Have Words Will Travel

Every time I post here, I feel like I should apologize for not posting in so long.  But most of the time, if I’m not posting, I’m writing and/or submitting and/or reading, so it’s all for the cause.  Besides, is anyone actually reading this?  I didn’t think so.  (Ha.)

Anyway, since my last post, I’ve been busy…you guessed it: writing, submitting, and reading.  Also, hosting out-of-town guests, which is always fun.  A couple of days ago I finally came up with an ending for a poem that was really giving me a hard time, so I was able to slip it into its assigned spot in my manuscript and get that baby mailed out to a contest I’ve been wanting to enter for a couple of years.  And postmarked it three weeks before the deadline — go me!

My manuscript has changed so much since its original version as my thesis.  Like many theses, I would guess, it was a big rush at the end and I had to shove in almost everything I had that was remotely suitable in order to graduate on time.  So, although it passed all the readers and I got my MFA, it wasn’t something I was particularly ready to send out.  I had a poet friend look at it and got some great feedback from her, most of which echoed what my gut had been telling me (those guts, they can be very perceptive you know), but I still wasn’t sure exactly how to make it sing.  I wrote a few new poems that I really liked, which enabled me to remove some of the weaker ones, which was a good start.  And then one morning while I was drying my hair, I realized there was one particular poem that absolutely HAD to be at the beginning.  Once I’d figured that out, the rest of it pretty much fell into place with the re-ordering.  And although it probably still isn’t perfect (is any manuscript perfect?) it’s something I’m proud of, and I think is worthy of submission.  And I believe it makes much more of an impact the way it stands now.  All of which just goes to show that a writer’s subconscious knows these things, and sometimes you just have to be quiet and listen for it.

In other news, the new Poet Lore is finally out and there I am on page 34.   All I can say is, WOW, what a thrill!  Granted, it’s my first really good print publication, and therefore extra exciting, but does it ever get old?  I’m thinking perhaps not.  Funny thing is, they published one of my least favorite poems.  What’s that all about?  I guess a writer is not always the best judge of her own work?  Or taste is subjective?  Something like that…ha.

Now that the summer is well and truly over, I am determined to make it to more readings, both in the city and here in New Jersey.  I’ve been wrapped up in other things, but it’s important to me to support my fellow poets, and I really enjoy hearing other people read and discovering new voices that I love.  I think I will need to set a goal to get it done, though.  Perhaps two per month?  It’s tough with three kids and a husband traveling every other week.  Woe is me.

Today I was reading on the message boards for my MFA alma mater that it might be a good idea to have a Facebook page for the purposes of publicizing yourself in the literary community.  I agree to an extent.  I mean, I do have literary contacts as “friends” on my Facebook page, but my page is only visible to those whom I have “friended” so I’m not convinced it’s a great publicity tool.   Perhaps it’s possible to make one’s Facebook page public to all — I don’t know.

It seems to me that a better place to out oneself as a literary citizen is on a site like Goodreads.  After all, Goodreads is presumably frequented by literary types who like to read, right?   Turns out Goodreads is a good site for literary networking.  Tonight I received a message via Goodreads from the editor of Gently Read Literature, a newish-but-impressive lit-blog.  He asked if I would consider submitting a review of a poetry collection I’d recently read and done a two-sentence review of on Goodreads.  I’m assuming that he asked not because the two sentences I’d spit out immediately upon finishing the book, but because he (here’s where you fellow starving writers should pay attention) CLICKED THROUGH TO THIS BLOG and beheld my brilliant…ummm…off-the-cuff blathering about…uuuhh…whatever.  And realized that an MFA makes me qualified to write a halfway coherent review.  Well, we’ll see if he posts it.  Because his site really does obviously publish a high standard of content and I think you should go over there right this minute and read some reviews and find a book that sounds like something you would really dig.  I mean, we all need to do our part to support the cause of poetry and literature, yes?  And there are so many amaaaazing poets out there who aren’t being read because the general public is seriously missing out.  Don’t be the General Public.

Also?  Check back there on December 1st.  If I live up to the promise of this blog and my [*insert snooty voice*] literary degree, there will be one kick-ass review of a certain newly-released collection that pretty much everyone in the world should read or else they’ll be MISSING OUT.  (Don’t miss out.)

Thanks, Daniel, for the shot.  And for calling me “aces.”

Yesterday I got my Fall/Winter 2008 copy of Nimrod in the mail, all glossy-covered, thick, smelling of paper and ink.  You know what I’m talking about.  Glorious.  It was even more glorious because it was the awards issue, where I expected to see my poem “Upon Cutting My Thumb While Reading Ariel,” which was a semi-finalist for the Pablo Naruda prize.  Plus, the poem had already been accepted by them for publication before I thought to enter it in the contest (which was their suggestion.)

So imagine my dismay when I eagerly scanned the table of contents to find nary a sign of my name.  It’s only two pages of contents, but I must have read those two pages seventeen times looking for my name.  Surely I’m just overlooking it, I thought, scanning more and more slowly.  As if I wouldn’t spot my own name, right?  My poem wasn’t anywhere in the book.  My stomach sank.

I was going to send a polite inquiry to the editor.  I sat down to type it up when it occurred to me that I should get my acceptance letter and make sure I was addressing the correct editor.  I dug it out of the file.  And right there, in paragraph three, it says, “Publication will be in the ‘Awards 30′ issue of October 2008, or, depending on space and appropriateness of material, one of our two 2009 issues.”

Oh.

While I’m relieved that my poem likely wasn’t lost or overlooked, I am disappointed.  I’ve been on pins and needles for months waiting for this one to arrive.  Now it’s another 6 or 12 months before I’ll see it in print.  Ah well.  The poet’s life is not one of immediate gratification, as this experience has so frustratingly reminded me.  You can bet, though, that even without the inclusion of my poem (ha) this issue of Nimrod will be a good one, and I’m looking quite forward to reading it.

It’s been a bit of a dry spell with my poetry since the end of the semester.  I think summer is a difficult time for me and poetry because of the kids.  They’re home and wanting to be entertained, and I have a hard time being in work mode when I’m doing the mommy thing all day.  Especially when there is so much to do outside.

Submissions, of course, are a little off that schedule because they vary so much in terms of response time and typically take months from the time the submission is sent.  However, I have ten-or-so submissions out there, several of which I should have heard from a month or two ago and haven’t yet.  I’ve been compulsively checking the mail every day, but no SASE’s to be found.  Dry spell, indeed.

Finally, last night I heard via email from Alehouse Press that one of the poems I entered in their Happy Hour Poetry Award contest was chosen for their 2009 issue (coming out in November 2008) and is in the group that will be judged for the finals.  The prize money is really good, so I’ve got my fingers crossed.  The poem was one of those magical ones that comes out almost perfect in the first draft (which hardly ever happens for me) so just maybe…

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 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize.  Wow!  They were already going to publish the poem I’d submitted (titled “Upon Cutting My Thumb While Reading Ariel“), but now I can tell my parents I’m a “prize-winning poet.”  Or maybe not, since I only made it to the semi-finals.  Hm.  Either way, it’s encouragement and validation, which in this business is priceless.

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 out to LC!) Chapbook-manuscript-assemblage has commenced.  It is exciting.  And daunting.  I’ve spent the entire semester studying the various ways that poets organize their manuscripts, as well as what effect said organization has on the flow, arc, and/or emotional impact of the aforementioned manuscripts, and I managed to apply the knowledge gleaned to my thesis, but a chapbook is a whole other monster.  (It must be run-on sentence day.)

In other news, today I got a copyright agreement from Poet Lore, as well as a galley proof.  My first ever galley proof!  Does it make me utterly green and dorky that I was completely thrilled and did a little dance?  (And once again — don’t answer that.  Ha.)

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, so the acceptance was particularly welcome news.

And thank you for crossing your obviously magical fingers!