Mini-review of two new books, superstress week, poetry month

At April 23, 2012
By Jeannine Gailey
In Carol Levin, haibun and anime, Hugo House, Job Interviews, Molly Tenenbaum, musician poet collaborations, Poetry Month, RASP
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Wednesday is the big presentation day that determines whether or not I’ll get the job I’ve been stressing out over for a month or two now. Wish me luck! Contractor meeting this afternoon. And grading. Also, Wednesday night, I’ll be teaching a class with RASP with teens on anime, haiku and haibun. Then, the next day, off to Hugo House for an amazing musician/poet collaborative presentation. Then, I’ll turn 39, then celebrate a few days by signing a lot of papers that will plant us some roots – finally in the Northwest. But whew! This month is killing me! And May is going to be just as busy!

Still trying to keep up with my mini-reviews of my poetry-book-reading-a-day April project, but falling a bit behind. To remedy some of that, here are a couple of reviews of two local writers’ recent books:

Molly Tenenbaum’s The Cupboard Artist, recently out from Floating Bridge Press, presents the every day world: food, music, household objects like ugly paint colors and swing sets – in a way that reflects on human relationships, science, and the universe. Her whimsical sense of humor and music shine through in poems like “Birthday Cake:” “She’s a cartoon, she’s splashing the spoon,/ she’s a mud-flapping lab coat/ dark stream swirling marbling smoothing/ /he doesn’t like chocolate, he doesn’t -” Floating Bridge always does a loving, lovely job with their production, so the book is a really beautiful artifact as well.

Carol Levin’s Stunned by the Velocity from Pecan Grove Press is a recounting of a year, 1968, and one couple’s adventures and travels, including women kidnapped into a Greek convent, a couple’s sometimes humorous conflicts with hostesses who throw lamps and attempts to procure transportation along the way. Carol works with me at Crab Creek Review and her attention to detail, to the ironies of the troublesome realities of travel, and her unique perspectives on time and place here are sure to delight.

At April 07, 2007
By Jeannine Gailey
In Bookslut, Bunnies, Easter, Happy Poet, Job Interviews, Kelli, The Atlantic Monthly
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Thanks for all your well-wishes! I finally started to feel better yesterday. The 80-degrees-and-blue-sky-sunshine weather probably didn’t hurt. I had a job interview at U of Washington. Then Glenn took me out to lunch, and we took a walk underneath blooming apple and cherry trees. I had a profound sense of gratefullness, inner peace, happiness, what have you. The opposite of angst or mourning. I was happy to be out of bed, in the sun, with the spring all around. Happy to be with Glenn (it’s almost thirteen years now!) Happy for the chance to live my life. I still don’t have a place to live in a month, or a job yet. But I don’t know. I feel peaceful about everything.

Congratulate Kelli for her big win at The Atlantic!

Getting ready for the trip to Chicago next week to read with the Bookslut reading series. this little book sure has kept me busy. If you live there and want to get together for coffee or anything, drop me a line.

Looking at a new phase of life. I’ve graduated, I’m (fairly) healthy, I’m ready to work again, bring home a (steady, non-freelance) paycheck, do something with my head and hands besides classwork. I’m sending out my second book, and people seem to like the poems. Two more acceptances this week from my Japanese-folk-tale sequence.

Happy Easter weekend. I’m going to dye some eggs and eat a bunny cookie. Wow, this post is too happy. It almost doesn’t sound like a poet lives here! LOL.