Second report from Austin – Woke up late this morning so I’ll have to make this short – yesterday, went first thing to a reading by Alice James Books. I was hoping to say hi to Brian Turner, but he was sick and couldn’t be there, but I did get to see Anne Marie Macari (though I didn’t get to say hi! sorry Lana!) and this really amazing poet I had never heard of named Lesle Lewis who read from a book of prose poems – it had kind of a Brigit Pegeen Kelly feel, but not as dark, a nice blend of narrative and lyric, so I went up and bought her book (even though I told myself no books – I have so many in my stacks at home! and I have to fly with this stuff…argh! no self control.) I ran into my old professor Don Bogen at the reading and took him out to lunch with Glenn at a little Cajun place – it was really fun to catch up with him. We discussed how weird it was that when I went to U of Cinci for my Master’s program it was an all-white-male poetry faculty and the program had sort of a formalist bent – now they’ve hired a young woman professor who is an experimental type and she has really brought a lot of energy to the program – and they have an active literary mag for the students to work with too, the Cincinnati Review. So the program has been “hipped up” (hmm, is that a real word?) since I was there. And we talked about his publisher, Wesleyan, and his experiences with them, and what to expect from publishing a book in general, etc.
Then went to the early afternoon reading by Runes (a bunch of great readers including Ilya again and Kim Addonizio) and took a break until running to the Tupelo party where I ran into Aimee Nez and her charming husband which was great fun (and they had great food – too bad I had settled for room service beforehand) and then ran back for the AWP reading – a weird pairing of Naomi Shihab Nye and Tony Hoagland – I loved seeing Tony read, who was exactly as I had pictured him, then afterwards went to a bar with fiddling poets – including Molly Tenenbaum and KenWaldman. Today I’m going to try to catch Charles Jensen’s reading with Bloom and spend more time at the book fair and make the 8:30 PM reading – Marie Howe is one of the readers, and I love her book “What the Living Do.” Then, if I’m still alive after that, Reb Livingston’s party…so…tired…One funny thing is how many people have come up and said “Oh, I remember such-and-such from your blog…” I know I’ve said it to people here too, it’s just funny (and disconcerting) to have such a community built on the web rather than in person. All the bloggers I’ve met have been wonderful folks, even nicer than you would guess from their online journals. Will try to give a report on today’s stuff before I leave for home tomorrow…

This post is from Austin – so it’ll be fragmented – it’s hot here, in the eighties, compared to the in-the-forties temperatures we would be experiencing in Seattle right now – there were thunderstorms last night, but no drizzle or anything during the day – a welcome change. The air is filled with the weird crackling sounds of grackles, birds that look like blackbirds with long tail feathers, and the landscape is filled with scrubby, leafless trees. Yesterday Glenn and I sneaked off for a visit to the botanical garden full of blooming laurel bushes that smelled like grape soda and must have seen a hundred butterflies. I already have blisters from walking around in sandals so much. Got to meet some bloggers yesterday, and hopefully more today – the charming and very gracious Eduardo, Tony Robinson, Rebecca Livingston ( all these young men kept coming up to her and saying “I read your blog!” – what a pickup line!) the lovely and fun-to-chat-with Mary Biddinger and her husband – and got to chat with Peter Pereira (although I missed his reading – argh!) and had lunch with Tom Hunley, the Steel Toe Books publisher, and at night I went to that crazy anthology that’s causing so much consternation, Legitimate Dangers, reading at this tiny bar downtown, it was so crowded I couldn’t even move and after an hour and a half, even though I enjoyed most of the readers, I had to get out into the fresh air and go home. As at most poetry readings, not every reader was great and the reading was somewhat disorganized – I did get to meet Nick Flynn, who is as cute as his author photo and a great reader, which was fun – and see Rachel Zucker, who I am a big fan of, read – she looks about fifteen in person – and big, friendly Joshua Beckman and saw Ilya Kaminsky read, always a pleasure, but missed one of my favorite poets on the list, Dana Levin. It was so crowded I don’t even know if she was there. Tonight I have to make the agonizing choice of listening to Tony Hoagland, whom I’ve never seen read, or going to a little bar reading and social by Tupelo Books…decisions, decisions. As you can probably tell, I’m having fun this year, less stressed by stuff (politics, anxiety, etc) than the other years I’ve been, and feeling kind of carefree. The architecture in the city is beautiful – even the parking garages have frosted glass curving lines and decorative neon, and the skyscrapers form little sculptures at the top – and the Texans are very friendly. It’s very flat so you can can walk everywhere. Okay, back to real life, I have to go get ready for the Alice James reading at 11 with Brian Turner and Anne Marie Macari who I really want to see, so I have to grab some coffee and get going. I’ll try to post something more coherent later.

Yesterday, after several tedious hours at the UW doctor’s office (this time an asthma/immunology guy, who, after several hours of interviews and studying my charts, decided all my medications were appropriate and that I was doing everything right as far as diet, avoiding the sun and known allergens, etc. Peachy!) we decided to take advantage of our location and visit the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington, which was exhibiting several room sof prints and pieces of Roy Lichtenstein. I was just engrossed in the beauty and texture of his pieces, some of which were created as late as 1996 – and he died in 1997. One was painted on stainless steel with enamel – another was a metal cutout of a blonde woman’s profile, one side, representing sunlight, with his typical comic-book-skinned, red dotted-appearance, the other side, representing moonlight, was blue-dotted. They also had a piece called “Reflections on Minerva” that was a blown-up scene of Wonder Woman from fifties comics saying her catch-phrase, “Merciful Minerva!” interrupted by what appeared to be slashes of reflective light or mirror. Someone should buy that piece and give it to me right now. Coveting coveting coveting. Several large scenes of blonde women – their hair severed by the frame, their eyes watering – confronted me in one room. I wrote a poem a few years ago about his work called “In the Faces of Lichtenstein’s Women” after viewing just a few pieces in his iconic style. I was enamored even then. The museum mentioned that Life magazine wrote a piece on him in the sixties, titled something like “Is he the worst artist in the world?” Like my admiration of Jeffrey Koons, my love for Lichtenstein probably has to do with the elevation of, and making-of-art-from- the combination of anxiety and kitsch.

In the Faces of Lichtenstein’s Women

We see our own faces, drawn near,
smiling tightly.

We do not quite mouth
the black letters hanging in balloons.

Our eyes water
with the brightness of your gaze.

Crayon-yellow hair with the curves of a fifties ‘Vette
severed by the edge of the frame.

(This is a real scene.)
Towers rise sharp like Superman’s Metropolis;

a moon hangs like a yellow eye,
malevolent and certain of its permanence.

In this world,
the noise from a gun floats forever.

In book news, because the proofs of Becoming the Villainess had some problems, and I wanted to proof the printed copy of the book myself, the real copies of the book will now probably not be ready/available til April. Although Tom, the publisher, may be displaying the one proof copy of the book at AWP…But hopefully those copies in April will have be problem-free – better right than fast, I guess…Remember to sign up for book announcements to be the first to know when the book of out, though I suppose it’ll show up on my blog, as well 🙂 Damn self-promotion.
And PS, thanks for the continued sympathy, everyone. Glenn and I are slowly recovering from the loss of our little prehistorically-fanged black cat. The other cat, often called Bastett, because of her resemblance to Egyptian statues of that name, has been soaking up our extra attention and affection like a cat-sponge. Also, I have finally dragged myself back to work and turned my attention on the upcoming AWP conference. I don’t really have anything to stress out about at this conference – no job interviews or anything like that to worry about – so I’m just going to enjoy myself at the readings and the bookfair, and maybe take Glenn out for some authentic Texas barbeque somewhere – Seattle is sadly lacking in Barbeque of any kind. And of course, attend some parties – last year I was so wiped out from my February surgery I barely did anything after 8 PM – so I’m also looking forward to that.

After an outpouring of kindness to me during the last few days, I am grateful for so many thoughtful and encouraging friends and acquaintances and yesterday I got even notes in the mail and a kitty-grieving care package containing chocolates and kitty socks and a very touching pencil portrait of my cat by my friend’s daughter. Thanks everyone, your well-wishes have really helped.
It also helped to be really busy this weekend with poetry-related and non-poetry related stuff – In Posse Review – who recently published an issue with some great Seattle poets – including friends like Peter Pereira 😉 – had a party at this cool coffee-and-wine bar place – I didn’t have any poetry in there but I showed up because I interviewed poet Brian Turner (of Here, Bullet) for the issue. It was nice to chat with a bunch of local poets and hang out and socialize – nothing like a party to take your mind off what’s bothering you – and afterwards, we visited the nearby Scarecrow Video – a place famous for its huge selection of movies of all kinds – and found not only rare Miyazaki videos and DVDs but a whole wall labeled POETRY – with video tapes and DVDs of things like readings and interviews by Merwin and Gluck and Jorie Graham and videos about poetry, slam poetry readings, who knew these things existed? I checked out the Gluck and Lucille Clifton videos and also Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, which was definitely more child-oriented even than Spirited Away. Then today I met with a few other poet friends for enjoyable poetry chat and then visited the Animé Store in Bellevue, where I bought nothing but admired the idea of a store devoted to anime – it even has themed snacks, which I was too chicken to try. Yesterday I got word of the first proof copy of my book – which had some things wrong on the cover – so I also had that to stress about, a good distraction from dead-cat thoughts.

Thanks everyone for your well-wishes. We did end up having another vet do a cat-autopsy, and found that my kitty had a genetic progressive heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy that caused her heart walls to thicken over time, so that a seemingly healthy cat can just drop dead at any time, and the only way to diagnose it is with a doppler EKG. Although the pain meds may have been too much for her and slowed her already-overworked heart to the breaking point. I keep thinking, if only…A lot of purebred cats have this condition, apparently, though our little mutt kitty was not purebred. She sure was cute and sweet though. I just wish I had been able to say goodbye. Bye little black kitty, who was nicknamed “Gamorg” after the wolf-amimate-creature in the Neverending Story because of her long, long fangs. I was thinking it was about this time last year that I almost died during surgery because of an undiagnosed (and, also, rare) bleeding disorder. I was so mad at my surgeon/doctor then, but now I have forgiven her. Everyone makes mistakes, and doctors can’t assume everyone they work on is going to be the exception. Maybe over time I will get over my anger at the vet…Sorry to fill the blog with cat pictures. Soon, I’m sure, I’ll be back to talking poetry…

My black kitty, who I loved very much although she was always a little iffy with visitors, died this morning after a routine procedure at the vet. I don’t know what to do with the body, or whether to have an autopsy. Should I still pay the vet that killed my cat? She was only seven. Today is a crying day.

Back from RadCon, and thankful to be back in the chilly but heavily treed part of my state…
So, an interesting weekend in the desert half of Washington State, where the landscape (dramatic bare red hills, very little vegetation except…wow, tumbleweeds!) seems appropriate for a Martian convention. So cold outside in that part of WA that it literally hurt to walk outside. The best part was meeting some wonderful sci-fi writers and artists. The worst part – our room had no hot water in the mornings. Not a fun way to start the day, and all the other rooms were booked. Ah, conventions. The hotel did have a surprisingly nice little wine bar with things like duck salad on the menu (yum!) – not what you’d expect from a little no-Starbucks town. The panels were a lot of fun, and the reading went okay (although an impromptu reading at one of the artists’ panels – when they were doing collaborative sketching – was more fun.) I have to admit that, though I consider myself fairly geeky, that I was a bit afraid of, for instance, attendees in vampire teeth and/or sketchy costumes. Also, wayyy too many conversations with drunk people. And now I know more than I wanted to about “furry fan fiction.”
My intrepid companions on this surreal journey included my cover artist, Michaela Eaves, my friend from Portland Rusty, and the stalwart husband. They were great company on the three-and-a-half hour drive up and back.
Now I have to start thinking about AWP. I’ve been told it’s possible that there might be copies of my book up there that my publisher, Tom from Steel Toe Books, might be bringing. So, I’m excited about that, and meeting my blogger friends. And I haven’t been to Texas since I was about ten.
And, I’ve been trying to teach myself some Japanese, including the kanji, as I’ve been researching Japanese pop culture and fairy tales for this new manuscript I’m working on. I’ve learned the following words: older brother, older sister, younger brother, cherry blossoms, city, bamboo, and love. I can barely really call it a manuscript; it’s really only twenty finished poems and then ten more unfinished. It may not be the easiest language to teach yourself – my brother took Japanese at college for three years, and says it’s still challenging for him to read it. I’ve been checking Manga out of the library too. It’s really fascinating how connected American and Japanese pop culture are, and yet how they come from totally different traditions. Yup, I’m in some kind of fevered writing-research mode for sure. I did finish a new poem over the weekend, although not sure it’s good.
Came home to a couple of signature-less rejections. And I’m starting to freak out that although I mailed my NEA application on January 31st, certified mail, return receipt requested, and usps tracking SAYS it was delivered to “someone” on February 6th, I haven’t received any return receipt. Or the SASP. Should I resend? But the NEA guidelines say they automatically reject multiple submissions. Fret, fret.
Thanks to everyone who offered to help with the reviews! If you want to be on my list of reviewers, or have any suggestions of where to send the book for review, please drop me a line if you haven’t already 🙂

Embarrassment of poetry riches in the mail in the last few days…
Charles Jensen sent me a copy of Red Mountain Review, which besides containing his impressive chapbook of intense, persuasive poems, also had a poem by Janet Knox (one of my workshop peeps,) an old classmate of mine from the U of Cincinnati, Jim Murphy, fellow Blogger Alison Pelegrin…I mean, how fun is that? It’s a great looking journal, by the way, for those of you that don’t have it yet…
Also, received Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s beautiful broadsides of the twisted but delicious poem “Small Murders” – how can you not love that? It also has a picture of Aimee on it. If there is ever a fashion-doll created for poets, they should use her as a model. With accessories!
Speaking of fashion and accessories, page 62 of the March Glamour (on shelves now!) there are two poems, one from Louise Glück’s upcoming book, Averno, which I am very much looking forward to. Poetry in fashion magazines? How do I get some of that action? Better than the NY Times…
Found out I may be helping to judge a small chapbook contest. I’m excited to do it. The press is one that does really great work.
Time is getting close on the book. Must find reviewers. I think I have five and I should have more like ten or fifteen at least. If you’d like to be on my list of peeps to receive copies of the book for review, let me know, and if you have any suggestions of good places to send my book for review, let me know that too. It’s knuckle-chewing work, I tell you. I know you’re going to get sick of me talking about it, so just give me a hand-signal or something when I go on too long…
Also, picked out poems for the reading on Saturday at Radcon. Twenty minutes worth, though I’m signed up for thirty, because thirty minutes can seem really long. Also considering doing research on the panel topics, “Mythology in sci-fi” and “Writing for gamers,” though I think I know something about both topics.
Sent a brand new chapbook of animé/Japanese fairy tale poems to Tupelo’s chapbook contest. I wasn’t even thinking of doing another chapbook, but I’ve been spitting out all these poems that kind of have the same theme, so I thought, why not? Nothing ventured…

Sorry I haven’t been blogging – it was a crazy week, grandmothers on both sides in the hospital, a couple of UW dr. appts, lots of poetry events, and lots of paperwork and assignments to get done. (21 page essay for MFA program, I’m looking at you.) I barely had time to breathe, and then, on top of that, the husband whisked me away for a too-short romantic getaway – which was very restorative. I didn’t blog, I didn’t read, I just relaxed and hung out with the husband. The sunny weather was very cooperative for long walks by the water and general canoodling. When I got back, wham, e-mails, phone calls, regular mail, tax documents, work, work work…When I first quit my full-time job to do freelance work, poetry, and school, I thought wow – how lazy I’m being, compared to my previous life. Now I feel that I am just as busy, maybe busier, than before – but the pay and the type of work are different.
I’ve been writing and writing feverishly lately, new poems, all based on Japanese fairy tales and animé. (New poems based on fairy tales called “The Crane Wife” and “White Bird Sister” – if you know where to find good English translations of these stories please let me know!) I can’t get the energy up to send stuff out, but I’m writing like a fiend. I think because Becoming the Villainess is coming out so soon – sooner than we thought, maybe in March in time for AWP – having the book coming up makes me wary, and I want to make sure I’m still writing, not just focused on putting together a mailing list and readings and the sort of “commercial” work you have to do for a poetry book with a small press (most of which I really haven’t done yet.) I mean, all the time it takes to pick out poems, pick out an appropriate journal that’s actually open to new work at this exact time of year, get the stamps (out of stamps) and the envelopes and the address labels. God bless the lit mags with e-mail submissions, I’d be lost without them.
Speaking of e-mail submissions: On top of everything else, I’ve got the poems coming into Silk Road to contend with. Some, a minority, are terrible, those are easy to make decisions about, but a lot are well-crafted but don’t really grab me– those are tough – and then a lot more take some thinking and decision-making. I have noticed the general trend is that I’m getting lots more poems from women. So come on guys, what’s up, send me some poems! Remember hospital rooms and video game landscapes count as poems of “place.” If you send, remember to cc me and don’t put your poems in an attachment, include them in the body of the e-mail. I’m trying to get the submissions guidelines updated, but that always takes forever when the web site’s in the hands of some university volunteer.
This upcoming weekend, starting on Friday, I’m going to be a guest of a Sci-Fi Convention called RadCon in Pasco, Washington. I have a reading at 8 PM on Saturday the 18th, in case you’re in the area. Mostly I’m curious to see the sci-fi crowd’s reaction to poetry – will they love it, hate it? We make assumptions that non-poets don’t like poetry. But I don’t know that it’s true. Mostly I’m reading stuff concerning the female comic book superhero and my new animé poems. Anyway, put on that superhero costume and show up – we’ll have fun!

A wind storm blew out a transformer next to our house last night. I was looking out the window at around midnight, watching the wind, and all of the sudden, a bright blue light and an eerie hum for two minutes, then nothing. I thought for a second we might be abducted by aliens. However, it turned out to be the tranformer for half of our neighborhood. So far we still have power, so I’m going to take advantage of it to blog!
I had some good news this week (as well as four rejections – editors must be busy this time of year!) The first was that I have selected to read and teach at the Skagit River Poetry Festival this May, in beautiful La Conner, Washington. I’ll be reading, doing a workshop and a panel, and possibly something else – I’ll post when I have more details. But I’m very excited. I went to the last festival two years ago, and not only is the town super-charming, but the festival was well-attended by an enthusiastic audience, the poets were great (this is where I first met Dorianne Laux, resplendent in her South Park t-shirt) and the restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts fantastic. Though the town is famous for its tulips, I believe the iris fields may be in bloom.
The other was an acceptance to a Canadian journal that I sent work to strictly because of its name – Grimm Magazine. Sure enough, the poem they took was fairy-tale related. Coincidence?
Let me also announce that anyone thinking of submitting to Silk Road’s first issue should do so soon. Final decisions will be made in mid-April. Submission guidelines here – note that if you send via e-mail, which I suggest, to put your poems in the e-mail, not attachments. As a virus-stalker, I loathe attachments. Also note, don’t be limited by the whole “poem of place” thing. I intepret that phrase extremely loosely.
Also, I want to announce, for those in the Seattle area, a fund-raising event for The Seattle Review:
Sunday, February 19 at 2 p.m.
Town Hall, 8th and Seneca, Seattle
Award-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa in a benefit/celebration reading of his own work for the publication of the new anthology, Page to Page: Retrospectives of Writers from the Seattle Review, edited by Colleen J. McElroy. Tickets $20 (includes post-reading reception), available in advance at Elliott Bay starting Jan. 15, or at the door. Proceeds benefit The Seattle Review. Contact 206.624.6600.
I will not be there, since I will be in Pasco, Washington, trying my sci-fi convention/poetry hybrid experiment. But Yusef is a wonderful reader, and I used to volunteer with the Seattle Review, so get on out!
A note on my rejections: hmmm. I consider myself a sort of grrl-power feminist poet type. However, feminist journals seem not to agree. My biggest smackdowns tend to be the feminist journals. What’s up with that?