A Really Good Week

It started last weekend, when the fall digital chapbook issue of blossombones came out, and I was ecstatic over what a gorgeous job the women at BB did on the issue and what great company they'd placed me in, with my e-chap being featured alongside the work of Nicole Cartwright Denison and Kristen Orser, two awesome poets.

Meanwhile I was printing out and binding the final draft of my thesis, which I delivered to the M.A. program's offices on Friday night, immediately before downing a glass and a half of wine and going up to the podium to read five of my poems at the program's thesis reading and reception. Of 10 writing students (half fiction and half nonfiction) at the D.C. campus and a similar number in Baltimore, I was the only poet, so, of course I was feeling no pressure at all ;) But since I take my terror of public speaking as a given, I managed to psych myself up enough (threatening years of self-recrimination is always a good technique) that I actually read as well as I felt I possibly could, which is good enough. Since then, I have been breathing one long sigh of relief. After three decades in school, though, on and off (mostly on) it will be very weird being merely an alumna. But I don't even want to hear the word Ph.D. This is the end of the line (almost definitely.)

Besides, I've got stuff to do: putting together another collection, Melusine, sleep...

Happy News...

... from the editors of blossombones: 12 poems of mine will be featured in their fall special series of e-chapbooks by women poets. Very exciting! The series will be appearing later this fall.
And that was a great way to break my sort of dry spell lately. I guess, earlier this year, I'd gotten into the habit of submitting the wrong poems to the wrong places (for me) and hopefully this is the beginning of evidence that I've been reversing that trend in my more recent submissions.
In other news, this is my final semester in the M.A. program! Three decades of schooling are nearly at an end. And I'm serious this time. No Ph.D. for me (at least not in the foreseeable future -- never say never, I suppose ;)
So I just found out after my first thesis class last week that the first draft of my thesis is due next Wednesday, plus my submission to the class journal. And of course this is the week I've been under the weather and required to fill in at work through half my weekend. Needless to say, I am a busy, tired girl. But a happy one. As much as I generally dislike formatting documents in accordance with style guides, when it comes to the thesis, I'm actually enjoying it... well, I'm halfway done now, so we'll see if I still feel that way on Wednesday...
And Melusine is coming along very well. I'm just about to close submissions on the first issue and open them for the summer issue... just finalizing a few decisions. It's been such a fun project, but now I'll probably have to set it aside to pick up again after the semester's over. Then it will be consuming most of my attention until the debut issue comes out next March.
So, all in all, a good start to the fall season (my favorite part of the fall season, when technically, and meteorologically, it's still the summer.)

Melusine Now Accepting Submissions

Check out my other (very "Other" -- OK, that joke never gets old for me; sorry, guys :) blog for the latest news:

Melusine, or Woman in the 21st Century: Blogging the birth of an online quarterly of art, essay, poetry & fiction.

And look for the classified in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers.