! I’ll be reading some end-of-the-world poems from my latest book, Field Guide to the End of the World, and Kendra will be reading from her new collection A Filament Burns in Blue Degrees from Lost Horse. I haven’t read in Tacoma for a while, so I’m excited abou tit!

Poetry in Dark Times

I can tell you I’m troubled when I read the news lately, and you probably are, too. The Manchester bombing in particular was so upsetting, I think because so many of the victims were young girls and boys. I did notice on Twitter a dramatic positive response from people in Manchester – offering to look for people, offering rides and cell phones and food, offering places to stay.

I have a poem in Field Guide to the End of the World called “The Narcissist’s Apocalypse,” in which the speaker, on learning she may be about to die, imagines the world ending as well. I actually think that the opposite happens with many people – when confronted with the worst things possible, their tendency is to reach out and help others. There are many stories of people going to the aid of the injured at the concert in Manchester, homeless men helping injured children, children helping each other, parents helping other people’s children. When I was told I had cancer last year that might be terminal, my instinct wasn’t to destroy, but to celebrate the beautiful things around me – the flowering trees, my loved ones, animals. (I have often joked that my camera became strangely full of tree pictures last year.) But I think when people are confronted by too much bad news, however, they have a tendency to either go into denial, try to hide from it, or become callous to it. I think poetry is one way to fight against that tendency to shut ourselves down or turn our emotions off.

Maggie Smith’s poem, “Good Bones,” has been making the rounds as a kind of comforting example of what poetry can do in a crisis, as does Adam Zagajewski’s “Try to Praise the Mutilated World.”

The act of writing poetry itself can be an impulse against darkness, towards creation and healing, even if the tone is angry or hurt or despairing. A poem can be a thing that connects the writer with an audience, something that connects one person to another with a tremulous strand of empathy, perhaps part of a healing web we can spin around each other all the time, this empathy, this desire to connect instead of severing connections, to celebrate and reach out instead of destroy. What can we do to help heal our mutilated world, or to try to make it more beautiful? Instead of tearing each other apart with apathy, hatred, prejudice, how to help build each other up, build a world that we can imagine being…better? Can we respond to terror and despair with more scientific achievements, more stories, more beautiful work of art or architecture, even computer code that might help the world rather than wreck it?

Part of the theme of Field Guide to the End of the World was about my own response to catastrophe, how we might imagine surviving the worst possible scenarios, how we might respond to chaos and disaster. This is how I ended the book, with “Epilogue.”

Poem Up at Rise Up Review and Five Things I Learned While Writing PR for Poets

First of all, thanks to the Rise Up Review for featuring my poem, “In Which I Declare My Resistance,” at their site. As you may know, I don’t write a tremendous amount of political poetry, but something (something!) about the last few months has inspired me to write in that vein.

Five Things I Learned While Writing PR for Poets

I’m almost ready to turn my non-fiction book, PR for Poets, into the editors at Two Sylvias Press (just waiting for copyedits from my hard-working student intern) and I thought I might share a few things I learned while writing the book.

There are very few resources out there for poets who are looking at how to market poetry books. Poets and Writers magazine and Writer’s Chronicle – plus most MFA programs – don’t cover this stuff at all. People either assume poetry doesn’t sell, poets are above worrying about book sales, or I guess that somehow poetry books will sell on their own. I read through mountains of PR books for “regular” authors, and frustratingly, most of their advice didn’t really apply to us. (The stuff that did already exist was mostly written by Robert Brewer. Thanks Robert!) I also learned that marketing book for authors suddenly started having saucier titles, shorter chapters and larger fonts. Is this a millennial thing? Does everyone assume our attention spans are shorter? Anyway, this impacted how I organized my book in the end. I tried to make the book a little more accessible and easy to use without dumbing it down.
Each poet will have a different path for marketing their book, so it’s really hard to write “one-size-fits-all” advice. I know several poets who have been ultra-successful at selling their books, and all of them had unique reasons and methods for selling books. This means we each have to think of the natural audiences for our book, the things that are unique about us. A doctor-poet friend sold his book at medical conferences; another poet toured the US on a bus, stopping at nearly every city. Some poets have irresistible charisma, and that’s not something you can manufacture, but it sure helps book sales.
Some things involved in book promotion are beyond our control. Right after I’d completed my first draft of the PR for Poets book, I was diagnosed with fatal metastatic cancer in my liver. This was a few months before Field Guide to the End of the World was due to come out. Pretty awesome timing. I put the non-fiction book on hold for nine months that passed in a blur of tests, treatments, and more tests. Later I was forced to cancel part of my book tour (a trip out to Missouri) because my immune system decided not to work for a bit and I caught every bug going around (and this was a particularly weird flu season.) This stuff happens when you put out a book – you lose a job, you get pregnant, a loved one passes away, you get sick – and you have to pick and choose where you put your energy. For Field Guide to the End of the World, I wasn’t able to give as many readings, so I tried a few other methods to promote the book that I could do from home. (PS: If you are interested in buying, reviewing, or otherwise promoting Field Guide to the End of the World, I would be very grateful! Please contact me. PPS: Amazon reviews are appreciated more than you know!)
Sometimes giving stuff away for free makes sense for poets. A few examples: beautiful broadsides or bookmarks that allow people who come to a reading to walk away with a visual reminder of your work. Goodreads giveaways. Sending books to reviewers, even though most reviewers will ignore it. Same with book prizes. You never know when a well-placed giveaway will work out in a way that might work to make your work do the miraculous and “go viral.” (For good info on poems going viral, check out the journey of Maggie Smith’s poem “Good Bones” by Kelli Russell Agodon.)
Celebrating your book with family and friends is maybe the most important part in terms not of sales, but of value. In my memory, in terms of what will mean most to me later on, it’s those happy moments when there’s champagne and people who are genuinely happy to be holding your new book. You may not remember most of your readings, or the first time you see your book in a bookstore, but you will remember those celebrations with loved ones. So be sure to take the time and energy (and a little money) and put it towards a celebration.

Okay, hope that was helpful to you!

What I’ve Been Up to in May – reports on writing a non-fiction book, goslings, concerts – and getting May submissions done

I’m almost finished with my non-fiction book for Two Sylvias Press, PR for Poets. Let me say, it’s 150 pages and soooo much more work than a poetry book! Luckily I’ve had my husband, my mom, and a wonderful student intern to help me do a final editing pass before I turn it in, and then I’ll be ready to send to beta readers for some early feedback! (So let me know in the comments if you want to be one of the beta readers for me!) I feel much more confident about the book now than when I finished my first draft last year. But once again, waaaay more time-consuming than I initially thought – but hopefully the book will be helpful for lots of poets who feel (like me) that they had no resources to learn how to sell their own poetry books!

In poetry news, I have a poem coming out soon in the Rise Up Review and I’m getting ready to do another reading for Field Guide to the End of the World at King’s Books in Tacoma on May 25. I hope some of you will be there!

Besides being busy with writing the PR for Poets book, I’ve been working on writing a new poetry manuscript – I’ve even sent it out once already! It’s a very personal book, but I notice once again there’s a little bit of apocalypse sneaking in to the personal aspects. A few days ago there was an accident at Hanford. (You can read more about it here.) Even though I’ve already written one book, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, about my own experiences growing up in a very nuclear-immersed household, it still surprises me how little politicians – and people in general – know about the risks of their local and national nuclear sites, like Hanford, San Onofre, Oak Ridge National Labs, or the White Plains plant in New York. It surprises me how little the government tells us about the risks, and what people don’t know about protecting themselves from the long-term effects of nuclear pollution.

As you may know, I’ve been diagnosed with thyroid nodules and thyroid autoimmune disease, mysterious brain lesions, an autoimmune deficiency, and, most recently, tumors in my liver (and I’m due for another MRI of the liver tumors on Monday, always nerve-wracking.) I often wonder how many of my health problems are connected to my childhood exposure to Cesium-137-contaminated food, water, air, dirt – I grew up on a farm, after all, eating food that was grown there, playing in the mud on rainy days. I’ve been writing nuclear-related poems again, so I guess the subject isn’t exhausted in my poetry yet! I found out, for instance, in doing some research that children exposed to Cesium from Chernobyl exhibited some of the same problem with autoimmune IgG levels that I have. And of course, Cesium can be absorbed in the brain and liver, as well as skin and bones.

It hasn’t been all grim work and research – I’ve had time to get out to an Aimee Mann concert at The Neptune (good, singing some of my favorite lesser-known songs, with some quirky local talent and geek rocker Jonathon Coulton), discover some goslings along the Sammamish trail, and observe some new lilac, pink dogwood and wisteria blooming. I did sprain my ankle recently (yet again, sigh) and it’s mostly been too cold and wet to go out and have too much fun (plus I acquired a little spring cold, which didn’t help matters.) That’s okay. The downtime isn’t all bad. More time to work on edits. And submissions! As you may know, so many places stop taking submissions after May, so this is the time to get as many poetry subs out as you can before the month is over! Then you can relax over the summer. Lots of good places are still taking work now – so check out Entropy’s great list of places to send!

: Pink Dogwood

: Lilacs

: Goslings

: Aimee Mann with Jonathon Coulton

Birthdays, A Review of Magdalene, Sleeping Poems, and the End of Poetry Month

I decided to have a birthday celebration this year for my 44^th. It seemed appropriate – last year at this time I was so stressed and down I barely went out in between cancer testing. I was worried I had about six months – maybe longer. So this year I wanted to celebrate turning 44! It seems miraculous. I invited over a few friends, Glenn made cupcakes, it was rainy and cold outside, but inside we had some fun. Michaela Eaves brought me some pieces of art (she and Glenn conspired to get me this painting of a fox and hare in a forest.) Here are a few pics:

: Michaela’s original Becoming the Villainess sketch art

: MIchaela Eaves fox and hare painting

: Natasha Moni and me

: Kelli Agodon and me

: Three poets – Kelli, Natasha, and me

: poets & artists: Michaela Eaves, Kelli and her daughter, and me

Life is short. That’s what I keep saying – we really do have to pause in the middle of grumbling, in the middle of bad news replaying constantly, in the middle of threats of wars and rumors of wars – we have to celebrate beauty and goodness, friends who make art, cupcakes. (PS Most of the friends in this picture I have known more than a decade now!)

In that capacity, let me know what you think of this review of Marie Howe’s newest book of poetry, Magdalene, up at The Rumpus a few days ago.

http://therumpus.net/2017/04/magdalene-by-marie-howe/

And these sleeping-themed poems up at Sleepyhead Central, as part of the poetry month celebration. One poem imagines a sleep deprivation clinic, another imagines alternate stories for Sleeping Beauty:

https://sleepyheadcentral.com/2017/04/30/national-poetry-month-jeannine-hall-gaileys-fables-of-sleep/

I almost thought my party might not happen – two days before, I sprained my ankle – and a day before, I woke up with one of the worst allergic reactions I’ve ever had (a new medicine, I think, sparked it) with purple welts and general miserableness. Happily, I woke up on my actual birthday with no welts and feeling fine (the sprained ankle, however, will take a little time to heal. Boo hiss.) It certainly has been an exciting time!

Now National Poetry Month is over, things can slow down to a little bit more of a regular pace. I’ve almost finished up PR for Poets to turn in, I have a Webinar to record this week (!), a poetry reading down in Tacoma with Kendra Tanacea at Kings Books on the 25th, I’m going to go see awesome writer Karen Russell this week, and I’ve got an Aimee Mann concert next week. They say we might actually have a little more sun now that it’s May. It’s been tough to go out and capture all the flowers that have been blooming despite the rain – but here are a few shots: