Review of Field Guide to the End of the World up at Entropy, Ada Limon SAL Reading, Upcoming Readings, Hurricanes, and Feeling Grateful

Thanks to Donna Vorreyer and Entropy Magazine for this amazingly thought-provoking review of Field Guide to the End of the World. I confess I got a little tear-y reading it. I know how much energy it takes to write a review like that, and I appreciate it!

Spent a wonderful night listening to Ada Limon read at SAL’s poetry series last night, and then Rebecca Hoogs interviewed her after the reading, which was great. My favorite quote from Ada was something I’d often told students “Embrace your weirdness. It’s what will make your poetry special.” She talked about working with Phil Levine and Sharon Olds at NYU, living in Kentucky due to dating someone in the racehorse business (!!), not seeing whales at Provincetown, her first time witnessing fireflies as an adult, and even her theater degree at UW. Ada was not only super talented and a great reader, she also radiates beauty and light. I was so glad I got to see her in person! I had really liked Bright Dead Things when I read it last year, but now I can connect to the book even more. Isn’t that why we go to readings?

Tonight, I’ll be trying to connect to readers myself when I do a class visit for a class down in California. How great is our technology lets us do that? We’ll be talking about genre, robots, class, and The Robot Scientist’s Daughter. Should be fun!

In the meantime, I’ve been worrying about my friends and family on the Southern East Coast and that crazy hurricane. Nothing I can do anything about, of course, but worry and watch the weather reports.

I got a rejection today, after sending out two subs – isn’t that always the way, some poems come back, then they go out again. I had some random (?) mail like “sign up for cancer insurance!” (What up, HIPAA?) Despite all this, I was feeling extraordinarily grateful – I don’t know, for everything, for my friends, for a wonderful poetry community both in person and online, for the good things in our lives. I do get discouraged and depressed, like anyone, as you could probably tell from my last post – but for some reason, the last day or so, I’ve just had this odd feeling of hopefulness and well-being. I know some of this is from the good wishes and sweetness of my family and friends.

I got to talk to Billie at the SAL reading about our celebration/reception/reading October 15 at Open Books. I think we’re going to bring gluten-free cupcakes, sparkling drinks, cheese and fruit. I’m going to pick a few poems to read (nothing too long, as we want to have time to actually celebrate with friends!) and then sign books and socialize. I’m really looking forward to it! I’m so grateful to have a second opportunity to celebrate the book with friends at one of my very favorite all-time bookstores!

Stay safe, everyone in the path of Hurricane Matthew. And thank you to everyone who has sent me supportive messages and good thoughts and prayers, people who have bought, read and reviewed Field Guide to the End of the World and my other books (just had a new review pop up on Amazon for Unexplained Fevers – how cool is that?) and my family and friends who have tried to keep me cheerful during this challenging year.