When is a Reading Worth Doing, Artist Collaborations, and Thanks to Rose Red Review

The question for poets when invited to read is often, “How do I know this reading is worth doing?”

You never know, and there are considerations in terms of costs, time, gas, energy, even our health, all the expenditures writers must make to do a reading. Recently, for instance, I drove an hour and a half to an obscure town with an audience of eight people, none of whom bought books or made any kind of enthusiastic response to the reading. So that felt like a huge waste of time and gas money (and of course, because I am a poet and not an automaton, came with those feelings of “why am I even a writer, no one likes my work, etc.” )

But last night’s reading at A Grape Choice with Northwest Bookfest, happily, was not that kind of reading. I have had a head cold all week, the kind that just keeps you in bed but keeps you from sleeping, if you know the type, and was actually thinking of calling the organizer and telling him I couldn’t go, but at the last minute decided to tough it out and do the reading. All the other readers were older men, slam poets mostly, and I was the only female (the other female reader did cancel. Maybe she had my head cold?) The venue was charming – a wine bar on the edge of the water in Kirkland – and it was packed. (I found out later the owner of the bar was a Kirkland Arts Council member.) The mayor of Kirkland showed up for the reading. I had a sore throat, there was no microphone, and the guys who read before me were definitely, let’s say, in a different vein that the kind of poetry I usually read. And several toddlers (at a bar?) near the reading area made a ton of noise the whole time I read, which is bad for me because I don’t have a big voice to begin with. But the audience was wonderful. Afterwards, women hugged me, whispered secrets in my ear, and cried. Men cheered. I sold a few books, which was nice. But even better was the feeling that – and maybe some of this was the wine – that people had actually connected with my work. Most of the folks there weren’t poets – in fact, the couple we shared our table with ended up being our down-the-street neighbors! Those are the times that readings feel worth doing. The moon was bright orange in the sky over the water as I left, happy, even more sore-throated, and exhausted, but happy I had pushed myself to go.

And I got the good news from Rose Red Review that they had nominated my poem “The Little Mermaid Loses Her Voice” for “Best of the Net” while I was at the reading. Thanks Rose Red Review! I really enjoyed the other nominated poems as well.

Today I spent the day with artist Michaela Eaves planning and collaborating for our October 6th Inaugural Reading/Art Exhibit. She’s doing an interactive art display on a screen during my reading that syncs up her art work to the different poems I’ll be reading, plus a conventional hanging of her work around the SecondStory Repertory theatre. We talked about introductions, wine, cupcakes, and other things that make readings great. I think it’s going to be a really good time. But I’ll admit I’m nervous about my first Redmond Poet Laureate reading! I hope it will be the fun kind of reading, not the other kind. Maybe the wine will help?

What do you think makes a reading work? What are the most important elements? And which are under a poet’s control, anyway? How do you know when to say yes to a reading? For me, it’s a combination of liking my fellow readers, liking the person that invited me, liking the venue – or, for me, and this is a risk – trying places I’ve never read before. Success at a poetry reading means more than book sales – it can mean finding a new poet’s work to love, making a new friend, or discovering a new venue you might ever have visited otherwise. But the simplest answer to “What makes a reading worthwhile” is “Did your work connect to a new reader? If so, then yes.”

San Juan Island Interlude, Aimee Mann and Poetry Wisdom, Northwest Bookfest Reading

Thanks to Seattle Met for calling out our very fun poetry reading in Kirkland wine bar The Grape Choice (7 PM on Saturday September 22nd) that we’re doing for Northwest Bookfest as one of the Bookfest’s highlights! Readers will include David D. Horowitz, Greg Bee, R.R. Seitz, Jeannine Hall Gailey, and Jack McCarthy. Wine does make poetry better, they say.

Just got back from a weekend away from the television, the internet, and cell phone service in San Juan Island, communing with seals, porpoises and eagles (and even baby alpacas, camels, and black foxes.) This time, we happened to have nice weather all three days and even though I was slightly unable to hike thanks to the usual ankle issues we were, surprisingly, able to visit all the good stuff: American camp with its hares and foxes, English camp with slap-happy barking seals, the alpaca farm and lavender farm, watching sunset from Lime Kiln Point while schools of porpoises hopped around the horizon. The time away allowed me to finish the Seattle-based farce of wound-too-tight mommy-and-former-architect Bernadette, in “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” by Maria Semple. Though, in my opinion, the book got a couple of things wrong about Microsoft, Seattle, etc…the main tenet, that artists who don’t create become menaces, could be true. I note that when I am forced into a world of less fulfilling practices (say, a lot of doctor appointments, long meetings, and spreadsheets/forms/taxes) I become, let’s say, more grouchy, less sunny-poetry-girl. Lately I have been thinking of ways to live, not to be too Oprah-esque, a more fulfilling, authentic life – how to enjoy life more, spend more time with people who improve our hearts/minds/etc, and, in the poetry world, less time worrying and doing unproductive, stress-inducing stuff. You know, more baby alpacas and beach combing, less traffic, bureaucracy, and BS.

To segue, I read an interesting interview today with one of my musical heroines, Aimee Mann, who is releasing a new album called Charmers. The interview (click here to read) focuses on something many poets will understand, “The perils of publishing something no one wants to buy.” When we go to unpaid readings with a blank audience where no one buys a book…or a treasured book project gets sunk by unforeseen circumstances, or you bring out a book and no one notices…it can feel like a futile mission, being a poet. My favorite quote from the interview is Aimee’s response to why release an album: “It’s probably as simple as, “Well, this is what I do, so I should just do it.” You have to take a leap of faith.” Not only does a fulfilled life as an artist involve continuing to create, it involves continuously telling ourselves that our work is worth doing in a world that tells us it isn’t.
No one will ever force you to write a poem, paint a picture, or try to live a better, happier life. Guilt, strife, anger and sadness abound, and believe me, there will always be someone asking for your time, money, and energy. You are the one who has to take steps to be saner, more joyous, to appreciate the things around you and embrace the creator inside you, not the destroyer.

Reading in Arlington, and more coming!

If you live anywhere near: Bellingham, Arlington, Skagit Valley…I’ll be up your way tomorrow for a reading with Lana Ayers at the FogDog Gallery in Arlington, WA at 7 PM. I like reading at art galleries, so it should be fun!

Thinking about all the readings coming up in the next month (as you can see on my blog reading list at left, they are proliferating – and I haven’t even got them listed on my “event page” yet!) It’s one of those poetry things, readings – you don’t really have any control over how they’re going to go, how many people show up, if you sell any books – you just have to show up and do the best you can, and hope the people who booked you do some publicity (and of course, we can do some of our own publicity, such as it is, too, as discussed in the last post.) For me the challenge is also to stay as healthy, mobile (stupid re-spraining ankles) and as calm as possible (for the immune-system-stuff.) Wish me luck!

Poets and PR – Do we need it? What Do We Need?

You don’t see those words together very often, do you? I’ve noticed the last few years have been tough for books, book publishers, and most of all, for poetry book publishers. Universities are cutting back and closing their presses; small presses that were just making it before now…aren’t. Even established presses are publishing fewer books, taking fewer risks, and as a result, poets are left out in the cold.

So, is there anything poets can do to make a little more splash when their books come out? Especially poets with smaller presses who don’t necessarily have the cash to travel around the country independently, doing readings at every bookstore? I think a lot of times poets shy away from doing publicity, but it is awfully hard to sell books without it.

I won, in a twitter contest, a month of PR book service from a new place called “YouDoPR” a couple of months ago, and it was a fascinating experience. Because of this lucky break, I wrote (and released) my first poetry book press release, started to think about gathering local media contacts, thought about national markets who might be interested in my book. Because this is coinciding with my first job as a “public” poet (as Redmond’s second ever Poet Laureate,) this meant I was thinking about interacting with the public and with media in a new way.

We can’t just write the book, spend the agonizing months (or years) finding a publisher, and then…cross our fingers and hope for the best! No!

At the very least, poets with a new book need to:

Have a web site where people have a clear way to find out about them and their book and a link to buy the book
Get onto Facebook and Twitter (yes, I know it’s killing your soul, wah wahh, do it anyway,) and post about your book release, your readings, etc. Other sites to join might be Goodreads, SheWrites (women only, obviously) and RedRoom.
Send out (additional, if you’re lucky enough to have a press that sends out review copies) review copies either to friendly reviewers or to journals that have recently published your work (They’re much more likely to run a review of your book – you already know they like your poetry!)
Get in touch with media and let them know about your book. If you have friends at radio shows, newspapers, or magazines, do get ahold of them and send them a book.
Join your community. Attend readings by other poets, bookfairs, local writing conferences. Go and hang out in local bookstores and get to know the owners. Make friends for the sake of actually making friends. Word of mouth is a great way to sell books.

If you’re anything like I was when my first and second book came out, I had very little idea about how to go about getting in touch with media in an appropriate way. I lucked into a couple of things on my first book – Garrison Keillor read two poems on his Writer’s Almanac show on NPR, and a local NPR station ran some of one of my readings – both of those resulted in increased sales, so the radio is great for poetry publicity, if you can get it.

Some highlights from the twitter “Poetry and PR” chat with @YouDOPR:

Collin Kelly mentioned using a mail blast program called “MailChimp” which I’m going to look into, for updates and newsletters.
YouDoPR, my partner in crime in tonight’s twitter chat on PR and Poetry, is offering a “buy one month of premium membership, get one free” temporary promotion: http://ow.ly/dA8S5 They offer help setting up a press release, giving you media lists, netgalley access, and other fun stuff you may not already know about!
If you want info on how to get reviewed, check out my old post on “how to get reviewed.”

This is also pretty interesting resource on the basics of poetry marketing (I think they’re selling their services in this article, but it’s still helpful).

If you want to go back and read the full chat, just search twitter for “YDPoetry” to read all the questions, answers, etc.

Redmond Reporter article and Tiny Bunnies

After last week, I needed a little good news, and yesterday, the local paper did a story on the local Poet Laureate of Redmond:
http://www.redmond-reporter.com/news/168839026.html
Thanks Redmond Reporter!
And, She Returns to the Floating World had a very nice new review on Amazon that was more thorough than some of my “official” reviews! Thanks, anonymous reviewer! And remember kids, that book is going out of print in December when Kitsune Books closes, so buy your holiday copies now!

The hummingbirds are hummering around outside my window after yet another beautiful sunny day, while I am recuperating from last week’s excitement. And, to cheer you all up, here’s a picture of a local tiny bunny (we’ve been watching it since it was the size of a peanut, so we call it ‘nanobun’ or ‘peanut’) for absolutely no reason!