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.

I'm the happiest girl in the world

*

Kristy Bowen did such a great job with the cover and she's such a pleasure to work with. I couldn't be happier with my new chapbook. The reading last night was delightful, and for the first time since I finished my MFA, I feel like a Poet, a Real Poet. I think I'll be smiling for days.

Financial Freedom closer than it seems?

Could it be true?

Some days, I love being wrong

They're letting me loose in a poetry classroom after all! No teaching comp for me next semester.

Somebody pinch me.

Tiny Triumph

During my first year of grad school, I had to do a presentation on Foucault's Power/Knowledge. I didn't get it at all and spent hours and hours rereading with my dictionary in my lap. I literally cried. I had quit smoking a couple of months before, but I found myself in my car, driving to the gas station, and buying a pack of Camels without even thinking about it.

Since then, I cringed at the sound of Foucault's name. And blamed him for my failed attempt at becoming a non-smoker.

I'd like you all to know that I just finished a reading response of his Biopolitics lectures and didn't want to light up even once. I don't know what I'm happier about--that I pretty much understood what I read, or that I'm finally really a non-smoker. So there, Foucault. So there, RJ Reynolds.

Oh Happy Day

What a bunch of lucky people. I can only imagine...

Hopeful

I know I've been quite the downer around blogland the last few months, but things may be turning around a bit. I know it's only week one, but Spring 09 is shaping up to be 1000 times better than Fall 08. Here's why:

1. Instead of taking Teaching College Writing, I'm teaching college writing. Teaching isn't my #1 calling, but I think I'm getting better, more comfortable, and because UIC requires the second semester of comp to be theme-based, I'm teaching a subject I like (instead of straight-up argumentation). The topic: work and class identity. Sound familiar?
2. I'm taking a class on politics and rhetoric (instead of politics and aesthetics like last semester) and while I still hate talking about politics, I think this class is going to be bearable because a) we're reading about political economy, which could, theoretically, have an impact on my poetry--or at least my exam lists, and b) the prof this semester is much more interested in TEACHING than the prof was last semester. He seems totally okay with the fact that I start to twitch when I hear names like Foucault and Derrida, and wants to know if it takes me too long to do the homework.
3. The Past Decade. This is my contemporary poetry class and there's zero overlap of anything I've read before, on my own or for another class. Shows how much poetry is getting published these days... But more importantly, the prof here focuses much more on poetic movements than I'm used to, and this is good because I don't know crap about them. Also, there are some 4th and 5th year PhD students auditing the class and they are so smart! I feel a little like I did when I was an 8th grader in high school marching band. The seniors were so grown up, so cool, and I just couldn't wait to be like them.
4. Although I would, much to my dismay, still rather be in Akron, I don't hate Chicago anymore. Although I would prefer to see my boyfriend and my family more than once a month or every six weeks, I have people here that I can count on now. And there's so much to do, instead of crying I can just distract myself with annotated bibliographies and color coding my files! Plus, in just a couple of weeks, practically everyone I know is coming to Chicago for AWP. It'll be like transplanting Akron.

I really, really hope I keep feeling good about this, because doubting major life decisions is no fun.

The biggest news in my poetry career so far...

Okay, so, I'm a little overly excited. It's just a chapbook. ;-) (Just in case anyone missed the subtle cues, it's defininitely not "just" anything. I'm really proud.)

Check it out: dancing girl press 2009 chapbook line-up. Keep scrolling. I'm in September.

Woohoo!

Updates and stuff

You may have noticed I changed my profile pic. The other one was getting old, I was tired of looking at it. But more importantly, the new one is, I think, a funny little collage of new and old. I'm at Lake Michigan, my favorite part of Chicago, and I'm wearing my lucky Akron sweatshirt (many, many good things have happened to me in this shirt). Maybe this pic will be a sign of good things to come...

Like the acceptance letter I got in the mail yesterday from Hiram Poetry Review. I guess it's not all lost in the USPS. I had a near miss with HPR about a year and a half ago--first time I ever had to withdraw a poem and the editor said he was just getting ready to send an acceptance. So, when they say "send more work," you should really send more work! Now, if I could just get myself to sit down and put some new submission packets together...but not today. Today is for Jorie Graham, Kafka and Deleuze, and Longenbach.

And voter registration...aargh. My Ohio registration was way out of date (try 2004 out of date...yes, I'm one of those awful people who only votes during presidential elections) so I tried to update it at the same time I requested an absentee ballot. Well, the good ole paper pushers lost my paperwork, so now I'm not registered in Ohio and today is the last day to register in Illinois. Hopefully the fact that I don't yet have an Illinois ID is not a problem. If it is, well, you can't say I didn't try.

And now, I hear the laundry room calling. Yes, I was up today before 6 am and already have laundry going. How ambitious of me. But I'll leave you with a little bit of scenery. I've never seen any lake the color it was on Saturday, and even though the leaves haven't turned here yet, I think this picture looks like fall.

For the record...

It has been 21 days since I joined the ranks of non-smokers around the world.

I don't know what I'm more proud of...quitting or refraining from whining about it on my blog. It's gonna stick this time.

Chapbook News

Many congrats to Greg Wrenn, winner of The Laurel Review / GreenTower Press Midwest Chapbook Series Award!

More importantly, I was a finalist! Sorry, I know that's not very diplomatic of me, but I've never been a finalist before. Woohoo!

Jason Venner, MFA

Jay just defended his thesis. Go congratulate him!

And Again!

BOR on Verse Daily!

Hey ya'll, check it out! Wayne Miller's "Street Fight" (first seen in Barn Owl Review) is on Verse Daily today!

*

I'm sorry for being all cryptic, but I'm superstitious. You'll know soon enough. Especially if I'm going to see you in class on Wednesday (Amy).

*

I made stroganoff in the slow cooker today. Sort of. I don't like mushrooms, and that's kind of an important part of stroganoff. Or so the cook books say. Anyway, I probably won't do it again. SOS is better.

*

Last year, I complained that U of A closes for Pres. Day on Tuesday. This year, I'm psyched because Tuesday is my longest teaching day. And tomorrow night, Varley is reading in Y-town. That sounds like a good day.

*

One of my students is writing a paper about what her life would be like if she was born a boy. She thinks she'd be gay. She's calling the paper "Bros before Hos."

Aah, the life of an adjunct.

Mailbox

It was a happy day at the mailbox today. Happier than a poem acceptance.

I'll save the details until I've gotten the rest of my results. Are you dying with anticipation? I am.

Good things come in 3's (bad things come in chunks)

Exciting news here, here, and here. Congrats & good luck to all!

*

I am enjoying my slow Thursday morning a lot. This is the only day of the week that I don't teach before noon. Oh, how I miss my 1:00 starting time of last semester!

*

I feel very busy all the time but get very little done. The PhD waiting. The teaching 3 classes, grading 60 papers/homework assignments, wondering how to get my apathetic students excited. The "okay, now that my thesis is done, what do I do?" The "okay, now that my thesis is done, I need to put it in the mail." Thinking of 12 different projects but doing little more than making notes about any of them. Desperately, desperately wanting to make a plan...but the PhD waiting again. There are two people at UA who have been accepted to their top choices already, and one who's been wait-listed, but all I hear are crickets (and "please leave a message" messages).

*

I am tired of spinning tires, slushy sidewalks, and wet pants. I am tired of runny noses and chapped lips. I need spring, spring, spring!

*

Tomorrow is Jay's birthday. I probably won't blog tomorrow, so Happy Birthday, dude.

FRiGG

Hey ya'll, check out the new issue of FRiGG. There just might be five poems I wrote in there. : )

Monday Updates

Good things happen when Karen cleans out her office, see -->

Thanks, Karen! It will certainly be a while before I run out of reading material.

*

deleted to protect the innocent : ), but still, congrats!

*

Speaking of mss and first book contests, I was telling Mary this morning that my goal was to have my ms ready for the mail by the end of the week so that I can hit some of the later deadlines.

Since then (an hour and a half ago), I've been thinking that maybe I don't want to do that. I have about 20 poems published right now, but more than half of those (more than 2/3, probably) didn't make the cut when I put my thesis together. Note - I'm not saying I don't like the poems I've published, just that many of them aren't part of the manuscript. At any rate, I think I'd like to have a better publishing record before I start sending out the manuscript, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to revise the thing a bit more now that I'm not rushing for thesis defenses and deadlines.

I know some poets (not naming any names...) who had published nearly every poem in their first books individually before they were published together--but I've also seen acknowledgement pages with only five or six credits. I'm not sure which is better, but I wonder, if the poems aren't jumping out at editors in groups of five or six, then are they going to jump in a group of fifty? I'm not complaining or whining. I'm really happy with the responses I've gotten so far, and I think 20-some poems in a year is pretty awesome, but maybe I'm rushing. So, the question remains: do I let my ms incubate for 8 months or so and try for the end-of-08 contest season, or do I get what I've got in the mail for the February deadlines?

*

Working on my syllabi this week. But more importantly, working on class plans. I'm hoping this semester, I will be able to plan far enough ahead that I only have to prep before class when something unexpected comes up.

UA is doing a huge, cross discipline forum on race relations in February, with lots of speakers and round table discussions. We had a meeting about it this morning, and I think it's going to be pretty cool...but I get flustered whenever the conversation in my classroom turns to something sensitive, so I'm worried that I won't be able to teach it effectively. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

yay!

Ever since I started submitting my poems, I've become obsessed with the mailbox. It kind of reminds me of when I was in high school and had church camp pen-pals all over the place. So imagine my disappointment when nothing but bills and flyers have been in my mailbox for at least a week.

Then I check my email...

Harpur Palate just picked up a poem. Yay!

This is my first print journal/journal affiliated with a University pub (outside of journals somehow connected to the NEOMFA), so it feels different. It means that sooner or later, there will be a little book in my mailbox, and my name will be inside it.

The Beans

Mary spilled 'em. My exciting news is that I have joined the editorial staff of Barn Owl Review. I'm so happy to be a part of this awesome new journal. (I'm a little nervous about my upcoming editorial interview, though!)

I need to update my bio and links, but right now, I have to go to my sister's for dinner.