An Interview in Whale Road Review, Two ER Visits in a Week: Not the Way to Spend the Holiday, Books for the Holidays
- At December 11, 2023
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 3
A New Interview in Whale Road Review
Ominous But Bright: A Conversation with Jeannine Hall Gailey and Cynthia Hogue – Whale Road Review
First of all, a big thank you to Whale Road Review for publishing this interview, and to Lesley Wheeler for being a great interviewer, and to Cynthia Hogue for being a great co-interviewee.
Cynthia and I talk about our new books with Lesley, and it ended up being a really fun three-way conversation. I hope you check it out! Here’s a short excerpt:
“LW: …What kind of future do you want to conjure? And can poems ever help make certain outcomes happen?
JHG: One of the original titles of the book was Post-Life. I was having a discussion with someone who was talking about being “post-doc” and it just led my imagination to think about what if I was that excited to be “post-life,” not dead, which was an interesting spin to me. Post-life has so many more possibilities. Hence the future tense! Since I started writing the book under the shadow of a terminal cancer diagnosis, my hope was just to leave a little something behind—but I wanted something more than a funeral dirge, something more funny, more hopeful. I have to say my essential personality is “hopeful pessimist” or “optimistic realist,” depending on how you look at it, and even with the worst news, I never really lost hope. My thought at the time was: what are the positives in leaving life behind? Which sounds a little crazy. My last book, Field Guide to the End of the World, was all about hope after the ultimate sorts of endings, so this was sort of a smaller, more personal version of that. (I did worry a little that writing Field Guide sort of conjured an apocalypse, you know?) So Flare, Corona isn’t trying to create darkness—it’s trying to focus on light, so to speak—the corona of the eclipse, the bright red of the Blood Moon, the coyote in the street—ominous, maybe, but bright.”
Two Visits to the ER in a Week: Not Fun for the Holidays!
Yes, I spent a great deal of time being sick enough to be in the hospital twice, getting IVs of fluids and tons of blood work and swabbed in the throat and nose multiple times. Nope, it wasn’t covid, just a bug that most people wouldn’t even be bothered by but, because I’ve got a weak-kitten immune system, became pretty serious. This is not a fun or cheery way to spend a rainy cold week during the holidays—I had to cancel going to see the Bellevue Botanical Garden lights with my brother, among other things. There were also three rejections this week, plus a scandal around an anthology I’d sent in a poem for and the editor taking things out of bios (for instance, people’s preferred pronouns, and in my case, my MS). That’s the first time I haven’t been sent a proof of my bio and my work before it went to publish, which I consider strange anyway. It was contentious and one of those things where you think, “the poetry world is so hard already—can’t people just, you know, print the bio the way it was sent, or just be kind and considerate to each other?” Oh well.
I have not been productive in the last three weeks—our Christmas tree is just now fully decorated; I usually have it done by the beginning of December. I haven’t written or submitted much. But that’s part of the cost of being a disabled/chronically ill person. The past several years, I managed to miss being sick during the holidays, but bam—it got me this year.
Books for the Holidays?
I understand people cutting back this year, as things are more expensive than usual, but you know what? Most books are the same price they were ten years ago! I don’t know if you’re the kind of person who gifts books, but if you are, I most heartily recommend the following:
-Kelli Russell Agodon’s Dialogue with Rising Tides
-Lesley Wheeler’s Unbecoming (speculative fiction) and (nonfiction) Poetry’s Possible Worlds
-Cynthia Hogue’s instead, it is dark
-Melissa Studdard’s Dear Selection Committee
–Rosebud Ben-Oni’s If This is the Age We End Discovery
Some of my favorite fiction reads this year included White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link (re-imagined fairy tales) and When We Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill.
and if you have friends or relatives who’ve struggled with a tough diagnosis in the past couple of years, may I recommend my own Flare, Corona? A book I hope others will find helpful in tough times. Hope your holidays will be healthy and bright!
A Podcast about Flare, Corona and Thoughts on Being Sick During the Holidays
- At December 04, 2023
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 0
A Podcast about Flare, Corona
A big thank you to Dion O’Reilly for doing this podcast with me about Flare, Corona. You can listen to the podcast below.
It’s a very thought-provoking conversation mainly because Dion asked such good, thoughtful questions.
Thoughts on Being Sick During the Holidays
I’ve had a very nasty bug (but tested at doctor’s office – not strep, flu, or covid)—mainly sinus issues, fatigue, and a very sore throat (along with an asthmatic wheeze and of course MS symptoms)—since Thanksgiving. I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of holiday merrymaking, including being able to write anything cogent or decorate my Christmas tree or go holiday shopping. It’s been colder and rainier than normal so maybe I’m not missing out on that much. If I’m not writing scintillating prose this week, I apologize—but this week has been productive from things I did in the past—I did have a poem come out in JAMA (which you can read here) about climate change and Persephone I’m very proud of, and a Podcast I did earlier in the year when I didn’t have sinus problems or a wheeze.
Anyway, I hope you are feeling fine and avoiding all the bugs in the world right now, and celebrating with friends and family, because we could all use a little light right now. I promise to have a better, more cogent post next week, if I’m better.
“Persephone Explains Global Warming” appears in JAMA!
- At November 28, 2023
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 2
So excited about this publication, for several reasons. Excited that doctors will be reading this poem, one of a series that will form my next book. Excited for my parents, who, since I got a Biology degree, always wanted me to be a doctor – well, at least I can now say I was published in JAMA. And excited for the thoughtful editor’s note that accompanies the poem.
Here is a screenshot of what the print version looks like, and links to the poem and note online:
“Persephone Explains Global Warming”
Editor’s note on the poem by Rafael Campo
And for those of you who do not subscribe to JAMA, here’s a sneak peek:
A Week of Eagles, Thanksgiving Celebrations, a Poem in JAMA this Week, Guest Appearance at Washington and Lee University, And Year-End Evaluations
- At November 27, 2023
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 1
A Week of Eagles and Thanksgiving Celebrations
Do you believe that birds can be messengers or signs? We do have a lot of amazing birds in the Pacific Northwest, but my little corner of Woodinville is rarely a place to sight eagles—although this week, we saw as many as five at once and even witnessed (gruesome, but also slightly awe-inspiring in a nature-documentary way) an immature eagle fly away with a Canadian goose. And at twilight one day, we saw a group of…snow geese? tundra swans? With the Canadian geese on the local pond. Amazing sights.
We had a fairly quiet Thanksgiving celebration with just my little brother and Glenn and me, we Facetimed our folks and took a picture, took a walk outside in the sun, and then changed into pajamas to chill out the rest of the day. (My preferred way to spend Thanksgiving.) We all Covid tested before getting together—so many people have covid right now, and we all had allergy symptoms, so we wanted to be safe. Now, suddenly it is holiday season—Glenn was out hanging Christmas lights yesterday, and it’s been unseasonably cold and dry here, maybe that’s why all the eagles are showing up? Below, more pictures of eagles, and the mysterious snow geese/tundra swans.
The local wineries and municipalities have started putting up their holiday decorations as well—sparkly deer and lit-up trees—and we hope for peace on earth, good will towards men.
A Poem in JAMA, An Appearance at Washington and Lee University, Holiday Wishes and Year-End Evaluations
It’s a busy week this week for me with a poem that’s supposed to appear this week in JAMA (I’ll put up a link when I get it,) a guest appearance for Lesley Wheeler’s class at Washington and Lee University to talk about Flare, Corona, and about ten year-end doctor appointments (somehow, they all stack up at the end of the year, don’t they?)
This time of year also brings on my informal year-end evaluations—what went well this year and what didn’t, things I want to invite into my life and things I want to do less of. It’s easy to forget the accomplishments and successes of the year in cold, stark November—so I try to keep track of those too. On the writing front, I had the book launch for Flare, Corona in May (and a preview of it at AWP, where I connected more than ever with the disabled writing community, which was great), and I turned 50—there were many more family visits than in the past seven years, and I reconnected with friends that I wanted to see again who had sort of slipped out of focus. I’m prioritizing friends and family, my writing work, and my health in 2024 for sure. I also want to make sure that I do less unpaid labor (and look for more paying opportunities) because my financial health is becoming a priority too—especially as my health care becomes more specialized—and more expensive.
I love the poetry world but one thing about it I don’t love is how it relies on writers’ unpaid labor (and submission fees, etc.)—usually the people who can least afford it—to prop it up. I’ve been volunteering as a reviewer, editor, fund-raiser, PR person, etc. for over 20 years. Isn’t that crazy? If I acknowledge that I have limited time and energy, then I need to volunteer…less. This also means being pickier about venues for submitting poetry and reviews, as well as maybe trying to write more essays. (And a big thank you to the journals that pay reviewers and writers and the folks who organize paid readings and classroom visits!)
How do you guys balance your art with your finances and your health? It’s tricky. I also want to continue to schedule specific times to get together with writer and artist friends, too—and to continue to support local farms and artisans. If I can make it happen, maybe a residency or two and even a little travel (health-dependent, but it would be nice). It’s possible my folks may be doing an extended visit out here as well next year, which would be exciting. I’m going to try to continue to promote Flare, Corona (and hopefully help get some more reviews, especially—let me know in the comments if you’re interested) into the new year. It’s easy to get book fatigue at six months—I definitely feel like everyone has already heard about it from me too much already—so I need to keep at it and not get discouraged.
I hope during these darker, colder, hibernating months that you are taking good care of yourself, and I am sending you good writing energy and light. The holidays can be tough, so I hope they bring you a little bit of joy.
Speculative Sundays Reading Tonight, a Video on How to Read a Poem, Celebration vs Obligation
- At November 19, 2023
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
- 1
Speculative Sundays Reading Tonight, Sunday, 7 PM Pacific
I’m doing a reading and Q&A tonight at 7 PM Pacific with Speculative Sundays. Tickets are free and available below. I’ll be reading a little from my newest book, Flare, Corona, and a little from my previous book, Field Guide to the End of the World.
Photos of Charlotte and Sylvia at the request of my mom. She likes to see proof of cats!
Edited: I missed this reading somehow by two hours and never got the correspondence the organizer sent. I’m so sorry if you showed up and I didn’t. I was having breathing trouble tonight (MS-related? asthma?) but I had my outfit and makeup and even practiced the reading (for no one, sadly.) Boo hoo.
A Video on How to Read a Poem
Last week, at our Reading Between the Wines book club, we talked about Louise Gluck’s Meadowlands, and I was asked to give a talk for beginning poetry readers on how to read a poem.
I talked a little bit about this in my last post, the fact that I hadn’t really ever given a talk on how to read a poem, rather I was used to teaching people how to write a poem. Here it is on YouTube, though the lighting is less than flattering. Caveat: it’s fairly short, people may not agree with everything I say, and I use Meadowlands’ poems as examples throughout the talk. Canadian geese in flight at a winery down the street from my house.
Celebration vs Obligation
I had the good experience of a salon with Tatyana Mishel Sussex on the subject of celebration, and then talking about how holidays, birthdays, writing news can be seen as obligations and celebrations. You may have heard the “magic” of the holidays is mostly created by the free labor of women. I am a big holiday person, though I hate Thanksgiving (pretty miserable childhood Thanksgivings probably the source) and love not just Christmas, but all the yuletide-type celebrations of light—Hanukah, Dewali, the New Year, etc. Anything that celebrates lighting a candle in the dark. My husband, when we got married, was not much of a Christmas person but loved Halloween—so we started a tradition of spaghetti dinners on Christmas Eve, chilling out, watching movies as well as me embracing a much more Halloween-y Halloween.
This has been a rough week for me—a close relative was diagnosed with cancer (and I’ve already got a list of good friends and relatives—mostly youngish—battling it) and I had a mini-flare (or exacerbation) of MS caused by mystery reasons—I did have a mini-flare at this time last year, so maybe something about the time of year—the cold, the lack of light, allergies, time change, the stress of the holidays. Anyway, it meant I couldn’t sleep, read, I had trouble swallowing, I kept tripping and I had to take emergency medication. A lot of my friends and family have covid right now. Glenn had a restaurant event with work, he got a flu shot but the Novovax won’t appear in our pharmacies until next week. Have you read it’s a record year for norovirus too? Martha Stewart, that icon of home-and-holiday-celebrations, had to cancel Thanksgiving because too many people called in sick.
We’re just trying to stay as safe as we can—while still trying to connect with friends and family, doing the celebrations that are important to us. This picture is from a little excursion to a new-to-me corner of Bothell—a neighboring town—with a cute shop called Cranberry Cottage, which has got to be the most Hallmarky-name of a shop like this in the universe. I got some presents for my mom and surprisingly, my oldest brother—who both have birthdays coming up in the next couple of weeks, I talked to some of the employees, some of whom made candles or ornaments that were on the shelves. I admire makers—writing is a kind of making—and once again, just like at the farm, it felt like small connections to the world around me, from which I mainly hide or communicate by Zoom, phone, or e-mail. I’m looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with my little brother this year—a small but manageable celebration, and mostly very chill (although Glenn is still making his extravagant plans for roast duck, stuffing with apples and cranberries, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, probably some amazing appetizers as well and dessert, which he has been doing experiments for the past couple of days).
All this is just to say, we have to remain in balance—safe, but still connected—celebrating, but not out of a sense of obligation, but real, well, thankfulness, at a time of year when it’s cold and dark. Here’s wishing you and yours a safe and happy holiday season.