New reviews, AWP offsite info and trying to type

Tuesday I see my orthopedist who will decide whether or not I will be in a big cast for AWP. My arm really hurts when I accidentally move it or when I sleep, so they’re thinking maybe I need more than the sling. Nothing for glamorous impressions like a cast/sling combo, right? Since I broke my arm I am wondering what good thing the universe will be sending me to balance it out, because this really sucks. Book prize? Golden treasure? Large grant? I feel like Mr. Glass these days (Unbreakable reference here.)

In other poetry-related news, found this nice short review of Unexplained Fevers here at Open Way Designs. Thanks!

And my own review of Natalie Diaz’ When My Brother Was An Aztec is up at the Poets At Work site. I like that name, don’t you? We are at work, sometimes painstaking work, like the last six days, writing longhand because it takes sooo long to type right now.

And I am (despite everything) so excited that our speculative poetry event is a Stranger staff pick for AWP Offsite events Thursday night. I was not happy with the lack of official AWP events for speculative poetry so I got together with others and we created our own event, and it’s got a fantastic lineup! Here’s the Facebook event page for it. And here’s the poster!

Well, off to prop my arm up on pillows and very slowly do everything I’m used to doing with two hands.

Fractured Olecranon – or one more poet with a lame broken arm excuse

Well, kids, I’ll be taking a bit of a break from my technology typing habits as I seem to have fractured my elbow bone (scientific name: olecranon) and my left arm is in a (mandatory) sling for 4-6 weeks! Everything is harder and slower with one arm, so forgive me for 1. not responding to e-mails as fast as usual for a while and 2. not posting more here, on Facebook and Twitter. In the meantime, I expect to be able to juggle one-handed by the end of a month’s time. If you ask how it happened, I will tell you a story about mountain biking and mountain lions, which might not be strictly true, but the break CAN be blamed on something with wheels, anyway. No, I was not trick skateboarding!

Hopefully, this time won’t make me insane, but this enforced sabbatical from such things as typing and cutting my own food with a knife AND fork will have some good effect down the road. I was hoping to be totally hale and hearty for AWP, but at least I thought to by my husband a spouse pass, so he can carry my books. So, if you want to get ahold of me, try calling instead of emailing, and maybe recommend some good books and movies.

Second Edition of She Returns to the Floating World is available and other news!

If you’ve been waiting for She Returns to the Floating World to be re-released in print, you’ll be happy to know Two Sylvias Press has now released a second edition, complete with new internal art work by (cover artist of my first and third books) Michaela Eaves. You can order it from Amazon here. I’ll also have copies available at the Two Sylvias Press table at AWP!

In other news, Elizabeth Austen has been chosen as the next Poet Laureate of Washington State! I couldn’t be more pleased. Here’s a link to an interview I did with Elizabeth a couple of years ago…

I’ve been reading a book called Chronic Resilience: 10 Sanity-Saving Strategies for Women Coping with the Stress of Illness. It was good to read a book about chronic illness with no saccharine tones or upbeat-weirdly unrealistic advice, and it made me think about the levels of expectations I have about my life and the goals I can have, the self-care I should be thinking about, etc. Anyway, it was a self-help type book I could actually identify with and that I felt had a lot of good tips for women with chronic health conditions. And I thought about how resilience was a wonderful quality that is undervalued, too. Not giving up, despite bad news or multiple relapses, is difficult, in both the writing life and living your life with chronic health problems, and the ability to keep pushing forward is a strength that must be built up over time.

I had about five pieces of disappointing news come in this last week, as well as feeling off my game health-wise, so I had to really rally to come back to the computer at all, as if all it held for me was bad news and more bad news. I had to step away and reassess what I was doing with my time, energy, money, etc. I’m still evaluating. I even posted an article from Slate on Facebook (here’s the article) which talks about how the mantra “Do what you love” can work against us, particularly women, even more particularly women who are adjuncts, unpaid interns, or caregivers. Doing my taxes always puts right in my face the dubious fact that I earn about what I spend on my writing business, and not much more, which can be discouraging. I need to think about how to improve my life, not just be a victim of a bad economy, a world that doesn’t value poetry, and, the crappy health stuff. What steps can I take to embrace the good things and close the door on things that aren’t working for me?

Getting Back to Normalcy, AWP Planning

Took a short break this week as I was down with a fairly terrible flu. Now I am behind on everything, including blogging! So, since there is sunshine out today, I’m going to go take a walk in the sun, try to get some writing done, and generally cheer myself up so I can return to normal!

One of the “normal” things I have to get back to is trying to figure out my schedule for Seattle’s AWP, coming up in about a month. So far, I’m helping organize an offsite reading (The Superheroes of Poetry) on Thursday night for speculative poets, I’ll be doing book signings at Two Sylvias and Minor Arcana Press on Friday and Saturday, part of a big launch reading on Saturday Night for the Drawn to Marvel anthology, and have already chatted to people about coffee meetings. That’s right, if you want to hang out with a friend at AWP, you might want to make your lunch and dinner dates now. That’s crazy! I’m actually feeling optimistic that this AWP might be a bit more manageable in size than other cities’ AWPs, and that I will be able to 1. have fun and 2. not get sick. Yes, I have big dreams!

I’m getting close to being finished with my article for Poet’s Market, which is good because it’s due soon, and I’ve sent out a couple of packets of poetry. I haven’t been doing as much new creative writing a I’d like lately, so that’s a priority. I’m also, in the spirit of the new year, still trying to welcome good opportunities into my life. You’re welcome here, health, happiness and grants! Come here, low-residency teaching jobs! Have a cup of tea, awesome fourth book contract with a great publisher! Hmm, perhaps the cold medicine has made me a bit loopy. Anyway, I am going to keep my eyes open for good opportunities, and try to live with more authenticity and joy and all that whatnot. And less flu.

Dealing with Anxiety (the Thailand edition)

A quick update to this post: a short essay on discouragement (appropriately enough) with Poetryworld and two poems from Unexplained Fevers are up this week on Bridle Path Press’ web site.

Well, I have to tell you I have been in a state of higher than usual anxiety lately, and it’s mostly not because of the usual poetry reasons – it’s mostly because my little brother and his wife, who just moved to Bangkok for a new job, are now in the middle of some messed-up city-shutdown possibly-violent Thai protest. (Follow #Bangkokshutdown for up-to-the-minute news, because American television isn’t covering it much, despite it being a popular tourist location.) So, I’m worried. And the worry doesn’t go away.

And other stuff – looking at taxes makes me realize how very little money I made last year compared to expenses, AWP is coming up and while I hope it will be fun it also produces anxiety, plus waiting with baited breath to hear about the Brittingham and Pollak Prize (trying not to put put all my hopes on it, but still), trying to take care of myself medically in the wake of a few-days-ago fainting spell – you know, the usual.

So I am going to try to get away from the computer a little bit today, as I recognize frustrating worry over something I can do very little about is not particularly fruitful. It is cloudy but almost 50 degrees, which compared to the cold spells we’ve been having, seems nice enough. Getting outside into the trees or by the water almost always makes me feel better, and moving around, after being cooped up for days by driving rain and windstorms, seems like a good idea too.

I’ve been listening to a fairly woo-hoo new-agey self-help book by Martha Beck (she of Oprah Magazine fame) and she’s talking about finding your destiny, except the problem is – I think I’ve found my “destiny” – whatever that means – the problem is more about walking through the everyday pains and frustrations of that destiny, finding the ins and outs of how best to, you know, make enough money to cover my health-care costs, for instance, how to not get upset by the petty weirdness of the Poetryworld, how to not be anxious in a world where you are a poet and nobody reads or buys or cares much at all about poetry. You know, plus your little brother in Thailand. And taxes.

On the plus side, I was feeling very lucky Saturday night to be at VALA, at a place celebrating art and poetry in the middle of the East side, in Redmond! Their “Art is Me” show is up and all the art is by their volunteers, and it’s probably the best show they’ve had so far. There was so much good stuff, you really should go see them for yourself, but here are a few samples (the bird-headed girl is by Susan Rotondo, the mural is by Anna Macrae, and the black-and-white piece titled “Science Fiction”is by Marianne Johnson: