The last day of the Port Townsend writer’s conference, and only a little the worse for wear…
The teaching part went pretty well, I sold some books, bought some books, and went to a lot of readings and classes in seven days. The best part of the conference was catching up with friends and getting a few inspirations to write. The weather was pretty if a little chilly (highs in the sixties) and I saw my baby otters again down on the Fort Warden beach. Also, yesterday we had two beserk white kittens on our lawn (which I had to carry back to their home – is carrying kittens not the best chore ever?) and a mother deer and two fawns in the back yard all morning. Apparently July is baby animal month here!
Just to show how small the poetry world is, ran into a friend of Charles Jensen at the literary magazine panel (Stephanie, the editor of Blood Orange review, was talking about how great Charles and LocusPoint were.) The other editor I really enjoyed meeting was Willow Springs editor Sam Ligon. All the Willow Springs folks have been wonderful to deal with, actually. We had a very good discussion about lit mag distribution and then about hybrid forms (he was teaching a class on the short-short story at the same time I was teaching my thing on haibun.)
I wish I was a little physically sturdier these days (managed to come down with another antibiotic-requiring throat infection, and then throw my neck out sneezing ?!?) so I could do even more socializing, but had to kind of chill out on activities in the last two days to recover. Tonight Kim Addonizio reads and there is a little reception afterwards to say goodbye. Should be fun!