New poem in Prick of the Spindle...

... Vol.1.3, which appeared online yesterday. Love the artwork...

Camelot

Happy holidays, poetry people! (and anyone else who may be reading this :)

Poem accepted...

... to appear in Prick of the Spindle later this month.
This will be my fourth publication. Slowly but surely, right?

In any case, it's a happy start to the holiday season, a.k.a. the bleak midwinter. But bleakness outdoors just means more time huddled inside writing. As you can see, I'm making a valiant effort to keep a positive attitude in the face of my least favorite time of year.

And yet another semester's coming to an end. This has been a really great one. I needed one of those. The summer term workshop went pretty well, too, but after this Fall, I finally feel like I'll be ready for the thesis in a year's time. I'm starting to have enough decent stuff in my portfolio to work with that, even if writer's block struck toward the end, I'd be OK, with enough hearty revision. But of course, I have no intention of letting writer's block strike.

Melusine, or Woman in the 21st Century

Please check out my brand-new, other (very "Other") blog, documenting the slow but sure progress I hope to make toward producing an online quarterly that delves deeply into what it means to be a woman artist/thinker in this modern but not all-that-modern age.

Melusine, or Woman in the 21st Century: Blogging the Birth of an Online Quarterly of Art, Essay, Poetry, and Fiction

Third publication

I was thrilled to get the news, while still on vaykay, that two poems of mine were included in the September issue of Lines & Stars.
L&S is a new D.C.-based online mag run by Rachel Adams, an alumna of the JHU program, a seriously talented poet and a fun person to know.
Still shaking off the jet lag, I started a core course in Poetics this past week, the last one I'll need before taking the thesis except for one elective. It looks like it will be a good one.

Another workshop comes to a close...

... and I just turned in my final project, 10 poems stapled together, in some particular order (at least that is the intention.)
As an afterthought, I found a photo I took on my phone and played around with Gimp (open source version of Photoshop, and just as fun to use as a verb; e.g. "yeah, I Gimped it") but as an after-afterthought, I probably should have played around some more. But, hey, my brother's the artist in the family.

Now I've just got one more core course and one more elective to go before the thesis. I'd be happy to take a fourth workshop as an elective, if one is offered. We'll see. The downside to my upcoming much-needed vaykay "abroad" is that it will eat into tuition funds, possibly delaying my finish date. The upside is that it should provide plenty o' inspiration.

Speaking of the particular poetic possibilities* of late summer, (*too much alliteration, I know ;) have yourself a happy epagomenal season!

Second publication credit

I was born in July, and this is my lucky month, apparently.

These three poems appeared just this Tuesday in Wicked Alice, another one of my favorite lit zines, especially for its focus on poetry by and/or about women and its wonderful grrrly edge.

And the editor, Kristy Bowen, is an amazing poet in her own right. I just finished reading The Fever Almanac, which I highly recommend. The poems are tight and polished, yet evocative, and the voice is spot-on consistent.

I have a few more things out there waiting on answers, but I need to send out another batch or two. It's always easier when I'm not taking a workshop simultaneously, but that's no excuse, I know...

First publication credit...

... well, for all practical purposes. I published a few scattered poems as an undergraduate in my early 20's, under a pseudonym. One even one third place in The Ledge's annual contest. (I kind of wish I hadn't been using the pseudonym for that one ;) But then life got a little ahead of me, and I had to run and catch up for a decade or so. Glad I did, or I'd probably have less to write about now.

Inclement appeared the first of this month in the July/August 2007 issue of Eclectica.

I was so jazzed to see how perfectly they fit the underwater sea photography theme of the featured artwork with the poem's winter setting. The design was so lovely, I almost forgot to read the poem. But then, I'm already fairly well acquainted with it at this point ;)