The Last Day to Vote for Unexplained Fevers in the Goodreads Choice Semifinals and a Rough Week for Poets
- At November 16, 2013
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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It’s the very last day to vote in the Goodreads Choice Awards Semifinalist round for Unexplained Fevers in the Poetry category! So please, if you want to help a small press (New Binary Press) gain some exposure, and help cheer up an injured and sick poet (me!) then raise your poetry karma and vote! I do feel lucky to even be on the same page with poets like J.R.R. Tolkien, Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, and my friend Victoria Chang. Here’s the link below:
https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-poetry-books-2013
I’m not going to lie, for me it’s been a rough week for poetry. (I had a somewhat grumpier post up, but decided to take it down.) Let’s just say that I lost my voice at two reading events, received some rejections (par for the course for poets, of course), sprained my ankle getting to a poetry event while nearly getting run over by a car in downtown Seattle, and generally felt a little rough around the edges. I felt a little chewed up and spit out by the poetry machine, such as it is. I can recognize the signs of needing some down time, some time reading and writing, and some quality time with friends and family, I think, at the end of this year. It’s at least partially my own fault for prioritizing doing over being, poetry events over doctor appointments, duty over fun and inspiration, results over the process. Therefore, I am resolving to do more things that remind me of what I love about writing, less of the things that lead to burnout. I will celebrate the good, I will remember my blessings. I will watch videos of an elderly man blow drying a fox.
In that vein, check out this fundraiser for victims of Typhoon Haiyan, sponsored in part by my lovely poet friend Aimee Nezhukumatathil and her ideas on how to help. Once again, instead of feeling powerless in the face of destruction, you can make a move towards good.
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.
