Today is Glenn’s birthday, which means cake! and presents! And possibly going to that pirate movie, finally! A banner day all around.

Three acceptances this week from online literary magazines: Perigee, The Boxcar Poetry Review, and Poetry Southeast. All of them got back to me in less than a month! This cheered me up considerably, especially after I heard that in a response to a withdrawn poem, Many Mountains Moving thought they had lost my submission (they couldn’t be sure?) – after 14 months! Not to complain, but, really! That kind of thing just sucks the life out of me and my desire to lick envelopes.

I have a reading this Saturday, if you’re in the Kent/Auburn/Tacoma Washington area (my understanding is that these Cornucopia Days festivals involve tasty snack opportunities. I’m just saying.)

POETS AT KENT CORNUCOPIA DAYS
2-4 p.m. Saturday, July 15

The Northwest Renaissance this year celebrates its 20th consecutive summer poetry reading and conversation event a month early and in a new venue. The reading will take place 2-4 p.m. THIS COMING SATURDAY, JULY 15, in the Fine Art Exhibit, upstairs in the Green River Community College facility at Kent Station, 417 Ramsay Way in downtown Kent during Cornucopia Days. NWR program director Marjorie Rommel said “We’re delighted to find ourselves so much in the thick of things as part of the city’s historic Cornucopia Days in downtown Kent.”

This year’s readers include well-known Bellingham poets Malcolm Kenyon and rising slam star Dustin Ryler; Linda Malnack, Des Moines; Auburn poet and performance artist Stephanie Skura; Sherry Reniker, who teaches at Highline Community College; Seattle poet Jeannine Hall Gailey, whose new book Becoming the Villainess is just out from Steel Toe Books; and popular Tacoma poet and poetry host Michael Magee. Colorful (and highly dramatic) Kent poet R.D. Shadowbyrd will emcee.

The event, free and open to all, is supported by the Kent Arts Commission. For more information, contact Marjorie Rommel, 253/939-0571, mrommel@qwest.net, or visit the Kent Cornucopia Days website, http://www.ci.kent.wa.us/arts/news/2006_cornucopiadays.asp.