Jeannine Hall Gailey and Ronda Broatch Reading:
January 10th at 7 PM at Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend, WA
Be there! Run with the wolves! Grrr!
Sorry I’ve been away from the blog – I got swept up in politics (the Iowa stuff was so exciting! And I’m just as excited about tomorrow’s NH primary) and socializing (thanks to several friends who made the trek out to see me in my far peninsular corner in the wind and the snow!) and general busywork. I’m still battling a cough and ear thing that has just persisted and persisted, and hoping that our stint of 30-ish weather, bitter cold and greyish skies will break soon for some slightly warmer, sunnier weather. It was 70 today in one of my previous hometowns, Cincinnati. And 60 in NYC…Sigh. Here in the land of rain, fog, bitter cold winds, more rain, occasional blizzards and floods and windstorms, it feels like winter will last forever.
Yes, I am going to AWP (so send those party and reading invitations my way 😉 and I registered just before the crazy thing sold out! I’m not staying at the conference hotel (which I bet will be swamped anyway.) I am looking forward to the bookfair and running into old friends and doing my Steel Toe signing stint with Mary but am nervous about giving the pedagogy paper (eek!) I am also looking forward to NYC, a city that lots of people in the midwest and northwest assume I come from because I talk so fast.
I’ve just been in a bit of a doldrums lately, haven’t been good about writing or sending stuff out, and am still having hassles with Redmond’s post office of disappearing PO box mail, but I did manage to read two worthwhile fiction books – Haruki Murakami’s After The Quake, a terrific and apocalyptic set of short stories set after Kobe’s tragic earthquake where people mysteriously find and lose their souls, and Melissa Bank’s Wonder Spot. Melissa wrote The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which I felt ambiguous about – this book had several spots where I rolled my eyes at the author’s self-conscious cleverness, but also several where I nearly cried laughing and also felt that weird kinship where you’re lulled into thinking “this writer is just like me.” One of those pieces was when the narrator says she “likes Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but not Faulkner” and describes dealing with her claustrophobia at plays by eating lifesaver candy, because then she has the feeling that she can “escape through her mouth.” Ha! I bring candy to poetry readings and airplanes for exactly that reason.
Last of all, praise for my publisher, Steel Toe Books. God bless publishers who actually send poets royalty checks every year, especially when they’re broke after Christmas/right before AWP. I know some poets never hear back about their numbers and their promised royalties mysteriously never materialize. Tom Hunley is great about that stuff. And a big, big “Thank You!” to everyone who bought my book and taught my book this year.
- At January 02, 2008
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
13
So, I was thinking about “inspiration.” I tend to be an “inspired” writer rather than an hour-a-day writer when it comes to poetry (not prose, which I pretty much do every day.) I know that sounds like some kind of mystical thing, or a flakeout for not writing poems more frequently. But when it’s on, I know it, and the poems I write when I get the spark are ten times better than those I force myself to write when I’m not “on.” So now I don’t write when I’m not on. At the pace I wrote last year, it’ll take me all year to publish the poems I’ve already got, so I’m not freaking out about writer’s block or anything.
I thought about the last few years and my writing patterns and here are some things I noticed that inspired multiple poems:
1. Art – Going to galleries and museums really helps me create new ideas, new colors, and new images. Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein and Japanese pop-artists such as Takashi Murakami and Yumiko Kayukawa are a few artists whose work has inspired multiple poems. The weirder, the better. The more I’m around art, there more I think in terms of the visual – and I think that helps my poetry.
2. Novels and short stories. I read a lot of books, but the ones that inspire the most writing lately have been magical-realist types like Kelly Link, Haruki Murakami, and Osamu Dazai (his dazzling Blue Bamboo is a must read for everyone. Loved it!) I think I wrote most of my third manuscript after reading Murakami’s After Dark and Blue Bamboo in quick succession. Of course, non-fic, like Hayao Kawai’s Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in teh Fairy Tales of Japan, can also be generative: I wrote a lot of the Japanese folk-tale manuscript because of that book, along with a lot of Miyazaki films, which leads me to my next thing:
3. Movies and Television. Hayao Miyazaki’s films in particular, and sometimes good/bad (or so bad it’s good) TV fare like Heroes, Alias, and Buffy. Graphic novels and comic books probably should be included here too. My never-ending cycle of consuming pop culture and writing about it is probably unstoppable at this point.
So, these are the things which help me generate the most work, so I resolve to see more art shows, read more novels and short stories, and try to find more films to love (since there’s a writer’s strike, and there won’t be much television to love.)
One thing that surprised me was how little I’ve been inspired to write by reading poetry. I read a lot of poetry, multiple books a week every week, but not much of it launches me to write my own poems in response. Is this because of reviewing, which causes me to switch to critical mode automatically, or a problem of overabundance? I’m not sure.
Anyway, what do you think of the idea of inspiration? What inspires you?
So, I was thinking about “inspiration.” I tend to be an “inspired” writer rather than an hour-a-day writer when it comes to poetry (not prose, which I pretty much do every day.) I know that sounds like some kind of mystical thing, or a flakeout for not writing poems more frequently. But when it’s on, I know it, and the poems I write when I get the spark are ten times better than those I force myself to write when I’m not “on.” So now I don’t write when I’m not on. At the pace I wrote last year, it’ll take me all year to publish the poems I’ve already got, so I’m not freaking out about writer’s block or anything.
I thought about the last few years and my writing patterns and here are some things I noticed that inspired multiple poems:
1. Art – Going to galleries and museums really helps me create new ideas, new colors, and new images. Jeff Koons, Roy Lichtenstein and Japanese pop-artists such as Takashi Murakami and Yumiko Kayukawa are a few artists whose work has inspired multiple poems. The weirder, the better. The more I’m around art, there more I think in terms of the visual – and I think that helps my poetry.
2. Novels and short stories. I read a lot of books, but the ones that inspire the most writing lately have been magical-realist types like Kelly Link, Haruki Murakami, and Osamu Dazai (his dazzling Blue Bamboo is a must read for everyone. Loved it!) I think I wrote most of my third manuscript after reading Murakami’s After Dark and Blue Bamboo in quick succession. Of course, non-fic, like Hayao Kawai’s Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in teh Fairy Tales of Japan, can also be generative: I wrote a lot of the Japanese folk-tale manuscript because of that book, along with a lot of Miyazaki films, which leads me to my next thing:
3. Movies and Television. Hayao Miyazaki’s films in particular, and sometimes good/bad (or so bad it’s good) TV fare like Heroes, Alias, and Buffy. Graphic novels and comic books probably should be included here too. My never-ending cycle of consuming pop culture and writing about it is probably unstoppable at this point.
So, these are the things which help me generate the most work, so I resolve to see more art shows, read more novels and short stories, and try to find more films to love (since there’s a writer’s strike, and there won’t be much television to love.)
One thing that surprised me was how little I’ve been inspired to write by reading poetry. I read a lot of poetry, multiple books a week every week, but not much of it launches me to write my own poems in response. Is this because of reviewing, which causes me to switch to critical mode automatically, or a problem of overabundance? I’m not sure.
Anyway, what do you think of the idea of inspiration? What inspires you?
And, just for New Year’s, I’m including a link to a recipe for an article I wrote a few year’s back called “The Perfect Scone” for Northwest Palate Magazine. It’s the perfect New Year’s (or any winter’s day) breakfast food, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, with a simple list of ingredients – even better with fresh jam and cream. Eat right away.
The recipe produces the best scones, but be sure to mix everything by hand, sparingly – overmixing makes the dough tough.
Feeling very cheered since the last post, mostly because of time and perspective, and your cheerful posts and funny e-mails, and also by the visit of one of my younger writer friends from Pacific U who came out to our little seaside town by way of our temporary foot-ferry from Seattle. It was so much fun to talk about fiction, to stack up books to recommend, to celebrate her first acceptance at the (paying!) journal Asimov’s, to drink tea and discuss literature like actual serious writers. Ha! Oh, to be 26 again, and also a fiction writer! Anyway, thanks for the visit, FS, and good luck at the residency! I’ll miss the crazy Oregon ocean and all the fun writer stuff.
I also thought about Amazon reviews in general, about how many times we read a book and love it, but never contact the author, or leave any trace of our love anywhere. Amazon does let you leave a “hey, I really enjoyed your work” message to authors, which, whether they are small-publisher poets or tech writers or big-selling fiction authors, probably do read and worry over their Amazon reviews, just like I did.
Another Steel Toe author on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, “What My Father Believed” by John Guzlowski: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/programs/2007/12/24/#friday
And, I’m doing my first Port Townsend reading at the Northwind Arts Center on January 10th with my friend Ronda Broatch. It’ll be nice to connect with a new poetry community. I miss my Redmond readings at Soul Food, but this will be a good group too, I can feel it.
Been reading the Sylvia/Ted biography, Her Husband. I’m reminded as I listen how many good things, how many successes, Sylvia had early in life. It’s easy to let small discouragements (and in her case, also a wandering husband leaving her with two kids in a cold English winter) overshadow all the good – think how much more Sylvia could have contributed if she’d stuck around.
Anyway, happy New Year and Welcome 2008! I hope it will be a better year for the world: more healing, more peace, more love, more celebration.
Hope you all had wonderful Christmas days!
We stayed home this year, so it was pretty uneventful, except my head cold turned into bronchitis, and…
Someone left a lump of coal in my stocking!
Casually checking my book on Amazon, I noticed someone had left me a nasty bad review of my Becoming the Villainess book…on Christmas Eve! It was just so hurtful. I know we poets ought to have thick skins, but you know, you pour your heart and soul into something…anyway, it was a bitter Christmas pill and just plain discouraging. And I was already feeling a little discouraged about the whole poetry thing. I did re-arrange and re-edit the Japanese fox-wife/folk tale MS, so it’ll be ready to send out again, but I haven’t really been writing or sending out work lately. Hmmph. What’s the use of writing poems if people are just gonna hate on them anyway?
It’s a Christmas Miracle – Sunshine on Christmas Eve in the rainy Northwest! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight. Don’t forget to track Santa with NORAD!
Happy Solstice from the Snow Queen!
For those of you interested in Snow Queens and tiny little letter-pressed broadsides…
Michaela Eaves (the cover artist for Becoming the Villainess) designed this 5×7 broadside and it is now available, signed, from me! The font is a little small but otherwise our experiment turned out beautifully. It’s a limited edition of 150 and Michaela gets 75 of those, so they won’t be available forever…
Available for free (signed by the author) with any purchase of Becoming the Villainess from me:
https://webbish6.com/poetry/villainess.htm
PS Some may receive copies from Santa in their Christmas cards if they’ve been very good. Or bad. I can’t remember how the Snow Queen works. Her morality is very ambiguous and her affections random.
The Solstice, the Holidays, and Your Nerves
It seems like everyone is a little down and anxious around this time…so many family expectations, the short short days, the colds and flus going around, the dark and gloomy weather (well, in the Pacific Northwest anyway) and the general unease that comes upon us during holidays. (Did I do blank? Did I get enough blank? Did the post office lose all my mail? Will little Johnny like his gift? Etc.)
Some good remedies include:
–hot chocolate, spiced hot cider, your favorite coffee or tea – in large quantities.
–telling friends and family you love them.
–Seeking out holiday lights, places that make you feel calm (for me, bookstores.)
–Wrap yourself in your softest, warmest clothes. Wear the comfortable shoes for once.
–Read something that feels warm, like Dante’s Inferno.
–Remember the days will get longer, the sun will come back, and that everyone is human, so show a little extra patience with their/your craziness.
–Please suggest your own comforts and coping mechanisms in the comment section.
Despite the stormy weather, we’re going out to the other side of the water to see Christmas lights, I’m going to get my increasingly shaggy hair cut, and perhaps some other fun things. Though my first instinct is to hibernate, I have the feeling that getting out and doing things is part of the key to not going crazy during five hours of dim daylight.
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.
