Stories In the Hazy Days of May
- At May 07, 2012
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
0
We had a lovely day today, warm and bright, and I saw a cignet in the water – just one ugly swan-duckling, pale and crying, just like the story! I also saw that the barn swallows and stellar jays were back, a sure sign that spring has sprung, along with the lilacs blooming and the beginning of the peonies. Amid all of this, every day I am watching the new townhouse be torn apart, repainted, floors ripped up and replaced, all the preparations for when we move in – a bit stressful, but happy, these preparations. I bought the least practical thing today – a beautiful glass and copper hummingbird feeder, but I thought it was important in making the new place a home, a place for the hummingbirds. It’s important to have a space for hummingbirds.
This article made me think long and hard about the adjunct teaching I’ve been doing for almost four years now. You wouldn’t guess it, from my being a poet and all, but part of me is deeply practical, and cares about things like paying my student loans and my new mortgage off, you know, eventually. The practical occupations of writers are getting fewer and farther between these days – fewer jobs for journalists, copywriters, teachers, professors. A perilous time for poets.
So what have you been doing with your May days? I am thinking change is in the air. The supermoon is making us all dizzy with it. My little brother posts pictures on Facebook from Venice, Italy, and all the pictures look like illustrations in an old-fashioned book. What kind of fairy tale are we writing for ourselves? A new home, a new life, new beginnings, hummingbirds in the white lilacs.
Winner of the big Poetry Month Giveaway, a new review, a new home
- At May 02, 2012
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 0
Congratulations to Molly of www.mapsandpoetry.blogspot.com, who is the winner of the great poetry month giveaway! She’s won a copy of my second book, She Returns to the Floating World, Steady My Gaze, and a third mystery book/lit mag! Hope you enjoy, Molly!
Wonderful to receive a copy of Winter 2012 Southern Humanities Review, which has a beautiful long review of She Returns to the Floating World by Celia Lisset Alvarez. Thank you Celia, for the thoughtful review. (Oh, and remember to check out her blog for an interview!)
Well, we’ve turned in the certified check and signed our paperwork, and tonight is our final walkthrough. Hopefully tomorrow we get our new keys!
Last Day of Poetry Month, New Interview, and a Poem in APR – Happy Birthday!
- At April 30, 2012
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 4
So, it’s the last day of Poetry Month AND my birthday – that very last birthday of my thirties. So how should we celebrate? How about some links and news and stuff?
Celia Lisset Alvarez interviewed me over at her blog as her last poetry month feature.
And, the May/June 2012 of American Poetry Review is out, with my poem, “Once Upon a Time,” amid some really wonderful writers!
And, one more sticker for She Returns to the Floating World – here it is, all official – it didn’t win, but it was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal.
A quick recap of some other poetry news of April:
- A poem up featured at The Rumpus
- My third book, Unexplained Fevers, a collaborative book of fairy tale poems with artist Deborah Scott, is officially slated for publication by Kitsune Books in late 2013!
- “Morning of Sunflowers (for Fukushima)” was a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize winner.
So yes, there was lots of stress, job interviews, a large handful of rejections, house-buying business, some health stuff…but all in all, I feel extraordinarily blessed this month and grateful. Especially with my husband baking me gluten-free birthday chocolate souffles tonight!
I also have some other exciting news I can’t officially reveal yet. But I promise I will soon!
And, finally, don’t forget to leave a comment at this link for one more chance to participate in the great poetry giveaway.
Coming to the End of Poetry Month, and my birthday…
I’m exhausted but happy coming to the end of Poetry Month! A new class of poetry students, way too many scheduled readings to attend or even try to attend, wild, unpredictable weather, falling cherry blossoms, chocolate bunnies, my birthday – I mean, let’s face it, April can be hectic but fun. Along with celebrating turning another year older successfully, I’m about to be take the plunge into home ownership again, possibly start a new job (more on that later) and it feels like I’m entering a new chapter of my life. A good chapter. I hope! Less “post-apocalyptic survivalist reality show” and more “Girl Finds Love and Success in the Big City!”
It has also started to occur to me, at this birthday go-around, that if we want good things to happen in our community, if we want people around us to get to know and love poetry, that we need to take an active hand to make that happen. To paraphrase a popular saying, we have to become the arts advocates we are looking for.
I had a wonderful time working with local musician Joy Mills at the Bushwick Book Club event at Hugo House. Hearing the song she wrote based on “Sleeping Beauty Loves the Needle” was just fantastic, and she is pretty great live, too. I’m glad they didn’t ask me to sing! I just had to read the poem, thank goodness. Had fun meeting other local poets, too. Always a pleasure being at Hugo House.
And now, onto the birthday-end-of-month-scurry-to-get-packed-and-ready-to-move-and-some-other-things-I’ll-reveal-later!
Poets and Music at Hugo House!
Do you enjoy listening to local hip musicians? AND do you enjoy poetry! Then tonight’s event at Richard Hugo House, featuring the Bushwick Book Club‘s collaborative meeting of Seattle poets and musicians, is probably your kind of thing! It’s $8 at the door, but this kind of unique performance is totally worth it. My poem “Sleeping Beauty Loves the Needle” is going to be turned into a real, live song by the genius work of Joy Mills. Pretty exciting!
Poets include: Ed Skoog, Evan Peterson, Bill Carty, Daemond Arrindell, Elaina Ellis, Jeannine Hall-Gailey, Amber Flame and Elissa Ball.
Musicians include: James Kelly Pitts, Scott Adams, Joy Mills, Karen Lindenberg, Shawnmarie Stanton, Susy Sundborg, Elijah Sussman and Wes Weddell.
Hope to see you there tonight!
And, you know, I may post a bit more about this later, but you may want to keep your eyes open for the May/June issue of American Poetry Review. No special reason, you know, just…
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
