So, here I am back in Port Townsend, with not an apartment/condo to my name in San Diego yet. And we’re supposed to be out of here by the end of September. I’m not a person who likes to be unsettled like this, which you might not believe from the evidence of me moving around so much, but it’s very true. So I hope a home rental opportunity of some sort comes to us soon…(Remember, any friends in San Diego’s Northern County, keep your eyes open for me!) Yes, I’m on Craigslist for hours a day already…
It’s hard to concentrate on the poetry world with the new job, new place to live, packing up the house, redoing my web site, etc, but I wanted to post a couple of things:
One is, Kate Greenstreet has interviewed herself for her series of first-book interviews!
The other is quick mini-review of Collin Kelley’s chapbook, After the Poison from Finishing Line Press. (Incidentally, follow that link and you can also pick up Anne Haines’ new chapbook, Breach.) Collin angry, passionate take on Reagan-and-Bush-era politics hits hard and fast, but as you might guess, my favorite two poems were the bitingly funny “Fairy Tale Eating Disorder” (“No food is safe in a fairy tale,/ a single bite enough to stop your heart”) and the persona poem called “Patty Hearst on the Occasion of her Presidential Pardon:”
“Mama’s got her x-ray sunglasses on,
her thought control beehive sending signals,
her noose of pearls ready to lasso me home…”
Update: Check it out – Steve’s getting his first book published! Break out the confetti!
- At September 04, 2008
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In baby seals, San Diego
5
Here is a pic of the baby seal waving at me from “Children’s Pool” at La Jolla’s Torrey Pines State Park. Click the picture to enlarge.
PS I don’t have an apartment yet, despite extensive searching over two weeks online and three days in person down in SD. Apparently they are more expensive and harder to find than PO Boxes. So, know a good and affordable condo to rent in North County? Let me know!
San Diego is beautiful and hot. Suddenly my Port Townsend August (mostly 60 desgrees and rainy) has disappeared from memory – my head is swimming with blooming jasmine and curious trumpet vines along the road, the orange blooms of a pomegranate tree and the continuous trill of hummingbirds. We didn’t make it to the zoo or many of the tourist things since we were mostly checking out neighborhoods and rental places but we did go to the Quail Botanical Garden and the beaches at Torrey Pines State Park and La Jolla’s “Children’s Pool,” a quiet cove amid large waves and rocks where the seals line up with their babies and loll in the sun. I ate duck tacos (yes, they’re good!) for the first time and had a lot of California salads piled with things like nectarines and local goat cheeses and lettuces. Also, here the Mexican food has mahi mahi in it, right alongside the carnitas on the menus. Plus, everything has avocados.
I am scared of moving to California. It is expensive. They have high taxes. (Seattle’s income tax = 0% versus California’s = 9%) But moving here seems right, solid in my head as a new home-place. (As a kind of sign, my tonsillitis seemed to magically get better once I got here. Plus, I’m pretty sure the baby seals were waving to me with their flippers and smiling!) Holding my breath and taking the southward plunge next month. We look tomorrow on an apartment (right around the corner from 1. a huge library and 2. a huge post office) and I’ll try to sign up for a PO Box before we fly out tomorrow. Having an address makes it possible for me to start submitting poetry again!
Ready for the Fall?
Tampa residents – Sunday Sunday Sunday:
“Please join the Alley Cat Players this Sunday for Becoming the Villainess, our performance art piece based on Jeannine Hall Gailey’s poetry. The Alley Cats will combine myth and modern media, literature, theatrical performance, visual art, and dance in this textually and visually rewarding production.
Bridget Bean will perform Gailey’s text; Shana Perkins will dance two original pieces to the voice of the author reading her own work. The performance will be enhanced by a backdrop of projected visual artwork, all from contemporary artists who have been featured in the Journal of Mythic Arts. We will also offer a soundscape, excerpts from Beneath the Forest Floor by Hildegard Westerkamp.
We’ll be at the St. Petersburg Main Library at 2 pm on Sunday, Aug 31.
In the spirit of Art for Everyone, all our shows are free!
I hope to see you at the show!
best,
Jo Averill-Snell
Artistic Director, Alley Cat Players
“Gailey recreates myths from Persephone to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, examining the victim/villain casting of mythic women with wit, grace and insight…With her blend of colloquial and lyric language, of pop culture and ancient tradition, Gailey not only renews myth for the modern reader, but illuminates our strengths and vulnerabilities through the lens of myth.” —Fickle Muses“
Safely into San Diego, where, it seems, we have brought the rain with us! Off to apartment shop!
Poetry takes a momentary back seat to life this week. Yes, there are scandals and such making the rounds right now, contests and controversies. But, instead, I’m knee-deep in life changes.
Now, not to stress myself out, but here are the things I have to do in the next week:
–Go to San Deigo and find a good neighborhood in the northern suburbs where the air is a little cleaner, then find a place to rent. Put down deposit.
–Get a PO Box in the general area where I’ll be renting. Find bookstores and libraries around too.
–Start packing up the house.
–Send in paperwork for new gig.
–Give notice for current rental and turn in last rent check.
And in the next month:
–Pack the house.
–Figure out rental truck, plans for getting down there with cats, etc.
–Clean out rental place in Port Townsend.
–Move.
And by October:
–Get settled into new place. Start new gig. Send out book and some poems before all the fall deadlines are over.
Also, I’ve started getting b12 shots because the supplements weren’t enough to bring up my levels. And the rain here has brought on a fresh case of sinusitis and tonsillitis. I think I’ve had tonsillitis pretty much constantly for the last year.
Other than that, I’m great! Mental health score: 5 out of ten. Physical Health score: 4 out of ten. If I were a D&D character, I’d be looking to grab some healing energy right now. Thanks for your good thoughts.
On the plus side, California is bound to be warmer and sunnier than where we are right now. And I think these changes are all for the better. Sunny skies, better health and poetry-related work ahead!
If you’re in Sarasota, Florida this afternoon, or St Petersburg, Florida, next Sunday, you can check this show out:
Becoming the Villainess – The Show!
Click here for Herald Tribune story.
Speaking of unusual ways to promote a poetry book…
http://www.alleycatplayers.org/Site/Current_Show.html
I really, really hope someone puts this on YouTube!
So, it is with some sadness I point you to the “Farewell Issue” of Endicott Studio’s Journal of Mythic Arts. I was honored to be asked for some poems for this final issue, and am going to mourn this journal – a combination of scholarly essays on fairy tales and mythic archetypes, smart fiction, and imaginitive poetry.
http://www.endicott-studio.com/jMA08Farewell/index.html
This is a frighteningly accurate portrayal of how difficult it is to sell poetry books, even for a hard-working poet (and thanks to Ron Silliman for the link:)
http://criticalmiscellany.wordpress.com/2008/08/15/selling-your-book/
But you may want to substitute “blogs” for discussion boards.
The two places where my experiences diverged with any signifigance from the one written about there were:
1. I was lucky enough to have my poems read by Garrison Keillor, on a national radio show, besides being on the local public radio show. Any national media attention is going to really help poetry book sales, so I am grateful to the people that make that happen on a regular basis.
2. My university reading experiences were almost uniformly much better than the one described in the essay, mainly due to the hard work of the faculty who asked me to come out in promoting my reading, more enthusiastic-than-usual poetry students, and probably the good will of said students for said faculty, who were all very well-liked. Due to that, I am much more likely to be excited by a chance to read and come talk at a university – I’ve had very good experiences so far!
But it is a reminder that no matter how hard we poets work, the sad fact is many more people want to buy fiction, non-fiction, and anything else rather than poetry books. Even our fellow poets.
- At August 18, 2008
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In aware, Howard Junker, San Deigo
- 4
Sooo, still haven’t received all my paperwork for the position yet, so can’t reveal anything about that for a little while longer…
but, in life news, we are re-thinking our decision to go to Phoenix, due to stuff like air pollution, crime, surprisingly expensive rentals, number of creepy-crawlies, things like that. We are now (late, I know, to be re-thinking…) leaning towards the northern suburbs of San Diego after considering Flagstaff and Boulder as other alternatives. More expensive, but supposed to be ideal for asthma as long as you don’t live right downtown where the smog is. Anyone with tips on San Diego living (neighborhoods, poetry scene, etc) is welcome to leave them in the comments!
I found this lovely little analysis of my poem (“Aware for the Woman Who Disappears in Silence”) that was published in Mythic Delirium a little while back:
http://thefix-online.com/features/inspiration-of-others/
It was wonderful to read!
In other news, Howard Junker is retiring from ZYZZYVA! See here for more. Can’t believe it – in his blog he always sounded so enthused about his work at the magazine. Sounds like they might be looking for a new editor-in-chief!
Getting ready to change reservations for our trip out to rent-hunt, and going to my poetry group tonight, which I haven’t been able to attend much lately, so I’m excited!
So, some good news on the job hunt front…
Unless I mess something up radically in the paperwork (always a possibility) I’m going to start teaching a poetry seminar class for an MFA program this fall. It’s not full-time or tenure-track or anything fancy, but a great start. Squuuuueee! Now I’m nervous!!! I know some of you have been teaching forever, and it’s all old hat to you seasoned professionals, but for me, it’s thrilling. Name of program to be revealed later…
Did I mention both my parents are professors? So I couldn’t escape it. Plus, it turns out, what with all those guest-teaching stints and workshops that wonderful people offered me, I really loved teaching.
I guess this means I’m part of the po-biz now, eh Eduardo? Now, to get together enough funds to move AND start my own press…then I’ll really be shaking.
Did I already recommend taking b12 supplements? Awesome stuff. Why wasn’t I taking this ten years ago, since I’ve been borderline low at least that long? So much more energy!
Also, I wrote a new poem, first one in some weeks. And I liked it! It was partially inspired (gothic-mood-wise) by the book Daphne, which continues the gothic reading streak started by “Jane-in-the Box.” Daphne follows the lives of a contemporary graduate student in a Mrs. De Winter-marriage, Daphne du Maurier, a dubious Bronte librarian, and Branville Bronte. One reason to love the book is that the “Rebecca-type” character is a glamorous, thirty-something, brunette poet. Gotta love those kinds of villainesses, right? Also, repeated references to JM Barrie and Peter Pan, Henry James, The Snow Queen, Jane Eyre…
Yes, I’ve put the ad in the paper for the dreaded moving/garage sale for next Saturday. Getting rid of our stuff will put us a little step closer to being ready to move! We’ve moved a lot while we’ve lived in the Northwest (six times in eight years) but this is our first cross country move since 2000, and that was a corporate move (paid for by my company.) So we are crossing our fingers that everything goes well. I do hope that the positive parts of the move (better health for me, lower cost of living) outweigh the negatives (leaving all the people! And my otters!)
And, to finally do some poetry chapbook reviews, as I have promised. First up, Rita Maria Martinez’ chapbook from March Street Press, “Jane-in-the-Box.” A series of poems that catapults Jane Eyre and other characters into the present, I knew I was going to enjoy this, especially (sorry C. Dale – here’s that blurb thing) when I read the blurbs by two favorite writers, Denise Duhamel and Nin Andrews. The sensual “In the British Museum” and “The Jane and Bertha in Me” were two poems that really stood out. From “The Jane and Bertha in Me:”
“The Bertha in me believes leathery hands barnacled
with gypsy rings are an omen of fertility…
while the Jane in me wants to extract Rochester’s teeth
with her Tweezerman, stow them in a jar…
so she can feel his presence, so she can lay
that satchel on her pillow and wake each morning
to the prayer of his teeth marks on her pale cheek.”
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.
