I want to congratulate a friend and poet whose MS I’ve had the honor to work with, Jeff Walt, on winning the Gertrude Press chapbook contest for Vows. Jeff is an amazing poet and I’ve been lucky to read his work on and off for the past few years and I keep telling him, “It’s fantastic!” You have to buy his chapbook to see what I mean.
In odd news, see this camp for women who want to become “Alias”-style spies. The knife-fighting class sounds interesting; the “sexy dance” class just sounds funny.
There’s been a lot of “dust up” in the blogging world lately. Most of it just makes me feel depressed. There’s nothing worse than thinking about the financial and political aspects of MFAs. I hate worrying about money and prestige and fame and the poetry point system. I’m still a naive idealist in that respect, I’m afraid.
In good-things-coming-from bad, though, I’m excited that Cate Marvin and Erin Belieu, motivated by frustration towards opportunties for women in the literary community (cough, AWP, cough) are starting their own women’s lit conference.
I think we’re leaning towards Napa as our next place of living. Bonus? It’s 14 percent cheaper than Carlsbad, according to some cost-of-living calculators.
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.
Ivy
I think you congratulating your poet friend on their good news is wonderfully supportive and an excellent antidote to the poisonous negativity out there. 🙂
Keith Wilson
I think that I will continue to act as if there is no point system up until I burgeon my score some.
Also, that alias-style spy school story is absolutely hilarious. And Ridiculous. I’m not sure if I think that is or isn’t indicative of a slow news day.
Joannie
Maybe a slow news day, and I might not rank in the poetry point system, but if I can sip martinis, wear stilettos, and have a even goofy alias (on a T-shirt!), I’m game. (Help me think of a poetry-related moniker.)
Kristin
A poetry related moniker, eh? Good–now I have something interesting to contemplate during this morning’s meeting that’s sure to be painfully dull.
I plan to come up with something that uses the word Iambic. It sounds exotic and mystical and yet implies a trustworthy beating pattern. Hmmm.
Can I get poetry points if I come up with the coolest poetry-related moniker? 🙂
Serena
Congrats to Jeff on his chapbook contest win!
I really am very far outside the po-biz point system. Sad I know.
Radish King
Jeff was lucky to have you take a peek and a red pencil to his manuscript. You remain one of the very best intuitive readers of poetry I’ve ever met. Every suggestion you ever made on a poem of mine was spot on. You got the goods, girl.
xox