The Beastly Bride interviews and Rattle Summer 2010
More contributor copies are rolling in! Rattle’s Summer 2010 issue, which contains a tribute to humor and an interview with Carl Phillips, also has wonderful poems by my friend Martha Silano and wonderful poets like Diane Wakowski and Toi Derricotte, and me! The poem is another one of my series of advice poems, that I’m not sure why but I keep writing, called “I Forgot to Tell You the Most Important Part.”
Remember that awesome anthology called The Beastly Bride I was telling you about a little bit ago? Well, this nice fellow is doing a series of interviews with its authors and I was lucky enough to be a part of it, so here’s the interview up on SF Signal. I talk about why animal brides are interesting to me and reading material that was probably unsuitable for children that made me the writer I am today.
And, if you haven’t checked out this month’s Verse Daily Web feature, you should! Plus, it’s extra publicity for the very kind folks at qarrtsiluni. Also, if you haven’t updated my web link in your blog rolls yet, please do! It’s now http://myblog.webbish6.com/. I know it’s a big pain, so thanks for your trouble. Also, unlike the folks who run Harriet, I don’t think blogs are dead yet. I like a little discursiveness in my poetry discussions – at least more than the character limit at Twitter allows you – and I don’t think news aggregation is content. So there!
LCRW contributor copies, good news in general
Blogging from a beautiful sunny day – so hard to sit down at the computer and focus when the olive trees are blooming, the roses are everywhere shouting from walls and porches, the green field across from my apartment is full of soccer players shouting enthusiastically in Spanish. Took a walk around St. Helena this afternoon, visited the market and poked around inside stores I can’t afford – things like 25-year-old balsamic vinegars, fancy cheeses, garlands of lavender, and locally-made soaps. I have all the windows open. It’s the perfect day to write, and yet…so…hard…to…stay…still…
I had a wonderful surprise in the mail today, contributor copies of Gavin Grant and Kelly Link’s Small Beer Press magazine, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, or LCRW for short, and a little check for my three poems. Thanks guys! Not only have I loved this publication for years, it’s just a really good collection of work because the editor’s tastes are so eclectic and fun. If you know Kelly Link’s work and like it, you’ll probably like the stuff inside this magazine. And it’s only four dollars! I mean, a bargain in a world of overpriced lit mags. And they pay their writers! Impressive, no? This is why I love the world o’ speculative writing. (Writers inside include the fantastic Zhao Haihong, Richard Parks, Eilis O’Neal and Jennife Linnaea.)
I also had some promising news on the book front – I sent a query out for a manuscript, and they asked to see the whole thing. That’s a good sign, I think. The publisher would be a very good fit for my work. Send good energy out there for me. I could use a break for that second book manuscript!
Hmrph. Now off to grade, or write, or something productive like that. The big bunch of pink peonies and lilies in front of me remind me to wish you and your mothers a Happy Mother’s Day!
Adjuncting and Another winner, money and poetry, lit mags and politics
So, the second winner, Ron, never sent me his contact information, so I had to pick another winner for my poetry book giveaway: It’s Candace at elisamaza@gmail.com. You can leave me a comment or I’ll e-mail you for your snail mail address. Congrats on being a winner! (All winners selected with random number generators. Much quicker than pulling a literal number out of a literal hat!)
Adjuncting: Neither as glamorous nor as lucrative as you might think. That is all.
This article at the Chronicle of Higher Education talks about how young, female professors are more likely to experience harassment and incivility on the job. Yes.
Poetry and money: Once again, as the summer comes around and the economy creakingly seems to be getting a little better, I’m thinking about how to make a little more money. Freelance writing has been slow. Poetry costs more money than it makes, typically. Contest fees, conferences, travelling for readings, not to mention books and lit mags – all of these take money. See above re: adjuncting paychecks. Worry worry worry.
Speaking of money, how will lit mags stay afloat? Here’s an interesting tidbit: I bought a used book called “The Art of Literary Publishing: Editors on their Craft.” Apparently, back in 1980, the average subscription base of a lit mag was between 200-800. Today, the average subscription base of a lit mag? You guessed it. About the same. Besides the odd rant against how the NEA and feminists were ruining poetry – many of the editors, whose publications are now defunct, sound like today’s editors – problems with increasing readership, staying solvent despite tough times, etc. The literary magazine today, with the decrease in major book publishers doing anything with unknown poets, is probably the only way for a talented writer to have his or her work seen. But who cares about them? Who is reading them? Is there an audience for them outside of writers? It seems very hard to get my own MFA students to purchase a lit mag, and those are the folks that should be motivated to do so.
Someone was complaining about how poets don’t engage politically. I would say, perhaps the publishers of poetry don’t like poetry that engages politically, which is why you don’t see more of it. It’s not that people aren’t writing it – it’s that it’s not getting published. Also I would say, what is “political?” Is it merely talking about military issues or party lines? Or does it include discussions of class, the environment, gender?
Verse Daily Web Monthly feature!
Check out who is up at the Verse Daily Web Monthly Feature this month of May! Thanks Verse Daily – a great post-birthday surprise!
And thanks for publishing the featured poem, Qarrtsiluni!
Winners!
The winners of my poetry giveaway contest are Teresa Dowell and Ron Lewis! (Ron, you didn’t leave your e-mail address, so leave a comment with your e-mail address when you get a chance so I can contact you. If Ron doesn’t contact me by Monday, I’ll do another random generated number and pick another winner!) Thanks to everyone who left a comment – I wish I could afford to give away books to all of you!
Birthdays, teaching Poetry, The Big Poetry Giveaway
Poetry Parties, Meeting Bloggers, Poetry Work
This last weekend I was lucky enough to go to a really fun poetry party, which featured, among other things, some pretty interesting alternative-folk-cello music, and where I got to meet Rachel Dacus in person! Rachel and I had been “online” friends for some time, but it was great to actually see her and get to say hi. That’s one of the best things about blogging, finding these cool people you might never have met otherwise. Anyway, it definitely was a good weekend for poetry socializing, although on Monday I just shut myself away and graded all day to make up for it. I have two thesis advisee students as well as a class called Advanced Poetry Workshop on my hands this quarter, so I’m still not all the way finished.
I’ve sent out some queries for book reviews and now must force myself to send out some poetry subs before the dreaded May cutoff time. Also send in to some open submissions and maybe apply for some fellowships…Have you every noticed how much more poetry-related work we do compared to actual poetry writing? I’d also like to write another poem or two before the end of the month happens. We were supposed to go up to Seattle this last week of April, but instead we’ve had to postpone it for another month or so. So I look forward to celebrating with my Seattle friends soon, just not as soon as I hoped. I guess May/June is a less rainy time to visit the Northwest, anyway, so it probably works out.
If you haven’t yet updated your link to my new blog, please do it! And if you haven’t yet entered the poetry giveaway, do it! After all, it’s almost my birthday. Maybe I’ll win someone else’s poetry giveaway! Or a nice big book contest. That would be a great present! Come on Universe, what do you say?
Reading good books, more poetry event-ing, gluten-free and okay, writing and publishing are two different things
As a reviewer, I get sent a lot of books for free. And I have a lot of friends who are really good writers who also send me books. This week I read a book that I not only enjoyed, but also felt something of a kinship with, since the author and I share an interest in femme fatale heroines and their sad fates, sci-fi time-travel, and nostalgia for the eighties. I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl is not only a wonderful read, but feels like a book I should have written. Dang it!
Continuing to celebrate National Poetry Month with even more poetry-related social events this weekend. Hopefully they will be fun! The sun has finally come out and finally visible are the products of spring – bunches of red-and-orange roses (this must be a Napa Valley obsession – red and orange roses are everywhere – on the walls of restaurants, in front of run-down homes, on street corners) – my primary care doctor’s office has become picturesquely draped with wisteria blossoms – and pink dogwood bloom in the tiny yards of of row houses. Thin asparagus is cooking on the grill, along with bulbs of fennel, almost every night. The minute I get diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, the local cupcake shops starts carrying gluten-free cupcakes, a week before my birthday. I mean, how could things not be looking up?
I wrote a poem I am really proud of this last week, but I’m not ready to send it out anywhere yet. I’m ready for another book to be published, I’m downright impatient actually, I’m ready to take on more work for more money, I’m ready to be healthy and get on with things in general. I feel madly in love with my husband – we’ve been married for 14 years, so you know what? That’s pretty cool. And I’m happy with my weight for the first time in a long time (I’m such a chick, but guess what? I cut out gluten and I lost a significant amount of weight in a matter of weeks. I recommend it! New weight loss/health advice book by me: figure out what the hell the foods are that you can’t digest and stop eating them. If you need to see a nice gastroenterologist who specializes in immune-system-related gastro problems like I did, so be it. It’s worth the time and trouble.)
So how much of my life do I have control over? I can try to get more freelance work, I can send out queries, I can send out my book manuscript in a poetry world surely crammed with the manuscripts flooding in after AWP. I can go and read new books of poetry and get inspired, go see poets read and get inspired, do things – like reading and writing – that reaffirm that I actually like poetry. That’s what I’m all about in this last week before I turn – gulp – 37. I’m going to do the things I can do and try to enjoy those things and not worry about the things I’m not in control of. I’m going to write new poems, they will be poems that take risks and allow me to try new things.
And if you haven’t entered my book giveaway yet, leave a comment here.
Twilight Poem, Marin Poetry Festival
I am not a Twilight fan. I notice that Twilight is creeping into my students’ poems. So I decided for poetry month to write one of my own. Yes, it’s supposed to be funny.
The Problem with Twilight
She looks at him and thinks
I am worth more dead
He looks at her and thinks
what’s for dinner
In other news, I got to go to at least part of the Marin Poetry Festival, though it was in the least handicapped-accessible venue I’ve ever seen – to make it to this ampitheatre in the woods, you had to climb down a steep, rocky, rooty, unpaved hill. Neat! I felt sorry for all the poor elderly women with walkers (way to to think of others, poetry festival organizers – at least half the crowd was over 65) and thankful for Glenn and Natasha’s help navigating (using my pink cane. I’m now to the cane phase of my two-bad-ankle-injury recovery, by the way. Our of the wheelchair for the most part. Yay!)
It was set in a quite beautiful park, with a wide stream and under the shade of giant evergreens in the Old Mill Park. I had never been to the town of Old Mill before, which was quaint and cute with lots of weirdly upscale shopping and I want to go back and visit later. I got to see J.P. Dancing Bear (of American Poetry Journal and Dream Horse Press) and C.J. Sage (of the National Poetry Review) read and that was a lot of fun. I also got to catch up with poet-friend Natasha Moni, who is currently training for medical school, because being a poet isn’t enough, she also wants to be a doctor. Some people! 🙂
California Poets in the Schools
Today we drove out to Santa Rosa, about an hour away, to participate in and enjoy the California Poets in the Schools reading. The best part was watching some little fourth graders reading their own poems. It was inspiring, because these kids delivered good solid imagery with poise. I wish every open mike was that entertaining. Plus, fourth graders are adorable! I also got to catch up with some of the CPITS poets, who are all wonderful women with just good spirits. They remind me of my Seattle poetry friends, in that they are generous, good-natured, and good poets all at the same time. It was great to get out and about a little bit. I’ve been laid up so much in the past six months that I haven’t been able to socialize as much as I’d like. Tomorrow if I’m well enough I’m going to try to make it to the Marin Poetry Festival to see some more poets read. That’s what poetry month is all about, baby!
Sorry I had to do the blog move so suddenly; google’s blogger decided it didn’t want to support the kind of blog I had, so I had to change it to a kind they would support. Please remember to update your links!
Also, had interesting news from my last set of blood tests. I was just ranting and raving recently about all the tests I’ve had done over the past ten years, but I think I might have found a doctor who actually ran some of the right autoimmune tests this time. We’ll see. I want to confirm with the doc before I say anything for sure, but I’m cheered up that I might be near the end of the testing tunnel, with a real answer perhaps!
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.
