I mentioned in my last post that I had three articles published in an encyclopedia that has just recently come out. (Much thanks to nathangphd for referring me to the editors! Thanks, N!)

Here it is: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and PoetryIf anyone wants to buy a copy, it's only $600 for the 5-volume set. Hehehe ( Read more... )

When I was doing ordering for our literature non-fiction collection some time ago, I was surprised to find it was pretty difficult to find current literary biography. There was the fairly recent Edna St. Vincent Millay bio, but that had been a very popular book and we already had plenty of copies ( Read more... )

My amazing and brilliant friend Beth just called me here at work to tell me that her poetry collection, Shouldering Zero has just been accepted for publication as a book ( Read more... )

I went to drop off my Netflix movies at the post office this morning. While there, I saw an old sometimes friend of mine, a novelist. We -- for a time -- went out for dinner or drinks here and there, talked writing, culture, movies. I enjoyed it. He was sometimes awkward, stiff, and distant. Still, I always liked what he had to say, found him a ( Read more... )

This morning, I settled back into bed for a final hour of hardcore sleep -- after a largely sleepness night. At one point, a single phrase kept appearing to me visually ... sort of as a flying caption on any images I was watching.

The phrase was Sitting on Her Last Meow.

It's made my day mildly nervous. Guess I want her to have more.

The first run at writing the essay went pretty well. I think I am loosening into how to do it, how to let go of structural worries and just plain write. Beth advises me to leave editing in its rightful place: at the end. I should just write the bit that takes hold of me at the time, fit it in, cut it lean, later ( Read more... )

Worked last night on the series of essays I've been edging towards writing for awhile. I am trying to make the first chapter creep towards nailing down ideas about nostalgia and vision, the potential of language and imagination, and the existence of "spectral" audiences ( Read more... )

About a year ago, I worked very hard -- for over a year -- on a poetry manuscript I named mere jonathans. Once finishing a first draft of the book, I "workshopped" it in a small group of three other poets who likewise had their own books they were working on. Once going through detailed note-making for editing, I felt exhausted, done with it. I ( Read more... )

OK: Despite good intentions, I have been having trouble following through with my mind-goals lately. I know that one prerequisite is getting an office space set up: I need private space to write at the computer, to loll and read, to stare out the window and reflect ( Read more... )

dom_ino and I spoke briefly about personal goals for the coming year, mostly in terms of projects that would lead to personal growth. Since I said earlier that I'd like not to bog myself down this winter -- like I did with the poet essays this past fall -- and make this colder season more about whimsical pleasures, I want to be both selective and vague ( Read more... )