Thanks MLA! A Reading Report: Beth Ann Fennelly, Erika Meitner, and Nicole Cooley
Yes, sometimes I interrupt my busy schedule of doctor’s appointments to go to other people’s poetry readings! 🙂
This weekend, the MLA conference is here in Seattle, and because of this, there were a plethora of wonderful readings all over the place. The one that took top billing in my head was this wonderful threesome of readers at local poetry bookstore Open Books, including Beth Ann Fennelly, who has been one of poetry heroes for a long time, and the very sweet and funny Erika Meitner, who read from her latest book, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls (which I reviewed not too long ago for Barn Owl Review.) The third reader, Nicole Cooley, whose work I wasn’t as familiar with, was lovely and funny as well, with a final poem about the metaphorical life of dollhouses that was haunting and disturbing. (I picked up a copy of her Milkmaids, which is just my kind of book!)
Just hearing the bios of these three poets was daunting – they are all so accomplished. I think, “How could I do a third of what they do?” But in person they were all so down to earth and friendly. It was one of those readings I wish could have gone on longer. Their use of language, their reading styles, just made the whole experience deeee-lightful!
What’s Holding You Back; or, sometimes the thing you are battling in the thing you need to embrace
I’ve been doing some soul-searching about what I really want out of life in 2012 and going forward and how to actually move towards those things. And I think that I’ve discovered that some things I thought were beyond me are actually within my grasp; I just have to take action.
If you read this blog regularly, you probably already know I’ve been struggling with different health problems for some time. My immune system is a bit wonky, so Christmas brought me a bout of flu, followed by another bout, this week, of strep throat. Just when I was feeling super productive I was knocked back into bed! I get, you know, angry about these health problems sometimes, because it feels like they’re standing in my way. If I didn’t have some neat rheumatogical joint problems, I’d be back to walking two miles a day, instead of about 400 feet max (with one or two stairs thrown in for practice.) If I didn’t have a wonky immune system, I might not catch every germ that went around. If I wasn’t hampered by health problems of various sorts, I’d be able to travel more, work a regular office job. I think of my life if I didn’t have health problems as a shiny, glowing one, filled with success, joy, productivity.
But wait. Maybe that’s a lie. Maybe the thing I think is standing in my way – my health stuff – just gives me a different way to approach life. Sure, this last year I couldn’t travel much – not back to see my family for holidays in the midwest, not to promote my book – and this chafed. I don’t like being told I can’t do things. Particularly by my own body.
But if my body was different, perhaps I wouldn’t have written as much as I have this last couple of years. Perhaps I would have written material that lacked…I don’t know, something. You can’t see what alternate-universe you might be writing, but if things had come easier for me, perhaps that would have increased a certain tendency towards, well, things like shallowness and selfishness. I almost certainly, in alternate-healthy-universe, would have taken my robust health for granted, because I did exactly that, back before I started having the problems. I didn’t feel grateful for the ability to run through a field, to hike a mountain or eat whatever I wanted or hop on a plane a handful of times a year without coming down with pneumonia. My husband’s endless generosity and support towards me and my writing – I might never have even noticed it.
So, perhaps, instead of seeing my health problems as some kind of insurmountable obstacle, some limitation, something always in my path, I can embrace it, actually figure out a way to attain all my goals, not in spite of my health stuff, but with it, beside it. Ditch fear and be realistic; hey, maybe I can’t eat wheat or hike a mountain these days, but I can try writing in other genres, be a bit more fearless in how and where I send out my work, read more adventurously and more widely. I can do all those things without a single change in my health.
I can stop whining about how hard it is to be a poet. It’s hard because we make it hard. I was just reading a memoir in which John Berryman complained about the lack of audience for poetry…in 1941. The complaints of poets don’t really change. He complained, how am I supposed to make a living? What do I do with these tiny unenthusiastic modern American poetry audiences? Things I bet you and I still say today. But really, instead of complaining, how can we expand our dreams and actually turn them into reality? How can we make money by writing? How can we expand the audience for poetry? If we are miserable, it is almost certain that some of it is our own fault, for giving up, for looking at daunting odds and saying: I can’t do that. I’m not healthy enough. I don’t live in New York City. No one buys poetry. I’m not in with the right crowd. I’m not a male. Etc.
But what if we embrace the exact circumstances we’re in, and just go like a whirling dervish at the things we are, the things we can do, as long as we can do them? That’s an attitude I’d like to have.
Goodbye to the old, Hello 2012!
2011 has been an interesting year to look back on. I’ve enjoyed being back in Seattle, where I have been happy to reconnect with my friends (and bookstores.) Having my second book of poetry come out with Kitsune Books was pretty wonderful even though I couldn’t travel much to promote it because of health stuff. Let me just say that technologies like Twitter and Facebook and the internet and e-books make a book launch a very different animal today than it was in 2006, the last time I did it.
And speaking of the e-book revolution – I have to say again how delighted I am to read poetry on my little e-reader while I got my hair done yesterday, how beautiful a job Kitsune Books did with She Returns to the Floating World
and how it looks (and the new anthology, Fire On Her Tongue: an eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry
, too!) I think I spent an hour yesterday downloading Jane Austen, Andrew Lang’s fairy books, Osamu Dazai, The Art of War…
2012 looks to be a year for moving on to new stages – perhaps a third book in the works, writing in new genres, maybe buying a house – all things that ground me, that put my ever-wanderlusty-roots into the chilly muddy ground of Seattle. (Hmmm, metaphorically speaking, my other big Christmas present besides the e-reader was a nice solid pair of flat black leather motorcycle boots. Very Seattle footwear. Does this mean something symbolically?) Would it be nice to stay in one place for a while? I have never really longed for that before, but I’m starting to say yes, that is it, a home, a regular place to stand and sit and dream and write from.
These are not resolutions, not goals, more like: projections, dreams, posted onto the blank screen of 2012, its ominous tones notwithstanding. (My local bookshop employee checked us out by saying “And enjoy the time left until the apocalypse!” I replied, “phhh, we have til December…”) Health, happiness, friends, a place to call home and a bit of writing luck.
Good luck and good health and happiness to all of you in 2012!
E-book anthologies, Best Book lists, and a wonderful find
Here are some reading resolutions for you for the new year:
You should check out Karen Weyant’s best poetry book list of 2011 – I’m honored to be included but the rest of the list is terrific as well!
You should also check out the wonderful e-book poetry anthology edited by Kelli R. Agodon and Annette Spaulding-Convy, Fire On Her Tongue: an eBook Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry. I’ve got a few poems in it, as do wonderful Seattle poets like Martha Silano and Susan Rich, and superstars like Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux.
And, I am so grateful for finding this on my Kindle – one of my favorite Japanese writers, Osamu Dazai, put together a collection of fairy tales while he was alive in the 1930s. Now this collection is available in English (even on my Kindle!):
Otogizoshi: The Fairy Tale Book of Dazai Osamu (Translated)
Post Holiday Plans
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday, that Santa brought you everything you wanted, and that you all ready to ring in 2012, which I am thinking of, surprisingly, not as an apocalyptic year, but a year of positive changes. I hope. You know, less asteroids, more realizing our potential and stuff.
We still haven’t taken down our Christmas decorations. We’re actually trying to extend Christmas this year, making a long holiday out of it – yesterday I went to a coffee shop downtown (the oldest one in Seattle – Cafe Allegro, which is a super cute find near the U of Washington, in case you’re looking for a good coffee shop in the area) to meet two out-of-town friends for back-to-back post-Christmas coffee dates. The barista asked me if it was my birthday, because he said people kept coming in with presents for me! Ha! Anyway, I had a wonderful time catching up with these friends, and reminding me again how important it is to spend time with the people you care about – it’s tremendously encouraging!
And as far as poetry news: If you’re at all interested in the Japanese form of haibun, go check out Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s excellent article on Poets.org:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22712
and here’s the whole haibun from me that she refers to in the article: http://haibuntoday.blogspot.com/2008/04/jeannine-hall-gailey-rescuing-seiryu.html
So what are your plans for 2012? Explosions and Atwood-style dystopia? Or a future so bright…?
Christmas Celebrations with Friends
I believe I have mentioned this is my Christmas of celebrating friends. Tuesday night I went down to the beautifully decorated Sorrento Hotel to see Kelli and enjoy the holiday atmosphere at the lovely fireside bar, where some lovely people were waiting in line to catch one of the comfy couches or tables and get a bite to eat and a cocktail. Friendly Seattleites? Yes! Especially when the sun shines so much during December. We had about three people offer to take our picture for us. Here is one of the results by the Sorrento’s Christmas tree!
Tonight my artist friend Michaela is coming over for dinner, so we’re really excited – Glenn is making osso bucco (which we decided after Thanksgiving will be our official holiday dinner dish!) I just really appreciate having wonderful friends to visit with. Feeling grateful grateful grateful! And hopefully I will squeeze in two more visits with farther-away friends before the end of the year.
And check this out: a lovely poem by Mary Agner about Ada Lovelace, dedicated to me! And it starts out with a robot scientist’s daughter! Love love love – here it is up at Stone Telling: Lovelace Noctures
Our presents have all arrived safely with our families in Ohio and Tennessee, thankfully, so I can stop worrying. Now we just have to rest and relax (and me, try to get over this pleurisy! Six weeks they said it can take! Stupid lung lining inflammations!) – well, I have to write a little on a new project I’m working on and do some editing for Eye to the Telescope, but mostly rest and relax. There is sun outside today – reminding us of longer days ahead – and something that smells delicious baking in the kitchen…Lots of things for me to be grateful for! So Merry Christmas so all who celebrate, also Merry Solstice, and Merry Chanukah! Merry days of cookies and television specials to all!
Grateful Holidays, Lit Mag considerations, doors opening…
This year, I am celebrating my holidays in Seattle, far away from my family, but happily, close to many of my friends, and I’m excited about squeezing in dinner and coffee dates, as many as possible, around Christmas. I am feeling unbelievably grateful for my wonderful, eccentric group of friends.
I don’t want to say too much about anything specific yet, but I have the feeling lately that after a few years of banging hard on doors and not getting anything but bruised knuckles, that when I knock on doors these days they’re sort of…opening on their own. Maybe it’s just foolish end-of-year optimism…or maybe my luck (writing-wise anyway) is changing…
My new e-reader has been a bunch of fun to play around with, but I’m hoping that more lit mags will get on the e-reader bandwagon – wouldn’t it be great to be able to travel with new issues of your favorite lit mags on your Kindle or Nook? The lit mag really would lend itself to this kind of reading, with a bit of poetry or fiction or essay on the go. I can’t see reading a great many novels on the e-reader – still prefer paper books for that – but research and reading bits and pieces of things works fantastically on the Kindle Fire. Are many literary magazine editors considering creating maybe slightly cheaper versions of their magazines for e-readers? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks to Jessica Goodfellow for nominating this little blog for a Liebster award, which I am also grateful for! All the blogs she nominated I follow and and admire, actually!
Unexpected Enthusiasm Edition: The Kindle Fire
Surprise! I love my e-reader!
Yesterday, I had a rheumatology appointment. It took three and a half hours for me to get in and out of that dreary, constantly-under-construction UW medical building. Yes, if you want to suck the will to live out of a person, I’m afraid the hospital environment does a great job!
But, knowing I was going to be trapped in a waiting room for hours, I unwrapped an early Christmas present from my parents: The Kindle Fire. I knew there were going to be practical advantages to having an e-reader, though I’m a born-and-bred book lover (my grandmother and I recently bonded over our mutual unwillingness to get rid of old books.) But what I didn’t expect?
How much I’d love it!
The picture quality is beautiful. I tried streaming a couple of things, including the classic movie “Christmas in Connecticut” (Another unexpected Christmas movie that’s a sharp critique of the expectations of working women to be both domestic goddess and shrewd moneymaker) – and it looked better – better – than my television. The sound quality was better than my laptop’s speaker system. And Glenn downloaded the Kindle version of She Returns to the Floating World – and it looked exactly right! Line breaks preserved, everything. The only downside was that with the Kindle version, you don’t get to see the full impact of the beautiful color cover of Rene Lynch’s art work (it’s there, but smaller, and in black and white.) Still, it was much better than I had expected after all the hullaballoo about how troublesome poetry was on e-readers. And definitely I’m giving credit to the Kitsune Books editors (thanks guys) for taking their time and doing it right with the e-reader conversion – a troublesome, time-consuming process. Now, I’m really looking forward to reading this anthology on my new toy!
The screen was easy to read. The only thing I’m finding difficult is getting the much-discussed free access to many classic works (I haven’t figured out where to find those yet, and Amazon – for some unknown reason – doesn’t make it easy to access free content.)
There’s also a way to access your music on the “cloud,” which I haven’t done yet, and since the Fire is color, it might be a good way to read magazines as well – I haven’t tried it yet. You can stream free content if you sign up for Amazon Prime, I believe – some television, some movies, some books and music – but you can’t download it for non-wi-fi times.
Anyway, as someone who loves book and hated – HATED – learning to use her smart phone (which I’m still in the process of doing, if you want to know the truth) – the Kindle Fire is easy to use, beautiful, and just plain exciting for anyone who travels a lot (or is stuck in waiting rooms a lot.)
And don’t be afraid to read poetry on it! The screen even flips so you can read long lines. I’m excited to be able to bring more poetry with me wherever I go!
A Kirkland Reading and a Holiday Special!
Jeannine Hall Gailey and Joannie Stangeland Read at Kirkland’s Park Place Books
Wednesday December 14 at 7 PM
I’m kind of nervous about this reading with Joannie Stangeland tomorrow night at Kirkland’s Park Place Books, partially because it’s the holidays and maybe everyone is too busy to show up at a poetry reading and also because the East side’s readings are sometimes less well-attended than downtown Seattle readings…but Joannie is a doll and a really fun reader with a brand new book and if you haven’t seen me read from She Returns to the Floating World yet, you should come out!
And, for all your holiday gift-giving needs (and, note the previous post on poetry economics!):
Super special! Get my first book, Becoming the Villainess, and my second book, She Returns to the Floating World, both signed to the person of your choice, for only $21!! I’ll include some special holiday swag too!
And if you pick up a copy of my new book, She Returns to the Floating World, for the full price of $12 (including shipping right now during the holidays,) not only will you get the cool swag and signature, you will also get this cool new magnet thing (some may differ slightly from this one, but will include some part of the book cover) that my husband Glenn has made:
Send an e-mail to me at jeannine dot gailey at live dot com to take advantage of either offer! Only available through December. I take Paypal and checks! 🙂 Support your local poets!
The Economics of Poetry
On jobs for poetry MFAs, typical poetry payment, etc:
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/poetry-2011-12/
You know what my delusional take from this article was when I first read it? “Oh, I’m not that far away from Jane Hirshfield in sales…” Yes, that’s right. I told you it was delusional.
Hat tip to the PF and Jessica Goodfellow for that cheery link…
Journals that pay for poetry:
http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/show-me-literary-magazines-pay
Hat tip to January O’Neil for that link. Once, one of my poetry mentors, Pattiann Rogers, told me she almost exclusively submitted to journals that paid. It was such a simple and direct statement, so full of Midwestern common sense. If only I could follow it. But I do admit, my heart does swell a little bit when I get a little check for anything having to do with poetry. It shouldn’t matter, maybe, but it does.
Yes, the holidays are a crazy time – I try to stay on budget, and usually fail fairly spectacularly (and in my defense, I have a huge family!) Is it financially crazy to be a poet? It is crazy to give poetry as a gift at Christmastime? Is it crazy to try to live a creative life? I think it’s not. Among the most valuable things in my life: my friends, my family, and poetry. If I ever come into money, the first thing I will do with it is start a small poetry press. I’ve been wanting to do it for years, but the last couple of years have been tough financially (hopefully that will turn around in 2012!) That is what would give me joy: to put more poetry in the universe. So, maybe that is crazy.
I live far away from my family (and my husband’s,) so this time of year, I’m all about celebrating with my adopted family – my friends! I’m so excited about the next couple of weeks and getting together and celebrating…oh, and I’m reading with Joannie Stangeland at Park Place Books on Wednesday night, so if you’re going to be around Kirkland, WA on Wednesday night, stop by! She’s phenomenal and I’ll be in a holiday celebrating mood!
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.
