Went to the Floating Bridge Press reading this evening, featuring this year’s winner Annette Spaulding Convy, a good friend and terrific poet, as well as some entertaining finalists. I was sick (caught bronchitis somehow during a heatwave – how does that happen? and PS sometimes when you feel really woozy and hot during a heatwave, it’s because you have a fever, not because it’s 90 and you have no air conditioning because Seattle’s buildings are apparently built for nothing but mellow 70’s summer temps. Anyway…) so I couldn’t socialize as cogently as usual afterwards, but I still loved seeing Annette read – she writes the kind of funny, clever, heartbreaking work I wish I wrote.
A teeny listing (but I’ll take it!) in the July 1st weekend edition of the Seattle Times: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=localbooks02&date=20060630&query=books
Also, I finally got the anthology Mary Alexandra Agner edited called Rhymes for Adults in the mail – a little chapbook of formal poetry from the likes of fellow bloggee Steve Schroeder and also AE Stallings and Annie Finch. The poem I contributed was a fun challenge for me, since I don’t often write in form, but the subject – a Japanese fairy tale – seemed more willing to bend into a form that most.
And a copy of Poets & Writers with the little ad for my book and the two other new books from Steel Toe Books. It was pretty exciting. Remember, this is the last day to send in for the Steel Toe Books June Open Submissions so get going with those manuscript!

If you’re looking for poetry news, and/or may be offended by the mention of animal testicles, please skip to the previous entry…

Odd Japanese pop trivia you may or may not need to know…
(brought to you by my extensive research of Hayao Miyazaki’s ouevre)
…the cheesy John Denver song “Country Roads,” as sung by Olivia Newton John, was a huge hit in Japan in the 70s. This song is featured in the movie “Whispers of the Heart.”
Also the film “Pom Poko” was not released in the theaters in America because the cute cuddly racoon-like creatures starring in the animated film have an important magic power that involves swelling their testicles to use as parachutes and weaponry…that film was also an imporant precurser to the current film “Over the Hedge,” although this version, to my understanding, does not feature any giant testicles.
That is all…

Thanks to Michi for pointing out the first ever (but hopefully, not last) review of Becoming the Villainess up on The Pedestal Magazine.
Also, I know you’re sick of hearing about me and good news, but yes, lightning does sometimes strike twice – the folks at The Writer’s Alamanac have decided to read another poem, “Female Comic Book Superheroes,” on July 7th. So tune in those dials! Again!
In celebration, I may go see that Prairie Home Companion movie this weekend. You know, a little payback for Garrison Keillor, or as I call him, my new best friend.
PS – This is endangering my standing among the avant-garde, isn’t it? But I’m kind of a wacky poet, in that sometimes I write stuff that’s”out there” and sometimes stuff that is super-accessible. In fact, in the newest MS, it’s even more schizophrenic – these formal types of fairy tale poems with surreal prose paragraphs in between.
PSS – In case you’re interested in things like this, here’s my reading list for my last semester:
The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan by Hayao Kawai
Green Willow and Other Japanese Fairy Tales by Grace James
Japanese Women Writers: 20th Century Short Fiction Edited by by Noriko Mizuta Lippit (Editor), Kyoko Iriye Selden (Editor)
Dreams, Myths, and Fairy Tales in Japan by Hayao Kawai
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon by Ivan Morris
The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson
The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship by Karen Ann Smyers
Ink Dark Moon – Jane Hirshfield, translator
No Boundaries: Prose Poems by 24 American Poets by Ray Gonzalez
Women Poets of Japan – Kenneth Rexroth and Ikuko Atsumi
From the Country of Eight Islands: An anthology of Japanese Poetry -edited by Hiroaki Sato, Burton Watson
The Tales of Genji
The New Yorker Interview with Hayao Miyazaki:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/050117on_onlineonly01
and other various interviews with the director found at: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/
Rexroth? Gary Snyder?
Lesle Lewis’ Landscapes I and II
Samurai From Outer Space by Antonia Levi
Anime from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle : Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation by Susan J. Napier
Also, some media: the films of Hayao Miyazaki, including Nausicaa of the People of the Wind, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Whisper of the Heart and Princess Mononoke, and a music video called “On Your Mark” which shows Miyazaki’s commentary on Chernobyl.

Hello again! I’m home at last from the Pacific University 10-day MFA residency, and after just 12 hours back here my 10-day-long fit of nausea has disappeared, my hair’s falling in the right way again, a bizarre ruddiness of skin also disappears, I’m thinner, and my back’s stopped hurting. Bless the firm bed, my cat, my husband, Seattle’s slightly-gentler weather, all the comforts of home. Home home home!
I haven’t yet gotten caught up on phone messages and e-mails, and I’m still finding toothpaste tubes between socks and things like that. A good metaphor for my mental state. I met lots of wonderful new writers and am very happy with my new (and last) advisor, Pattiann Rogers – who, by the way, you might not guess knows a little something about Hayao Miyazaki, my current poetry muse. How great is that? I’m excited about this, my last “creative thesis” semester, because, finally, finally, the focus is on writing poems – not writing poems and a bunch of other stuff.
Two new poems – and mp3s of me reading them – up at 2 River View today. Check out the whole issue! I’m especially excited about these poems, because they are the first of my new series of poems about Japanese fairy tales and anime to be published.
Before the end of June, remember to send in your book manuscript to Steel Toe Books’ Open Reading period!

Greetings from Forest Grove, Oregon, where we have had a very rainy and chily week…
Midway through the residency now, and so very tired…classes, workshops and readings run constantly from 9 AM to past 9 PM. I’ve been workshopping with Pattiann Rogers and Dorianne Laux and Joe Millar, and listening to wonderful speakers. This time I’m especially enjoying listening to the fiction and non-fiction faculty, including Valerie Miner and Claire Davis. There are some great new students, too, a couple of fiction writers who want to write in the twisted fairy tale genre. I recommended Kelly Link and Margaret Atwood. Always fun.
The link to the podcast of Monday’s KUOW show with a discussion of my poems is finally up:
http://www.kuow.org/archives/beat20060612.mp3
and Garrison Keillor’s reading of “Spy Girls” is tomorrow. Here, Writer’s Almanac comes on at 10 AM (in the Portland, Oregon area – check your local NPR listings for times,) so I’ll be in my car then, with the local NPR channel on. Happy Father’s Day, Dad! It’s not quite the Prairie Home Companion, but it’s probably as close as I’m going to get!
I am looking forward to going home to where my lovely husband, my friends, and the new issue of 32 Poems, as well as a contributor’s copy of Rhymes for Adults (yes, me, a rhyming poem!) are waiting.

Sorry for the lack of posts – Glenn’s grandmother passed away Friday morning, sadly. So we’ve been wrapped up in that. Now I’m in Forest Grove for Pacific’s residency, and will be here til the 20th. So I’ll try to post something while I’m here – but they keep us pretty busy. I promise to be very interesting after I’m back.

Until then, here’s the radio news that I posted to my mailing list – sorry if you’re reading it twice.

Did poetry kill the radio star? Am I taking over the airwaves in the month of June? For the answers, stay tuned…

Just a quick note to let you know about two radio-happenings coming up:

The first is on the local Seattle NPR station, KUOW – on June 12th, at 2 PM the show “The Beat” will feature Elizabeth Austen and me, including a portion of a recent reading I did for my new book, Becoming the Villainess. If you aren’t local, or you are but you won’t be near your radio, check out the daily podcast of the show at http://www.kuow.org/programs/thebeat.asp!

The second is that on June 16th, Garrison Keillor will read the poem “Spy Girls” from Becoming the Villainess on his NPR show, The Writer’s Almanac – here’s the web site for them so you can find your local stations’ show time and his podcast – http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

It’s been a weird week for family stuff – we got a call from my husband’s parents that his grandmother has been moved into a hospice, and may pass away soon, (she is 92, but it’s still sad) and that his little brother was admitted to the hospital. He was eventually released, thankfully. It sucks when these things happen and you’re 3000 miles away.
My hotmail account has been down, so if you’ve sent me any e-mail via hotmail, I haven’t gotten it. Hopefully it will up soon, but my account is still down as of this blog posting.
In other news, it seems I owe NPR some kind of money this year 🙂 So, not only will Garrison Keillor be reading “Spy Girls” on the 16th on Writers Almanac, but the local NPR station, KUOW (kuow.org) will be broadcasting some of my Open Books reading on their local Seattle show, The Beat, with Elizabeth Austen, on June 12th. So, Seattlelites, keep your radios on KUOW between 2 and 3 on the 12th. I will be at school (again!) so I will have to rely on the podcast of the Beat – or have Glenn record it for me. Thanks NPR!
And, those of you who are sending out your first book manuscripts, don’t forget Steel Toe Books has its Open Submissions this month, so send in your work! It doesn’t charge a fee, they just ask that you buy one of their books.
Also, for a very amusing commencement speech, check out this commencement speech by Stephen Colbert for Knox College. My favorite part:
“There are so many challenges facing this next generation, and as they said earlier, you are up for these challenges. And I agree, except that I don’t think you are. I don’t know if you’re tough enough to handle this. You are the most cuddled generation in history. I belong to the last generation that did not have to be in a car seat. You had to be in car seats. I did not have to wear a helmet when I rode my bike. You do. You have to wear helmets when you go swimming, right? In case you bump your head against the side of the pool. Oh, by the way, I should have said, my speech today may contain some peanut products.
My mother had 11 children: Jimmy, Eddie, Mary, Billy, Morgan, Tommy, Jay, Lou, Paul, Peter, Stephen. You may applaud my mother’s womb. Thank you, I’ll let her know. She could never protect us the way you all have been protected. She couldn’t fit 11 car seats. She would just open the back of her Town & Country—stack us like cord wood: four this way, four that way. And she put crushed glass in the empty spaces to keep it steady. Then she would roll up all the windows in the winter time and light up a cigarette. When I die I will not need to be embalmed, because as a child my mother hickory-smoked me.
I mean even these ceremonies are too safe. I mean this mortarboard…look, it’s padded. It’s padded everywhere. When I graduated from college, we had the edges sharpened. When we threw ours up in the air, we knew some of us weren’t coming home.”

A little happy piece of poetry news…
Garrison Keillor will be reading a poem, “Spy Girls,” from Becoming the Villainess on the Writer’s Almanac on June 16th! So listen in and let me know what you think! I remember my Dad playing Garrison Keillor on the living room stereo when I was in high school. So this will be fun! Of course, I’ll be at school that week, so I’m not sure if I’ll sneak out of class to listen to it or what. Tune in to listen for Garrison Keillor to utter the words “shot with acid spray” and “blue wigs” in the same two minutes….possibly for the first time ever.
OK, back to my regularly scheduled pre-residency stressing-out-trying-to-get-everything done mode. Only one semester to go now!

PS I have a new enthusiasm for New Michigan Press – they’ve decided to publish chapbooks by a couple of my favorite poetry-bloggers, Paul Guest and Kristy Bowen. Congrats to them and to NMP for picking great poets!

Hey, this is what G and I discovered on our walking trail yesterday:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/centraloregon/wildlife/species/mammals/weasels.shtml#ermine
A short-tailed weasel, otherwise known as an ermine! I mean, yes, coyotes, heron, eagles, deer, sure, but ermine? This little guy was attacking a bird’s nest trying to get the eggs.
Lots of poetry news in the mail…Harvard’s Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion accepted two poems, describing one as a “midrash,” which I had to look up. I guess I was writing midrashes without knowing it! They took a year and a half to respond, but they included notes on every poem and a nice handwritten note. And 2 River View took a couple of poems as well. And a rejection with a nice note from Calyx after eight months. Also, G has been experimenting with podcasting software, trying to put up audiofiles from my various Becoming the Villainess readings. They’re not very good, right now, but at least it’s a start.
Last night I dreamed about rewriting the plot of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. I don’t know what that means.
OK, quiz for you X-Men fans: How many times did I reference the Dark Phoenix (who finally appears in this latest X-Men film) in my book? The winner gets a prize – the most recent issue of The Seattle Review!

No rest for the villainess, Part II: The Festival

So, back from the Skagit River Poetry Festival, which was a lot of fun…but now I’m completely exhausted. I loved talking with the 150 or so high school kids (I heard 500 were there, but that’s as many as I talked to) about superhero poetry and, for “Poetry on the Edge,” edgy feminist poets like Denise Duhamel and Dana Levin, and they seemed to respond pretty well to the poems I read them from my book. One girl told me she had been writing since the 6th grade and asked how to find her “style.” I told her to read as many contemporary women poets as possible, and wrote up a list of books for her. I felt useful! So yay for that. The reading with Tim McNulty, Gerald Stern and Lorraine Ferra I thought went well too – they were all wonderful performers, I thought, not a touch of poetry voice in the group. There must have been over a hundred people there, but I was less nervous than I had been for the Open Books reading. I had a weird sense after my fifteen minutes, that feeling of being wholly connected to other people, to yourself. OK, enough weird mystic talk. On the downside, I was so busy doing panels and stuff (which were simultaneous with my friends’ – including the lovely and talented Kelli Agodon, Peter Pereira, Kathleen Flenniken, Elizabeth Austen, etc – panels and workshops) that I didn’t get a lot of down time or time to see other writers – I saw a panel with Anne Marie Macari, Tess Gallagher, and Allen Braden on how to make a poem memorable, and a lot of good readings at night – Linda Hogan, who was fantastic, Tess Gallagher and Billy Collins, Gerald Stern (a lovable curmudgeonly Jewish-grandfather type? Although I think he shocked our PC Northwestern crowd with a few utterances) and a really beautifully-voiced slam poet named Sekou Sundiata. I did get to talk a little bit with Canadian poet Rachel Rose, who was great, and meet Nance van Winkel and her husband, and hear funny stories about Billy Collins. (Just don’t get between him and a case of wine! I’m just kidding…or am I?) Also, I stayed in a B&B that was really dusty and kept running out of hot water whenever I wanted a shower, and since I have a hot water fetish and asthma, I was pretty miserable there. Also I don’t think I slept at all last week, hence the two days of sleeping recovery before this blog entry. I have got to get less keyed up about these performances. The festival’s organizers were pretty great, keeping us fed and watered all weekend, which was really nice. There was always yogurt and fruit in a basket in the “Poets Lounge,” and they gave husband G. a volunteer badge so he could see my reading and panels and carry the 1000 pounds of books I kept needing. Sweet!
The last comment – one of the panels was in the Museum for Northwest Art, which had a really striking exhibit by poet Jeff Crandall, including one piece that looked like glass shards of an egg resting on pieces of slate, with bits of poems about breaking inscribed on them. Jeff, I couldn’t get over the high-school kids’ enthusiasm about this piece, about which they kept saying “How cool is that?” Poet-glass art. Cool.
Pop Culture Commentaries:
Notes on the Da Vinci Code: The movie was a dumbed-down version of the book, which wasn’t all that smart in the first place. They took out most of the art-history and math-cryptography parts, which were my favorite parts of the book anyway, which left the two main characters with very little to do. Here’s some interesting links on why Dan Brown, by making Mary Magdalene Jesus’ wife, may be downplaying her importance as an apostle: From Newsweek: An Inconvenient Woman. Also, a Slate article complaining about the historical information in the movie, especially re: the Gnostics (and, FYI, if you want a good Gnostic movie, just watch the Matrix trilogy.)
Notes on the Alias Series Finale: But they didn’t explain WHY Sydney’s mom suddenly wanted to destroy two cities and had become all power mad? What exactly was the Horizon? So many unanswered questions…Although Sloane’s beyond-the-grave punishment by Jack was very cool. Jack was always my favorite character, along with Irina. Best line of the night went to Sark: “Michael, it’s not exactly my dream to be participating in global destruction.” Does this mean the end for female superhero types on television? No Buffy, No Alias. Hrmph. I may just turn off my set for a while.