This morning, with his customary clatter, my mailman flung our post through the door slot and onto the floor of our entryway.  It consisted of a Macy’s bill and sale catalog, along with a letter from Nimrod.  Imagine my surprise when I opened it up to find I’d been named a semi-finalist for the 2008 [...]

Alrighty, then.  My one commenter [*cough cough*] encouraged me to go ahead and submit to the contest because a chapbook is a Good and Holy thing, and since she kicked my butt in Word Twist on Facebook, and is therefore smarter than I (or less paralyzed under pressure), I decided to take her advice. (Shout [...]

Today my email inbox was full of calls for poems, manuscripts, and so on.  Contests here, contests there, contests contests everywhere.  I don’t like to enter contests because they typically cost money and I feel like my chances of winning are slim.  Not because I don’t think I have work worth publishing, but because it [...]

So, Whitman makes for a very poor workout soundtrack. I think I lasted about 30 seconds before switching to something a little higher-energy. Heh.
AND, I just turned in my final assignment, the Trethewey review, which is a piece of work I’m quite proud of. And now? Time to celebrate.

I haven’t posted in a few days, but not for lack of poetry. I’ve actually been super busy finishing up the semester. As of Friday, I will have completed all my requirements to graduate. Woooo! The thesis is actually done and on its way to my advisor, but that was the [...]

This week I’ve been putting the final touches on my thesis manuscript, which is due next week. Yesterday I filled out my application to graduate, which requested a blurb on what the thesis is actually about. Although most of my poems fit in 3 or 4 definite thematic sections, there are by necessity [...]

I’m sure no one will be surprised to hear that I love it when my kids do a poetry unit in school each year. I get all excited, wanting to know who they’re studying, what poems they like most, and I especially love it when they have to write poems of their own. [...]

As most of us poets & writers do, I occasionally need a prompt to get going on something new. I have several books that I go to for writing prompts, but sometimes I come up with one on my own.
Lately I’ve been struggling with a Scrabble addiction, specifically Scrabulous on Facebook. I’ve had [...]

Three days ago I asked you to keep your fingers crossed for my submission to Poet Lore. Tonight I got home and there was an e-mail in my inbox from them, saying that they are taking one of the poems I’d submitted for their Fall 2008 issue. It’s been a fairly craptacular day, [...]