- At August 14, 2009
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In LA Readings, Stories Books
1
Stories Books
1716 W Sunset Blvd
LA
8 PM
Poetry Reading with Rachelle Cruz, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Sarah Maclay and Katayoon Zandvakil
Today I got my copy of Poet’s Market 2010 in the mail. I have been faithfully reading this reference book since I was 18 or 19 years old. I remember sneaking down to the basement of my parent’s house and reading and re-reading the descriptions of literary magazines, enjoying the snippets of poetry in each one. I remember sending poems to a mag called “Blue Unicorn” because I was 19 and liked the name. I remember carefully searching the beginning essays and FAQs for secrets, for meaning, that would help me become a “real writer.” I scrawled notes in the margin in blue pencil. I dogeared pages of journals I liked. It helped reveal to me, in conservative, non-bookstore-loving Cincinnati, a real literary world that I knew nothing about.
This is why I feel strangely happy to have written two of those beginning essays for this year’s Poet’s Market. Maybe a 19-year-old who has never heard of “speculative poetry,” who doesn’t know yet what a “poetry chapbook” is, will get inspired. I know you can look up most lit mags on the web now (and this year’s version includes a year’s subscription to online poetry resources as well.) But I still love having the physical object of The Poet’s Market around.
Yesterday I went through National University’s five-hour new faculty orientation. Five hours in highly uncomfortable chairs. It made me thankful my classes have all been online and not in classrooms with flickering fluorescent lights and tiny desks. Again, though I spent lots of time on university campuses since my Dad’s a professor, it still feels weird to be there as a faculty person, not a student.
I’m going to go up to LA tomorrow to a little bookstore called Stories Books to read with two other poets. Hope to see you there!
I’ve promised several blurbs on manuscripts, and trying to write them proves increasingly difficult. How you want to be accurate, give the reader a good idea of what the book is about, not to use too many “advertising” phrases or anything cheesy…it’s challenging!
I’m gearing up for a reading in LA this Friday, at the Stories Books in what I think is downtown, with another writer or two. If you’re going to be in LA, I’d love to see you! This is probably one of my last readings in Southern California…
Still seeking affordable yet cute place to live in Napa Valley area. We are planning a trip up there to look at possible places to live. We’ll never be able to afford to buy a home there, even a condo, but I think it will be be a nice place to rent for a year or two. I miss bookstores, coffee shops, and not being the only non-blonde in a room…
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.
In the throes of grading a bunch of student chapbooks and book reviews for my “advanced” class. See? We do make them work hard for their grades! Then I will be done with grading for a month or two. And maybe catch up on those book reviews I’m supposed to write…
A note of variable importance: Last night, on So You Think You Can Dance, they did a “Superhero” dance with the last three girl dancers. With costumes. Hilarious good times. (Of course, I’m voting for Jeanine. Name solidarity.)
Also in the throes of trying to decide where to move next. It’s preventing me from sending out poems via snail mail because I don’t know the address I’ll have in two months. I think we won’t stay here, but I’m not sure where to try – Colorado? Napa? Sedona? Colorado is cheapest, but those cold winters scare me. I’m worried Napa (and environs) is too wet (allergic to mold) and expensive (though it’s beautiful.) I’m not great with heat/sun and that makes me nervous about moving to Arizona. See what happens when you really have the freedom to live anywhere? Nothing but angst! If I moved purely based on poetry and culture, it would have to be the north-of-San Fran area, though both Boulder and Sedona do boast some arts-and-culture-y type stuff. Maybe I should throw darts at a map, or flip some coins. I’d like to find someplace we could stay for a few years. Moving all the time can be stressful and costly.
I will miss San Diego’s weather, beaches, and their terrific Zoo and Wildlife Park. (MEERKATS!) And all the nice poets I met! That’s the good thing about moving – you do meet people you don’t expect, and they’re often wonderful.
Back from my stay in beautiful North Berkeley! The visit really reminded me how much I like northern California, mostly for the things we lack here in San Diego – the trees, the bookstores, the milder temperatures, the cool little restaurants. If I could only afford to live there! If anyone in Napa County or environs would like to rent to a nice poet (and her husband and cat) for a year, please let me know…
I missed Comic Con, but I did see Hayao Miyazaki! We got to see an early screening of his latest movie, Ponyo by the Sea/Ponyo on a Cliff (whatever they’re calling it in English)and it’s a beautiful but strange film. It seems a more eccentric, more upbeat version of Hans Christian Anderson’s “A Little Mermaid” with an environmental twist. (He said in an interview he’s always hated the ending of the original tale, and I have to agree.) It had a lot more humor in it than most Miyazaki films; Tina Fey in the English dub plays the hilarious, feisty young mother who doesn’t really resemble any character Miyazaki’s done before. The drawing is purposefully childlike, different that the ethereal, elegant drawings in Howl’s Moving Castle. The two main characters are five years old, so a lot of the movie is geared towards a very young person’s aesthetic; the themes are similar to those in Princess Mononoke. I enjoyed watching it with children in the audience; their delighted laughter behind me reminded me that they were the real audience for this film.
Hayao Miyazaki, with a translator and in a conversation led by Roland Kelts (who wrote Japanamerica) gave a wonderful hour-and-a-half talk in which he discussed advice for young animators (“Draw what you see in life; then give a more experienced artist your drawing and ask for a tough critique”) and his frequent roles for strong women (“There are so many strong women now, I might have to start making films about little boys!”) as well as his views about apocalypse (generally, he’s pro-apocalypse)and how natural disasters can bring people together. He laughed a lot, expertly evaded questions like “which character in your films do you most resemble,” and was generally really fun to watch.
Berkeley itself is a beautiful campus and the weather was lovely and cool.
The Downtownster, an LA-area blog, also featured my poem, “Female Comic Book Superheroes,” on their blog today!
Today we (crutches and all) are scooting up to Berkeley campus for an early screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s newest movie, Ponyo by the Sea, and tomorrow we’ll go to a live lecture and Q&A session with the director at Berkeley, sponsored by the university’s Center for Japanese studies. Miyazaki makes the most beautiful and meaningful animated movies, much better than Disney, and he manages to be feminist and environmentalist without ever being preachy. His movies, “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” remain at the top of my top ten best movies of all time list. His animations are all hand-drawn, and so transportingly gorgeous; each scene is like a painting you’d want on your wall.
I know it seems weird to drive eight hours to do something like this – driving multiple hours through 100+ temps in a huge valley that’s mostly dust to get to foggy, 5o’s San Fran for just a couple of days – but for me, I think it will be worth it. Plus, I get to see my friend Natasha who moved to the Bay Area from Seattle when I moved to SD. (We can compare stories and decide which is better: SoCal or NoCal?) I’ve been to San Fran many times, but never to the Berkeley area, so it should be an experience. Every time I visit San Fran, I want to stay. It’s a great town for writers – misty and cosmopolitan and elegant, though so expensive, only poet doctors and poet lawyers can afford to live there!
Ever want to do something high stress in a greenhouse in summertime? Last night I gave a reading in a coffeehouse with sun streaming through a large glass wall; it was 80 outside, and probably 95 inside. Wow. I was lucky my mascara was waterproof.
Note to self: only accept readings in cold parts of the country, or places with air conditioning. No more Southern California readings in places with no air conditioning. And, the place had one giant step up to the stage and no ramp – not crutch-friendly at all!
Other than the miserable heat, and the embarrassment of trying to get onto the giant stage with one good leg, the reading went okay. A decent turn out, got to hang out and talk a bit with fellow blogging poet Adam, met some local poets, and sold a few books.
Now we’re off for a few days on a little well-deserved holiday. Sure, a holiday on crutches, but better than no holiday at all! Sure, a holiday where I’ll have to grade stuff for my class, but still! It’s also the first real “road trip” we’ve taken in a long while.
I was realizing that since I’ve started teaching I’ve gotten really behind on my reviewing. Teaching seems to soak up all my spare time and energy. I’ll be moving during my two months off, but hopefully I can get back on the wagon. It’s also been tougher, it seems, to place reviews; less venues these days are interested in poetry, especially paying venues. Maybe I’m just not querying the right places. I’ve fallen behind in sending out poems as well. It’s hard to find the right balance between work, poetry-related work like submitting and reviewing, and writing.
I can’t believe it – here I am announcing another reading! Nothing for months, then bang – two in two weeks!
Jeannine Hall Gailey reads at Rebecca’s Coffee House as part of the Poetic Brew series:
Tuesday, July 21
Rebecca’s Coffee House
30th & Juniper
South Park – San Deigo, CA
7:00 pm
I’m wobbling around a little better these days, so I might not even need my crutches. Anyway, if you’re in San Diego and missed me last week, show up tomorrow night! Plus, the added bonus of…coffee!
Reading Report:
Well, I think Tim Green and I survived last night’s Barnes and Nobles reading, and even sold a few books. Despite the “shoplifting alarm” going off three times during my reading, and several toddlers screaming their heads off during Tim’s, I think the audience was friendly and welcoming and seemed fairly poetry-savvy. So that was nice. And it was good to hear poems from Tim’s book, “American Fractal,” out loud. I noticed we both read some “science-y” stuff, I believe both with combusting elements, which, you know, I’m for. More science in poetry – that’s what the kids today are into, right? LOL. I’m still not at the peak of my physical game, so standing for the reading was kind of painful (see: random foot/ankle injuries over the past few months,) but other than that, I thought it went pretty well.
Multi-Talented Reviewer
The lovely and talented Serena M. Agusto-Cox has posted a review of Becoming the Villainess at her site, Savvy Verse & Wit, here.
She also posted an interview with me here.
And she reviewed my book on Amazon!
So, really, a very hard-working reviewer and interviewer! Thanks Serena!
My focus now: send some poems out, send some book manuscripts out, get healthy, stay healthy.
Right now: Off to physical therapy for a look at my ankle. Then: More grading. I know, you’re saying, that’s too sexy and glamorous a lifestyle, Jeannine. Slow it down! What can I say? The poetry life is a thrill-a-minute.
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.
