A poem up today on Escape Into Life for Women’s History Month and a Reading in Duvall

Yes, it’s a celebration of Women’s History Month over at Escape into Life, and one of my poems, “Hedy Lamarr Told to ‘Stop Silly Inventing'” is up there. True story: Hedy Lamarr, a beautiful actress known best for her sexy demeanor, invented a frequency-hopping device, but when she offered this device to the US government (along with information about Stalin, whom she had seen at dinner parties for her first husband) she was told basically to shut up and use her looks to go raise money for the war effort instead. Many years later, the Navy adopted her device, but only after her patent had run out. She was finally recognized with a major award for her invention in her eighties, right before she died. 

This evening I’ll be reading in the nearby town of Duvall, at the Duvall Visitor & Centennial Center. There is an open mike along with the reading, which I believe starts at 6:30, and the featured reading will start at 7 PM. Hope to see some of you there! I don’t have my new book in hand yet, but I’ll bring along my lone uncorrected proof (and of course, copies of my first two books.) I might even read some new work!

AWP Survival Guide tips and How to Survive Not Going to AWP 2013

For those of you attending AWP 2013 Boston, there are some great tips for AWP-goers this year at Sandra Beasley here:
http://sbeasley.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-ides-and-awps-of-march.html
and a roundup of survival guides for AWP here at Review Review:
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8932d28d7dfbfd59c40907dc7&id=81a3a4a22f

But, for those of you (like me) NOT attending AWP Boston 2013, some survival tips:

1. Try not to spend too much time jealously reading the twitter feeds and Facebook posts about all your friends having a great time at AWP kissing famous poets and drinking with literary idols while ruling their offsite reading. Just remember, they’re not including posts about the bad side of AWP:  bookfair with its inevitable crowding, body checks, odd odors and inevitable dry mouth from making too many awkward conversations with too many strangers, that coughing guy sitting next to them at the bar, how exhausted they are, or how their back hurts from lugging a really heavy AWP tote…not to mention – Boston in March? Brrr….just think of how many layers they’ll be wearing!

2. Do something this week to connect with your local literary community. Go to a reading, or invite some literary friends over for coffee. Visit your local library’s poetry bookshelves – and ask them to order a new poetry book – and visit your local independent bookstore to check out new releases and maybe some lit mags you’ve never read before. (In Seattle, I recommend Open Books, a poetry-only bookstore in Wallingford.)

3. Read something brilliant. Write something brilliant. Send something out. See? You are advancing your career right in the comfort of your own home.

4. Think ahead. Remember, next year’s AWP in Seattle in 2014 will be THE BEST EVER. So, you can look forward to coming, because you are coming to Seattle, right? I will be here to help guide you to the best coffeeshops, bookstores, wine bars, and art galleries as well as cupcakes, and Seattle publishers and poets are some of the most friendly and warm you will ever meet.

Things Authors Can Do to Ensure a Great Reading

I promised this post as a follow-up to my previous post on book tours and how to make them successful. So, what can an author do to ensure a great reading?

–First of all, you need to become a great reader, and that is not an automatic skill set most writers are born with. Practice. Try your reading skills out on a friendly audience of family or friends if possible, and have them point out, kindly, how you can improve. Slow down. Breathe. Don’t talk in a weird “poetry voice.” Avoid substance abuse beforehand (seriously, people! I have suffered through too many readings where the readers were dead drunk or stoned or both. It does not improve your performance, though it may enhance the way you feel about the performance at the time…) Have your poems picked out so you’re not shuffling papers into the mic. Time your reading so that you actually read for the allotted time, or preferably an even shorter amount of time. Etc.

–Make friends with professors of giant creative writing classes of 200 students and up, and have them assign going to your reading as extra credit. Ha ha ha. (But seriously, if you can make that happen, you really should.) Think about people in the community you’re visiting whom you would like to hang out with, before or after the reading – that way, you’ll have something to look forward to and will be less nervous. Plus, making friends along the way is really one of the best reasons to go on a book tour. If there’s a restaurant or wine bar or coffee shop you’d particularly like to visit in the city you’ll be reading in, try to meet there – again, try to make the whole experience as pleasant as possible, because, you know, if you end up with a two-person audience, having something to look forward to afterwards will make you feel a lot better.

–Publicize your reading, and help your host (be it a professor, bookstore, or library) do the same. Provide a picture, a bio, a blurb. Social media is fine, but Facebook and twitter will only get you so far. Put up some flyers if you can, contact people in local poetry societies or book clubs. E-mail people you know to invite them personally. If you’re reading with someone else, help them publicize themselves as well – that never hurts! And newspaper/radio coverage – in Seattle, this would include alternative newspapers, which are widely respected here – is great if you can get it.

–If you’re traveling to a distant city, be sure to ask to read with a local. Once again, this person will probably become a friend, and reading with someone local means at least their parents/significant other will be there. I actually prefer reading with someone I like and admire rather than reading by myself – it just makes the night more festive, more social, less focus on me…(I call myself a half-introvert, so that may not be true for everyone, but when I read with someone whose work I specifically like I always feel like the evening was a success.)

–Mix it up. Invite a visual artist friend to display some work with your reading, or a musician friend to play with you. Interact with the audience a little. Give them chocolate, or, if possible, alcohol. (I don’t drink myself, because of some kind of weird genetic trick that keeps me from breaking it down properly, but I have observed it does great things to audiences. Think about the audience in advance, about what might make the night more fun for them.

–Try readings at places like the obvious: your local readings series and libraries and bookstores, AWP offsites, universities, yes. But also consider the unconventional: ComicCon (if you happen to write about comics) or a boat show (if you happen to be writing about boats.) If you’re just starting out, a reading with an open mike will guarantee you won’t be the most nervous person in the room. Slams are really fun if you’re comfortable with competitive performance – but remember to actually perform – slams kind of demand a bit more energy and theatricality than your local book club might. Don’t be afraid to ask a venue about a reading, or to start up a reading series yourself in your neighborhood and see how it’s done. Take chances. Be brave. Yes, get your work out there, but more important, make friends, love your art, try to take in your surroundings whether you sell a dozen books or not. I recommend not trying to squeeze every reading possible into your calender, but saying yes to the ones that feel like a good fit for you and your work (Caveat: one of my favorite reading experiences when I was just starting out was reading at a Cowboy Poet gathering, which would not have seemed like a good fit for me, seeing as how the audience was mostly older men over fifty, mostly in hats. But it was super fun! So sometimes, take a chance.)

What are your best tips for ensuring a great reading? There’s no perfect reading, but doing what you can will at least make you feel like you gave it your best shot.

Guest Post at Ooligan Press: Poetry in a Tech Community

This morning I have a guest post up at Ooligan Press on what it’s been like trying to build a poetry community in the tech community of Redmond, Washington as Poet Laureate. Check it out:

http://ooligan.pdx.edu/jeannine-hall-gailey-guest-poet-post-building-community-in-a-tech-center-geeks-for-poetry-poetry-for-geeks/

Book Tours, The Best and Worst Readings, and Advice

I promised a post on book tours and how to book readings before your new book comes out. This is my third book, and I took very different approaches on my first two books – more for practical reasons (health and money both being limited at the time my second book came out) than logic or enthusiasm dictated – and I can share what I’ve learned and what I’m planning to do this time around.

This article on “The Worst Author Readings” makes some interesting points about audience commitment and how the author can ensure success. I’ve had enough experience with two-to-five person audiences to know that it’s about the most demoralizing experience a writer can have, but avoiding those kinds of readings is sometimes beyond our control, especially if you’re going to be in unfamiliar territory (i.e. a place with no family or friends) or an untested venue (like a museum.)

The article got me thinking about my “Best Author Reading” experiences. I was thinking about readings in little towns with wonderful audiences, like those reading in Bowling Green, Kentucky for WKU, or Fredonia, New York for SUNY Fredonia. These readings took some effort to get to – they were both in out-of-the-way locations – but great, enthusiastic hosts and smart, engaged students (and parties afterwards!) made the readings really worthwhile. One of my most fun unexpected readings was a night I went to go see Li-Young Lee read at a bookstore in San Diego, but he didn’t show and I ended up being asked to give a reading spontaneously with a young poet who had just had his first book out –  the terrific Jericho Brown. Some of the people in the audience ended up becoming friends of mine I still keep in touch with. Sometimes the company you keep – reading with friends, or beloved poets I looked up to, or going out to dinner with great people afterwards – makes all the difference. I’ve had great book sales experiences at “cons” – like Geek Girl Con and WonderCon – which might not seem like a normal place for poetry, and another great sales experience at an artist’s exhibition…The point is, the kinds of readings that are going to be best for you are going to be unique – some people are going to have a wonderful time at academic readings, others at coffee shops and bars, or comic book shops or art galleries. Where are the people that love your kind of poetry?

I would recommend taking readings where you’ll be able to read with poets you either love or are good friends with, too. Worst cast scenario, at least you’re hanging with people you like.

Questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not to take the reading:
–Can you afford it? If not, can they pay you enough so you can afford it?
–Is it an area with a known friend, family member, or otherwise supportive party around? Promoting yourself in unknown territory is an iffy prospect.
–Is it an area you’ve been to before, recently? There is such a thing as oversaturation (though a fifteen-minute drive can often make a difference in audience, I’ve noticed.)
–Talk to the contact person at the bookstore/library – those contacts are valuable because the people who work at bookstores and libraries are, God bless them, often the only link between you and as-yet-unknown readers. If they don’t seem interested, that’s not a good sign.

Next time: Part II – Things Authors Can Do To Ensure a Great Reading