My very first book award, a reading report, poetry in translation…
Woke up to a little good news this morning…my book She Returns to the Floating World won a Silver Medal in the 2011 Florida Publishers Association Book Awards. (Thanks Kitsune Books for the nomination! You can read about all the FPA winners here.) Though it is Silver, it is my very first book award, so I am excited, especially as I have felt, well, a little discouraged lately in the poetry arena. Thanks Florida!
The theme of my weekend was poetry in translation, as I went down Friday night to listen to wonderful translator/poets read their work at the Wave Books Translation event at the Henry Art Gallery. My favorite reader was Whiting Award winner Don Mee Choi, who read a beautiful Snow White-inspired work she had translated in Korean. She worked on an anthology of Korean women poets that I’m going to have to look up and buy, I think!
The theme continued at a reading on Saturday…Really enjoyed the Day of the Dead reading at the Lake City Library with other wonderful readers including Judith Roche, John Burgess, Carolyne Wright, Chris Jarmick and host Raul Sanchez. Several poets read their work in both English and Spanish, and it was lovely to think about the sound of poetry and how it translates through language (and what doesn’t.)
Where I’ll be This Weekend
November 5th, 2011
LAKE CITY LIBRARY
4 TO 5:45 P.M.
12501 28Th Avenue NE, Seattle Washington 98125
Day of the Dead Poetry Reading curated by Raul Sanchez.
The following poets are reading: John Burgess, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Judith Roche, Christopher J. Jarmick, Raul Sanchez, Carolyn Wright, and Scott Galasso!
Hope you can make it!!!!
Otherwise I’ll be enjoying Wave Books‘ Translation Poetry Weekend at the Henry Art Gallery, which I need to rush to get to right now. More info about that schedule here:
http://www.wavepoetry.com/special_section/44
Whew! These November poetry weekends are going to knock me out! On week 3 of my cold…Also, still seeking teaching jobs as well as part-time copywriting jobs (so if you’re in the position to hire a poet…you know…), grants, and working on polishing two more book manuscripts and sending them out…
November Doldrums
I’ve been reading around the blogosphere about people being a little down, and I think it’s been getting to me too: the November doldrums. The days are getting shorter, the little bit of sunshine we get is really cold, job applications and poetry submissions seem harder and heavier, somehow…
I don’t know if this will cheer anyone up, but if you’re a speculative poetry writer who loves persona poetry, you probably want to submit to the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s poetry journal Eye To the Telescope, in the next month, because…guess what? The guest editor is me!
http://eyetothetelescope.com/submit.html
And, if you’re a member of Goodreads, I’d be honored if you wrote in She Returns to the Floating World as your choice for Best Poetry Book of the year! (Write-in votes are by “Your Choice” at the bottom of the page) as your favorite poetry read:
http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/#56024-Best-Poetry
Of course, my lovely friends Dorianne Laux and Aimee Nezhukumatathil are also very good choices. It’s a tough year for poetry competitions!
So what are you doing to battle the doldrums this November? I’m baking, staying in denial about the ever-shortening days, and I’m getting ready to read with a bunch of friends at a reading celebration for Day of the Dead:
Saturday, November 5 @ 4-5:45 pm
Day of the Dead reading with Judith Roche, Carolyne Wright, Jeannine Hall Gaily, Chris Jarmick, John Burgess, Scott Galasso, & Raul Sanchez at Lake City Library.
Spoooooky Halloween Poems…Zombie Girls, Monsters, Witches…Oh My!
Yes, it’s almost Halloween again, and though the East Coast got blasted with ice and snow, the weather in Seattle is predictably cold and grey. We are carving pumpkins and putting together our Snow White/Woodsman costumes for tomorrow. (With all the fairy tale television on lately…I couldn’t resist!)
And I’m posting a few poems to get you in the spooky spirit! Zombies, Monsters, Witches…And be sure to check out the “Poems that Scare You” at Escape into Life for a Halloween feature with a new poem from me and two other talented poets…
They Are Not Regenerating
by Jeannine Hall Gailey
We are not zombies, thrown into a pool
of dubious origin and coming back beautiful
but decaying
unsure of how to live – pretending to swim,
eat yogurt like regular girls.
We are not clones, despite being drawn to specifications
(36-26-36) and bearing bouffants and bikinis
we might hack each other to pieces
but we are not confused about our identities
(living or not living) we continue
in this shape we were given
our cells cannot regenerate and the scientist
names us “Dead”
we are not regenerating we cannot reproduce ourselves we cannot be anything
but the fulfillment of your fantasy, flesh-eating or not.
The Monster Speaks: It’s Not So Bad
By Jeannine Hall Gailey (from Becoming the Villainess and based on the legend of Melusine, a French queen who, they say, turned into a dragon…)
Being a monster, really. It slows down traffic
from neighbors and I’m finally getting the respect
I deserve. For years they snickered behind curtains
when I passed by, but now they cross themselves
(I think in reverence.) They clutch babies
to their chests and wail. They lay their hands
over the eyes of the dead. I can peek
in their windows, raid the pantries, curl
up in their attics for a night. I found a picture
they carved of me in black slate.
It wasn’t a very good likeness, but they meant
well. Children dream of me.
I am no longer lonely, I enjoy the dark,
the click-click of my claws against glass,
the way my tail sparkles in moonlight. Even
this new voice bewitches me. If you put
your ear on my chest, you can hear
the new, unfamiliar thumps of four hearts,
each stronger than the last. Touch the skin
between wing-bones, the delicate eyelids.
In this body I’ve become myself again.
As I circle the castle, the song that scrapes
my throat agitates the stars themselves.
The flames of my voice burn the acrid air of night.
Introduction to Witchcraft
by Jeannine Hall Gailey (This poem is new and unpublished, so it may go *poof* after All Hallow’s Eve…)
*Poof*
Strange Horizons, Surviving Poetry, Whiting Awards…
So, I escaped from the teen workshop without any major injuries, though I woke up this morning feeling flu-y again. Guess the cure is just…rest!
If you’re in the mood for science-based poetry, my poem “Tickling the Dragon” about the death of Louis Slotin – who inspired the creation of “Dr. Manhattan” of “The Watchmen” fame – was featured a day or so ago at Strange Horizons:
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2011/20111024/gailey-p.shtml
I think I have a psychic link of some sort with the mysterious group that hands the Whiting Awards, because all the writers I thought I’d discovered were then given the award – Ilya Kaminsky, Jericho Brown, Dana Levin, and now…Eduardo Corral. I liked them all before they were famous, as we protest about our favorite indy bands…
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.
