The Crab Creek Review reading went really well, I thought – I’m really proud of all the poetry in there, and think the new issue (the first one the new set of editors had real editorial control of)really illustrates what can be fresh and exciting about Northwest writing – it ain’t all herons and salmon any more! It’s a good time to subscribe if you’ve been thinking about it…
And Aimee and Oliver’s reading at Open Books was packed. Oliver gave his best reading ever, and Aimee made me laugh so hard I cried, which, really, doesn’t happen all that often at poetry readings. We took Aimee to Trophy Cupcakes before the reading (she’s a fan of the cupcake as art form.) Oliver was very gracious, though he did admit to a little bit of girly-overload when Aimee and I started to talk about the glitter stationary they had on sale…at least Glenn was there so they could talk about football or something as an antidote. We also got to meet Oliver’s friend Mary, who works as a fiction editor at Image Magazine.
And, in the “Oh, Snap!” department, a shout out to Paul Guest, who just won the $50K Whiting Award, one of the most prestigious awards a young poet can get. In this interview, Paul is very…Paul…no surprises for those who read his blog, but I bet the interviewer was all like, “Is he being serious?” http://www.ajc.com/living/content/printedition/2007/10/24/poet1024.html
Anyway, congrats!