A Kick-Ass New Year’s Eve Post
I woke up this morning thinking about the main character from the movie, Kick-Ass. An average young man wakes up and decides he is going to stand up for good against crime, despite having no superpowers or special talents at fighting. So he puts on a green suit, goes out and almost immediately gets stabbed by one set of thugs, then run over with a car by another criminal. His injuries put him in the hospital, but sever a nerve and enable him to feel no pain. So it’s not that he doesn’t hurt himself, but he doesn’t feel it. Because of this, he goes back to crimefighting, inspiring people by standing up for the innocent, etc. (And he gets a supercute superheroic girl to really do all the hard work for him. Just like a man! Just kidding.)
This story seems important to me because the hero’s lesson is not that he can escape suffering in his search for justice, but that he must embrace it as if it does not exist. It seems that is an important lesson for me too. We can’t be afraid of suffering; we must act as if it doesn’t matter. We can’t fear pain, or rejection: we must go out and do the things we do despite those injuries, despite our inborn fears of getting hurt.
Yesterday I read January’s post on creating a Poetry Action Plan – not anything I’d ever thought about, actually, though I have a pretty regular schedule of writing, submitting, and reading that I keep to – and this morning read Kelli’s post on successful artists. And I have to admit, I was afraid. Afraid everything wouldn’t go right – that I would keep having injuries and illnesses that would be prevent me from being the poetry superhero I want to be, that I wouldn’t have enough courage to ask for readings or reviews for my new book, etc. The past two years for me have been one long exercise in not being able to do the things I wanted to do – breathe (pneumonia,) walk (broken foot, sprained ankles), eat (ameoba, food allergies)…you know, the normal human stuff. On the other hand, this last year I also finished up a fourth book manuscript I am very proud of and had my second book accepted by Kitsune Books. I am ready to be fearless, to put on my super poet suit and walk out and fight for poetry without thinking about the pain. I need to embrace my inner Kick-Ass-self.
We moved back to Seattle in part because it is where we both feel the most at home. It is a place that honors bookstores, coffee, that embraces art and oddballs. Where they have a sci-fi museum and a poetry-only bookstore. Already, since we have been home, I have felt stronger, more embraced, fortified somehow. Part of this is because of the good friends I have here, the contacts with artists and poets I admire. I hope in the new year to make even more friends, to strengthen a connection to the communities I love, to help young people love poetry, to bring poetry to people who think they hate poetry.
I am wishing us all a 2011 of more health, more prosperity, more peace, more connection to each other. And not to fear pain, or rejection, or failure, but to act as if those things are not important, as if they cannot hurt us, to not allow those things to be obstacles in our paths.
White Post-Christmas and Happy Almost New Year
It’s almost the New Year, and I’m on day eight of no solid food (still getting tests for food allergies etc. No fun!) Despite this, I’ve been madly productive, finishing up an article for Poet’s Market on Micropresses, finishing up a manuscript consult for a terrific book of poetry, generally responding to e-mails from students and others, finishing up Christmas business.
We’ve already taken down the tree when low and behold this morning we woke up to a late white Christmas, silver downpour on our trees (though I heard sleet at about 4 AM in the morning against the windows – so hard it woke me up.) Right now it’s snow showers, snow showers, with a white sky above. Haven’t written or sent out much poetry, which I intend to do as soon as Glenn finishes my Christmas present – a submissions tracking database. Then I just have to find some good places to send to.
These are some of my wishes for the new year:
–Health (sooner rather than later would be nice)
–A big happy welcome for book #2, She Returns to the Floating World, when it comes out in July.
–Dare I say: placing MS #3 and/or #4?
–Financial grace (jobs, fellowships, awards, freelance work or etc…)
–a permanent residence, perhaps?
It was nice to read Kristy Bowen’s post here on how her attitude towards poetry and “the po-biz” has changed over the past few years. I feel now, embarking on the launch of a second book, with lots of published poems in lots of wonderful literary magazines over the past seven or eight or so years, with my part-time working teaching poetry, that I am lucky and blessed, not in so much of a rush, with less anxiety. I spend more time thinking about how to help others, how to move people ahead to their own best next steps, how to calm their anxiety about writing or sending out or etc. I think about how trends change, how people in charge of things shift, how more women my age are starting their own magazines, presses, etc. I feel that spending time writing, a life devoted to writing, is a gamble, a gamble that we can’t know is worth it until the end, maybe not even then. I can’t say to anyone else, yes, for you the gamble is worth it or not, but for me, right now, yes, it is.
Christmas Cheer and Thankful Things
Well, readers, it’s really important at this time of year to keep up our Christmas cheer, and so, courtesty of Cute Overload, a tickle puppy! (Santa, can you bring me one for my stocking?)
Happy Solstice, taking stock, blog housekeeping
Happy Solstice Lunar Eclipse Day, everyone!
I missed seeing the blood-red moon because of Seattle’s obscuring clouds but saw the pictures and it was beautiful. My parents got married on the winter solstice, which I always find very romantic. Happy 41 years, guys!
This time of year always catches me accidentally taking stock of things. Last night I watched a movie in which a woman received her 15-year high school reunion invitation and freaks out, dreaming of her high school boyfriend and wondering if her life is sexy/fun enough. My 20th high school reunion is next year, and maybe I haven’t freaked out enough yet, or maybe, mid-life crises happen later than they did ten years ago.
Speaking of taking stock, I’ve been checking over my blog roll and doing “blog housekeeping,” taking down blogs that are dead or inactive. If you want to be added to the blog roll, and I don’t have you listed, let me know!
Sprained my ankle last week (again) and yesterday had a full-blown food allergy reaction again, so I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, like thanks Santa! Maybe I can blame the eclipse. As far as taking stock, the lesson here is…um, I need to learn to keep my balance, literally!
I miss being around my family this time of year, my little brother playing video games and the nephews and nieces opening presents. But on the plus side, I am a thirty minute drive from many wonderful friends, which I am very grateful for.
Anyway, to avoid any depression or self pity, I will cheer myself up by celebrating that from here on, the days grow longer and sunnier, the world will get better. The sun will (eventually) shine again, and it won’t always get dark at 4 PM. The whole Christmas festival is about birth and re-birth, as well. Cheer up, don’t give up, all those twinkling lights and evergreen garnishes say!
On the plus side, I’m pysched about the fact that my new book is coming out next July and I’ve already started planning readings, I’ve been working with an excellent poetry manuscript by a friend and an article I’m excited about, and my husband is building me a poetry submission database for Christmas! Ho ho ho!
Little Kindnesses in the Poetry World, Holidays, Fa la la
Besides that, I was thinking about a kind remark on a rejection – this time, from a poetry book contest. I think it is so wonderful when an editor takes the time to make a specific comment – to say, look, your work is valuable, even if we don’t take it, it’s good, don’t give up. It makes the whole poetry submission process seem less like a dog-and-pony show and more like a civilized correspondence between literary acquaintances, if you know what I mean. It’s the same with reviews. I won’t write a mean review, although I strive to write a fair and truthful one every time. The reviews are so meaningful and valuable to the writer – and such unrewarding work for most reviewers – and something about the reviewing process reaffirms that there are readers out there that care about what writers produce.
I have also recently had poets out of the blue send me encouraging remarks, give me advice, offer help. I am thankful. The holidays this year are keeping me full of cheer, though we’re low on cash due to the move (isn’t that the story of my life!) and I’m far from my family back in Cincinnati. I haven’t been writing or submitting like I should be, but I remember that I have friends who need encouragement, students that need close readings and guidance. A little kindness means so much. I should remember, kindness, kindness, make it mantra.
Poem up at Rattle’s blog and we’re washing away…
My poem, “I Forgot to Tell You the Most Important Part…” is up today at Rattle’s blog. Please go check it out and comment on it or otherwise make a fuss.
In other news, there has been so much rain here I think we seriously need to sharpen our ark-making skills. Last night, the rain on the roads was making our little car sedan squeal and complain. Belts got wet and tires spun. The rain pelted our windows so enthusiastically it woke me up at four in the morning. The train from here to Portland was closed for mudslides.
I am done with my Christmas shopping, we have seen the Christmas boats, and I only have a few cards left to send out. Now, if I could only get a similar jumpstart on my writing and writing-related tasks…
Thundering Seattle and more…
Yesterday there was a lightning strike so close to our apartment building that I almost thought it hit us. It might have hit us. The phone went dead and the cable went out, but eventually the internet blinked back on. Lightning is very uncommon in Seattle, though where I grew up in Knoxville, we watched the storms come through every afternoon, we opened the door and watched the wind shaking our trees and smelled the clean electric smell of storms, and in Cincinnati, every thunderstorm meant the possibility of tornadoes (one struck while I was babysitting two young kids when I was about 13. Another tore up one of my high schools and gym – luckily, no one was in either when it hit. ) I have been listening to hard rain against windows.
AWP is going to be Seattle in 2014! I think this is a good sign that AWP is following me around. I think AWP should stop being in places like Chicago (so many times!) and the coooold East Coast in winter – let’s face it, no one wants to make that plane trip in Jan or Feb – and start having itself in warm, tropical venues – or at least San Francisco or San Diego. I think by 2014 I should have a permanent house, a permanent job, and another book. You know, if 2012 doesn’t get all apocalypse-y. Maybe that’s too optimistic, but I hope not. Then I can host AWP sleepovers!
In other news of good people getting good things, Ilya Kaminsky was named director of the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet Monroe Institute. I remember meeting him in Seattle when Dancing in Odessa had just come out. I loved the book and when I met him, I thought, what a charming and intelligent young man (well, he’s a little younger than my younger brother, so I can’t help thinking of him as really young.) I thought, I bet he’s going places.
(In a late addition: Remember Aimee’s book I mentioned in my last post, Lucky Fish? Well now it’s been chosen by The Rumpus Poetry Book Club. So Yay for her too!)
I’m spending too much time grading and not enough time writing poetry. Too much time worrying about Christmas “business-busyness” – cards, present buying, corporate party-going – and not enough on Christmas fun. (Although last weekend I did get to visit with artist Michaela Eaves and a pair of tiger cubs at the same time as we toured Port Defiance Zoo. Which was pretty great all the way around – holiday lights, good friends, meerkats and reindeer and Sumatran tiger babies…who could ask for anything more?) Maybe next week will be a bit more peaceful…
The Holidays…and the new book becoming a reality
The holidays are upon us. I keep being reminded of this by the cold cold weather and by the fact that we live down the street from a Christmas tree farm. We are going to go get our tree today, and do some festive light-seeing afterwards. I love driving around town looking at lights, because of my inner twelve-year-old-girl.
I have news about my new book, She Returns to the Floating World, that suddenly makes it all very real: I have a street date from my wonderful publisher Kitsune Books! July 1, 2011! And they’re going to send review copies out before that even! If you’re a reviewer who loves
a. my work, and wants to review my next book whatever it is about
b. books about Japanese anime characters/Japanese folk tales/the love of Japanese culture by American teens/all of the above
c. books with haibun and haiku
b. books about love, disappearing women, animated heroines, apocalypses, fairy tales in which women transform into animals or trees, Tennessee childhoods, foxes, or litte brothers…
Please send me an e-mail at jeannine.gailey@live.com with your mailing address and I’ll be sure to put you on my list!
It’s the holidays, and our minds turn to buying presents for our loved ones. May I recommend a book of poetry? Small presses are always struggling, and poets are part of the economy! Here are a few:
—Becoming the Villainess. Yes, that’s my own book. It’s perfect for lovers of Buffy, Wonder Woman, bad girls, fairy tales, and etc.
–Looking for a slightly more adult version of a fairy tale? Check out Lana Ayers’ A New Red.
—Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room by Kelli Russell Agodon makes a great gift for writers, or anyone who wants to think about life’s mysteries, from the star tabloids to the stars of cosmos.
–For those who love travel and recipes, The Alchemist’s Kitchen by Susan Rich.
—A Working Writer’s Daily Planner, for the writers in your lives.
—Lucky Fish by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Now, this one doesn’t technically come out til January, but you can pre-order it, and who can resist that cover?
These are but a few wonderful options. It’s time to browse some poetry, either in the local independent bookstore, if you’re lucky enough to have one, or online.
Happy Thanksgiving and to MFA or NYC: flaws in the logic
Happy post-Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. I had to start a class (on the 22nd – I know! Crazy timing for a new quarter!) but other than that Glenn and I managed to have a pretty fun time despite being far from our families this year and getting snowed into our little neighborhood – we had four or five straight days of snow and ice here in the wooded outskirts of Seattle, which definitely put us in the Christmas spirit. We drank hot chocolate and watched holiday movies (Brigit Jones, the Holiday, About a Boy, When Harry Met Sally – total chick flick fest.) We got to go out and see the Christmas lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens and are planning an outing to go out to the Tacoma zoo for some more holiday lights plus tiger cubs! (One of the tiger cubs has been struggling for her life but she’s on the mend – how do I know this? I keep track of all baby tigers in the news.)
What does all this have to do with poetry? Nothing! So let’s talk about writing. I went to see a poet friend yesterday and spent a couple of hours talking about his book manuscript, about publishing, about poetry in general. It was so much fun! I hope some publisher snatches up his book soon. We talked about going to the publishers with open submissions and query systems rather than waiting around and going the contest route, which can feel very much like a beauty pageant circuit, one we have no control over and is often fixed anyway. (See this post for more on that…)
There was a crazy article in Slate about being a writer, something about the “MFA versus NYC.” I can guarantee you neither of these things guarantees that you will become a writer. If you both get an MFA and move to NYC, you could still totally not be a writer. You could also never get an MFA and never move to NYC or even visit and still be a great writer. There are lots of examples. This is something my engineer father would call “a false dichotomy.” Anyway, Kelli (here) and Charles (here) have already made some very good comments about the article. I was even moved to comment on the article myself at Slate, to say that hey, maybe the Internets have changed some things about publishing and networking and maybe that fact should have been included in the article. But what do I know?
Also it reminded me that writers sure like writing about themselves and their problems, don’t they?
So besides the “not mentioning the internet revolution and its impact on publishing,” which I’d say is a pretty large omission, this article fails to state what I have observed at both the program I attended and the program I currently teach in. Which is, many of the students who go to MFA programs are not going to become “professional writers” as a career. Many of my MFA students are already high school teachers, or they teach at the community college level, and they get their MFA to both learn more about poetry or fiction or whatever but also because it benefits them in the form of raises and promotions to get that MFA. Many of them aren’t that interested in even publishing a book themselves. They just want the education (and the raises.) Others go just to learn. My decision to get the MFA wasn’t motivated by the thought of getting a job as much as the desire to start taking myself seriously as a writer. All an MFA really does is buy you time and space (and a motivating mentor/teacher/advisor or two) to write. It does not guarantee anything, it does not make you a literary star and it certainly doesn’t provide an automatic entry to tenure-track teaching. I think most MFA students know that.
As someone who, like most Americans, doesn’t live in NYC and doesn’t go to publishing parties on a regular basis, I know they are important but I question if they’re as important as this article might indicate. I hope not, because that would not be healthy for American literature. Or maybe that’s why there are so many boring books about NYC! Geez, people, there are like a million other interesting cities out there – and I’ve lived in a lot of them – LA, Seattle, San Francisco, New Haven, Knoxville, Richmond, Napa – go out and live in one!
Strange Horizons and Snow in Seattle
I just saw that my poem, “Jin-Roh: Wolves in Human Armor,” was up at the highly respected journal of sci-fi/fantasy/speculative writing, Strange Horizons:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2010/20101122/gailey-p.shtml
You can even comment in the forums on each poem, a kind of feedback loop we don’t usually see in literary magazines. Maybe it would be too scary! We poets can be a frightening group! The poem was inspired by a beautiful anime movie called Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade that is about a terrorism group and a frightening shadow police group, a re-telling of Perrault’s Red Riding Hood, and doomed love against a post-apocalyptic Japanese backdrop. See it if you get a chance.
I woke up early this morning to a snowstorm outside in the treetops outside of my window, and the snow kept coming down and kept coming down…and it’s still snowing! Seattle does not usually get a lot of snow, and certainly not this early in the season, but it is lovely in post-card kind of way. As long as I don’t have to drive in it. (Northwesterners don’t have experience driving on snow or ice, so there are always a ton of accidents…) A surreal aspect of this is that Glenn and I haven’t worn even as much as a coat in the two years we lived in California. Maybe Seattle wanted us to get in the Christmas spirit! We did turn on some Ella Fitzgerald Christmas carols and made a gluten-free dutch apple pancake (which was an okay experience, although Glenn said the recipe needed more eggs.)
Found out I’ll be writing an article for next year’s Poet’s Market on “How to Know When to Target a Smaller Press” on micro/small publishers of poetry. I’m excited! And my first day of classes for the winter quarter was today. An odd timing since this is a holiday week, but oh well! So, off to work I go!
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.
