Thanks to Michi for pointing out the first ever (but hopefully, not last) review of Becoming the Villainess up on The Pedestal Magazine.
Also, I know you’re sick of hearing about me and good news, but yes, lightning does sometimes strike twice – the folks at The Writer’s Alamanac have decided to read another poem, “Female Comic Book Superheroes,” on July 7th. So tune in those dials! Again!
In celebration, I may go see that Prairie Home Companion movie this weekend. You know, a little payback for Garrison Keillor, or as I call him, my new best friend.
PS – This is endangering my standing among the avant-garde, isn’t it? But I’m kind of a wacky poet, in that sometimes I write stuff that’s”out there” and sometimes stuff that is super-accessible. In fact, in the newest MS, it’s even more schizophrenic – these formal types of fairy tale poems with surreal prose paragraphs in between.
PSS – In case you’re interested in things like this, here’s my reading list for my last semester:
The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan by Hayao Kawai
Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales by Grace James
Japanese Women Writers: 20th Century Short Fiction Edited by by Noriko Mizuta Lippit (Editor), Kyoko Iriye Selden (Editor)
Dreams, Myths, and Fairy Tales in Japan by Hayao Kawai
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon by Ivan Morris
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship by Karen Ann Smyers
Ink Dark Moon – Jane Hirshfield, translator
No Boundaries: Prose Poems by 24 American Poets by Ray Gonzalez
Women Poets of Japan – Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi
From the Country of Eight Islands: An anthology of Japanese Poetry -edited by Hiroaki Sato, Burton Watson
The Tales of Genji
The New Yorker Interview with Hayao Miyazaki:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/050117on_onlineonly01
and other various interviews with the director found at: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/
Rexroth? Gary Snyder?
Lesle Lewis’ Landscapes I and II
Samurai From Outer Space by Antonia Levi
Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle : Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation by Susan J. Napier
Also, some media: the films of Hayao Miyazaki, including Nausicaa of the People of the Wind, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Whisper of the Heart and Princess Mononoke, and a music video called “On Your Mark” which shows Miyazaki’s commentary on Chernobyl.