Tuesday Confessions about the End of Summer
Since the last time I posted, I’ve hosted a party at my apartment and went to a summer concert in the zoo. A social whirl, and it was the hottest weekend (of course!) of the entire year! Sorry, those who came, that it wasn’t a pool party – and that I lack an ice vodka bar!
Here’s a pic of me doing my best Sylvia Plath impression pre-party. Not the suicide part, the part where she rocked being a domestic-goddess-type-in-cocktail-dresses. (Glenn is actually the talented sushi-and-cupcake maker. I’m just appearing in frame.) My favorite thing about the party is that I got to see my artist friends and poet friends and fiction-writer friends all in one place. I wish that happened more often!
We also saw Aimee Mann at the Seattle zoo which was fun, as it had settled down to a comfortable 77-with-breeze by the time we arrived at the zoo, and we enjoyed the meerkats and ocelot cub and other beasties pre-concert. Aimee Mann is a consummate performer – I’ve seen her a bunch of times in a bunch of different venues. She always wears the same kind of outfit – what I call a “cool poet” look – skinny jeans, cool jacket, knee-high boots, and black glasses – and gets up, performs, chats in between songs a bit, and thanks the audience. She’s professional, laid-back, lacking the drama that might usually be attached to pop stars (or poets.) I wish I could pull that off at my own readings. No big whoop, no drama, just get up, perform, thank everyone, get off stage. Note to self.
In poetry news, my book She Returns to the Floating World is now available for $3.50 on Kindle. An e-book! That Kitsune Books is a progressive publisher. I don’t have a Kindle myself, so if you pick it up and see it, let me know how it looks!
Poetry Parties, Meeting Bloggers, Poetry Work
This last weekend I was lucky enough to go to a really fun poetry party, which featured, among other things, some pretty interesting alternative-folk-cello music, and where I got to meet Rachel Dacus in person! Rachel and I had been “online” friends for some time, but it was great to actually see her and get to say hi. That’s one of the best things about blogging, finding these cool people you might never have met otherwise. Anyway, it definitely was a good weekend for poetry socializing, although on Monday I just shut myself away and graded all day to make up for it. I have two thesis advisee students as well as a class called Advanced Poetry Workshop on my hands this quarter, so I’m still not all the way finished.
I’ve sent out some queries for book reviews and now must force myself to send out some poetry subs before the dreaded May cutoff time. Also send in to some open submissions and maybe apply for some fellowships…Have you every noticed how much more poetry-related work we do compared to actual poetry writing? I’d also like to write another poem or two before the end of the month happens. We were supposed to go up to Seattle this last week of April, but instead we’ve had to postpone it for another month or so. So I look forward to celebrating with my Seattle friends soon, just not as soon as I hoped. I guess May/June is a less rainy time to visit the Northwest, anyway, so it probably works out.
If you haven’t yet updated your link to my new blog, please do it! And if you haven’t yet entered the poetry giveaway, do it! After all, it’s almost my birthday. Maybe I’ll win someone else’s poetry giveaway! Or a nice big book contest. That would be a great present! Come on Universe, what do you say?
