Reunions, Poemeleon, and inspiring reading…

First, let me tell you to go read something from the new issue of one of my favorite online journals, Poemeleon: http://www.poemeleon.org/table-of-contents-6/
I may have a poem in there. It is secretly one of my favorite poems ever. It may also be one of my geekiest poems ever. Also, poems by Sherman Alexie, my friends Michelle Bitting and Ronda Broatch, and Ann Fisher-Wirth, among others.

Now that you’re back, let me confess that this weekend I was supposed to be at my 20th (yes, 20th!) high school reunion. In celebration of this missed event, I watched one of the best ever episodes of 30 Rock, called “Reunion.” In it, Liz Lemon discovers she was not the oppressed nerd she always thought she had been, but instead, a cruel bully that everyone feared and hated. Pretty hilarious reflection on how our memories – especially youthful memories – tend to be not only narcissistic but inaccurate. You may remember how much you hated so-and-so, the popular girl, but she will remember how she tried to be friends with you and you made a cutting remark about her mother’s drug addiction. So, I am missing that treasured event this weekend. See the downsides of living thousands of miles from the land of your Midwestern middle-childhood?

Another guilty secret: I am one of those people that spends the extra $5 to buy the British versions of magazines like Vogue and Bazaar. And here is why: the fashion spreads occasionally are based on things like the plot of The Snow Queen or Victorian poets. Also, they contain interviews with writers, rundowns, with photos, of writer’s conferences, and even, once in a while, really good little pieces of fiction. This October issue of British Harper’s Bazaar has a genius little contemporary re-take on Wuthering Heights, called “The Heathcliff” by Jeanette Winterson. Go out and get it and read it. Love! The last lines are
“The waitress smiles at me and looks at my book. ‘I love that song by Kate Bush.’ I ask her if she has read the novel. ‘No, but everybody knows it don’t they? It’s a love story.’
I am not sure that it is.”
Among other secrets: I sometimes enjoy writer’s books of essays on writing more than their actual fiction or poetry or whatever. This may be the case with Margaret Atwood, whose new set of essays on the sci-fi/speculative genre, In Other Worlds, made it to the top of my reading list. I love one essay where she talks about creating, yes, bunny superheroes. Her famous resistance to calling her own work “science fiction” is also discussed.

Guilty Secrets: The Introvert/Extrovert Writer’s Dilemma

Geek Girl Con – When Poets and Geeks Collide

We had unexpectedly beautiful weather for today’s appearances at Geek Girl Con. The sun shone, the temperature went all the way up to 64 degrees (it’s been in the fifties and rainy) and Mt Rainier came out and greeted us as we drove into the city.
Geek Girl Con was a lot of fun. I did a signing, sold a couple of books, the presentation went well, and I found a couple of really cool things – like Ada’s Bookstore and Tracy who runs the charmingly named Geektastic Pentameter. I also got to meet Wonder Woman comic writer Gail Simone, who was quoted in my first book’s poem “Women in Refrigerators.” The crowd was friendly, the conference was sold out and they were turning people away by noon, and in general people seemed to have a really good time. And now the University Bookstore carries both my books (in case you’re in Seattle looking for them..)
My real purpose in going to cons (this is my fourth) is to help bring poetry to audiences that might not know that there is poetry out there that might appeal to them. Call it “poetry evangelism.” And I like it! The intersection where poet meets geek!
Here are my funny stories – one person told me they really liked my costume (a black jacket, a pink sequin shirt, jeans, and pink Uggs.) Now, a lot of people dressed up as Leia, anime characters, etc…but I was only dressed as a poet!
The other funny story is when a gentleman taking video of the conference came up to me as I was doing my signing and asked if I was comic book and television writer (from such series as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly) Jane Espenson. This led me to realize 1. no one ever knows what writers look like and 2. I could claim to be a famous other writer person and no one would know! But when I admitted I was “just a poet” and told the videographer who I was, he decided to go ahead and film something from me about the conference anyway, which I did a hilariously bad job with. Glenn got a shot of this and you can see the camera in the picture above.
Then we snuck out to enjoy some of the sights of downtown Seattle in the sun. This is me at the famous “Black Hole Sun” and Glenn across the street at the Asian Art Museum:

Geek Girl Con Appearance Saturday, My Review of Christine Deavel’s Woodnote, and Inspiration…

If you want to catch me at Seattle’s very first Geek Girl Con at the Seattle Center tomorrow, here is my schedule:
–Book signing and hanging out at the University Bookstore booth from noon-1:00 PM (Media Signing Schedule Here. PS I’ll be near former Buffy writer Jane Espenson! Eeeee!)
–Presentation on “Superheroines in Poetry” at 5 PM at the NW Rooms: Fidalgo (full Saturday presentation schedule here. There are a lot of fun sessions!)

My review of Christine Deavel’s Woodnote is up at The Rumpus.

Seattle poet Elizabeth Austen’s “Advice to a Young Poet” is up at the Hugo House blog here.

In other news, I got a rejection and an acceptance yesterday, which means my poetry spreadsheet is looking too thin. Need to send out some work. It’s the perfect weather for it – grey, meandering cold with petulant rain spells. I also had a wonderful package from a poet in Japan which included a Tanka journal in both Japanese and English and a collection of folk tales called “Uepekere of Chitose: Thirteen Stories from the Land of the Ainu.” Fantastic!

Dorianne Laux at SAL, Poet’s Market 2012, and Mari L’Esperance

Had a wonderful time at the SAL reception and Dorianne Laux reading/Q&A last night. It was cold and rainy as heck – one of those “classic Seattle weather” days – but I had a lot of fun. I saw some old friends, as well as my Crab Creek Review pals – and Dorianne read really well. Also, I met a friend I had made from the twitter “poetparty” – that’s social media for you!

So I’m finally getting around to talking about Poet’s Market 2012. I’ve got two articles in there, one about how and when to target a micropress, and another about how and why to put out a chapbook. But besides that, I think this is the most well-organized and helpful version of Poet’s Market I’ve seen, so kudos to the book’s editor, Robert Lee Brewer. There are 150 incredibly useful pages of advice and interviews before you even get to the market listings, from”must-know-before-you-start-sending-out-your-work” articles in there like “How to build a press kit” – something I wish I had read for my first book – as well as articles on craft, like a prose poetry essay by Nin Andrews and an article on formal poetry by Annie Finch. Collin Kelly talks about blogging and tweeting, Diane Lockward talks about how to get your poetry into the hands of readers. I used to sit for hours with Poet’s Market circling and marking good-looking journals when I first became a poet, and it’s still a good resource for those of us who like old-school market listings on paper. (I know we can always check a web site, but it’s nice to have these compiled in one handy place.)

I also wanted to talk a little a little bit about Mari L’Esperance’s book from 2008, The Darkened Temple, which won the Prairie Schooner book prize a few years back. Mari loves Japanese folklore and landscapes and these tropes show up throughout her book. From “The Bush-Warbler Laments to the Woodcutter:”
“You will say a grand house once stood
in a forest clearing. Then: nothing but birdcalls.

Longing itself is nothing but the heart’s empty spaces.”