Kelli Russell Agodon was talking about signs, as in portents and messages from the universe, namely a shooting star. It made me think about the way I sat and watched a dazzle of earthbound shooting stars while I was on the East Coast, as a hover of fireflies over a lawn became very personal somehow. In other signs, more the standard kind, Publishers Weekly is for sale. This publishing industry giant is on the auction…
Grant writing and fundraising is the day job that sustains my writing — you could say I write to be able to write. I’ve been thinking about how we connect (or don’t connect) our day jobs to our writing lives. For those who teach in writing programs, the connection seems obvious, though I’ve heard teachers say their teaching sometimes makes it harder to write. For the rest of us, engaged in the commerce and service…
A review by Silke Heiss is available to read at Red Room of Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Listserv (Red Hen Press; 2008). Heiss says, “The book emerged out of the collaborative efforts of members of the Wom-po LISTSERV, an electronic discussion group of mainly women poets, which has been going since 1997.” I’m happy to have my poem “Femme au chapeau” in this remarkable anthology. Not a lot else on my…
Just blogrolled Michelle McGrane’s appealing and eclectic blog, Peony Moon. Featured today is an exhibition of poems about sharks. Yes, “sharks, poets and other endangered species.” #Iranelection has been moving fast again since Rafsanjani spoke against the government at Friday prayers. This morning if I looked away for long, 32 or more tweets had scrolled on this topic. This one especially interested me: @WomenOfIran: Challenging old traditions: #women stood in front of men in prayer…
Summer’s such a good time to change it up in your writing, experiment, push yourself. Because it’s going against the grain already, just to be writing in summer, let alone challenging your muse to give it up. Karen Weyant has an interesting exercise at Scrapper Poet from her “jailbreaks” workshop. ReadWritePoem is always good for a jumpstart – this week’s is Fun With the Dictionary. Word lists seems to be popular prompts, so of course…
Amy King’s blog has a fabulous new resource, a calendar of poetry readings around the U.S. and other countries. For poets who like to combine their travels with readings in other places, this is an invaluable guide to who, what, where, when and how to set up a guest spot. Visit, make your plans, send her updates on reading calendars for your town. Plus, Amy has just guest edited Issue #2 of Ekleksographia (and I…
I’m putting them in reverse order because lately I’ve spent a lot of time on Twitter, following #iranelection and related topics. If you want to find out what’s going on in Iran, you pretty much have to go on Twitter or wait several days to a week for CNN and others to summarize what they’ve been reading on Twitter. The newest news is that there may be a big demonstration when Rafsanjani leads Friday prayers.…
A new editor interview is up at Very Like A Whale – this one with Kate Bernadette Benedict, editor and publisher of the supremely rereadable electronic journal Umbrella. Yes, I do have a vested interest in mentioning this, being a contributing editor for Umbrella. Also, I am (thanks, Kate!) mentioned in the interview, along with fellow contributing editors C.E. Chaffin and Robert Schechter. If you live near San Francisco and you care about fashion, you…
Yesterday, some of my literary friends on Facebook started doing an exercise that went viral. It seemed to appeal to everyone. All that was needed was a handy book. Having just returned from a poetry reading, I was in a mood for creative ideas. I did mine and watched in fascination as the accumulated entries started to take shape as a whole. Below is the prose poem I saw forming. # A strong woman is…
Some new sites found through Twitter (check the Tweetboard now on this blog): Red Fez a whimsical eclection of fiction, poetry, books, comics, and something called the Poem Dervish (random selections), with each section organized by theme. We’re so in need of more literary criticism! Especially for poetry. It seems to be dying with print and attention span. So finding Daniel Casey’s Gently Read Literature is such a pleasure — thoughtful essays on contemporary poetry…