- At July 19, 2007
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
2
Had the chance to see Peter Pereira and Nancy Pagh (author of “No Sweeter Fat” from Autumn House) read tonight in Redmond, and both did a terrific job. Peter read my favorite poem from his new book (Twenty Years After His Passing, My Father Appears to Us in Chicago, at Bobby Chinn’s Crab & Oyster House, in the Guise of Our Waiter, Ramon) Also had a fun poet-friend dinner beforehand, which was nice. I’m really lucky to know such supportive, wonderful writers.
I’ve been a bit grumpy lately, but hope it is just a funky-funk I will snap out of. I apologize to all who interact with me and who read this blog. I’m sure cheerleader levels of pep will return soon.
On the plus side, Heroes and Masi Oka nominated for Emmys!
Update: I know one of the contributing factors to the grumpiness is my three-year-old laptop computer, which has started giving me memory error and registry corruption problems, and now runs so slow I can barely open e-mail, much less a Word file, in 20 minutes. Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi – (I mean, shiny new Sony laptop on sale now) you’re my only hope!
To borrow from Ms. Loudon, My Glamorous Life as a Poet:
Well, after being 24 hours without power, we had to throw out the entire contents of fridge and freezer (except for what we saved via ice-chest and cooler.) That was expensive. Then go shopping to replenish: cheese, milk, frozen pizza/veggies and yogurt, salad dressings and sorbet (essential in heat) and other underpinnings of meals. Then, loads of undone laundrey. Then, host of unreturned phone messages and e-mails. Two members of my family, my dad and my older brother, are getting eye surgeries this week because of rare odd problems, so waiting for news of both. Managed to finally get two submissions out yesterday night (both online) and write and revise one poem. Got back to someone who was waiting on feedback for their poems. And had to attend to lawyer from x company that wants me to sign an affadavit that I am not the inventor of Y techology that I wrote about lo many years ago when I was a tech geek. Fun!
In between these little life crises, I managed to read the new book Japanamerica by one of the editors of A Public Space, a lit mag I love, which was a fairly shallow evaluation of popular culture in Japan and its relevance in America. Not bad, just not as in-depth as I would have liked, especially as it mentioned certain artists (Murakami the “Superflat” pop artist, and Murakami the novelist, and anime auteur Hayao Miyazaki) but didn’t really shed new insight into them for me. Maybe because I’ve already read a lot of books and magazine articles on these subjects.
Still contemplating move to an (Even smaller and further out than Bothell) small town at the end of my lease. Seems like the only way to live on my freelancer budget (even with husband G’s income) is to get the heck out of the Seattle area, where rents and property values just keep climbing. Poetry just isn’t that lucrative, and if I want to stay a poet, and not, say, a writer of vampire chick lit or corporate handbooks, it seems important to figure out a way to live on less.
Verse Daily, Three Cheers for Kelli, Power Outages and the top five low-res MFA programs
Okay, Verse Daily has my poem “The Husband Tries to Write to the Disappearing Wife” up today! (And by today, I mean Friday…please ignore the blogger timestamp.)
It’s from Redactions. Thanks guys! I’m honored. This is one of the few persona poems where I tried to write in a male voice, so it was a little risky for me. I hope you like it!
Immediately pick up the Summer Fiction issue of The Atlantic, which has a terrific poem by Kelli that won their student poetry contest! Hooray!
In this same issue, the Atlantic has an article that rates various graduate writing programs. I’d like to say my recent Alma Mater, Pacific University, made it onto the Top 5 Low-Res MFA Programs. Pretty good for a West-Coast newcomer to the scene, right?
It seems my power only goes out when the temps are below 30 or above 90. In that tradition, I’ve been hiding in an air-conditioned hotel room. Has this been a crazy week or what?
The Villainess Goes to…ComicCon?
Imagine my surprise when someone pointed this out to me in the ComicCon 2007 schedule:
Saturday 1:00-2:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #11: High Art and Low—Richard Becker (CSU Northridge) discusses the nature of the narrator and authorial self-insertions in comics, like those of Lee and Kirby, Gerber, and Morrison, and the schism between schools of storytelling in which the writer is very visible and another in which the writer seeks to be completely invisible. John A. Walsh (Indiana University) examines Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol stories and their punctuation by appearances of and allusions to similarly fracture, damaged, and outcast artists and works and asks whether the members of the Doom Patrol are artists or heroes and if there’s a difference. Jason Mott (UNC-Wilmington) uncovers the history of comic book superheroes and traces their evolution from serving purely as devices of metaphor for poets to becoming the subject of extended development and progression by award-winning poets such as Brian Dietrich in Krypton Nights and Jeannine Hall in Becoming the Villainess. Room 30AB
Very close to this listing: the Q&A with the Heroes cast and crew. Hee! Yes, I’m missing a last name, but it makes me more mysterious…
Wish I was going to be in San Diego in two weeks!
PS It’s 100 degrees today. So I’m going to see Harry Potter!
Verse Daily, Pubs, Bill Gates Sightings…
I just found out one of my poems will be up on Verse Daily this upcoming week, I think on Thursday. (No, I have been corrected – it will be up Friday – also my husband G’s birthday!) Check it out! Yay!
Received the beautiful little pocket of Foursquare on Saturday, with my poem “Anime Girls Consider the Resurrected.” I loved the other poems in it, which means poet-editor Jessica Smith and I must have similarly excellent taste. The only question is – how do I find out which poet wrote which poem? I really liked the prose-poem piece. And what other poetry journal comes in its own convenient and attractive fabric carrying pouch? If only it came with an origami swan…(See last post for joke reference.)
My interview with prolific interviewer-extrordinaire Kate Greenstreet is up at Eclectica Magazine. Also has poems by Michaela (not my illustrater, the poet/blogger Michaela) and other interesting stuff.
Raven Chronicles final print issue, titled “Whimsies” (containing, appropriately enough, one of Jeffery Bahr’s poems) is out at bookstores now – the last, and if I may be bold, best-poetry-edited issue Raven Chronicles ever! (Full disclosure: I was the guest poetry editor of this issue – although most of the editing was done three years ago. A lot of lag time in the publication. ) Seriously, this comedy-filled issue is a lot of fun. It contains poems by Kelli Agodon, Peter Pereira, my fellow Crab Creek editor Natasha Moni, and many other superduperpoets.
Friday I was chilling out in husband-G’s office lobby at Microsoft, had my feet up on the table, playing a little cell-phone video game, when Bill Gates walked within two feet of me. (PS He is very tall. And still very, very geeky.) No security or nothin’. I should totally have hit him up for poetry funds. Five minutes later, as the husband and I strolled across the parking lot, a supervillainy helicopter shoots up over our heads, with aforementioned-almost-richest-man-in-the-world aboard. Geesh, will this billionaire just leave me alone? Quit stalking me already! I get it!
PS This is indeed the best time to visit the Northwest. Today was sunny, seventies, the streams’s water lilies hid baby ducks and the grass baby rabbits, the wind over the water, the youth spoke politely to me in my inquiry after the rabbits, “Yes ma’am, lots of baby rabbits this time of year,” roses and honeysuckle were blooming, and all was well in the world. Yup, nothing wrong with Seattle in the rain, but Seattle in the sun is nearly unbearably beautiful. I spent four hours outside and hated to go in.
PSS The husband and I celebrate our thirteenth wedding anniversary tomorrow on the 9th. Wish us luck on the next 13!
While passing time at the gigantic Bellevue library this afternoon, I ran across the best (and most amusing) thing I’ve read in Poetry (this was the July/August issue) in some time:
http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0707/comment_179843.html
This essay ostensibly and comically describes the difference between fiction writers and poets from the perspective of a somewhat flibberty-gibbetish fiction writer in love with a poet; fiction writers are “too busy writing to read” while poets are “always reading,” the fiction writer writes 13 pages while the poet leans her head against the window waiting for the poem to hit, etc.
My favorite part was the tongue in cheek part about payment, near the ending:
“But it’s been a good week for us. I sold my new novel, after a bidding war, for $11 million, and my Poet had a poem taken by a well-known literary journal, which gave payment in the form of an origami swan made out of her recycled submission. “
And the part where the poet throws books by beautiful-young-prizewinning-theorist-poets she’s reviewing across the room. Not that I would know anything about that. No sirree.
I also checked C. Dale Young’s second book out of the library, along with Natasha Tretheway’s Belloq’s Ophelia, which I had skimmed but hadn’t really read – it’s a series of poems about a prostitute in New Orleans who was photographed early last century; they’re mostly persona poems, truly well done. It’s an easy book to read in one sitting, moving and graceful.
I also sent a query in to Poets & Writers Magazine with an article idea. I figure, maybe I should try to write for magazines which have something to do with what I do all day. You know, crazy ideas like that. And an MS into BOA. Wish me luck…
Well, I’m back from Portland only slightly worse for wear (I’m sure 72 hours of sleep will fix that right up) and since I received official written notification, I’m pretty sure I can share my good news I’ve been blathering on about:
My first ever grant! Washington State Artist Trust has awarded me a GAP (grant for artists) grant for my Japanese book project, titled something like “The Woman Disappears” or “She Returns to the Floating World,” depending on my mood. (Please feel free to opine on title in the comments.) Thanks so much for your comments and encouragement last week 🙂 I especially liked the guess that I had the Guggenheim, which I thought was quite optimistic and sweet! Maybe someday…
For now, I’m very excited about this and take it as a sign I should not run off and become a sculptor or something. I have oft described myself as someone who doesn’t win grants, so now I have to come up with some other descriptor. I also know that my fellow Steel Toe Books author Martha Silano, and local writer-friends Susan Rich and Ronda Broatch, were awarded grants as well. Congrats girls! The total number of writers awarded grants was about half the number of visual artists, and several less than the number of theater-related artists. Maybe we writers should start submitting slide shows with our grant applications.
The graduation party at Pacific was a lot of fun (though technically I graduated in January, we didn’t have a party then, so…) and got to visit with all my former advisors who were all sweet and enthusiastic. One of the faculty whom I adore, Sandra Alcosser, with whom I never got to work officially, actually gave me notes on my second book MS, and really encouraged me, giving me specific feedback and telling me to hit the contests hard. The difference between this particular low-res program and my residential MA at U of Cincinnati is pretty shocking in terms of – at UC you were lucky to get any outside-of-class one-on-one time with any of the workshop leaders, whom you saw once a week for workshop – at this MFA program I’m pretty sure all the faculty keep better track of me than my grandmother (some of them knew about my grant before I did!) and they are all just so supportive and generous with their time. Genuinely interested in how the students are doing, in their work. Maybe it’s just Pacific, and I know I had a great bunch of unique advisors, but sheesh! I’m thinking of adopting them as my extended family. I strongly recommend low-res programs to anyone who wants one-on-one time with great writers. If you want a lot of peer review, you’re better off at a residential program, though.
I also loved visiting with the younger students, especially this new bunch of girls who are so bright and interested in feminism etc. They’re a pretty impressive group, and when I hang around them I think “it wouldn’t be so bad teaching college.” Of course I’m always giving them advice like “learn technical writing/journalism/advertising writing so you can support yourself and not end up relying on your husband or boyfriend or starving” which I’m pretty sure is exactly what my mom said to me in my early twenties and why I worked ten years in corporate America before I focused on writing poetry. It’s my cynical nature, perhaps, but I believe artistic-type writers should also have a “trade” so they can feed themselves and have health insurance while they’re waiting for their big breaks, especially the single girls who might otherwise be tempted by some jerky rich guy. Or if they’re poets, because even our big breaks are somewhat less than inspiring financially than the fiction or memoirist’s big breaks. What do you guys think? Is that a good or bad thing to tell a young creative writer? Am I a terrible influence on young minds?
Okay, I’m going to unpack and breathe, but, oh, I am feeling happy and grateful and ready to face the rejection slips again!
Well, since I can’t tell you my good news yet (I’ll give you a hint – it has to do with a “g” word rather than a “b” word) I’ll give you a funny anecdote instead…
Yesterday, I went to my doctor and then to get my hair cut (sounds like a weird combination, but they are right next door to each other, and since I had to get some more tests done for my weird fever situation, I thought I might get my hair done as well.) The first thing I thought, after talking with a new doc at the office and then to a new hairdresser, is that if doctors listened as well as hairdressers, we would all be in better health. (No offense, Peter or C. Dale. I’m sure you are both great listeners 😉
My new hairstylist had recently visited Chile with friends, one of whom offered to take her on a tour of Pablo Neruda’s homes. We talked about how important poetry was to the culture there. Then she said, “ARE there any American poets?” And I said, “Yes, but they’re all in hiding at universities.”
This conversation led me to think that maybe all those studies showing people just aren’t aware of contemporary poetry are right on. Perhaps poets should join an American Idol tour or something. Or we should create a show called “So You Think You Can Write…” My dream judging panel would be Louise Gluck or Margaret Atwood (for the strict one) Denise Duhamel (the bubbly one) and maybe Bob Hicok (the one who has the feel-good factor but says things that make very little sense.)
Would you watch that show?
Leaving tomorrow for Portland again, be back Monday…
Back from Portland, exhausted but feeling like, although I am the middle of a crossroads (where to live, what to do for a living, figuring out general purpose of life, etc) things will work out. Got to chat with Pattiann Rogers a little while I was at school,and caught up with friends, which was cool, as well as catch a reading (Joe Millar and Claire Davis.) Stayed up too late visiting, though.
Actually had nice weather for once on the way down, so we stopped by The City of Roses’ actual rose garden, where some middle-aged folks were dancing around with scarves (Solstice celebration) and a bride with a train was walking awkwardly through the wet grass. Every color of rose was in bloom – lavender, peach, yellow, white with red stripes, tiny pink, giant pink, orange, climbing roses…and a view of a snowy volcano (Mt. Hood) in the background.
And now I’ve done my last reading for the summer, time to turn my attention to working (writing for money,) writing (poetry, not for money,) and sending out books/poetry packets. And maybe having some fun, visiting with family, my cats, and my husband.
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.
