Check it out - Hobble Creek Review is all new and shiny. Good work, Justin!
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What is going on with AWP? If you did get a pass, make sure you visit me and Mary and Jay and Jay at the Barn Owl Review table, and all of us at the NEOMFA reception on Saturday night.
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I just finished reading Nickel and Dimed, which didn't tell me much I didn't already know, but brought back some unpleasant memories. Ehrenreich did her little experiment durning the same year that I did mine (ha! I wish it was an experiment, but unlike our author, I did not have stock options and a savings account waiting for me in "real" life.) One thing I forgot until I started reading--the constant, and I mean constant, job hunting. You never want to accept that this job is the best you can get, so you keep looking. I started at least four jobs in two months. Fun!
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Had coffee with Jennifer and Jay yesterday. It was good to talk poetry, theses, life in general. Funny how much I miss my classmates during breaks.
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Doing better with the reading list this week. I also finished Boomer Girls, an anthology of women poets born between 1946 and 1964, which is apparently kind of hard to get your hands on (I got it from a UA used book sale). Lots of familiar names in that one: Kim Addonizio, Cathy Song, Jan Beatty, Rita Dove... and a lot of good poems (I only rolled my eyes a couple times). So, where's the next generation's anthology (let's say 1965 to 1980 or so)? I'm imagining a list of poets I'd solicit if it were my project, but who would you include?
Poem: Far Gone
2 days ago
8 comments:
Hi Sara --- I read Nickel and Dimed and actually the book irritated me. I guess, I saw a lot of "no duh" moments! Like you, I led her sort of life, but it wasn't an experiment. Oh, and I loved Boomer Girls, but you are right. I keep waiting for the generation X anthology to come out!
I know where you're coming from with Boomer Girls. It's like every book I've ever picked up with the words "modern poetry" in the title, they include poets like Ted Hughes or Louis MacNeice – or Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams if you want American equivalents – but all of these are dead. They may have been radical once but now they represent the establishment. So, just today, I placed an order with Amazon for a couple of volumes tracing the history of the poetry of the late twentieth century because, even though I've been writing poetry for thirty-five years I've also been working in isolation for all that time, doing my own thing (none of the names you listed means anything to me); I think it's time I caught up.
Is Boomer girls yours? I may need to borrow that.
Oh...I was delighted to see your work in HCR (along with other NEOMFA peeps).
I LOVE that poem. Did you email the Wicks so they can check it out?
My little heart swelled with nostalgia.
Karen, N&D was a little irritating at times--and somewhat unrealistic. It would have been nice to see her stick through some of the more difficult situations instead of relying on her "real life" to get her out.
Jim--I have very little background in modern poetry and have only been reading the contemporary stuff for a few years. These names are relatively new to me but quickly caught me up on what happened post Edna St. Vincent Millay (my favorite poet pre-MFA).
Jen, of course you can borrow it! I think your favorite, Ms. Laux, has one or two in it as well. And I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the poem again.
I really like your poem in HCR. Nice!
I enjoyed reading your blog! I've "taught" Nickel and Dimed a couple times in first-year [college] writing, and it works pretty well, partly because many of her points aren't totally obvious to students. I think it helps some working-class students (and some middle-class ones who have had food-service jobs, etc.) frame their experiences. Good luck with everything.. . . Richard Howard's Alone With America is a readable survey of later 20th century Am. poetry. Jay Parini's huge anthology from Wadsworth is *really* good, and it includes many living poets.You can probably get a free examination copy.
"Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century" edited by Michael Dumanis and Cate Marvin. Poets born 1965 or after.
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