Fall Manuscript Class, All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, Foetry, Poetry Champions, Poetry Careers
Still a few days left to sign up for my Fall Poetry Manuscript Class (read more about it at this link) so if you’re still looking for a little motivation, a few exercises, a little encouragement and critique, e-mail me at jeannine.gailey@live.com.
Just finished the new novel All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, a kind of moral fable about two male poets in an “Iowa Writers Workshop-type” MFA program in the eighties, one of whom has an affair with his “Jorie Graham-type” professor and subsequently is awarded prizes by said professor that lead him to a great career, while his more pure-minded classmates ends up dying in obscurity, despite, perhaps, being the better writer. It’s kind of old-fashioned in that it lacks an ironic take on these proceedings, and, I think, ascribes old-fashioned moral suffering to a main character who doesn’t seem to have any morals. It was written by the current director of The Iowa Writers Workshop, and seems to support the “Foetry” view of the Poetry Universe – unless you get a champion early on, preferably by sleeping with someone famous, you are doomed to a life of artistic unrecogniton. Which is, for me, since I’m someone who has never slept with any famous poets, kind of depressing. (Hey, I got married early to a cute guy I still really like! It’s really a sleeping-with-your-professor deterrent.)
It makes you wonder about the way poetry “careers” – teaching jobs, awards, grants, etc – are still made today. Do you think increased scrutiny has lead to less nepotism today? Do you think a young emerging poet needs a older, more famous poetry “champion” to get any notice, and if so, how do we go about getting such a “champion?” (Without, you know, the sleeping with part.) I know the internet is a great equalizer, and I’ve met so many nice poets with great personalities and great writing out there, poets who deserve more recognition…And don’t give me the old saw “Only the writing matters, don’t worry about your poetry career.” Because I don’t believe many writers write who don’t also want to be read, and often, getting those “boosts” – awards, jobs, grants, reviews in the right places – is the difference between getting read and not getting read.
WonderCon not AWP
Well, here I am entertaining you while all the other poets are off at AWP. WonderCon was definitely fascinating, I met some wonderful writers while I was there, real life superheroines, and got to do some very unique people watching (stormtroopers? anime characters come to life? A bevvy of Boba Fetts?) I still miss the literary slam dance at AWP, of course.
April seems to have come to California in stops and starts – it was forty and driving rain on Sunday, today it is seventy and sunny, this Sunday it is supposed to be cold and raining again. The sky can’t make up its mind. This is my birthday month, which maybe I am also ambivalent about, like the weather.
It’s also poetry month, and I’ll be participating later in the month in a poetry book giveaway. I’ve been thinking about work – work that sustains poets, work I should want to do, work I should try to get – lately, too. Teaching versus marketing writing or technical writing, the practical versus the passion. There were some interesting conversations on the Harriet blog about poets who do something besides teaching for a living.
Are you writing a poem-a-day this month? I always think this idea might work better in August than April, because for me, April is usually a frenzy of events, family visits, and work overload. And besides that, I find I only write the usual amount of decent poems a month even if I write every day; if I don’t try to write every day, I usually write about four poems a month, give or take. I do try to read more poetry and attend more readings during April, and also to take in more art – I went in to San Fran for some blood tests and got to go beforehand to a couple of art galleries, because that makes the trip less onerous, and also because I feel I write more when I get to see more art. Reading good books helps too.
My little brother and his wife are coming in town tomorrow, and that means doing more of the tourist stuff around Napa, which should be fun. Wish me luck and health!
