I'm not sure how I missed this very lovely, thoughtful review of my chapbook in Prick of the Spindle that appeared in their previous issue from September. It was written by Jen Dempsey, who is currently teaching English in South Korea.
The Winter/Spring issue of Melusine launched this past Sunday, which I am very happy about. Besides the fact that I am proud of the issue, I'm also glad to be free to think about other things literary and non-literary. Well, mostly non-literary. Baby #2 is due in just a little over two weeks, which is kind of crazy. For the longest time, it seemed as if I still had six months to prepare, mentally and otherwise. I hope Baby #1 handles the company OK. It will be pretty exciting for us to meet the baby boy, obviously; I hope his big sister will feel the same. I think she will, at least in time. She is a loving little girl, and there is plenty of love to go around these days... For now, I'm enjoying the hours spent, just the two of us.
I have a personal/writer's website in the works that is almost ready to launch, actually, and has been ready for a while, pending some finishing touches. But, as with a lot of things, the next month or two won't be the time to put finishing touches on things, and so things will have to wait a bit longer.
In the meantime, maybe I will make some room on this here blog to compile links to the chapbook's reviews... It was released in 2011, but it's cool to think people are still reading it, and I'd love to expand its readership by another reader or two, despite my lack of finesse in the area of self-promotion. I have one other literary project planned for the next week, but I'll see if I can manage both. Then, of course, I might want to consider actually writing a new poem again. There's an idea, huh? I wrote more than I thought I would in A.'s first year, less so since the new pregnancy. I definitely won't be doing NaPoWriMo this April, technically speaking, but, hey, if I can write just one poem all month, I'll consider that a modest success. Maybe in May, I could try for two.
Showing posts with label Blue Trajectory chapbook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blue Trajectory chapbook. Show all posts
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Friday, July 20, 2012
Blue Trajectory is Reviewed in Eclectica
A new review of my chapbook, Blue Trajectory, appeared this week in the new issue of Eclectica.
I found the review, by Gilbert Wesley Purdy, to be fair and thoughtful, with some astute and useful observations. I have to admit that I had to read it twice to take in some of the most thoughtful points. I was thrown off at first by the fact that the review was combined with that of another book, a full-length collection, and that, as a thesis to link the two together, as is usually required in a combo review, a sort of comparison seemed to have been drawn between the other author's book and mine in terms of our backgrounds and our respective openness about our personal lives as revealed in our work, as well as our relative attempts at sophistication versus simplicity, two words that are used somewhat ambiguously here, I think. Is one of us good at sophistication and not so good at simplicity, with the reverse holding true of the other, or is simplicity, when done right, always to be preferred over sophistication? Since I don't think of my poems (or their author) as aiming at either sophistication or simplicity, it's hard for me to answer this question.
When I approach a review myself, I always feel a bit strange about placing too much emphasis on the author's background, especially when my knowledge of it is incomplete. In the case of mine, the (albeit reasonable) guess that I completed my MFA (or M.A., as JHU calls theirs, not that it matters much) from Hopkins in my mid-20s seems to give an impression that maybe life has been smoother for me than it has been. In fact, I received the degree at the age of 35, after a decade or so of floundering about, education and career-wise. If the last couple decades of my life were less smooth than they look on paper, there is no back-story to go along with that fact other than the usual, a temperament that needed some time and testing to find its niche.
What this means for my writing, I don't know. I know my temperament is a private one, and I guess my comfort with a certain level of privacy comes across more in my work than I realize. As a strongly introverted sort (cliche for a poet, I know, but it's true) I don't find it daring to infer my life from a distance; I find it natural and comfortable. I feel that at times the statements in my poems are very frank, but it's probably true that these statements, as the reviewer notes, stand out because they are in the minority. I also know that my approach regarding style and subject matter has probably drawn inward, rather than outward, with time. Several of the poems I published in the first year or two of beginning to place my poems were more direct in voice. Although I still write poems with the same level of directness, oddly, lately, these poems aren't picked up, and the less direct ones are. I'm not sure exactly why this is.
There may be other, more substantial differences between the two sets of poems than directness/ lack of directness, but whatever the differences are, it seems that I may be better suited to writing the latter sort of poem. The reviewer mentions transience and tenuity. I guess these concepts are in line with my philosophy of poetry and its role, as distinct from the role of narrative prose. Poetry can imitate dreamscapes by being impressionistic and fluid; it can live in the moment and not always feel the need to take a stand or draw a conclusion. Once in a while, it can or it needs to take a stand or draw a conclusion, and then it should, but I don't think this is required or would be desired of every poem.
Mr. Purdy makes a fair point in his closing comments, too. I do struggle with consistent and effective closure, and that is part of the ongoing challenge. I don't mean that cheekily; it truly is an area where I struggle, but it's also part of what keeps inspiring me.
I found the review, by Gilbert Wesley Purdy, to be fair and thoughtful, with some astute and useful observations. I have to admit that I had to read it twice to take in some of the most thoughtful points. I was thrown off at first by the fact that the review was combined with that of another book, a full-length collection, and that, as a thesis to link the two together, as is usually required in a combo review, a sort of comparison seemed to have been drawn between the other author's book and mine in terms of our backgrounds and our respective openness about our personal lives as revealed in our work, as well as our relative attempts at sophistication versus simplicity, two words that are used somewhat ambiguously here, I think. Is one of us good at sophistication and not so good at simplicity, with the reverse holding true of the other, or is simplicity, when done right, always to be preferred over sophistication? Since I don't think of my poems (or their author) as aiming at either sophistication or simplicity, it's hard for me to answer this question.
When I approach a review myself, I always feel a bit strange about placing too much emphasis on the author's background, especially when my knowledge of it is incomplete. In the case of mine, the (albeit reasonable) guess that I completed my MFA (or M.A., as JHU calls theirs, not that it matters much) from Hopkins in my mid-20s seems to give an impression that maybe life has been smoother for me than it has been. In fact, I received the degree at the age of 35, after a decade or so of floundering about, education and career-wise. If the last couple decades of my life were less smooth than they look on paper, there is no back-story to go along with that fact other than the usual, a temperament that needed some time and testing to find its niche.
What this means for my writing, I don't know. I know my temperament is a private one, and I guess my comfort with a certain level of privacy comes across more in my work than I realize. As a strongly introverted sort (cliche for a poet, I know, but it's true) I don't find it daring to infer my life from a distance; I find it natural and comfortable. I feel that at times the statements in my poems are very frank, but it's probably true that these statements, as the reviewer notes, stand out because they are in the minority. I also know that my approach regarding style and subject matter has probably drawn inward, rather than outward, with time. Several of the poems I published in the first year or two of beginning to place my poems were more direct in voice. Although I still write poems with the same level of directness, oddly, lately, these poems aren't picked up, and the less direct ones are. I'm not sure exactly why this is.
There may be other, more substantial differences between the two sets of poems than directness/ lack of directness, but whatever the differences are, it seems that I may be better suited to writing the latter sort of poem. The reviewer mentions transience and tenuity. I guess these concepts are in line with my philosophy of poetry and its role, as distinct from the role of narrative prose. Poetry can imitate dreamscapes by being impressionistic and fluid; it can live in the moment and not always feel the need to take a stand or draw a conclusion. Once in a while, it can or it needs to take a stand or draw a conclusion, and then it should, but I don't think this is required or would be desired of every poem.
Mr. Purdy makes a fair point in his closing comments, too. I do struggle with consistent and effective closure, and that is part of the ongoing challenge. I don't mean that cheekily; it truly is an area where I struggle, but it's also part of what keeps inspiring me.
Friday, February 24, 2012
First Review of Blue Trajectory
That's Blue Trajectory my chapbook, not to be confused with the current name of this blog, of course, since that would probably be a very short review given how often I update it.
Livia Kent reviewed the chap for the new issue of Lines + Stars. Her review was so beautifully and thoughtfully written, it made me very happy. Please check it out here, if you like.
It's a warm but rainy February day and I am feeling sleepy (decaf was probably a bad choice) but still happy.
Spring is coming soon. AWP is coming even sooner, although I unfortunately won't be going. I am planning for next year, though, which reminds me I need to get to work on the Melusine print issue so I'll have something to bring to the table, so to speak, Melusine-wise. I have the lineup selected; I just need to find a good layout tool... This next month's big project, I think... Then for April, I'm finally doing NaPoWriMo. I've resisted it thus far, but I've hit a long patch of writer's block and I think I really need it this year...
Livia Kent reviewed the chap for the new issue of Lines + Stars. Her review was so beautifully and thoughtfully written, it made me very happy. Please check it out here, if you like.
It's a warm but rainy February day and I am feeling sleepy (decaf was probably a bad choice) but still happy.
Spring is coming soon. AWP is coming even sooner, although I unfortunately won't be going. I am planning for next year, though, which reminds me I need to get to work on the Melusine print issue so I'll have something to bring to the table, so to speak, Melusine-wise. I have the lineup selected; I just need to find a good layout tool... This next month's big project, I think... Then for April, I'm finally doing NaPoWriMo. I've resisted it thus far, but I've hit a long patch of writer's block and I think I really need it this year...
Monday, October 17, 2011
Blue Trajectory (My Chapbook) is Now Available...
So October has been a good month, lit-wise. I now have some really exciting news to share. My chapbook, Blue Trajectory, is, as of today, available from Dancing Girl Press and can be purchased here.
I can't wait to see my copies. Dancing Girl's editor, Kristy Bowen, did such a beautiful job with the cover. I'm really proud of how it looks, and I hope anyone who checks it out will enjoy what's inside. I think the poems sort of cohere; for the most part, they feel like they belong together. Some of them started out as part of another chapbook project with a slightly different theme, but they ended up following a different, well, trajectory, and I'm happy with where they ended up.
I can't wait to see my copies. Dancing Girl's editor, Kristy Bowen, did such a beautiful job with the cover. I'm really proud of how it looks, and I hope anyone who checks it out will enjoy what's inside. I think the poems sort of cohere; for the most part, they feel like they belong together. Some of them started out as part of another chapbook project with a slightly different theme, but they ended up following a different, well, trajectory, and I'm happy with where they ended up.
Monday, July 25, 2011
July
Well, it's been a little while again, despite the resolution to post here more frequently. (Maybe I should just stop making resolutions -- err, I mean post more often ;)
But I've been keeping busy with a bunch of stuff, some of it writing-related. I'm finishing up the final revision draft of my chapbook and hope to send it out at the end of the week.
And then I'll probably take a hiatus from poetry for at least a few weeks, maybe a month, so I don't get that awful feeling of, oh, if only this new one could have gone in there; it's oh-so-much better than the others -- a feeling that often turns out not to be true, fortunately. No poem seems quite as perfect as it did the first moment after it was written. A workshop instructor once gave the wise advice that there should be a cooling-off period, at least a counting-to-10 period before sending a composition that still has that "new poem smell" off to a journal (imagery mine). Its imperfections will become apparent enough within 24 hours.
And I answered some editorial questions on behalf of Melusine for the "Six Questions For" blog, if you want to check it out here.
Well, until next month, I guess... enjoy the rest of your summer. It is too dang hot lately, but then winter is too dang cold. That's the way here in the Mid-Atlantic, anyway. At least there is September coming, and eventually another May...
But I've been keeping busy with a bunch of stuff, some of it writing-related. I'm finishing up the final revision draft of my chapbook and hope to send it out at the end of the week.
And then I'll probably take a hiatus from poetry for at least a few weeks, maybe a month, so I don't get that awful feeling of, oh, if only this new one could have gone in there; it's oh-so-much better than the others -- a feeling that often turns out not to be true, fortunately. No poem seems quite as perfect as it did the first moment after it was written. A workshop instructor once gave the wise advice that there should be a cooling-off period, at least a counting-to-10 period before sending a composition that still has that "new poem smell" off to a journal (imagery mine). Its imperfections will become apparent enough within 24 hours.
And I answered some editorial questions on behalf of Melusine for the "Six Questions For" blog, if you want to check it out here.
Well, until next month, I guess... enjoy the rest of your summer. It is too dang hot lately, but then winter is too dang cold. That's the way here in the Mid-Atlantic, anyway. At least there is September coming, and eventually another May...
Friday, April 22, 2011
In the "Nice Problems to Have" Category...
... I had to decline an acceptance for publication of a much earlier version of the chapbook manuscript that will be published by Dancing Girl Press this fall. As an editor myself, I feel sort of shabby about having to withdraw a manuscript after it was accepted, but I honestly believed that a year was the cutoff time to expect an answer one way or the other, since the maximum advertised wait time had been six months, and it's been over a year and a half.
I also feel shabby for complaining about wait periods, but it can be hard to wait sometimes, especially when it comes to "firsts." It was the same way while I was waiting for those first few journal publications, and this will be my first print chapbook. But sometimes with my own journal, I end up making people wait longer than the advertised time, and I feel shabby about that, too. It happens, and there are generally reasons -- the chief one being time and the lack thereof. The press in question is one I admire, and I know they are swamped with manuscripts.
But all's well, and I'm proud to be appearing with Dancing Girl Press, which to be honest was my first choice of publisher for this chap, although the version that DGP accepted wasn't the first one I submitted to them, and I have to be honest again and say that I'm really glad that's the case, because the revised lineup I have right now is the first one I feel really 100 percent confident about sending into the world. I tried to convince myself I felt that way about the previous versions, but it was more like 99 percent and falling with every re-reading.
That doesn't mean I think this iteration is perfect, or that any poem I'll ever write will be perfect, whatever that means, much less a book of 'em, but I feel good about it, and not afraid to see it in print. Let's be frank one more time: the thought of seeing one's work in book form for the first time is exciting, but that's a different matter than feeling OK about the work itself. I feel OK about this work. (And I'm fighting off with a stick the temptation to add a disclaimer, like "for the moment," durnit.)
I also feel shabby for complaining about wait periods, but it can be hard to wait sometimes, especially when it comes to "firsts." It was the same way while I was waiting for those first few journal publications, and this will be my first print chapbook. But sometimes with my own journal, I end up making people wait longer than the advertised time, and I feel shabby about that, too. It happens, and there are generally reasons -- the chief one being time and the lack thereof. The press in question is one I admire, and I know they are swamped with manuscripts.
But all's well, and I'm proud to be appearing with Dancing Girl Press, which to be honest was my first choice of publisher for this chap, although the version that DGP accepted wasn't the first one I submitted to them, and I have to be honest again and say that I'm really glad that's the case, because the revised lineup I have right now is the first one I feel really 100 percent confident about sending into the world. I tried to convince myself I felt that way about the previous versions, but it was more like 99 percent and falling with every re-reading.
That doesn't mean I think this iteration is perfect, or that any poem I'll ever write will be perfect, whatever that means, much less a book of 'em, but I feel good about it, and not afraid to see it in print. Let's be frank one more time: the thought of seeing one's work in book form for the first time is exciting, but that's a different matter than feeling OK about the work itself. I feel OK about this work. (And I'm fighting off with a stick the temptation to add a disclaimer, like "for the moment," durnit.)
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Dancing Girl Press Lineup for 2011-12
I'm excited to see my chapbook title ("Blue Trajectory," also the title of this blog, not coincidentally) in the Dancing Girl Press Lineup for 2011-12.
Looking forward to the fall!
Also looking forward to the spring and summer in between. Winter, on the other hand, does not agree with me, although it is growing on me enough to be tolerable. I do find snow and even ice storms pretty and inspiring to look at, and sometimes a long weekend spent mostly indoors, writing, cooking, napping and watching movies, is kinda nice. This last weekend was one of those, and the back-to-work transition has been tough. The caffeine never quite kicked in today.
But then I'm always sleepy in the winter. All in all, if winter were downsized to half its length and the rest were split between spring and fall, I would be quite happy. Even the humid Washington summer could handle another week or two tacked on, I think — at the beginning, not the end.
Looking forward to the fall!
Also looking forward to the spring and summer in between. Winter, on the other hand, does not agree with me, although it is growing on me enough to be tolerable. I do find snow and even ice storms pretty and inspiring to look at, and sometimes a long weekend spent mostly indoors, writing, cooking, napping and watching movies, is kinda nice. This last weekend was one of those, and the back-to-work transition has been tough. The caffeine never quite kicked in today.
But then I'm always sleepy in the winter. All in all, if winter were downsized to half its length and the rest were split between spring and fall, I would be quite happy. Even the humid Washington summer could handle another week or two tacked on, I think — at the beginning, not the end.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
What a Weekend
I got some really wonderful news on Thursday. My first print chapbook, Blue Trajectory, will be published by Dancing Girl Press as part of its 2011-12 series, with the date tentatively slated for this fall.
I am pretty excited about this, so excited in fact that I remained cheerful on Friday even upon learning that our furnace is broken and needs replacement, and that the replacement won't be arriving at our house until Monday. After looking at the weather forecast, though, I started to get a bit apprehensive about my prospects of not freezing to death...
Well, before long, I was looking up pet-friendly hotels by the beach and was once again high on life until learning that the one with the jacuzzi was booked and the rest tended to be highly insect-infested, based on the consumer reviews. I guess it wasn't surprising that hotels that allow pets have insects or that the only pet-friendly hotel in town with a jacuzzi was booked, given that there is a new casino complex opening in town this weekend.
However, my mood was restored when my partner exhibited his latent HVAC prowess and came up with a temporary fix for the furnace that involved a little rigging and him keeping an eye on it for the few minutes that it's running.
So, all in all, things are well in my little world, although I was deeply saddened, not to mention freaked out and angry about the shooting incident in Arizona yesterday... another reminder that the polarizing, incendiary political language is damaging our country. Sure, the guy is obviously a deranged individual. But it's not enough just to say that. He is a deranged individual in the context of Arizona circa 2011. I hope what happened will make people come together to reflect, but in light of recent trends, I'm afraid that's not what will happen. I really hope I'm wrong.
I am pretty excited about this, so excited in fact that I remained cheerful on Friday even upon learning that our furnace is broken and needs replacement, and that the replacement won't be arriving at our house until Monday. After looking at the weather forecast, though, I started to get a bit apprehensive about my prospects of not freezing to death...
Well, before long, I was looking up pet-friendly hotels by the beach and was once again high on life until learning that the one with the jacuzzi was booked and the rest tended to be highly insect-infested, based on the consumer reviews. I guess it wasn't surprising that hotels that allow pets have insects or that the only pet-friendly hotel in town with a jacuzzi was booked, given that there is a new casino complex opening in town this weekend.
However, my mood was restored when my partner exhibited his latent HVAC prowess and came up with a temporary fix for the furnace that involved a little rigging and him keeping an eye on it for the few minutes that it's running.
So, all in all, things are well in my little world, although I was deeply saddened, not to mention freaked out and angry about the shooting incident in Arizona yesterday... another reminder that the polarizing, incendiary political language is damaging our country. Sure, the guy is obviously a deranged individual. But it's not enough just to say that. He is a deranged individual in the context of Arizona circa 2011. I hope what happened will make people come together to reflect, but in light of recent trends, I'm afraid that's not what will happen. I really hope I'm wrong.
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