Happy for You: A Few Pieces of Good News for Friends
I have said in the past that when friends of mine get good news, it is almost as good as getting it myself. These writers are both very talented and so I am proud to announce:
–Karen J. Weyant just won the Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest with her collection, Wearing Heels in the Rust Belt. (http://thescrapperpoet.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/wearing-heels-in-the-rust-belt/) Go congratulate her!
–Rachel Dacus has just signed on with Kitsune Books (whom you may know from such books as, I don’t know, She Returns to the Floating World) to publish her third full-length poetry collection, Gods of Water and Air. I’m so pleased to have Rachel as a fellow Kitsune! And look for an upcoming short interview with her here on the subject! For now, go congratulate her at her blog: http://dacusrocket.blogspot.com/2011/08/big-news.html
And a quick shout out to Justin Evans for his kind words here (http://justinevanspoetry.blogspot.com/2011/07/out-on-limb.html) about She Returns to the Floating World, here. Have you gotten your copy yet?
And Oliver de la Paz is featured today on Poetry Daily, here.
A good week for my friends. If you have more good news, please leave some info about it in the comments! Giant hugs and cupcakes to all!
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!
Charms of the Country and Kelli’s readings
Yesterday, after a day of bracing storm and swirl, we had a day of brilliantly watery sunshine and the temp pushed up to 64 with a clear cold wind, which still feels like 50. We did all the things that we moved to our neighborhood to do: we drove past a Christmas tree farm and a farm with Shetland ponies, then hiked a river trail up to another horse farm, then visited truffle-sniffing potbellied pigs at this place. (It’s where I tell everyone to stay if they visit us. I want to move in there myself if I ever make Hemingway money. ) The trees showed their brilliant colors and I wore a scarf for the first time in over two years. We came home and cooked apples with caramel sauce and had baked potatoes. It was a perfect fall day.
And today promises to be another gorgeous day, only this time Kelli is visiting to take me to her Grange Cafe reading, and we’ll eat creme brulee and drink coffee. It will all be very poet-y. By the way, you should check out Martha Silano’s interview with Kellli here. And I hope to see you all at the Frye Museum on Sunday at 2 PM, where local poets Kelli, Allen Braden, Oliver de la Paz and Susan Rich will be reading at the museum. I love poetry readings at art museums and hopefully catch up with my friends! Plus I get to wear black again. I didn’t wear black much in California either.
I was actually excited watching the news yesterday. I must be getting old, because I get more excited about politics than I used to. I’m still cynical, but it’s kind of a wonderful process, this getting to participate in one’s government, even if sometimes if feels like our votes barely get heard among the throng. It’s kind of like poetry: you send out your messages into the universe, having faith that somehow they will make a difference.
A little news, a little cold, a few readings that I’m going to attend…
Thanks to some friends who alerted me that a few of my poems are online with Contemporary Haibun Magazine.
And to another friend who alerted me to my presence on a list of finalists here (and the winners haven’t been announced yet – cross your fingers for me!)
http://www.smartishpace.com/home/erskinej/info.html
I’m proud to be on the list with fellow blogger Rachel Dacus.
Been under the weather with that cold/sore throat thing that’s been going around, you know, the combination of the crappy rainy cold windstorms and the usual germs when it turns cold, so I’ve been kind of out of it and not very productive, but I’m looking forward to doing some socializing and such at several readings this week.
The first is the Crab Creek Review new issue debut (the first one that I helped edit!) reading:
http://crabcreek.blogspot.com/2007/10/roots-and-writers-reading-october-23.html
Tuesday at 7 PM at the Richard Hugo House with readers like Oliver de la Paz, Jenifer Lawrence, John Davis and Janet Knox and my former classmate at Pacific University Thea Swanson.
Then, Oliver strikes again at a reading at Open Books with Aimee Nezhukumatathil at 7 Pm on Thursday: http://www.openpoetrybooks.com/calendar/index.html
which should be really fun as well.
A quick reading announcement:
Blogging Poet Oliver de la Paz is reading in Redmond!
Please join us for a great night of poetry and tell all your friends to come too!
Thursday, August 16 at 7 p.m.
SoulFood Books
15748 Redmond Way, Redmond, WA
Oliver de la Paz and Rick Barot read from their newest poetry collections, followed by open mic. Contact book store at 425-881-5309 for directions.
Oliver de la Paz teaches creative writing at Western Washington University. His work has appeared in journals such as Quarterly West, North American Review, and elsewhere. He has received many grants and awards, including a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship. He is a cofounder of Kundiman, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to mentoring Asian American writers. Oliver’s book of prose and verse, Names Above Houses, was a winner of the 2000 Crab Orchard Award Series and was published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2001. His second book, Furious Lullaby, will be published in September 2007. Oliver has a Web site at www.oliverdelapaz.com.
Rick Barot was born in the Philippines and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. His first book, The Darker Fall, won the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry and was published by Sarabande Books in 2002. His poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including New England Review, The New Republic, Poetry, and Virginia Quarterly Review. His work has also appeared in many anthologies, including The New Young American Poets, Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation, and Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Stanford University. He lives in Tacoma, Washington and teaches both in the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and Pacific Lutheran University. His second book, Want, will be published by Sarabande in early 2008.
