Seriously, just kill me now…
So, another urgent care visit confirms I’ve got an ear infection and am now testing positive for flu type B (which I didn’t have before – at least not as of two weeks ago when I was tested then – AND I got the flu shot this year! So much for preventative measures.) So, after three weeks of various germs, even more newer and more exciting germs. Honestly. I have some patience and fortitude, but even I have my limits 🙂
On the plus side, the sun has finally graced my little town with its presence for the first time in over a week. So I’m gonna go shiver and be all ache-y-and-ah-choo-y and drink fluids and lie down in a sunbeam now.
And thanks for your good wishes and congrats! It really cheered me up while I’ve been all sickly.
Aren’t you glad I didn’t end up hanging out with you at AWP? Just think of all the problems you avoided! Anyway, glad to have all the blog reports on the conference to read now, although it sounds like a lot of you got sick even without me bringing my evil! You all take care, wrap up in warm blankets and rest. And remember to spill all the best gossip!
(Update: Thanks to Eduardo, I have the link to this AWP blog, hilarious! Now I know bronchitis IS the writer’s disease! http://awp2008.blogspot.com/)
For those of you who read this blog for poetry-talk – I promise I’ll get back to work soon. Someone asked me to talk about persona poetry and so I will!
PS Have I mentioned that I think AWP should be held during the healthier, sunnier portion of the year, or maybe in a happy, healthy, sunny place – like Arizona or Honolulu.
And, to read more discussion of the “can’t all poets just get along and not label each other and fight” subject, check out this post and the comments…
http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/who_you_callin_postavant.html
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
Felicity
Not to be all regionalist (okay, actually, to be completely regionalist) but why the hell isn’t it ever on the West Coast?
These are all the sites and dates I could find on their site:
2006 Austin, Texas
2007 Atlanta, Georgia
2008 New York, New York
2009 Chicago, Illinois
2010 Denver, Colorado
2011 Washington D.C.
2012 Chicago, Illinois
2013 Boston, Massachusetts
You know I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the literary world — heck, my finger’s off playing on the literary world’s little brother’s PS3 — but is there an actual reason why the conference is rarely as far west as the Rockies, and never further? Is it to make it easier for publishing big wigs from New York, or do they just think this whole coast is irrelevant?
Karen J. Weyant
Jeannine, Jeannine, Jeannine, — what are we going to do with you? Don’t visit western New York — that’s for sure. Today, we are experiencing -15 degree wind chills with blowing snow. I haven’t been able to get warm all day and I have tried everything — hot baths, crawling under the blankets with a fat cat, heavy flannel pj’s!
On another note, I’m not an expert on AWP (having never attended on of the conferences), but other national organizations do have conferences on the west coast — including the National League of Innovations for Community Colleges and College Reading Learning Association Conference. What is up with AWP?
Collin
Feel better, honey.
I just wasted 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back at the pissing contest at the Harriet blog. When they start rolling their resumes and difficult childhoods into the argument, I immediately switch off.
Mosker
If I haven’t offered, forgive me. I have more room than I need and am happy to sleep on the couch. Any time you and/or hubby want to visit, it is no problem. Parking in Venice may be an issue, but we got sun, and a decent little poetry scene.
Joannie
Jeannine, I hope you feel better–immediately! And please disregard my earlier email. I hadn’t had a chance read about the latest updates (downdates?).
megalopoet
oh dear, hoping for no more emergency visits.
tickled to hear you’ll post on the persona– and, because of your earlier post, i’ve this image of you wraithing about the moors all very bronte and, as you said, the sickly lit femme.
but this is not a proper sunbeaming scenario, so now i’m renvisioning you as the plucky heroine, the bootstraps queen, a sassy jane austen-esque if you will. feel better soon!
Peter
Congrats on you award. It’s pretty wonderful!
Now: Get well soon!
Jilly
My chiropractor said grapefruit seed extract is good for sore throats.
Hope you feel better soon.
cornshake
feel better, J! and yeah, AWP has been in Palm Springs and Vancouver and both were happily ‘doable’ and not so cram-packed! time for another vist to the west. my vote is for san diego!
b
Thank you muchly for the AWP blog link.