Poetry Stuff

Rejections-- Kenyon Review, Rattle, Smartish Pace
Acceptances - The Smoking Poet (see post below)

Readings: Northwind Gallery anthology reading (photos from the reading here) My hair looks poufy.

Other news - I just learned my second mss is a finalist for a book contest and is in the hands of an outside unnamed judge. I don't know how many mss were named finalists, 5, 10, 20, 50? I'm not sure. But it makes me hopeful. Make a Christmas wish for me...I'd love to be chosen.

Poetry Barn - I'm using 2 space heaters to warm up the poetry barn, it's 25 degrees outside and the poetry barn is a tad drafty. I lost 3 weeks of use of my writing shed because the keyboard to my laptop broke...well, more honestly, I broke it trying to clean beneath the keys. Don't flip off keys to clean beneath them, sometimes they don't go back on and superglue makes things worse. I've had to use an external keyboard up until last week and it didn't fit on my wee desk. I'm going to make the trek out to the barn after lunch.

Other Poetry things--Just bought the poetry book All-American Poem by Matthew Dickman (APR Poetry Prize). Big book, I mean, physically wide. Good poems.

He and his brother are currently the one-two punch of poetry these days. They were both profiled in the September/October 2008 of Poets and Writers (I think that's the one with Billy Collins on the cover.) and they both received acceptances for their poetry collections in 2008. I haven't read his brother's Michael's collection (which I think comes out through Copper Canyon Press), but I like Matthew's work a lot. I haven't been really excited about a poet for a while, so this is a good feeling.

Though I can only recommend the first half of the book as I haven't read the rest. I'm enjoying this collection slowly.


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Comments

  1. No, not poufy. ;)

    Good luck with your mss!

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  2. I didn't know Matthew Dickman's book came out, I'm going to get it too.

    I like Matthew's poetry better than Michael's.

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  3. Maya- thanks!

    Valerie - from what I've read, I like Matthew's better too. But I haven't read much of Matthew's, so I will remain open.

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  4. Congrats on The Smoking Poet. And thanks for posting the rejections.

    And I'm dying to get the Dickman bros. books. Maybe I'll add Matthew's book to my wish list. Saw that P&W's issue and was immediately drawn into their stories. Cool.

    Will come back to the "Success" post later in the day.

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  5. Yes, and good luck with your m'script!

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  6. January--

    That's one of the reasons I've been hesistant to recommend Matthew's book, - is it really good poetry or am I just drawn to his story?

    There is a blurry line between the background of a poet and their poems. I wondered if because MD had such a colorful backstory, I find his poems more intriguing.

    I actually said to someone the other night, I'm still trying to determine if I like his work or I like his story. (maybe both!) And that's okay too.

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