Publicity

My chapbook is getting some publicity at the Chicago Poetry Calendar today. Sweet!

And back home, my MFA pal Jason Venner is getting some press, too.

Good things, good things.

In Praise of Deadlines (I hope)

Today is the day that I will finish a draft of my manuscript--individual poem revisions, reordering, the whole deal. Why is today the day? Because I made a deal with Jay. We're trading. Tomorrow.

I can't procrastinate any longer. I can't hem and haw about which poems belong in the ms. I just have to decide. Hallelujah.

There just aren't enough deadlines in my poetry life now that I don't have a thesis committee to please. And it'll be three years before I have a new committee, so I guess I'm going to have to start recruiting friends to be deadline givers more often.

I'm feeling pleasantly frantic and urgent. Good for creativity.

Some Graduates, Some Gab

Here they are folks, just a few of the newest MFAs from the NEOMFA (and a couple of their friends). They all did an excellent job reading on Friday and Saturday, but I forgot my camera those days, so you'll have to live with pics from our final Wednesday night trip to Pints after class.










Oh, and congrats to Frank, who just got a poem picked up by Hobble Creek Review! Way to go, Frank.


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I'm obviously quite nostalgic these days, and the fact that I'm moving soon isn't helping any. I hear John Gallaher is waiting for me to leave Akron before he comes to visit. What's up with that, John? Rumor has it I'm going to miss Jason Bredle too. Don't you think, when you move away from home, that cool stuff should stop happening there? It's just not fair. At least this year I'll be on my new home turf for AWP. Maybe I'll hold a raffle for who gets to sleep on my couch.

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I've got a bazillion portfolios to grade today, but after that, I'm forcing myself (joyfully) to focus on poetry for a little while. Until the BBQ season starts, anyhow. I have a pile of books to read, a pile of drafts to revise, and a manuscript to get in the mail. This is going to be one crazy-busy summer, between traveling for work, packing, moving, reading Kant for my first PhD class, and trying to keep up with all my Ohio people before I go...Yikes! But I like a full plate.


Hopefully more thoughtful blogging soon...but lately, I haven't had the capacity for more than rambling.

Seventeen

The NEOMFA is sending 17 new MFAs into the world this weekend and I'm a little sad about it. But mostly proud. Proud of my awesome friends for working so hard and being so talented and finishing this thing we started together. I am very glad that I can just sit back and watch, but I'm kind of bummed that I'm not graduating with them.

I'll spare you the overly sentimental ramble about how much I love them. Let's just say congratulations and leave it at that.

G'night.

Sunday Stuff

Marissa, I'm not ignoring you. It's just that I've done the random facts meme twice now, and I don't really have that many random facts--unless you want me to start giving too much info. (See my answers here--I can only find one of them, but I know I've done it twice.)
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Tobin, the funniest guy in the NEOMFA (and perhaps the most photogenic), has a blog. Read it. You'll laugh.
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The temp here might get above freezing today. I'm looking forward to that.
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Today is my BFF's 1st wedding anniversary. Congrats Lindsay and Chad! This isn't a very good picture--but that's b/c I'm not a very good photographer. I'm still waiting for my copies from the wedding album.


And down here, a blast from the past. That's me and Lindsay in 7th grade, getting made up for glamour shots (aka - how to make 13-year-olds look like hookers). Seriously. We went to her grandparents' house after and her grandfather made us wash our faces as soon as we walked in. I don't know where the actual photos are, but as soon as I find them, I'll post them.