Positive Movement Versus the Whirlwind
So instead I try to make headway on my projects at hand. Having no classes this quarter, I’m applying for part-time contract work and teaching jobs. I’m working right now on a bear of an application that requires pages of statements and samples. I try to make a little headway each day. I’m also working on a book review of a difficult book. Yesterday I wrote two paragraphs of the review, not too substantial, I’m afraid, but enough to say: I made some positive motion on it. I finished a poetry consult project. I’m trying to create a sane reading schedule this fall, but of course all the readings want to fall on the same weekends, invitations to read out of town inevitably all come for the same three day period. I’m excited for the upcoming readings – the chance to finally introduce my new little book to the public, officially – but of course, nervous as well. How will these poems play to an audience? Which poems should I choose for which reading? I’m trying to design afternoon workshops for teenagers, a talk for community colleges on superheroes and mythology, and something on speculative poetry for a general audience. I’m trying my hand at a little fiction, and I’m still writing poems on radioactive elements (apparently, I thought I was done, but I actually wasn’t. The news on Fukushima makes it seem alarmingly relevant and demanding all over again.)
Tuesday Confessions about the End of Summer
Since the last time I posted, I’ve hosted a party at my apartment and went to a summer concert in the zoo. A social whirl, and it was the hottest weekend (of course!) of the entire year! Sorry, those who came, that it wasn’t a pool party – and that I lack an ice vodka bar!
Here’s a pic of me doing my best Sylvia Plath impression pre-party. Not the suicide part, the part where she rocked being a domestic-goddess-type-in-cocktail-dresses. (Glenn is actually the talented sushi-and-cupcake maker. I’m just appearing in frame.) My favorite thing about the party is that I got to see my artist friends and poet friends and fiction-writer friends all in one place. I wish that happened more often!
We also saw Aimee Mann at the Seattle zoo which was fun, as it had settled down to a comfortable 77-with-breeze by the time we arrived at the zoo, and we enjoyed the meerkats and ocelot cub and other beasties pre-concert. Aimee Mann is a consummate performer – I’ve seen her a bunch of times in a bunch of different venues. She always wears the same kind of outfit – what I call a “cool poet” look – skinny jeans, cool jacket, knee-high boots, and black glasses – and gets up, performs, chats in between songs a bit, and thanks the audience. She’s professional, laid-back, lacking the drama that might usually be attached to pop stars (or poets.) I wish I could pull that off at my own readings. No big whoop, no drama, just get up, perform, thank everyone, get off stage. Note to self.
In poetry news, my book She Returns to the Floating World is now available for $3.50 on Kindle. An e-book! That Kitsune Books is a progressive publisher. I don’t have a Kindle myself, so if you pick it up and see it, let me know how it looks!
Interview with Publisher and Author Anne Petty
I was really excited, as one of my final summer interview series, to get a chance to pose some questions to the editor and publisher of my second book of poetry, She Returns to the Floating World, Anne Petty of Kitsune Books. I hope you all have enjoyed reading the series – I’ve really enjoyed sitting down with some of my favorite people and writers.
Anne Petty writes dark fantasy/horror cross-over fiction, has published three books of literary criticism, and many essays on mythology/folklore, J.R.R. Tolkien, and the craft of writing. She is also a published poet and owns Kitsune Books, which publishes literary fiction, poetry, memoir, and literary commentary.
Anne Petty blogs at http://AnnePetty.blogspot.com/ and her website is www.annepetty.com.
On Twitter: http://twitter.com/KitsuneBooks
On Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Kitsune-Books/185884136898
Jeannine: First of all, why did you decide to start Kitsune Books? What do you think makes your press different than other small presses? I think it’s very interesting how you tackle fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, for instance!
Anne Petty: I have met many talented writers whose work is amazing but doesnât fit into the commercial mainstream mold. I wanted to create an outlet for those types of works â excellent content thatâs slightly âoff the beaten pathâ â and publish them in well-designed books so that the total package becomes a work of art. We relish the give and take of working directly with the authors and artists who create our books, something thatâs often missing with larger publishers.
JHG: What would you like to see more of from poets in your submission pile? What would you like to see less of?
AP: My associate editor Lynn and I are always looking for the writerâs voice that âsingsâ to us, that effortlessly pulls us in from the first few pages. That voice can occur in fiction, poetry, lyrical memoir, or clearly argued literary criticism. I know instantly when I hear it, especially in poetry. I guess itâs a kind of magic where the poetâs obvious skill and facility with language supports but doesnât override the personal connection of whatâs in the poetâs heart and mind. One thing that still irks me is that we keep getting submissions of good material thatâs only chapbook length â the Submissions page of our website clearly states that weâre looking for longer, book-length collections. I hate having to tell a poet that weâre interested in their work, but only if they add more and resubmit. Not long ago I had to reject a submission from a New York writer whose visceral, surreal poetry knocked me out and left my jaw hanging. Her collection was about half the length we normally accept, so I practically begged her to write more and try us again later. I hope she does!
JHG: I don’t know if I ever told you this, but part of the reason I decided to send Kitsune Books my manuscript was the twitter feed, which discussed editorial policies as well as anime, Japanese pop music and tea. I felt I had a better handle of the editorial tastes and mind-set and felt better about sending my work because of that. How do you think a small publisher can benefit from social media such as twitter, blogs, Facebook, etc?
AP: Social media marketing can turn into a huge energy vampire if you let it. Not good when your staff is small and overworked to begin with. On the other hand, you ignore it at your peril. Some of us enjoy being online every day, connecting with people in the writing and publishing business, and in that sense I think social media has been a boon to small presses. It provides us with a presence and a voice that would be difficult to generate without the Internet. As you say, making a personal connection with people in your field is one of the beauties of social media. Besides our website, Kitsune Books has a presence on Facebook, Blogspot, WordPress, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I have the most fun on Twitter. I do the Twitter feed for Kitsune and am highly entertained by sharing things that pop up during the day, writing related or not, and seeing how readers respond. I think itâs the immediacy of Twitter I like most.
JHG: You are a writer as well as a publisher. Don’t you have a new critical anthology and a new novel out? Can you tell us a little about those projects?
AP: My writerâs hat comes in two colors â academically oriented material on mythology and Tolkien, and horror/dark fantasy fiction. Last month I was gratified to finally get the hardback edition of Light Beyond All Shadow (Fairleigh-Dickinson Univ. Press), which contains my long essay on light and dark iconography in J.R.R. Tolkienâs works. That anthology has been in the works for several years, with the Tolkien Estate copyright gateway guardians and the universityâs change in publication distributors being some major hurdles. Iâd given up on ever seeing that essay in print, but finally everything came together and here it is!
On the fiction front, the second novel in my Wandjina series came out August 5, 2011. The first book of the series was Thin Line Between, and this second one is titled Shamanâs Blood. The series got its impetus from the Australian Dreamtime myths and legends Iâd studied as a doctoral student with a focus in Mythology/Folklore. Wandjina are part of the Dreamtime pantheon of creation entities associated with rain and wind. The modern-day setting for the series came from my first job out of college â lab assistant in a haunted museum housed in what used to be the old city jail in Tallahassee. Great stuff for an over-active imagination! Iâve always had a taste for the dark side. The very first horror books I read as a child were Bram Stokerâs Dracula, Mary Shelleyâs Frankenstein, and the Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe. Those three books kicked my nine-year-old brain off the rails and into the dark woods of the psyche where it still wanders around and seems to have set up permanent camp.
JHG: Any new books at Kitsune you’re particularly excited about?
AP: Well, Iâll have to list our whole lineup for 2012 in that case! We have another Mythological Dimensions lit-crit volume (focusing on Neil Gaiman this time); award-winner Jesse Millnerâs second poetry collection; riveting war poetry from Iraq/Afghanistan vet Jon Shutt; a lyrical âwater-colorâ collection from poet Rachel Dacus; another great middle-grades mystery from K.E.M. Johnston; literary fiction from short story master Paul Graham; and George Drury Smithâs challenging experimental novel, The slant hug oâ time. This last author I must draw extra attention to, because George is the iconic founder of Beyond Baroque Foundation in Venice, CA and editorial guru of The Argonaut newspaper for many years. George is a commanding voice in experimental, avant-garde writing, and I think his novel (scheduled for September 2012) will blow some minds. Iâm incredibly thrilled to have him on our roster of authors.
Bonus question: What are you afraid of in real life? Politicians and clowns (not mutually exclusive)
Escape into Life, Disappointment and Longing, Scientistâs Daughters and Poetry
Well, the job I interviewed for this Monday had already been filled in the five days since I had been contacted about it, so that was a bit of a disappointment. I have to admit, the sudden longing for this particular job surprised me in its force. At least now I have an up-to-date portfolio, resume, and sample links.
In other sad news, Booktour.com is shutting down. I admit to never fully utilizing its capacities, but it seemed like a really great place for authors and for people who like to know who is reading in their town on a given date, so thatâs too bad.
In positive news, Escape Into Life is featuring a few of my poems today â a couple from my âRobot Scientistâs Daughterâ manuscript, one from She Returns to the Floating World, and a brand new poem! Check it out! http://www.escapeintolife.com/poetry/jeannine-hall-gailey/
A poetâs progress: I have been dabbling in fiction writing lately. Do all poets take a flight into other genres at some point? Of course, I have worked as a technical writer, a journalist, a copy editor, and am still an active book reviewer, but as far as âcreativeâ writing, in the years since I started really studying writing, I had stuck to poetry. And now I appreciate what trying out another form, another genre, can do for your ideas about poetry. What can poems do that stories cannot? What can prose offer that poetry cannot?
Tracy K. Smithâs story about writing Life on Mars had a few familiar aspects: she was born a year before me, her father was a scientist (an optical engineer who worked on the Hubble telescope instead of a robotics engineer) and she takes aspects of mythology and science and applies them to autobiography in some interesting ways. It made me think about women poets whose fathers were scientists, including: Rachel Dacus, whose ârocket kidsâ blog was named after her adventures as the daughter of an actual rocket scientist; Margaret Atwood, who was the daughter of a biologist; Louise Gluck, whose father invented the X-acto knife you might have worked with in science lab or art classes. And Tracy K. Smith. And me. Are there more? Is there something about being a scientistâs daughter that drives us into poetry?
It’s The Little Things
Dear readers, is it possibly the end of August already? How is fall already peeking around the corner when we’ve barely had any sunlight all summer? Oh well. I’m ready to go back to my sweaters.
I had a couple of little things happen that lightened my spirit this week amid all the weird bad news. I had a call about a possible job (my adjunct work temporarily halted when my fall class was canceled) – a job that sounds perfect for me – and I’m doing a little interview on Monday. A little contract work might mean I can more easily afford luxuries like paying my student loans or traveling a bit for readings for my book. I have to admit I feel a wild surge of hope.
And yesterday I finally got to visit Open Books – Seattle’s poetry-only bookstore – and left with an armful of wonderful new books which I am very excited to read. But I seeing my new book on the shelf of a real-life store was even more exciting:
Have I suddenly become like one of those new moms who can’t stop posting pics of their new baby? Well, so be it. Did I mention I’m going to be doing a reading on September the 25th at Open Books, too? The fall lineup of readers looks terrific – the week before I read, Marvin Bell will be there, Christine Deavel will be reading the week after, my friend Joannie Stangeland will be reading from her new book shortly thereafter AND one of my writing superheroines, Dana Levin, will be reading there in November as well. It’s going to be a fun fall for poetry.
So, we welcome fall in, exchanging sunscreen for fireplaces, light colors for dark.
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.
