The Writing Path Blog

To celebrate this huge convention of writers, I’m giving myself a couple days of writerly retreat, reading, studying,  writing, and listening. Here’s my favorite poem on writing, Stanley Kunitz’ perfect and transcendent The Round, which captures the ecstasy that keeps us moving the words forward. Kunitz used a perfect contrast as the center of his poem’s strategy in conveying this state universal to writers. He puts us writers in “the steamy old stinkpile” to which…

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It’s all razzmatazz in the metaphor and slowslide down a jetlagged wall, the grunge and flash, the hugging, seeing, seen through windowpanes, and rapt, unwrapped, slapping silences after the end of the poem or the most absurd statement. And that’s why I will miss it — again. Mostly I don’t go to conferences and workshops. I loved the AWP I went to and swore never again. I made so many friends I still have and…

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I did my NBT self-interview below, on the topic of my novel-in-progress, The Renaissance Club. Here’s TNBT from poet Sarah Sarai on her blog My 3,000 Loving Arms. The Next Big Thing asks the author to answer ten questions about his or her current writing project — could be poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Ren Powell tagged me, and I tagged Sarah and also Barbara Ellen Sorensen. Enjoy their interviews@ And stay tuned for more NBT…

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In case any of you missed the fact that I maintain a list of publishers of poetry books that read outside of contests, here’s the link to my web page: Non-contest-poetry-book-publishers. If you have any additions, subtractions, or corrections, please email me or leave a reply here. And now … drumroll … for those of us again this year NOT going to AWP … I am SHOCKED, SHOCKED, SHOCKED to discover that our cordial and…

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Always cruising around to find good zines to send work to, good blogs to inspire and entertain me, I have recently enjoyed new work in the Manhattan-based BigCityLit. BigCityLit offers a profusion of categories, some of which I still don’t get, but here’s their basic on submitting: Individual Works: The New York edition accepts unsolicited submissions of individual poems for upcoming themes listed below and on the Home Page, whereby suggested themes are not intended…

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Earth Lessons now on Kindle! I, who am famous for being opposed to poetry book contests (though I’ve entered my share), and about to venture my Book Left at the Altar to a few contests while also talking to some non-contest publishers. Who can solve the need for a new poetry book publishing paradigm, I wonder. Contests may give brief glory and a level up to the very few winners, but the fact that few…

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I’m so excited that reissuing my first poetry collection, Earth Lessons, for the Kindle, has interested new readers. I love reading poetry books on my iPhone, and someday when I get a tablet, I’ll enjoy that form of reading too. Paper is nice, and poetry books are collectibles and even can be art objects, but let’s face it, a library in your pocket is excellent! Especially a poetry library. Thanks, those of you who got…

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Of course, we start with the fact that the winning team is named after a poem: Poe at the Superbowl. Then we add a poem-as-commercial, “God Made a Farmer,” one of the more stunning moments of an evening mostly blah except the last-half play following the power outage, when the 49ers made it an interesting game. To my ear, it was poetry, Whitmanesque and rangy, and decidedly a poem, with its repetend, “So God made…

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  The Next Big Thing Blog Hop is a chance for authors to tell you what they’re working on. The author answers 10 questions about their next book and tags the person who first tagged them plus at least five other authors. I’m excited to be part of this progressive blog-hopping self-interview of authors on books we’re working on. I was tagged by poet and teacher Ren Katherine Powell. I’ve read many fascinating NBT blogs.…

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New additions to my website page: Poetry Book Publishers. These are book publishers who read outside of contests. If you have a manuscript and are tired of the contest round, check it out. People have written to me to say they found their publishers with this list. You can also search on New Pages and Poets and Writers, under Small Presses.  Keeping this list up has made me more discriminating in thinking about where to…

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