Almost Summer, Poet Friend Hang Out Time, and Sending Out (Even When You Feel Discouraged) and the Harm of Instant Star Narratives

Me with roses and lavender in Kirkland’s Carillon Point Marina

Almost Summer…

There are a few things that I’ve learned herald the beginning of summer here in the Seattle suburbs. The blooming roses and lavender, sunflowers and goldfinches, the arrival of Rainier cherries on roadside stands, and the first hot air balloons going up around our house. We have yet to see the first hot air balloon, but I saw my first goldfinch on my sunflowers! It really is a beautiful time of year here (as long as I don’t have to stay inside because of the record-breaking heat and scorching sun, which happened this week – 92 degree in June!) We even had a gardening class that explained how to make our garden more friendly for the hotter, drier summers we’ve started to get in the Northwest. (Hint: Plant species that are naturally draught-resistant.)

Kelli and I with fushcias and Shakespeare

Spending Time with Poets

We were lucky to spend some time with poet Kelli Russell Agodon and her family (including her daughter, who is taking creative writing classes in college – so exciting!) We talked about rejection (we both got some that were a little hard on us) and summer poetry projects, and how to use social media correctly (I still need a little coaching on this, especially Instagram.) Glenn made a fruit and cheese plate (with strawberries we grew ourselves) and chocolate-dipped madeleines, and we wandered around the garden (I’m particularly proud of my now-very-healthy lavender roses.)

Sending Out in the Summer, and the Harm of Instant-Star Narratives

One of the things we talked about was how to stay motivated to keep writing and sending out in the summertime, how to bounce back from rejections that feel personal, and the harm of “Instant Star” narratives. These are the profiles in magazines or podcasts from young writers where they say “I sent my poetry manuscript out once, and it was taken at a big press, and then I won a major fellowship and got a tenure-track teaching job and was sprinkled with rainbows and unicorns.” Well, the end might be a little bit of hyperbole. The reason I don’t like younger writers to read these kinds of interviews and profiles is because it’s not even close to the reality for most writers, and if they think it is, then they will start out feeling more discouraged than they should. One writer friend said she was taking a class from Nick Flynn and he said it took him ten years to get his first book published. It took me eighteen months to find a publisher for my first book, but six years to find a publisher for the second. Right now I’m researching presses for my sixth poetry book which I think is pretty close to being done and a seventh that’s in progress. I expect to spend some money on reading fees (they are getting higher every year, so I set aside any money I make from poetry to spend on them) and to get some rejections. I worry that I’m getting a little older and the editors are getting younger. I worry my poetry is not “hip” enough, and that the subject matter (like my poems about dealing with multiple sclerosis) might be too downbeat. But I think I know to expect some rejections along the way, and I try not to take rejections of the manuscript (or fellowship/grant applications) personally, although honestly, it’s difficult not to. Hey, I’m not made of stone. One of the reasons it’s important to talk with other poets is that it reminds us we are not the only ones who struggle with these things.

All of my poet friends – no matter how successful they seem to me – worry about a lot of the same things. Very few people are instant stars. A lot more people work really hard in obscurity, taking adjunct jobs and doing readings where few people show up and sending out their manuscripts as many times as they can afford. A lot of times rejections come in waves, but so do acceptances. And sometimes good luck happens in clusters. Anyway, for those of you looking towards summer, don’t forget to keep writing and keep sending out your work – these days publishers and literary magazines have deadlines year-round, especially the non-academic ones. And remember not to get beaten down by your rejections, and to help celebrate when you or your friends have a success, even if it seems small to you – I think our brains are hard-wired to focus more on the rejections than the acceptances, so we have to break out the sparkling wine and cake more often!

Poems Up at WordGathering, Woodinville Wine Country, and a Day at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance

Hummingbird with sunflowers

Poems up at Wordgathering and Thanks

First of all, thanks to everyone for their kind comments about my poem “Fairy Tale Redacted” up on Verse Daily! It’s part of my new book manuscript that if I have any luck will find its publisher soon!

And thanks to Wordgathering for putting up two of my previously published poems, “Shorting Out” about my first symptoms of multiple sclerosis, and “Cesium Burns Blue.” WordGathering specifically focuses on work by disabled writers and is run by very interesting people I got to meet at AWP this year, fortunately.

This is a hummingbird perched by our new plantings of sunflowers. I am hoping to attract some goldfinches. I even planted a “Cherry sunflower” that is supposedly pink! I guess we’ll see.

Glenn and I at the Alexandria Nicole Cellars winery, with roses (on National Rosé Day! With hair to match!)

Woodinville Wine Country in June

Speaking of pink…I spent a lot of time at doctor’s offices and in labs this last couple of weeks (and still not done – have a few more in the next few weeks) but I finally felt well enough today to go out a bit in the nice weather and explore Woodinville Wine Country on National Rosé Day! I even had hair to match.

The roses and lavender have just started blooming and we even went home after Glenn tried a wine tasting with a bottle of wine (for the next time we entertain friends!) We had rabbits running around the yard and birds chirping and it felt like beautiful spring – even if we are on the cusp of summer. I’ve been seeing herons and eagles flying home in the evening.

Glenn and I with stream and roses blooming

A Day at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance

I spent almost a whole day going to my hematologist down at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. My doctor there I have known for fifteen years. The last time we talked it was when we thought I might be dying of liver cancer, and we talked about safe biopsies and chemo and surgery obstacles. This time I brought her my newest book and we discussed my mild anemia (she’s worried about it, but I’m not) and MS drug risks and pain drugs and pain clinic consultations. I sat in the reclining chairs watching the beautiful Puget sound blue by all the people getting chemo and waiting to get chemo. I wound through the blood lab around patients much worse off than me. It gives you perspective, these kinds of visits. The doctor, which was very unusual, gave me a hug at the end of the appointment. It felt like a blessing, a sort of hopeful encouragement. I walked out into the rainy early evening, feeling the ghost of my previous experiences, of the fear of death, and the gratefulness of feeling alive. (Also, PS: If you have anemia, having your blood drawn does not make you feel less tired. Sigh.)

Anyway, I’m looking forward to having some friends over for a visit next weekend and hopefully on the upswing from the latest bout of MS-related pain, and a few less doctor appointments if I can help it! I am hoping to remind myself that I can’t take being alive for granted, even when it is a struggle, and not to forget to live, whether that’s going out and taking advantage of a beautiful day, or watching a bird, or planting new flowers, or reading new poetry that might inspire or going to a concert or a gallery showing. I may not be able to do everything I want every day, but the days I can, I want to live as fully as possible. Wishing you a happy (and vibrant) mid-June!

 

 

A Poem up at Verse Daily, and Unexpected Wildflowers

 

Hot pink lupines, my garden

  A New Poem Up at Verse Daily!

I’ve been feeling a little discouraged with the poetry world lately, so it was so nice today to get an acceptance in the morning – and find out in the evening I had a poem up on Verse Daily today! It’s “Fairy Tale Redacted,” from the literary magazine Redactions.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Verse Daily, Fairy Tale Redacted

Wildflowers in Woodinville

I felt well enough today to take a longer stroll, and saw a lot of baby rabbits hiding around blackberry hedges, and found this beautiful wildflower field at a local farm. Some days the world is full of hidden beauty. I was inspired to get some sunflowers to plant in my own back yard.  I wish you some good news, sunshine, and unexpected wildflowers this week.

New Poem Up at Gingerbread House, A Reading List for Chernobyl fans, and a Little Nature-Loving Photography

 

Swallowtail on Pink Lilacs

New Poem “The Year I Became a Witch” up at Gingerbread House!

Thank you to Gingerbread House literary magazine for publishing my new poem “The Year I Became a Witch” – complete with wonderful art work – in their new issue! This is from a series of poems my new newest book manuscripts, having to do with nature of women and witches. Check out the whole issue, which is magical. I am in very good company. Here’s a sneak preview but go check out the real thing at the link:

A Reading List for Chernobyl Fans

So, if you’re not already hooked on the fantastic HBO series Chernobyl, it is gripping, well-written, well-produced, and not only all that, a real-life horror story that happened when I was 11. I have always been interested in the disaster, because of my life-long interest in nuclear contamination and disaster (growing up in one of America’s Secret Cities will do that to you.) But if you are looking for good poetry reading to accompany your binge-watch, let me recommend a couple of books. One is Lee Ann Roripaugh’s terrific new book from Milkweed Press, Tsunami vs the Fukushima 50, another is Kathleen Flenniken’s Plume (about her childhood and work as an engineer in Hanford, and the Green Run), and the third is my own The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, about growing up in Oak Ridge, and some of the repercussions of that.  Do you have some more poetry books about nuclear history, anxiety and disaster? Please leave your recommendations in the comments!

Anna’s Hummingbird

A Little Nature is Good for the Soul

I’ve finally had some relief from pain in the last week, enough to get out and about in my garden and some of the surrounding gardens in Woodinville, getting back to my usual routines, taking pictures and celebrating our beautiful late spring.

There have been some local tragedies in the news that were bothering me – a shooting of a woman and several children on a public Seattle beach on Memorial Day, and then the bizarre incident where the Bainbridge Ferry – one I have ridden many times – hit a juvenile humpback whale. A tornado caused a ton of destruction in Dayton, Ohio, near my family in Cincinnati. There’s been disturbing national news, politically, of course, as well. One thing that I try to remember and hold in myself when I get overwhelmed with the bad things, with the depressing or anxiety-provoking, is to spend time with the small things of nature. Like a hummingbird, a new flower, new goslings. I also finished up two book reviews I’d been working on for a while, which ends my reviewing for the summer. (I take time off in the summer, because the last couple of summers have involved a lot of hospital trips for me.) Reviewing two excellent books really makes me feel like I can shine some light in a positive direction in a poetry world that can feel unremittingly dark sometimes.  I’ll post the reviews when they go up.

I hope that you will feel some renewal this late spring, as we move towards the solstice, that you will feel some hope in the faces of flowers and the baby animals. Yesterday was World MS Awareness Day. I continue to struggle with my MS symptoms, especially because MS is a constantly moving target – a symptom I’ve never had before will wreck me for a while, and then I’ll just be left with plain old fatigue and clumsiness. But I try not to lose hope, in a cure, in better treatments, in a life ahead that’s filled with springs when I’m well enough to follow ducklings and butterflies.

 

New Poem in Redactions, Spending Some Time with Poets, and a Week of MS Pain Management

Sylvia poses with the new issue of Redactions

New Poem, “Fairy Tale Redacted” in Redactions!

I’m happy to announce my new poem, “Fairy Tale Redacted,” most fittingly appearing in the literary magazine Redactions’ new issue. Seems everyone’s been talking about redactions and how they affect the reading of things lately (cough, Mueller Report, cough), but I have been reading redacted documents since I was a little kid reading my dad’s research on nuclear safety. So I decided to give it a little spin with how fairy tales might look if they had a censor (which they often did!)

“Fairy Tale Redacted” in Redactions

Sarah Mangold and I celebrating!

Visiting with Poets Always Cheers Me Up

So happy after a rough week (more on that later) I was able to visit with wonderful local poet Sarah Mangold, to talk poetry and publishing and celebrate our birthdays (a bit late) with sparkling rose and cupcakes! Yay for Taurus Poets! There’s something so cheering about spending time with other writers, especially ones whose writing you admire, and not just talking shop but sharing stories about where we thought we’d be and where we think we should be. It was a great way to spend a rainy weekend day, especially because I finally felt up to smiling and talking again! Could not have had a better afternoon.

Smiling again

A Week Learning about MS Pain Management

So, I learned the hard way about managing pain with MS – specifically, I spent eight days almost unmoored by something called trigeminal neuralgia, which about 1/3 of MS people will experience, like the worst combo of TMJ/toothache/migraine. It kept me from smiling, talking, chewing food, or generally doing anything but curling up in bed for a week. During this time my neurologist tried a few different strategies – an anti-epilepsy drug that’s supposed to block nerve pain (that made me sick), an anti-migraine drug that helped me sleep but didn’t stop the pain, my first experiments with CBD oil (helped, but didn’t fix), and finally and most effective, the dreaded steroids, which calmed down not only the pain but the nausea, trembling, and fatigue that came with it. This was my first day smiling in eight days – I felt well enough to get my hair cut, visit with a friend, and take a stroll around the wineries. I know pulsing steroids is sometimes a necessary evil with MS, and I know they take a toll long-term, but I am so happy to be out of pain. I immediately wrote a poem and worked on my two in-process reviews with my renewed energy.

I also went out and I visited with this peahen (look at those neck feathers!) and a fantastic pink tree with a terrible name – the “Beauty Bush” in the “Pink cloud” varietal. It smelled wonderful and was indeed a pink cloud, even on a rainy day.

And while I was out of it in lots of pain, I did see a wonderful movie, Ladies in Black, about a young Australian girl who wants to be a poet and works at a department store set in what I think was the late forties. It had a really wonderful and timely message about the enrichment that immigrants bring to a country (I didn’t realize there had been so much anti-immigration feeling in Australia after WWII but apparently there was a lot – I also learned there was a war between Australia and New Guinea at some point? Americans learn literally nothing about Australia in any history class), and I might have been pretty out of it but I’d love to hear what you thought of it if you get to see it. I’m looking forward to seeing girl-friendly teen comedy “Booksmart” (I was a real nerd in high school who never went wild so it speaks to me) and “Late Night” with a killer combo of Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling, soon. After my disappointment with Game of Thrones, I decided I wanted to give myself more female-empowering entertainment, written by women, with main characters who are women, with empowering storylines. Am I just kidding myself? Is there enough of this to actually go around?

Anyway, wishing all of you a wonderful and pain-free week ahead. And lots of poetry. And pink cloud flowers.

Getting Real About MS, Spring with Butterflies and Flowers Etc, and Writing Practices for Summer

First Swallowtail Sighting on Rhododendron

Getting Real About MS

It’s lovely springtime here but I’ve been stuck in bed with some terrible MS-related nerve pain called trigeminal neuralgia. I want to keep it real here, including the MS stuff, and I know I post a lot of happy pictures looking fine, but the last few days, I was decidedly not fine. It was the first time in a while I had to pick up five different nerve-pain prescriptions in the hopes that one of them would work. I couldn’t write, I couldn’t read. I had TCM on constantly (along with Netflix comedies – Wine Country and Unicorn Store – the first is inspo for X-ers turning 50 and the second for millennials seeking their inner unicorn.) I couldn’t chew food because of the pain so I had an impromptu involuntary juice fast. While I was stuck in bed I did manage some pictures of the first Tiger Swallowtail of the season, a towhee on my flower box, a hummingbird on the neighbor’s lilac. But it was no fun. I missed a couple of friends’ literary events I’d wanted to go to. That’s kind of how my life is now – I’ll be fine, or have minor symptoms, and then WHAM! I’m out of commission. Hard to plan around, hard to manage. I’m getting another MRI next week to make sure there hasn’t been more brain damage or spine damage. Think good thoughts for me.

Spring with Flowers, Birds, Etc.

Well, of course, it wouldn’t be a real post from me without a few pictures of birds and flowers. I continued getting rejections this week, along with the MS stuff (and this week also featured a trip to the dentist and my regular doc for a sinus infection, so all around fun times) but we did manage to sneak in one afternoon at the Seattle Japanese Gardens where all the flowers seemed to be blooming at once – azaleas, rhodies, wisteria, even lily of the valley. I was feeling a little depressed this week even before the horrible MS pain thing acted up, feeling like, “Oh, I’ve got a degenerative brain disease that has no cure, and oh, no one wants to publish me, and our country hates women (as do the Game of Thrones writers, but that’s another story) and…” Well, that was enough to make me feel pretty bad. There are no magic words that take away those feelings, but putting myself around nature always helps. That’s probably why I spend so much time photographing all those birds and flowers when I’m able to. Even from bed, I can take pictures of the flowers and birds on my back deck. Being able to recognize beauty in the midst of a bad week still matters. And baby animals. I have faith there are better days ahead. Which leads me to…my summer writing plans!

Writing Plans for the Summer

It’s the middle of spring, but I’m already thinking of my writing and reading plans for the summer. Summer can be a tough time to stay focused, a tough time to submit (as many lit magazines aren’t open for submissions during the summer), and it can be hard to get together with writer friends if you’re not on the residency/writing conference circuit. The days get longer and sitting inside with a good book can be less appealing, the heat can cause health problems (MS gets worse in sun and heat, so good thing I don’t still live in San Diego I guess!). and it just takes more discipline.

What do you do to keep on track during the summer? I find my writing slows down a bit, and I definitely submit less. I’m thinking it’s a good time to try new modes of writing, a little dab of essay, or fiction, or memoir, or just new forms of poetry. Maybe I’ll work on my two book manuscripts or even start a third! I’ll have more indoors time (ironically, for me it’s the season where I have to avoid midday sun or stay indoors on especially hot days) so maybe I’ll start some inspiring new books (still reading memoirs and letters by female writers, but maybe pick up some “for fun” fiction. I’ll try to set up a few friend dates and maybe even try a few day trips to Bainbridge, Port Townsend, and other places we don’t get to visit as often as we’d like in the rainy season. This morning it’s cool and the birds are singing outside. I’m feeling almost back to normal and ready to respond to e-mails, maybe write some poetry and send out some work.

Tell me your plans for the summer! What are your goals and tricks to keep on your writer path?

Talking about Poetry Book Reviews, and a Couple of Down Days due to MS, Rejections, etc.

Red-winged blackbird

Down Days (Rejections, MS, etc)

I’ve had a couple of “down” days the last couple of days, due to the 88 degree heat giving me terrible MS symptoms, and seven rejections (including one book rejection) in two days – a record for me, I think.

I can’t really do much about the MS symptoms in the heat , except avoid the heat. I almost went to the hospital when my symptoms got bad (screaming leg pains, this time, a newish symptom), but I survived. I am just looking forward to the weather getting back to our summertime normal, which is closer to 70 than 90. I had to cancel pretty much all my appointments, social and medical, which gave me spare time to think about my rejections.

One way to think about rejection is that it is a sign you are aiming high, or aiming outside your own personal comfort sign. It is a sign you are trying. If a gymnast fell once off a balance beam, and said “Well, that’s not for me,” she would be losing out, not achieving her potential. It’s the same for us. Now, I’ve been doing this a long time, so of course it’s discouraging to get rejections – even encouraging rejections. You think, “I should have this down by now.” But the truth is, every publisher is not the right publisher for you. Every literary journal isn’t going to be a perfect fit for the poems I’m writing right now, even if they were for the poems I wrote a decade ago. And I am aiming higher than I used to, which I think is a good thing.

In the quiet time, I had time to watch birds – we have two pairs of quail living near our yard now, and the red-winged blackbirds are singing, and the peacocks at Chateau Ste Michelle are walking around with their beautiful feathers. One of my favorite flowers, the lilacs, are just about done blooming. Here are some Woodinville pics from the day it was cool enough to walk around outside:

Saucy peacock

Talking About Book Reviewing

I know this is something I’ve talked about before, but I just thought I’d write a little reminder as we get into the summer months, good months for writing and submitting poetry book reviews. Every poet wants their book to be reviewed. I always get asked, “How do I get more book reviews?” And I almost always say, “Well, how much time have you spent writing poetry book reviews?” And if the answer in none, well, remember, there are way more people who want their poetry recognized than people who want to do the hard critical labor of reviewing books. I’ve been doing it now for a dozen years. I finally (at the encouragement of several friends) joined the National Book Critics Circle.

Now, there are different types of poetry book critics. There are poetry critics who get joy from putting poetry books down, showing how clever they are at the expense of the writers. I encourage you not to be that kind of critic. I myself try hard not to do that stuff. Because while most people aren’t reading enough of the great poetry books out there – especially not books by people of color and women – I try to write the kind of review that might get someone excited enough to actually buy the book. I’m not a cheerleader, but if I choose to review a book, it’s not because I hate it. It’s also not because I think it’s flawless, but because I think it is interesting and deserving of others’ attention.

It is surprisingly easy to place a poetry book review, because not many people are out there desperately sending out book reviews, the way they are fiction or poetry. So I encourage you to review a book of poetry, hopefully one that hasn’t already been reviewed a thousand times. (It happens – one book captures the world’s imagination all at once, perhaps focused on relevant social themes, or current events. It’s not a bad thing.) It’s the one thing that costs you no money that might make another writer really happy.

 

Another Birthday, Spring and All, Thinking About the Modern Salon and Writing Groups, Women Writing Despite, and Planning for the Year Ahead

 

Two color of lilac

Another Birthday

I had a quiet birthday this year, which was good, because I was a little under the weather this last week. I did get to go out a bit and enjoy the beautiful sunshine and flowers, and Glenn made the day as special as possible, getting me a beautiful art print and a ton of sparkly candles. (Josie Morway is an artist to check out – that’s her fox below.) A visit to the DeLille winery and the Japanese Garden (as well as Open Books to pick up some birthday poetry books) made for a really nice low-key celebration.

Spring and All

Spring is my favorite season. I’ve been focusing on revising my newest manuscript for another round of press send-outs, and trying to sit out on my deck, planting herbs and flowers and watching quail and hummingbirds. It’s been lovely, in the sixties and sunny, and I always wish at this time of year that I was good at sketching, watercolors, or any kind of painting. (Speaking of art skills: read this hilarious account of how to make swag, specifically book pendants, from Laura Grace Weldon who was inspired by my PR for Poets book.)

Planning for the Year Ahead

Like most people, birthdays are always a good time to take stock of where you are and where you want to go in the year ahead. I am grateful to still be alive. I am still learning to manage my MS, and doing the complicated paperwork in order to start a new MS medication, trying to learn to rest when my symptoms act up. I’m a little nervous because my flares have happened the last two years during the summer. So I’m trying to up my self-care this year – avoiding heat and sun when possible, bought an extra air purifier in case of fires again this year, trying to learn to meditate and rest and hydrate as soon as you have any sign of flares instead of pushing through (which seems to lead to the whole hospitalization thing.) So that’s one goal: improving my own self-care around MS.

I’m also wondering what I want to do next in terms of career. I’ve been (slowly) shopping two manuscripts around, one about being diagnosed with cancer, then MS, during a time of unusual solar activity, and another about politics, witches, resistance, and monsters. They’re very different books, so I’m targeting different presses for them.

Thinking about Salons and Writing Groups

I’m thinking about trying to start a series of get-togethers at my house, since it’s become more difficult to get out and about but I’m still an extrovert who gets inspired by spending time with other creative people. My house is pretty good for entertaining, and Glenn is good at making snacks. Should I try to create a new writers feedback group, like the one I was in for thirteen plus years, or try salons, with a bunch of different kind of artists? I’ve been finishing up a series of Virginia Woolf letters, and I’m inspired by the way, though she was limited in the amount she went out or went to London, she brought a circle of artists around her houses, not always together at the same time, but encouraged them, published them, provided tea and conversation. She really did get inspired and enjoy helping others.

I was thinking about ways to help others and maybe start working again, a little bit, from home. But what? Technical writing or marketing writing? Offering manuscript consults again? Or perhaps some coaching for doing basic PR for poets with new books? When I’m feeling good, I’m pretty effective, but I do have these “slips” in time that happen when I’m sick, so I need something that’s flexible.

Women Writing Despite…

In fact, many of the “major” women writers that we read, including Flannery O’Conner, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Lucille Clifton, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, and Charlotte Bronte, all had limits on their health – physical and mental illnesses, constraints on their time and energy. They still managed to produce a ton of work, not just published books, but tons of journals and letters that I find fascinating and great research for women writers – how they succeed, how they struggled, how they maintained friendships and family demands. (Frida Kahlo is kind of the patron-saint of sick women creatives, too. Not only is her art getting more attention these days, but I read that her garden was recently restored – how I would love to see that!)

I think one reason I’ve been attracted to researching the lives of these writers is that they succeeded despite. Despite family opposition, money problems, health problems, during a literary time that was – shall we say – unfriendly to women’s voices. How they guarded their writing time, and struggled with “doing it all” – a woman’s problem for centuries, not just now, the expectations that women will be supportive of their family’s needs, domestic work, taking care of spouses or family members, plus write and spend time and cultivate connections with other creative people. So what I’m saying is, really, in this age of phones and internets and social media, it’s easier for me than it would have been for any of those writers, despite my illnesses, the physical limitations I might face, the frustrations I feel.

So, interacting with other writers, writing book reviews, making the home a welcome place for creative folks, writing, sending out work, promoting work once it’s out there – that is all work that I need to prioritize as much as I do my health issues.

So that’s what I’m thinking of when I think about the coming year. What about you? Any advice? Any goals of your own? Leave them in the comments!

My Review of Deaf Republic up at Barrelhouse, Blooms and Studies in Pink, and Let’s Talk About What Makes a Dream Press

Pink Dogwood

Almost the End of Poetry Month!

Trying to enjoy spring in between doctor and dentist appointments, running around taking pictures of different flowering trees (right now crushing on pink dogwood, lilacs, and crabapple.) I’m also trying to write more and I’m trying to do a really close revision of my two manuscripts before I sent them out again. I’m going to talk a little later about how to think about finding your dream press, something I’ve been thinking about a lot…

My Review of Deaf Republic up at Barrelhouse

So happy that Barrelhouse has my review of Ilya Kaminsky’s new book from Graywolf Press, Deaf Republic, today. I was really taken by Kaminsky’s framing of disability as an act of resistance. I really highly recommend this book, and I love Barrelhouse too, so happy to work with them.

Study in Pinks

Talking About What Makes a Press Your Dream Press

I posted this on Twitter, and then on Facebook, because I am genuinely interested in other writers’ answers, whether you’ve published one book or twenty!
I’ve been married happily for almost 25 years (in July.) So I’m not looking for a dream partner, I’m looking for a #dreampress.
What does your dream press look like? Mine looks like this: pays royalties, does some PR for you, helps get your book reviewed and puts it up for awards.
What qualities does your dream press have? Does the press help you place poems after they take your manuscript in high-profile journals? Get blurbs for you instead of making you beg for them? How many author copies does it give you? Does it give you input on the cover?
Answer e-mails promptly? Helps you set up a book tour? Helps promote you on social media? Has great distribution in bookstores? Has careful editors? Tell me more about your dream press in the comments!

I’d love to see this in public conversation, because my perception is that most poets (and even fiction writers) are so excited to get a book published, they don’t think about what kind of press they want to work with and send to every contest and open submissions. Does the press represent poets of color, women, people with disabilities? That’s something I look at now more than I used to. 

On Twitter and Facebook, several people praised their presses and others said “whatever press publishes me” and others talked about their priorities for a press. It’s not like there are infinite numbers of poetry presses, so it isn’t that hard to research and find out something about the press before we send out these days. I recommend at least looking at a couple of books they have produced. Do you enjoy the style of work? How are the books presented? What do the covers look like? How are they formatted? How are they distributed? How does the press support their authors? All of these things make a difference.

I’m thinking hard about this as I send out manuscripts for what will be my sixth and seventh books. I feel like at this point I need to think hard about what presses are a good fit for my work and would be great partners in the process. If this means I send out a little less than I used to, that’s okay. I’m hoping to find the perfect partner for each book.

So please, jump in! What makes working with a publisher a pleasure? What things are absolutely non-negotiable?

Tulip Festival, April Rains and One More Week of National Poetry Month

Glenn and I at the Tulip Festival

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

In a month that has been almost entirely rainy, we went up the day before Easter – a day that started gloomy, but turned sunny in the late afternoon – to La Conner, Washington for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. I don’t have quite as much stamina to tramp in the fields the way I used to, but it was still wonderful to see the fantastic flowers, La Conner was cool but sunny, had many bald eagle sightings. The tulip fields never fail to inspire me. This time I came home and wrote a poem after Sylvia Plath’s ‘Tulips.” Here are a few pictures of flowers, eagles, and us posing among the flowers!

Tulip fields with Mt Baker

April Rains and One More Week of Poetry Month

This shot reminds me of what I love about spring in the Seattle area, the parts I haven’t gotten out enough it because April has been almost unremittingly cold, gray, and rainy. It’s almost my birthday. This month has had a lot of medical appointments, dental appointments (why is this always the case around birthdays?) which can be both anxiety-provoking and depressing. I have to get even more blood work and another brain MRI in the next two weeks.

Glenn took this shot – thinking about possibly using it as an author photo – yay or nay?

I’ve been writing but haven’t been submitting as much, and I need to work on a book review and getting my two manuscripts-in-progress ready for another round of submissions. Submitting seems to take more mental energy than writing – or is it that writing poetry is more fun that submitting and revising, so it seems to take less energy? Anyway, I’ve found myself fairly exhausted this month, more than the usual MS “tired-after-trying-to-do-stuff” type – plus fighting off some pretty severe anemia. My usual coping mechanism for this stuff is socializing – which I haven’t been able to do enough of – and getting outside, which I also haven’t been able to do enough of. We did manage to plant another tree (after the little Pink Lady apple, a bare-root late-blooming pink cherry which I hope survives) plus we’re slowly filling our planter boxes with annuals. And the birds have been singing through the storm.

The weather report is starting to show some clearing, plus my birthday (not a big deal birthday, but still) is a few days away, and I’m going to try to do something fun that day – go to an art gallery or the Japanese Gardens. Or maybe Open Books!

I am wishing you all a great final week of April, National Poetry Month. I am wishing you all health, more poems, and more flowers.

 

Jeannine Hall Gailey

Jeannine Hall Gailey
Jeannine Hall Gailey is a writer with MS who served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and is the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize, Field Guide to the End of the World, and the upcoming Flare, Corona from BOA Editions. 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 Ploughshares.

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