Reading Reports, haibun and Seattle Adventures
A few little reading report details and Seattle adventures. Needless to say I am drowning in new books!
I was so happy to get my copy of American Poet (The Journal of The Academy of American Poets) Spring 2011, which contains a wonderful article by Aimee Nezhukumatathil on haibun, featuring some sample haibun…including Basho’s from The Narrow Road to the Interior, Aimee’s “When Mountains Fang the Sky,” Kimiko Hahn’s “Untitled,” Lee Ann Roripaugh’s “Inquiline” and my haibun, “The Fox-Wife Describes Their Courtship” from She Returns to the Floating World. A great article if you teach haibun! Thanks Aimee! I feel honored to be in such great company.
So a few notes from my four days of whirlwind readings:
C. Dale Young’s poetry reading was funny, dark, moving…Torn is a completely great book. My husband says it was some of the best poetry he’s heard at Open Books. I also got to see Tacoma poet Jeff Walt and Rick Barot, who says he is working on both another book of poems AND a book of prose, so yay for that!
Rae Armantrout read some from Money Shot, and I clocked references to True Blood, Buffy, the financial scandals, Little Red Riding Hood, pornography, and that was just in the first couple of poems! Her poems are full of little inside jokes and references to pop culture, which can seem difficult, but when she reads them, just seem like the natural progression of her thoughts. Glenn also got to catch up with Rae’s very sweet husband (another supportive poetry husband – got to love those guys)
Maya Zellar’s new book, Rust Fish, (http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Fish-Maya-Jewell-Zeller/dp/0984451099/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1305555769&sr=1-1)captures a girl’s coming-of-age in the Pacific Northwest. One of my favorite poems from the book involves an argument about using Round-Up.
I also got ahold of a few other books, Jeremy Halinen’s What Other Choice (who, among other things, reconstructs the story of the garden of Eden in interesting ways) and a totally charming chapbook about travelling through Japan by Matthew Thorburn called Disappears in the Rain. I also got Eaven Boland’s A Journey of Two Maps, which has a whole essay about the underworld and the character of Nausicaa, so I had to buy it.
In the few spare minutes in between going to poetry readings, we managed to visit Golden Gardens park, going to the beach and pier and seeing the beautiful snowy mountains against the ocean, Pike Place Market (acquiring some giant pink tulips) and my favorite Seattle art gallery Roq La Rue, that was doing an exhibition of tiny sculpted cities and another of Victorian daguerreotype of family members posing with, say, yetis or a giant squid. That was mostly during our four hours of sunshine on Saturday. It’s been a cold and nasty spring, as I think I’ve mentioned, so when the sun shines at all, all of Seattle goes crazy to get out in it. Oh, and a quick fundraiser during Capital Hill’s Art Walk for the Japanese earthquake disaster, at which I got a crazy cute art toy designed by Yumiko Kayukawa and two of her posters.
Back Cover, New Artists, and Locus Awards
Hey there! Are you guys as excited to see the official back cover of my second book, She Returns to the Floating World, as I am? ARCS are next…
Through an artist friend, I’ve discovered this awesome myth/fairy tale artist – her name is Deborah K. Scott. Check out her Red Riding Hood/Target painting here:
http://www.deborahkscott.com/gallery/102551/2011
It’s pretty fierce.
Ellen Datlow was nominated for a Locus Award, as was the anthology she edited that I was lucky enough to be included in, Beastly Bride. Congrats Ellen!
Tonight I’m going to try to sneak in a quick visit to this fundraiser for the Japanese earthquake disaster – where some kickass artists will be donating their work:
http://tsunami.fundraising.iamebi.com/
That’s before I go to C. Dale Young and Luke Johnson’s reading at Open Books.
It’s a whirlwind tour this weekend, with another friend’s book launch party, and poetry, poetry everywhere. If I can make it to a third of the stuff going on this weekend, I’ll consider myself lucky.
Readings, Star Wars and Why We Become Writers
Grading and commenting on student poems has taken up all my time. Adjuncting a creative writing class: the work swells like those little sponge dinosaurs and absorbs everything around it.
I went to see Elizabeth Austen read at Open Books this week, from her book, Every Dress a Disaster. (Oops – it’s Every Dress a Decision. But my version sounds so much more dramatic!) She’s a great reader – she also works at KUOW, our local public radio, and so probably has a greater ear for poetry readings than most. The obsessions of the book: childlessness (or childfreeness), a dead brother, being a woman who wants to go camping alone – are pretty interesting to me.
We also hit the Star Wars Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center, which was in its closing weekend and was super crowded. Nevertheless, lots of fun stuff – the sand cruiser, Han Solo’s outfit, original props like light sabres and several giant Wookies. This is how you celebrate Mother’s Day when you don’t have kids and your mother is thousands of miles away! But I did thank my mom for having some really excellent musical taste over Facebook. Facebook is the new Hallmark card!
This week, if all goes to plan, I will see C. Dale Young read, Maya Zeller, and Rae Armantrout. What can I say? It’s a good town for poetry readings. I’ve been reading C. Dale’s Torn and really ended up loving the spiritual/scientific aspects of it, the way he marries the work of being a doctor and the consideration of the powers that be, and of course, the last title poem, which is a killer. I met Rae in San Diego briefly and I will make this observation; besides being kitchen-chef-knife-sharp, she is the kind of professor who attends every single student reading. And that is saying something.
I spent some time thinking about why we become writers. Can we point to any one thing – an encouraging teacher or parent, a tendency towards bookishness for whatever reason – that brought on the madness of trying to write? Here’s the list I came up with – you should try it too!
The Things Which Make Us Become Writers
Because I was colorblind, I wore purple and blue in layers, all shades of lavender to me.
Because I was dyslexic, and could not remember phone numbers or my own street address.
Because I was sickly, and missed family vacations and had all my toys burned.
Because I was allergic to the sun, I spent a lot of time indoors – with books.
Because I loved the images on television, but found the stories boring and so would make up new plots.
Because my father built robots but could not tell a joke without giving away the punchline.
Because my brothers are all much more interesting.
Because I considered myself an outcast in high school, though on greater reflection, I was not as much of an outcast as I thought at the time.
Because I love research and footnotes.
Because I am romantically attached to only one person, which saves a lot of time.
Because in my other life, I am a terrific lipstick sales person or software manager.
Because learning about botanical medicine made me want to draw pictures of plants.
Because I surround myself with words – words in the backgrounds of paintings, words on a screen, words on paper, words jumbled on the refrigerator.
Because my mother loved poetry, my grandmother loved Faulkner and my great-grandmother was the only literate person in her town and therefore postmistress. Yea, this is my great heritage as a woman of my bloodline – to be a person who reads.
More Poetry Month and a Sad Passing
I was very sad to read this morning on C. Dale Young’s blog about the passing of Jeanne Leiby, who had recently taken over editor-ship of The Southern Review. I thought she had a great vision for the magazine and she wrote me a very kind note while she was editor there. It’s a strange thing; in the age of Facebook, I said to my husband: “But she just posted to Facebook yesterday!” She was about the same age as my older brothers, in her mid-forties, and that just seems tragic and unfair.
I am reminded that we should tell all the people we admire and care for just how much we admire and care for them. I was so happy to see some of my old friends at poetry readings in the last week. Rebecca Loudon read her poem “Love Letter to the Whores on Aurora Avenue” which always makes me cry, and I saw Colleen McElroy, who spent time and energy mentoring me when I was just starting out as a writer/lit mag volunteer in Seattle – in fact, before I met her, she accepted one of my poems for my first “real” poetry acceptance (you know, outside of teen-y contests and high school mags and such.) She got up, rocking her skinny jeans and high-heeled boots, and was such a fierce poetry presence…it was really inspiring. If I could be half as fierce a poet as Rebecca and Colleen, well, I’d still be a pretty darn fierce poet.
Collin Kelley has started blogging for Poets & Writers. Check out his first post here!
During Poetry Month, I wanted to take a moment to encourage everyone to go buy poetry books from independent bookstores. Specifically, you should all buy books from Open Books, the poetry-only bookstore in Seattle. I recommend calling in and placing phone orders if you don’t live in Seattle. When I lived in California, I found myself constantly wishing I could just pop in and see John and Christine, the owners, who are always full of good advice and news, and check out the new poetry books propped up on the front shelf. For a poet, it is a magical place. Did I mention they also host some rollicking poetry readings? Lately I really enjoyed Martha Silano’s book debut readings, where she passed out little toy aliens and did physics experiments along with her poetry. I’m looking forward to a visit on May 12 when C. Dale Young will be making a stop in on his poetry book tour!
All About You: Review of Sky Burial, Interview with Rachel Zucker, and Other News
This morning my review of Dana Levin’s Sky Burial went up on The Rumpus. Check it out! Dana Levin is one of my favorite poets, and this fierce new book is definitely worth a read. Then buy her other books, Wedding Day and In the Surgical Theatre.
Victoria Chang interviews another one of my favorite poets, Rachel Zucker, on her blog. Thanks Victoria!
C. Dale Young had two poems up on Poetry Daily. You know, C. Dale’s poems always surprise me with their spirituality. He makes me remember my own spiritual side, which I don’t address very often in writing.
Oliver de la Paz has an interview up on the Ploughshares Blog.
And yet another favorite poet, Matthea Harvey, won a big old award.
Ever wonder what the Vida count would look like for sci fi? Wonder no more.
Kelli’s kicking off another grand poetry giveaway!
Today is a celebration of you guys and all your hard work!