Come on out tonight to Kirkland’s Parkplace Books to see me read with Deborah Woodard (and Lana Ayers, host extrodinaire!) 7 PM. Be there or be some kind of trapezoid.
Also, see Mary Biddinger’s first book interview with Kate Greenstreet here. She’s witty and self-deprecating – I especially liked the part about opening the first box of books with a jeweled dagger.
PS Did I tell you the story about finding my new local library (we now live in a small-townish, more rural area called Bothell)? I walked in the doors, and the first thing I saw was my book on the “Librarians’s Picks” display rack, with a little sticker on it that said “new and interesting.” The book looked like it had actually been read, maybe dropped in a puddle or two, and chewed on. I took this as proof that someone outside of my friends and family had read it. Cheers to Bothell librarians!
First of all, thanks for your good wishes!
My regular blogging schedule has been interrupted by the need to unpack and unload boxes, pack up and clean the old rental place, and commute between them three times away with carloads of extra “Stuff” we couldn’t fit in the U-Haul/didn’t have time to pack. Moving is such a pain. Also, my writing biz things – envelopes, staplers, stamps, notebooks – have never really been organized, so I keep finding (a cup of highlighters! The draft of a poem! Sases!) in boxes full of shampoo or cartons of crackers. I hope at some point we can settle down someplace. Although Glenn and I have been married 13 years next month, we’ve never lived in any one place longer than two years. Are we pathological or what? I mean, we’re in our mid-thirties now. Don’t most people in thier mid-thirties have a house and two cars and regular jobs and kids and some kind of deeply worn groove? I fear that we have missed some switch, some marker we should have been paying attention to.
Last night I bought and read Haruki Murakami’s new book of interwoven stories, “After Dark.” Its main conceit – two sisters, one a beautiful model who does nothing but sleep, the other a ferociously smart and independent insomniac – was fascinating to me, especially as I have been writing about the “Snow White” story lately. When I was a kid, Snow White was the only non-blonde princess option. But I never really “got” her story – really, her main action is non-action, which wasn’t very interesting. Murakami’s prose style (as far as I can tell – of course I’m reading a translation) is really delightful to me, detached yet playful and poetic.
I read an interesting post on responsible and smart corporate blogging, here. It makes me think about what it means to be a “responsible” blogger in general. Did you know a kid, a few years ago, got fired from Google for posting about the differences between Microsoft and Google’s benefits? Do poets have the same kinds of vested interests, for instance, talking about various literary magazines or influential poets could keep them from a job or from getting published? This guy also talks about the need for transparency and honesty – a blogger who never says anything negative has no cred. I think that’s probably true.
I’m reading a bunch of times in the next few weeks – on the 6th, at ParkPlace Books in Kirkland, WA, on the 16th with Lynnell Edwards at Elliot Bay Bookstore in downtown Seattle, then the 22nd at Pacific’s Alumni Reunion in Forest Grove, Oregon. I’d love to see some folks at any of these readings, so come out!
I discovered the newish online journal Siren because of the illustrious Dorianne Laux’s recommendation. Now I’m up there, along with fellow Crab Creek editor Natasha Moni. Check out their newest issue!
My Heart’s Not Broken
So, aside from a very sore back, I’ve returned from the stress echo completely intact. My heart, aside from a little minor arrhythmia, isn’t infected with anything, and doesn’t show any other problems. I got to hear it – the tech played the rhythm, that tell-tale lub-dub, and I got to see the fuzzy pictures. The fun part was running a thirty-percent incline at five miles an hour. Yah. Good times.
Featured Fractured Fairytales
In Poetry News, I am honored to be the featured poet at Endicott Studio’s Journal of Mythic Arts Spring Anniversary issue. Some fantastic essays on the origins of various fairy tales – Rapunzel, the Arabian Nights – some wonderful art work. And great lists in some of the essays of which poets and fictionists to read if you’re interested in this kind of thing. I could read it for days. Just like those lolcats pictures.
Happy Memorial Day!
Last night, my first night in the new place, I dreamed I moved into a haunted house that was trying to kill me with clouds of dust. I woke up at 4 AM in the middle of an asthma attack. How’s that for good signs? LOL. It smells a little like damp dog in here, and since our landlord did not have a dog, it must be from a previous owner. Anyone know how to get rid of that kind of smell? We’ve already shampooed the carpets and washed the curtains, but the smell is still there. I’m paying several hundred dollars more a month for this? Urghh…must leave overpriced…rental…area…go back…Midwest…Colorado…Arizona…anywhere…
Exhausted from packing and unpacking, but a few bits of news…
Two new poems in the new Spring 2007 Harvard Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. If that’s your bag, baby, it’s a pretty interesting academic journal. I enjoyed it, anyway.
A new poem up at the new issue of In Posse Review.
Got a note from Breadloaf, didn’t the fellowship I applied for but I’ve accepted as a regular applicant (this is the second time.) Still can’t afford that brutal tuition fee, though. Love to go, hate the price…
Anybody want to donate $2K to a good cause? I’ll send you my Paypal address…and dedicate my next book to you 🙂
Remember to congratulate Kelli on her graduation day!
Hope you are all barbequing and enjoying the day off, while soberly reminding yourself of the sacrifices of veterans. See how those two things don’t really go together? Hmm, how to combine sober reflection on military concerns with fun celebration of the beginning of summer…maybe by watching “Stripes?”
I have a nephew in the Navy, one of my brothers is an Air Force vet, my Dad is a former Marine, and both my grandfathers faught in WWII. It’s quite a military family. Thanks, guys!
Taking a quick break from the last of my packing to give you this reading report:
Back from the Cranky reading, which was surprisingly well-attended considering our competition (Ted Kooser was in town, along with another reading by the lovely and talented duo of Peter P. and Kathleen Flenniken.) I was actually pleasantly surprised by most of the readers (especially this guy Maged Zaher and Sierra Nelson, who reminded me a little of Kristy Bowen, who, coincidentally, appears in the same issue – 9 as the rest of us!) Valzhyna Mort opened with a poem in Belarussian. She’s like a tiny, 90-pound female Ilya Kaminsky but, um, lighter in tone and she actually infuses her work with Belarussian pop culture references. We’d probably get along. I had fun reading a couple of new poems, and thought they got a good reaction from the crowd, which is always a pleasant surprise. Then I skedaddled home to get back to cleaning and packing.
I also noticed that this particular issue was full of bloggers – Kristy, as mentioned above, Matthew Thorburn, Timothy Green. And me.
I may be out of commission blog-wise as I may not have internet in the transition between old rental and new rental. And the phone number is changing too, the new one won’t be up til Monday. So, if you want to get ahold of me over the holiday weekend, you’ll have to use skywriting. Or smoke signals. Have a good long weekend, eat some barbeque for me!
And I’m having my stress echocardiogram test on Tuesday. So think good thoughts…
In case any of you ever wonder why I’m always writing about violence against women in my poetry…
um, because it’s still happening?
http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271
Thanks to Mary Agner for pointing out this particular rant by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
On another, lighter note, Kore Press posts a comic in which Wonder Woman meets a feminist theory grad student:
http://www.korepress.org/WonderWoman.htm
Never underestimate the restorative power of getting together with good friends. I swear, I feel more like a human being today than I have in weeks! The girls, besides workshopping poems, also threw me a little suprise birthday party, complete with fancy chocolate cake and presents. Very sweet. Also Kelli brought fortune cookies and we all read our fortunes, and mine said: “You will solve difficult problems.” So thanks Kelli, Annette, Jenifer, Janet, Ronda: You guys reminded me that life is more than packing and problems.
Today, my review of Ivy Alvarez’ Mortal and a new review of Becoming the Villainess up at the new issue of Galatea Resurrects. God bless outlets for poetry reviews.
Boxes surround, and I am planning the layout of my new home office. Comcast’s cable has been acting up, and I’m hoping to catch the last episode of Heroes – because we can’t record it with the current conditions, and the cable’s been blanking out at various random intervals. Like me, Comcast apparently stops working when I get stressed out.
C. Dale Young will be in town to read at Open Books, the world’s best poetry-only bookstore, tomorrow night. I’m hoping to make it – you should too!
All righty, all you who missed Rebecca Loudon (it’s pronounced Low-don, not Loo-don, as I am continually mispronouncing it. I blame all the french R is always speaking) on Thursday night at SoulFood Books missed a wonderful rendition of the poems from Navigate – Amelia Earhart’s Letters Home, read in such as a way as to think Ms. Loudon might be Amelia herself reincarnated. And her friend and co-reader, Susan Butler, read a ravishing series of poems that made me seriously reconsider Richard Burton. A good time and I was so happy I was able to host.
I got to send out a couple of e-mails accepting poems for Crab Creek, which was fun.
I am now in that state where all of my important things are in bins and boxes, which makes it very hard to respond to any correspondance or send out poems or manuscripts. In the upcoming week before M-Day (moving day,) I will a. visit the cardiologist to get my heart checked out, which is good because you know, irregularities of the heart can be nothing, but it’s comforting to know that for sure, b. have a job interview, c. meet with the Crab Creek editors, d. read with a great group at the Cranky 9th issue celebration reading, e. have our final walkthrough and exchange checks for keys, and f. miss my brother-in-law’s wedding in Ohio (which was originally going to be in October but then was rescheduled to the day of our move because his fiancee’s mother is sick and dying with a brain tumor. Terrible stuff, right? So we knew we would miss it – but it’s still sad for us.) Anyway, it’s one of those weeks with too many things in it. I get a nice break tomorrow going over to my Kingston-Bainbridge poetry group, where I get to hang out with friends and talk poetry for a few hours away from the chaos of stacked cardboard that my little townhouse has become.
In other news, I’m looking forward to the season finales of Heroes and Lost, and to the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Escapism = good!
Hey ya’ll. Sorry I’ve been a bit out of commission lately. We finally did sign a six-month lease on a place out a bit farther in the country than our current place, for more $$ than we wanted to spend, but hey, at least it’s a nice place and the person we’re renting from seems great. That’s always important to me.
I’ve been a bit under the weather. They’re checking me for some heart stuff, including infections of the heart, especially since I had some dental work before the symptoms, so if you want to think good thoughts for my health, go for it, you powerful positive thinkers! I’m going to a cardiologist and they’re also testing me for other fun stuff too, including Lupus (again.) I actually feel okay, but the tests always make me nervous. (Did I mention the doc who told me when I was nineteen before some blood work on a Friday: “Well, we think it’s either AIDS, Lupus, or cancer. Have a good weekend!” Hilarious in recollection, but not hilarious at the time. Did I mention at the time I was a lab tech in an infectious disease blood testing lab? Good times. )
Seriously, though, mostly I feel fine, just tired. I’m even going to MC for the lovely Rebecca Loudon on Thursday Night at the Soul Food Books reading. So I’m still going out and about, just taking it a little easier than usual and making more stops at the labs. I should get a frequent buyers card from those guys or something. At least a lollipop.
Loved the new issue of Rhino, especially Steve Mueske’s “My Life as a Kung Fu Movie,” and work by several friends including Lana Ayers, Kelli Agodon, and Martha Silano (way to work it, Seattle girls!) A little more dark and “experimental” (I know, everyone hates that word, I’m sorry!) than I’m used to from Rhino, but I really enjoyed a ton of the work. And did get a chance to read and admire Jessica Smith’s Organic Furniture Cellar. Production values are off the charts. Jessica’s definitely a visual-poetry person, and I love the way she uses the page, and the phrases she uses to tie the poems together. I admit it’s challening work, but interesting and a worth a little effort. I wish I was more of a visual-art type. Seriously, I think I failed my arts-and-crafts classes in elementary school. And maps. Nobody ask me to make anyone else a map of anything.
Feeling a little sad after a rejection from A Public Space, one of my favorite magazines. Usually I don’t take these things too personally, I hate it when you love a magazine and they don’t love you back. It makes you feel like one of those eighties teen movie characters, the ones that always end up “best friends” with the guy.
Note: first writing cartoons for the Poetry Foundation, and now this? Sellout! Now I wish I could make maps and draw cartoons!
Other Note: Nice work, Peter! And now I know why I get along so well with Peter – he’s one of those Cancer men!
- At May 12, 2007
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In 32 Poems, Juliana Gray, top five songs
1
Lest you think all I do is complain, a new post, in which I talk about other people and things:
As I was asked multiple times for the five songs meme (I did answer on Deb Ager’s blog) I came up with some more songs, these a bit more off the beaten track, perhaps:
–“Dark Angel” by essence
–“Blue” by Angie Hart
–“I Think I Can” by j-pop band The Pillowz
–“Honey Don’t Think” by Grant Lee Buffalo
–“Innocent One” by Michael Penn
Check out Shanna Compton’s “best essay ever written on poetry blogs” up at the Poetry Foundation.
I am looking at the new 32 Poems, guest-edited by Carrie Jerrell. I really liked a lot of the work in this one, no real surprise there as I usually like 32 Poems. I saw a poem by an old friend from my MA workshop days at U of Cinci, Juliana Gray, who took on a pop culture theme with a twist in “Psycho.” In our workshops, Juliana had this great poem about Lois Lane hanging off a cliff that I’ve never forgotten. Anyway, check this one out – here are a few lines from the end of “Psycho:”
“…The nervous boy
lets for the breath he’s held and chews
another piece of the candy corn
he keeps in his pocket. Like a child,
our Norman: so dutiful, so sweet.”
Good stuff, right?
I also really enjoyed Dan Nester’s “Queries” and Stephen Priest’s “After Jacob.”
Also still need to blog about the 2007 Rhino and Jessica Smith’s Organic Furniture Cellar. Quickly, before everything I own disappears into boxes…
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.
