I heard yesterday that I have been granted one of the Howard Nemerov Scholarships to this year’s Sewanee Writers’ Conference. I am psyched! Sewanee is right up there alongside Bread Loaf, especially for poets with more formal/narrative leanings, so it should be an excellent 12 days (July 14th to 26th.) I should get the packet in the mail in the next few days, and then I will have more details.
May 25, 2009
May 22, 2009
And Now I Can Tell You…
…that I have been accepted onto the New Jersey State Art Council Artists In Education Roster. Ta da! The funny thing is, I still haven’t received the official notification, but I guess they knew they were running a little late, because today I got the invitation to the orientation and training! I am very much looking forward to learning more about how everything will work in actuality.
While I am covering poetry news, I should mention that the Delaware Valley Poets reading (May 11th) and the West Caldwell Literary Festival (May 17th) also both went really well. I sold eight chapbooks at W. Caldwell, which is not a bad result from reading just two poems.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend y’all!
May 9, 2009
This Little Piggy Has Fleas…
…but no Swine Flu, thank goodness! It was all just a tempest in an espresso cup, much as I predicted.
Paul Stevens’ latest editorial achievement, The Flea, is now online–worth perusing as much for the idiosyncratic house style as for the excellent poetry contained within by such luminaries as Rhina Espaillat, Rose Kelleher, Tim Murphy, and, of course, yours truly.
As a not particularly reformed Trekkie I can’t find enough good things to say about the new Star Trek Movie. Chris Pine is perfect as a James T. Kirk who is different from the original in ways that the plot justifies completely, and Simon Pegg brings a new feistiness to a faithful interpretation of Scottie. Go see it!
I am 75% of the way through my draft Emily Bronte essay for West Chester, which means I have covered her life and discussed one of her trademark poems, with one more to go.
The submission deadline of May 15th is coming up for the June 1st issue of The Barefoot Muse. I have read 720 poems so far for this issue, and have accepted 6 with 20 on hold. Meanwhile the June issue of The Raintown Review is in production, and we are reading for the Winter issue.
Busy, busy. Don’t close the school on me again, please!
May 4, 2009
From the Center of the Epi-panic…
Last night the kids’ school contacted all parents to inform us that the school will be closed Monday and Tuesday due to two possible cases of Swine flu. Oh joy!
Seriously, I do understand that one must err on the side of caution when it comes to the health of a community’s children, but I also doubt that these are really cases of Swine Flu, or that closing the school would have any more benefit than simply quarantining these children, if the diagnosis proves true.
What I do know is that I was planning to start the first draft of my Emily Bronte essay today (It’s due May 20) and that is now looking unlikely to happen. Sigh!
In more positive news, I have two events coming up in May that are worth publicizing. On Monday 11th May, Rachel Bunting and I are reading for the Delaware Valley Poets at Barnes & Noble in Princeton. That starts at 7.30 p.m. And on Sunday May 17th I am reading for the Journal of New Jersey Poets at the West Caldwell Literary Festival, which runs from 1 to 5 p.m.
I hope to see some of you there!
