More Poetry Month Celebration – Busy busy busy
If you haven’t signed up yet for my poetry month book giveaway, do so now! And here’s Kelli’s links to even more poetry book giveaways!
Tonight I’m going to go see Susan Rich, Major Jackson, and Brian Turner read and do a Q&A together downtown as part of Seattle Arts & Lectures. This Sunday I plan to attend a reading with some of my fave peeps – Susan Rich, Kathleen Flenniken, Rebecca Loudon, and Colleen J. McElroy. I’m only attending like, 1/100th of the poetry events going on around Seattle for Poetry Month, yet I have something to attend almost every single day. Not to mention that Sakura-Con and NorWesCon are both going on next weekend, which means lots of socializing in a short time with out-of-town friends.
I’ve also spent some time each day proofing my manuscript (with help from other poet-friends and family members, whom I thank profusely) and teaching National U’s MFA program’s April/May advanced poetry workshop. I’m lucky to get one poem written a week in April, much less a poem a day! No time for loafing or leisure – it’s April! Ha! (I’m also formulating an idea of doing a class on speculative poetry on my own. Seems like there are lots of speculative poets but not a lot of speculative poetry classes!)
Hope to see some of you down at Benaroya Hall tonight!
WonderCon not AWP
Well, here I am entertaining you while all the other poets are off at AWP. WonderCon was definitely fascinating, I met some wonderful writers while I was there, real life superheroines, and got to do some very unique people watching (stormtroopers? anime characters come to life? A bevvy of Boba Fetts?) I still miss the literary slam dance at AWP, of course.
April seems to have come to California in stops and starts – it was forty and driving rain on Sunday, today it is seventy and sunny, this Sunday it is supposed to be cold and raining again. The sky can’t make up its mind. This is my birthday month, which maybe I am also ambivalent about, like the weather.
It’s also poetry month, and I’ll be participating later in the month in a poetry book giveaway. I’ve been thinking about work – work that sustains poets, work I should want to do, work I should try to get – lately, too. Teaching versus marketing writing or technical writing, the practical versus the passion. There were some interesting conversations on the Harriet blog about poets who do something besides teaching for a living.
Are you writing a poem-a-day this month? I always think this idea might work better in August than April, because for me, April is usually a frenzy of events, family visits, and work overload. And besides that, I find I only write the usual amount of decent poems a month even if I write every day; if I don’t try to write every day, I usually write about four poems a month, give or take. I do try to read more poetry and attend more readings during April, and also to take in more art – I went in to San Fran for some blood tests and got to go beforehand to a couple of art galleries, because that makes the trip less onerous, and also because I feel I write more when I get to see more art. Reading good books helps too.
My little brother and his wife are coming in town tomorrow, and that means doing more of the tourist stuff around Napa, which should be fun. Wish me luck and health!
How is your April going? Are you doing anything fun for poetry month?
Tomorrow I’m going to the Agitprop poetry reading, and I’m excited. The only question: what kind of outfit goes with black-velcro-walking-boot casts? And I’ve made reservations – I’m going to the LA Festival of Books later this month. It’s a few days before my birthday, so I’m going to celebrate by visiting Santa Monica and other favorite LA spots along with the book festival.
Allrighty, today’s poem-a-day poem…[poof!]
