No, really–listen to me! I’m up on the Poetry Live Podcast website reading the 2005 Nemerov Sonnet Finalist As You Like It.
I am also going to be a featured poet on Steven Schroeder’s new e-zine Anti, in around April.
So that’s all good then.
January 23, 2008
January 15, 2008
A Good Week for the Evans Family
Following on from the news about the Atlanta Review acceptance on Monday, I learned on Saturday as an unexpected graduation present that my sonnet “Hurricane Felix” was a finalist for the 2007 Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. A.M. Juster was the overall winner, but all finalists will be published in Measure, and hey, it’s a good resume item.
The graduation ceremony was beautiful. Liam’s presence was an echo rather than an overbearing sadness, and Sven Birkerts got a standing ovation for the way he stepped up to the Acting Director’s plate as required. Frank Bidart gave an interesting speech on art versus taste, which I don’t want to reprise here, but you can get an idea from Major Jackson’s latest Poetry Foundation blog.
On the Sunday following graduation we got up at 6 and headed back down through New York to reach Rutgers University by 11 a.m. where Becky was competing in the NJ State Level 6 Gymnastics Championships. After a shaky start (Vault 8.9, Bars 8.15) she regained her nerve when her team mate arrived for the next session and produced a stunning Beam routine, which earned her 9.505 and second place. Floor was being scored harshly since 9.1 also rated her a second, and then her All Around score of 35.655 got her fifth place overall. Awesome! Roll on Level 7.
And hmm… Anna Evans, M.Eng, MFA, needs to apply for a job…
January 9, 2008
Poetry News
I found out earlier this week that the Atlanta Review are taking the thesis sonnet “Before She Was Famous,” which I am very happy about, especially since I have submitted to them perhaps four times before, never with any luck. That means my best print creds now read Rattle, the Harvard Review and the Atlanta Review, which isn’t half bad.
I also got my thesis signed off and handed in to the Crossett library for posterity.
This is turning into a wonderful swan song of a residency.
January 6, 2008
Update from Bennington
I have finally had time to draw breath since what seems like before Christmas. What with the trip to England followed by the annual New Years’ Eve Party in Hainesport, NJ, followed almost immediately by my departure for Bennington, this is more solid fact than illusion.
I did make things worse for myself in a way of course. I was always supposed to be lecturing early in the program–this morning, actually. But then a good friend of mine asked if she could swap my Wednesday reading for her Saturday one. As Keba was coming up on Friday for the weekend this seemed like a good plan so I agreed. However that made yesterday and today a whirlwind of adrenaline and last minute amendments.
All went well. Better than well, even. I wouldn’t dare write down all of the compliments I earned for both the reading and the lecture because I am quite sufficiently big-headed for having heard them without inflicting them on my readers. The nicest comment I got on the reading was from a fiction student I had never met who basically told me that my poem “To All the Clothes I Have Been Fucked In” made her realize finally what it was that poetry was supposed to do. The wonderful thing about the lecture was how many faculty members I had never spoken to before came up to me with appreciative comments: Askold Melnyczuk and Susan Cheever to name just two.
And the best thing is now I can spend the rest of the residency chilling out.
