Thanks MLA! A Reading Report: Beth Ann Fennelly, Erika Meitner, and Nicole Cooley
Yes, sometimes I interrupt my busy schedule of doctor’s appointments to go to other people’s poetry readings! 🙂
This weekend, the MLA conference is here in Seattle, and because of this, there were a plethora of wonderful readings all over the place. The one that took top billing in my head was this wonderful threesome of readers at local poetry bookstore Open Books, including Beth Ann Fennelly, who has been one of poetry heroes for a long time, and the very sweet and funny Erika Meitner, who read from her latest book, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls (which I reviewed not too long ago for Barn Owl Review.) The third reader, Nicole Cooley, whose work I wasn’t as familiar with, was lovely and funny as well, with a final poem about the metaphorical life of dollhouses that was haunting and disturbing. (I picked up a copy of her Milkmaids, which is just my kind of book!)
Just hearing the bios of these three poets was daunting – they are all so accomplished. I think, “How could I do a third of what they do?” But in person they were all so down to earth and friendly. It was one of those readings I wish could have gone on longer. Their use of language, their reading styles, just made the whole experience deeee-lightful!
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
