Talking about Poetry Book Reviews, and a Couple of Down Days due to MS, Rejections, etc.

Red-winged blackbird

Down Days (Rejections, MS, etc)

I’ve had a couple of “down” days the last couple of days, due to the 88 degree heat giving me terrible MS symptoms, and seven rejections (including one book rejection) in two days – a record for me, I think.

I can’t really do much about the MS symptoms in the heat , except avoid the heat. I almost went to the hospital when my symptoms got bad (screaming leg pains, this time, a newish symptom), but I survived. I am just looking forward to the weather getting back to our summertime normal, which is closer to 70 than 90. I had to cancel pretty much all my appointments, social and medical, which gave me spare time to think about my rejections.

One way to think about rejection is that it is a sign you are aiming high, or aiming outside your own personal comfort sign. It is a sign you are trying. If a gymnast fell once off a balance beam, and said “Well, that’s not for me,” she would be losing out, not achieving her potential. It’s the same for us. Now, I’ve been doing this a long time, so of course it’s discouraging to get rejections – even encouraging rejections. You think, “I should have this down by now.” But the truth is, every publisher is not the right publisher for you. Every literary journal isn’t going to be a perfect fit for the poems I’m writing right now, even if they were for the poems I wrote a decade ago. And I am aiming higher than I used to, which I think is a good thing.

In the quiet time, I had time to watch birds – we have two pairs of quail living near our yard now, and the red-winged blackbirds are singing, and the peacocks at Chateau Ste Michelle are walking around with their beautiful feathers. One of my favorite flowers, the lilacs, are just about done blooming. Here are some Woodinville pics from the day it was cool enough to walk around outside:

Saucy peacock

Talking About Book Reviewing

I know this is something I’ve talked about before, but I just thought I’d write a little reminder as we get into the summer months, good months for writing and submitting poetry book reviews. Every poet wants their book to be reviewed. I always get asked, “How do I get more book reviews?” And I almost always say, “Well, how much time have you spent writing poetry book reviews?” And if the answer in none, well, remember, there are way more people who want their poetry recognized than people who want to do the hard critical labor of reviewing books. I’ve been doing it now for a dozen years. I finally (at the encouragement of several friends) joined the National Book Critics Circle.

Now, there are different types of poetry book critics. There are poetry critics who get joy from putting poetry books down, showing how clever they are at the expense of the writers. I encourage you not to be that kind of critic. I myself try hard not to do that stuff. Because while most people aren’t reading enough of the great poetry books out there – especially not books by people of color and women – I try to write the kind of review that might get someone excited enough to actually buy the book. I’m not a cheerleader, but if I choose to review a book, it’s not because I hate it. It’s also not because I think it’s flawless, but because I think it is interesting and deserving of others’ attention.

It is surprisingly easy to place a poetry book review, because not many people are out there desperately sending out book reviews, the way they are fiction or poetry. So I encourage you to review a book of poetry, hopefully one that hasn’t already been reviewed a thousand times. (It happens – one book captures the world’s imagination all at once, perhaps focused on relevant social themes, or current events. It’s not a bad thing.) It’s the one thing that costs you no money that might make another writer really happy.

 

Another Birthday, Spring and All, Thinking About the Modern Salon and Writing Groups, Women Writing Despite, and Planning for the Year Ahead

 

Two color of lilac

Another Birthday

I had a quiet birthday this year, which was good, because I was a little under the weather this last week. I did get to go out a bit and enjoy the beautiful sunshine and flowers, and Glenn made the day as special as possible, getting me a beautiful art print and a ton of sparkly candles. (Josie Morway is an artist to check out – that’s her fox below.) A visit to the DeLille winery and the Japanese Garden (as well as Open Books to pick up some birthday poetry books) made for a really nice low-key celebration.

Spring and All

Spring is my favorite season. I’ve been focusing on revising my newest manuscript for another round of press send-outs, and trying to sit out on my deck, planting herbs and flowers and watching quail and hummingbirds. It’s been lovely, in the sixties and sunny, and I always wish at this time of year that I was good at sketching, watercolors, or any kind of painting. (Speaking of art skills: read this hilarious account of how to make swag, specifically book pendants, from Laura Grace Weldon who was inspired by my PR for Poets book.)

Planning for the Year Ahead

Like most people, birthdays are always a good time to take stock of where you are and where you want to go in the year ahead. I am grateful to still be alive. I am still learning to manage my MS, and doing the complicated paperwork in order to start a new MS medication, trying to learn to rest when my symptoms act up. I’m a little nervous because my flares have happened the last two years during the summer. So I’m trying to up my self-care this year – avoiding heat and sun when possible, bought an extra air purifier in case of fires again this year, trying to learn to meditate and rest and hydrate as soon as you have any sign of flares instead of pushing through (which seems to lead to the whole hospitalization thing.) So that’s one goal: improving my own self-care around MS.

I’m also wondering what I want to do next in terms of career. I’ve been (slowly) shopping two manuscripts around, one about being diagnosed with cancer, then MS, during a time of unusual solar activity, and another about politics, witches, resistance, and monsters. They’re very different books, so I’m targeting different presses for them.

Thinking about Salons and Writing Groups

I’m thinking about trying to start a series of get-togethers at my house, since it’s become more difficult to get out and about but I’m still an extrovert who gets inspired by spending time with other creative people. My house is pretty good for entertaining, and Glenn is good at making snacks. Should I try to create a new writers feedback group, like the one I was in for thirteen plus years, or try salons, with a bunch of different kind of artists? I’ve been finishing up a series of Virginia Woolf letters, and I’m inspired by the way, though she was limited in the amount she went out or went to London, she brought a circle of artists around her houses, not always together at the same time, but encouraged them, published them, provided tea and conversation. She really did get inspired and enjoy helping others.

I was thinking about ways to help others and maybe start working again, a little bit, from home. But what? Technical writing or marketing writing? Offering manuscript consults again? Or perhaps some coaching for doing basic PR for poets with new books? When I’m feeling good, I’m pretty effective, but I do have these “slips” in time that happen when I’m sick, so I need something that’s flexible.

Women Writing Despite…

In fact, many of the “major” women writers that we read, including Flannery O’Conner, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Lucille Clifton, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, and Charlotte Bronte, all had limits on their health – physical and mental illnesses, constraints on their time and energy. They still managed to produce a ton of work, not just published books, but tons of journals and letters that I find fascinating and great research for women writers – how they succeed, how they struggled, how they maintained friendships and family demands. (Frida Kahlo is kind of the patron-saint of sick women creatives, too. Not only is her art getting more attention these days, but I read that her garden was recently restored – how I would love to see that!)

I think one reason I’ve been attracted to researching the lives of these writers is that they succeeded despite. Despite family opposition, money problems, health problems, during a literary time that was – shall we say – unfriendly to women’s voices. How they guarded their writing time, and struggled with “doing it all” – a woman’s problem for centuries, not just now, the expectations that women will be supportive of their family’s needs, domestic work, taking care of spouses or family members, plus write and spend time and cultivate connections with other creative people. So what I’m saying is, really, in this age of phones and internets and social media, it’s easier for me than it would have been for any of those writers, despite my illnesses, the physical limitations I might face, the frustrations I feel.

So, interacting with other writers, writing book reviews, making the home a welcome place for creative folks, writing, sending out work, promoting work once it’s out there – that is all work that I need to prioritize as much as I do my health issues.

So that’s what I’m thinking of when I think about the coming year. What about you? Any advice? Any goals of your own? Leave them in the comments!

My Review of Deaf Republic up at Barrelhouse, Blooms and Studies in Pink, and Let’s Talk About What Makes a Dream Press

Pink Dogwood

Almost the End of Poetry Month!

Trying to enjoy spring in between doctor and dentist appointments, running around taking pictures of different flowering trees (right now crushing on pink dogwood, lilacs, and crabapple.) I’m also trying to write more and I’m trying to do a really close revision of my two manuscripts before I sent them out again. I’m going to talk a little later about how to think about finding your dream press, something I’ve been thinking about a lot…

My Review of Deaf Republic up at Barrelhouse

So happy that Barrelhouse has my review of Ilya Kaminsky’s new book from Graywolf Press, Deaf Republic, today. I was really taken by Kaminsky’s framing of disability as an act of resistance. I really highly recommend this book, and I love Barrelhouse too, so happy to work with them.

Study in Pinks

Talking About What Makes a Press Your Dream Press

I posted this on Twitter, and then on Facebook, because I am genuinely interested in other writers’ answers, whether you’ve published one book or twenty!
I’ve been married happily for almost 25 years (in July.) So I’m not looking for a dream partner, I’m looking for a #dreampress.
What does your dream press look like? Mine looks like this: pays royalties, does some PR for you, helps get your book reviewed and puts it up for awards.
What qualities does your dream press have? Does the press help you place poems after they take your manuscript in high-profile journals? Get blurbs for you instead of making you beg for them? How many author copies does it give you? Does it give you input on the cover?
Answer e-mails promptly? Helps you set up a book tour? Helps promote you on social media? Has great distribution in bookstores? Has careful editors? Tell me more about your dream press in the comments!

I’d love to see this in public conversation, because my perception is that most poets (and even fiction writers) are so excited to get a book published, they don’t think about what kind of press they want to work with and send to every contest and open submissions. Does the press represent poets of color, women, people with disabilities? That’s something I look at now more than I used to. 

On Twitter and Facebook, several people praised their presses and others said “whatever press publishes me” and others talked about their priorities for a press. It’s not like there are infinite numbers of poetry presses, so it isn’t that hard to research and find out something about the press before we send out these days. I recommend at least looking at a couple of books they have produced. Do you enjoy the style of work? How are the books presented? What do the covers look like? How are they formatted? How are they distributed? How does the press support their authors? All of these things make a difference.

I’m thinking hard about this as I send out manuscripts for what will be my sixth and seventh books. I feel like at this point I need to think hard about what presses are a good fit for my work and would be great partners in the process. If this means I send out a little less than I used to, that’s okay. I’m hoping to find the perfect partner for each book.

So please, jump in! What makes working with a publisher a pleasure? What things are absolutely non-negotiable?

Tulip Festival, April Rains and One More Week of National Poetry Month

Glenn and I at the Tulip Festival

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

In a month that has been almost entirely rainy, we went up the day before Easter – a day that started gloomy, but turned sunny in the late afternoon – to La Conner, Washington for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. I don’t have quite as much stamina to tramp in the fields the way I used to, but it was still wonderful to see the fantastic flowers, La Conner was cool but sunny, had many bald eagle sightings. The tulip fields never fail to inspire me. This time I came home and wrote a poem after Sylvia Plath’s ‘Tulips.” Here are a few pictures of flowers, eagles, and us posing among the flowers!

Tulip fields with Mt Baker

April Rains and One More Week of Poetry Month

This shot reminds me of what I love about spring in the Seattle area, the parts I haven’t gotten out enough it because April has been almost unremittingly cold, gray, and rainy. It’s almost my birthday. This month has had a lot of medical appointments, dental appointments (why is this always the case around birthdays?) which can be both anxiety-provoking and depressing. I have to get even more blood work and another brain MRI in the next two weeks.

Glenn took this shot – thinking about possibly using it as an author photo – yay or nay?

I’ve been writing but haven’t been submitting as much, and I need to work on a book review and getting my two manuscripts-in-progress ready for another round of submissions. Submitting seems to take more mental energy than writing – or is it that writing poetry is more fun that submitting and revising, so it seems to take less energy? Anyway, I’ve found myself fairly exhausted this month, more than the usual MS “tired-after-trying-to-do-stuff” type – plus fighting off some pretty severe anemia. My usual coping mechanism for this stuff is socializing – which I haven’t been able to do enough of – and getting outside, which I also haven’t been able to do enough of. We did manage to plant another tree (after the little Pink Lady apple, a bare-root late-blooming pink cherry which I hope survives) plus we’re slowly filling our planter boxes with annuals. And the birds have been singing through the storm.

The weather report is starting to show some clearing, plus my birthday (not a big deal birthday, but still) is a few days away, and I’m going to try to do something fun that day – go to an art gallery or the Japanese Gardens. Or maybe Open Books!

I am wishing you all a great final week of April, National Poetry Month. I am wishing you all health, more poems, and more flowers.

 

Poetry Month is Half Over! Poems Up at Menacing Hedge, Plus Ilya Kaminsky and Mark Doty visit a Seatte coffee shop, and More Blooms

 

Pink Dogwood

Poetry Month is Already Half Over!! Don’t Panic.

“Eek! I haven’t done enough poetry!” Some of you might be thinking. Hey, relax! April is not just poetry month, it’s also a beautiful season of flowers (and here: rain, rain, and more rain) and my birthday month! It’s time to do some fun stuff outdoors, plant some flowers, write some poems, buy some poetry books you might have been wanting, sit around, relax. Spend time convincing me they’re not trying to turn Daenerys into a villainess. Read a little, write a little. Go to a reading…

From the latest issue of Menacing Hedge

  Three New Poems in Menacing Hedge

The new issue of Menacing Hedge is out, and I have three poems in there, along with other poet friends like Maya Zeller! Sneak peek at left, to one of the poems that forms the theses of my next manuscript-in-progress!

And another poem tells you how to make a narrative poem work.

 

 

Natasha K. Moni, me, and Ilya Kaminsky

Ilya Kaminsky and Mark Doty Read at a Seattle Coffee Shop, and I Was There For It

We’ve had a number of terrific readers in Seattle recently, but I hadn’t been well enough (or free of doctor’s appointments enough) to make it to any until yesterday. Last night Ilya Kaminsky read from his terrific new book, Deaf Republic, and Mark Doty read poems, and it was wonderful to see them plus say hi to a punch of local poets I don’t see often enough. Thanks are due to Susan Rich for arranging the reading!

Me with Cherry Trees

Glenn shot this pic on the way to the reading. We pulled over in a school parking lot because the cherry trees were so astounding! I have been hibernating a bit lately due to cold weather and being slightly under the weather, but it was so cheering to hear such great poetry and see so many friends in a warm setting. And there’s something rejuvenating about getting out, dressing up a little, being around humans who aren’t trying to take blood or give you a prescription!

 

 

More cherry pouf blossoms

I am wishing you all cherry blossoms, good poetry luck, and some happiness is a world that seems to be always on fire. Take a breath. Listen to the birds whistling in the rain.

Jeannine Hall Gailey

Jeannine Hall GaileyJeannine 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.

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