Traveling Light

I travel light. On my recent train trip to Chicago for AWP, I took one lightweight shoulder bag of clothing to leave in my room, a sturdy zip-up book bag from a previous AWP conference, and my gigantic purse, big enough to hold hairbrush, toothbrush, protein bars, and random coincidii.

But, of course, I traveled home heavier, acquiring a new AWP book bag, red & white, and filling both book bags with books and journals. Hence, a "fat Tuesday" of reading abundance the blog!

I took cash from teaching poetry to buy poetry, but a thrill is that many journals offer stellar deals or hand you back issues for free! So here is what I came home with:

Books:

Why We Make Gardens (poems), by Jeanne Larsen (Mayapple Press)
Fuse (poems), by Mark McKee (Black Lawrence Press)
Close Quarters (essays), by Amy Monticello (Sweet Publications)
The Poetics of American Song Lyrics (essays), edited by Charlotte Pence (University Press of Mississippi)

Journals:

Barn Owl Review (#5, current + #3, a back issue)
Ninth Letter
Puerto del Sol (forever in love with this journal, as they published my first short story in a national magazine!)
Arsenic Lobster (3 print anthologies)
Bellingham Review
The Helix Magazine
Thin Air

Contributor Copies:

Poems & Plays #19 (3 poems in it!)
Lake Effect #16 (sold out at table, but I found my contributor copies in the mail when I got home!)
blossombones (4 poems, online)
Medulla Review (2 poems, online, mentioned yesterday)

Random Coincidii:

Albert Goldbarth was at the Kenyon Review table, signing letterpress foldout broadsides of his poem "Photographs of the Interiors of Dictators' Houses," which had been published in the Kenyon Review Online, Spring 2011, so I got one. What a charming man!

Charlotte Pence (see Poetics of American Song Lyrics above) has 3 poems in the same issue of Poems & Plays that I'm in, and I also got to attend her panel, hearing excerpts from her book and the story of how it came to be.

My chapbook Nocturnes (night songs) has one poem in it that does follow the structure of a song, with verses & variations on a refrain. It is just now out from Hyacinth Girl Press, which shared a table with Arsenic Lobster and Solace in So Many Words (anthology edited by Ellen Wade Beals, with Philip Levine, our Poet Laureate, in it, and we heard him speak at AWP; more to come on that), and it just about sold out, as I came home with only 2 copies of it. More to be printed, so editor Margaret Bashaar can send it to subscribers and those who pre-ordered, and so I can get some to sell locally.

I think I exercised 1) serious restraint 2) my shoulders.

Whew, Wow, and Women!

Where to begin? Well, with a "Whew!" and a "Wow!" I attended many panels and readings at the AWP Conference in Chicago over the past couple days, learned a lot, and came home inspired and exhausted. I was reading journals on the train home--Thin Air, containing poet Jannett Highfill and essayist Leslie Pietrzyk, several print issues of Arsenic Lobster--and sometimes just leaning back to ponder the experience (and to discover that my seat cushion was detached and could serve as a flotation device...).

I came home to the warmth of family wamily, my son coming down with a cold...and had to send a sick boy back to college on the train this morning, so it's a Blue Monday, but with blue skies and a built-in train nap for him!

So in Blue Monday mode, and because March is Women's History Month, I'll begin with the new all-women issue of The Medulla Review, just out, guest edited by Mary Stone Dockery, who was blue at not being able to attend AWP this year. The fabulous cover art is by Kathryn Renee.

I have 2 poems in this issue, "Doorknob" and "Biopsy," and by chance "Biopsy" just recently aired on WGLT Poetry Radio with music by Matt Flinner. You can hear a podcast of it here.

And I had the thrill of reading with other women poets for Adanna Journal on Saturday night at AWP at an on-site reception, meeting Sandy Longhorn, Debra Bruce, and editor Christine Redman-Waldeyer, and hearing the work of many fine poets, present and not present (but graciously represented by Christine!).

Keep an eye on Adanna's submission guidelines, as I think the next themed collection will be on how women grieve, already represented on the featured poets page here. And thanks to Wikipedia, as usual, for Amelia Earhart!

Look for more AWP debriefing here on tomorrow's Fat Tuesday! And probably all week.

Not Unpacked

I came home from AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) lighter in spirit and heavier of book bag!  I'm sure I will blog about specifics soon. Whew! What a thrill to see so many writers and editors I'd only met online, to reconnect with old friends, and to be inspired by the panels and readings.

Marilynne Robinson!!  Sigh....

Now I shall reconnect with family wamily. And nap.

Lion and Lamb

March winds have roared in wild as a lion, but the recent temperatures here in the Midwest have been mild as a lamb. So which is it, lion or lamb? 

And Wikipedia of course provides more weather lore.

I'll be AWPing...heh heh...for the next couple of days, and, as if to show me my tensions and worries, I had a morning dream of trying to find the bathroom, finding it, and discovering it to be co-ed, with distinguished-looking writers, male and female, lounging around in the lounge area. And, of course, the stalls, preventing any actual peeing. Sigh....

So I won't be blogging till after the event. Will be attending panels, readings, receptions, etc., and reading for Adanna Journal Saturday night. (See Events on the right.) Hoping to meet some people I've met only through their work or online, and to run into old friends. There will be 10,000 people there, I hear.

Happy March! (Beware the Ides.)

Blown Away on Leap Day

Picking up sticks again in my parents' yard this morning, this time due to last night's thunderstorm, I was almost blown away.

Whimsical pause for hilarity: A Mighty Wind

At least the branches in my arms might have served as wings! And almost did. I might have leaped into the air on Leap Day and stayed there for a while.

I was also blown away by these poems from Michaela A. Gabriel! And this collage art by Alexis Anne Mackenzie! I was beginning to line up poetry features for March at Escape Into Life, and when I read these "The day I fell in love with..." poems by Gabriel, they seemed so perfect for Leap Day, a day when women can declare their love in "unconventional" ways, that I posted them on this special extra day of February.

There's a golden ring hanging from the split rock above, so a marriage proposal hovers, too, and butterflies are circling in the poem. Oh, this makes it a Random Coinciday in the blog, as well as a Poetry Someday and the Hump of the Week!

Happy Leap Day to all!

Whimsical pause for hilarity: 30 Rock: Leap Day

And safe travels to all who are meeting rain, snow, or...a mighty wind.