The last day of the Port Townsend writer’s conference, and only a little the worse for wear…
The teaching part went pretty well, I sold some books, bought some books, and went to a lot of readings and classes in seven days. The best part of the conference was catching up with friends and getting a few inspirations to write. The weather was pretty if a little chilly (highs in the sixties) and I saw my baby otters again down on the Fort Warden beach. Also, yesterday we had two beserk white kittens on our lawn (which I had to carry back to their home – is carrying kittens not the best chore ever?) and a mother deer and two fawns in the back yard all morning. Apparently July is baby animal month here!
Just to show how small the poetry world is, ran into a friend of Charles Jensen at the literary magazine panel (Stephanie, the editor of Blood Orange review, was talking about how great Charles and LocusPoint were.) The other editor I really enjoyed meeting was Willow Springs editor Sam Ligon. All the Willow Springs folks have been wonderful to deal with, actually. We had a very good discussion about lit mag distribution and then about hybrid forms (he was teaching a class on the short-short story at the same time I was teaching my thing on haibun.)
I wish I was a little physically sturdier these days (managed to come down with another antibiotic-requiring throat infection, and then throw my neck out sneezing ?!?) so I could do even more socializing, but had to kind of chill out on activities in the last two days to recover. Tonight Kim Addonizio reads and there is a little reception afterwards to say goodbye. Should be fun!
A quick note from the high-school creative writing class trenches
Before the students came in for a quick 20-minute class tonight, I set up the room, putting an array of my own books on each table: Japanese folk tales on one, Greek and Roman mythology on another, “The Armless Maiden” and “The Poet’s Grimm” and “Mirror, Mirror” on another, and the last one filled with comic books (Fray, Buffy, Witchblade, one called “Fables,” X-Men, Neil Gaimon’s Sandman “The Dream Hunters” with his fox-wife-type story, etc.)
When they came into the classroom, there was an audible “Whhoooshing” sound as they ooh-ed and ah-ed over the books. I tell you, is there anything better than people who love books? They even asked for extra time at the end to sit and read. Good times. These high school kids know Persephone, the Selkie wife, Miyazaki. It feels like a magical common language.
Also, the new Fall 2008 Willow Springs is out, and my poem “Risking Our Lives” is in there (from my third fairy-tale manuscript) along with poems by Tony Hoagland, Michele Glazer, Elizabeth Austen (among many others!) and an interview with Tess Gallagher…
