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.

Once again, I have gone way too long without posting. This blog is relatively new, but I’ve blogged elsewhere for several years and believe me when I say it’s unusual for me to post so infrequently. I do want to keep this blog writing-oriented, but I will admit I’ve been dealing with some parental illness issues and it has really taken all my energy for several months. However, that is finally getting sorted out, and school will be starting soon (meaning my children will be entertained by someone other than myself), and I am now on day 3 of my final MFA residency before my graduation on Saturday, so I’m very much getting back into the rhythm of my writing life.

So far, the residency has been fantastic. The highlight thus far is Kate Gale, the Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Editor of Los Angeles Review, and accomplished poet in her own right, who has been guiding us graduating poets through the process of actually getting a book published instead of just single poems here and there. Of course, we will continue to do that as well, but it’s so great to have some guidance in terms of an actual plan. I’m nothing if not a girl who likes a plan. She’s been very inspiring to all of us, particularly in her argument that we should become players in the publishing world, not just people who want to be published but never give anything back to the community. It makes so much sense that I wonder at the fact that I haven’t been offered that advice before.

Last night was the first of two faculty readings and not only was Kate’s reading amazing (the woman can write, I’m just sayin’), but also the reading of another visiting faculty, Marc Acito, also known as “The Gay Dave Barry.” Holy crap, that man is funny. He had us in hysterics during his lecture the other day, and last night reading from his two books, How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater, and Attack of the Theater People did not disappoint. I bought both books based on his performance (and performance it was, including singing, which brought the audience to its feet) and am very much looking forward to reading them. The downside? My suitcase is going to be so heavy from all the books I’ve been buying, I’m not going to be able to lift it.

More to come.

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…

I was worried that when I finished my MFA, I would no longer have anyone to critique my work, and I imagined myself falling into a dark, cobwebby hole of unpublishable poems that I didn’t know how to fix.  Since then, some of my fellow student poets and I have made a pact to stick together and continue sharing and commenting on work, even though they all live in Washington and I’m here in New Jersey.  The Internet makes virtual critique groups easy.

My current issue, however, is that I have this manuscript that my virtual critique group have already seen and commented extensively on and, while their comments were helpful as always, they’ve seen many of the poems so many times and in so many drafts that it’s become hard to be objective.  I need a fresh pair of eyes to help me turn “thesis” into “publishable manuscript that will leave contest judges sockless all over the country.”  Luckily, such a person has come along.  A long-time reader of my other (anonymous, non-poetry) blog and I have been chatting via email for a few months and playing the odd game of Word Twist on Facebook.   She’s a poet, too, a few years ahead of me in her writing career, but (I think) we’re more or less peers.  We’ve both got manuscripts we want to publish, so she suggested we trade and comment.  I am ridiculously happy to have someone to swap with.  And if the quality of her comments is as high as the quality of the poems I’ve read so far in her manuscript, I’ll be in good shape.  (No pressure, though, LC.  Ha.)

Not only that, but yet another blog-reader poet friend has offered information on workshops that specifically address getting a manuscript into the best possible shape for publication.  I think I will look into that.  Has anyone ever been to one?  If so, I’d love to hear your impressions.

Meanwhile, today I bought my ticket to the Academy of American Poets’ 2008 Poets Forum in NYC.  This is one of the reasons I love living near New York.  I don’t know how I’m going to wait until November.

It seems that my little hiatus is over.  I woke up this morning raring to go, and the minute I got back from dropping my daughter at camp, I launched myself into preparing submissions.  I’ve been getting a lot of contest notifications, so I ended up preparing three contest submissions: one for single poems, one for a chapbook manuscript, and one for a full book-length manuscript.  I have several more to do.  The reading fees may kill me, though, which  I suppose is why so many poets object to the whole contest dealio.   Still, I’m encouraged by the Nimrod placement, and it seems like contests are the only way to get a book deal anymore, so as long as I have the lettuce, I’ll keep submitting.

The thing that is so hard to believe is that it took me two hours to prepare three submissions.  Obviously I need to streamline my process.

I reckon I’ll spend the afternoon doing some non-contest submissions, since I haven’t sent any since May, and then I’ve got poems to respond to for my fellow students.  It feels good to jump back in.

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.)

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 seems like the world is glutted with MFA grads with great poems all entering contests.  I mean, how can one even compete anymore?  And sometimes it just seems so arbitrary.  And exhausting.

However, I saw a contest today that I thought about entering.  I have no idea why.  Call it a gut feeling.  It’s for a chapbook, though, up to 26 pages.  The question is…is it even worth it?  I mean, does a chapbook mean anything anymore?  Will publishers of full-length manuscripts even care?  Will it put me any closer to my goal of publishing a full-length book of poetry?  Certainly, the chapbook would encompass my very best 26 pages, which would also then be contained later within a full-length book manuscript.  Is that kosher?  I have to assume so, just as people publish single poems all over the place and then include them in books.

And then the big question:  am I totally over-thinking this?  (I’m guessing the answer might be yes.)  Advice (or even assvice) welcomed.

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!