November Doldrums
I’ve been reading around the blogosphere about people being a little down, and I think it’s been getting to me too: the November doldrums. The days are getting shorter, the little bit of sunshine we get is really cold, job applications and poetry submissions seem harder and heavier, somehow…
I don’t know if this will cheer anyone up, but if you’re a speculative poetry writer who loves persona poetry, you probably want to submit to the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s poetry journal Eye To the Telescope, in the next month, because…guess what? The guest editor is me!
http://eyetothetelescope.com/submit.html
And, if you’re a member of Goodreads, I’d be honored if you wrote in She Returns to the Floating World as your choice for Best Poetry Book of the year! (Write-in votes are by “Your Choice” at the bottom of the page) as your favorite poetry read:
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/#56024-Best-Poetry
Of course, my lovely friends Dorianne Laux and Aimee Nezhukumatathil are also very good choices. It’s a tough year for poetry competitions!
So what are you doing to battle the doldrums this November? I’m baking, staying in denial about the ever-shortening days, and I’m getting ready to read with a bunch of friends at a reading celebration for Day of the Dead:
Saturday, November 5 @ 4-5:45 pm
Day of the Dead reading with Judith Roche, Carolyne Wright, Jeannine Hall Gaily, Chris Jarmick, John Burgess, Scott Galasso, & Raul Sanchez at Lake City Library.
Snippet day!
Allison Joseph, an excellent poet who also happens to edit the Crab Orchard Review, was chosen from the last Steel Toe open reading series…read more here!
Annie Finch talks about women poets and mentoring here…and Barbara Jane Reyes continues the discussion here…
Amy King has a great take on the “greatness” issue here
In the mail: my contributor’s copy of The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, and a little check with it! Hey, if every lit mag and journal paid us just a tiny bit, we poets would at least be able to cover our postage!
Some great, realistic advice about poetry publication is available in this online excerpt from Salt Publishing’s book on the same subject. If you’re new to poetry, before you send out your work for the first or second time, read this: http://www.saltpublishing.com/info/submissions.htm
A new review of Becoming the Villainess by Diane Lockward in the April 2007 issue of Review Revue.
A few poems in the new issue of The Magazine of Speculative Poetry, and a few more in the first issue of the new journal, Radiant Turnstile. I’m proud to appear there alongside my friend Jeff Walt.
Spent the weekend getting situated in the new place. Furniture keeps mysteriously appearing from the garage, and pictures on the wall…
I’ve been contemplating the expected archetype of “poet.” You know, the Byron/Plath/Breadloaf orgy thing – he/she has a dramatic personal life, gets drunk/smokes/takes drugs a lot, hangs out in seedy bars, hooks up frequently with other poets…I think I don’t fit into this particular cliche very well. In fact, I think Adam Ant wrote the song “Goody Two Shoes” about me. What do you think? Are these still requirements for being a poet?
