heart
I wrote my 60th Amazon review this morning, for Eamon Grennan's Out of Sight, which is a great, attentive book to read, especially when it feels like my mind has been racing 24/7 lately. Anyway, here's a link to the book (scroll down for the review):
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sight-New-Selected-Poems/dp/155597564X/ref=cm_cr-mr-title
Writing the review this morning was inspired in part by Tim Stafford (aka brazencaucasian who posted a really lovely review of my book earlier this week. It was so unexpected & kind & awesome, that it made me crave doing another review myself -- with the hope that the poet might stumble upon it the way I stumbled upon Tim's, and have their heart just burst into joy the way mine did.
With Amazon reviews, I try to commit to doing two a month (remember the rules: books I love, that don't already have reviews)*, but since making the NYC-Urbana 2010 team & having my mind blown by the news of this residency, time just slipped by with no reviews. Boo.
So I was happy to make the time: both find & read a book I'd love, and then write up some loveletters for it. Thank you, Tim -- for both the super generous words & your rad inspiration.
And somewhat relatedly, I want to thank everyone who has been so kind & encouraging about my UPenn news. I am so grateful to be a community of supportive artists. All the positive reaction (both here & on the Facebook page Shap set up for me) has been incredibly heartening and humbling.
I applied for a lot (for real: A LOT) of residencies & fellowships before being awarded this one, and so it really is my biggest hope is that you view this appointment as a victory for all of us poets in the slam.
I don't have an MFA. My undergrad degree is in playwriting /screenwriting. My CV is filled with slam creditials & pimps my involvement with the organizational end of the poetry slam [my role with Urbana, my experiences at NPS/WOWps/iWPS, etc...). And my one non-poetry book is a history of the NYC slam movement. So there is no escaping it: signing me up = signing up a slam poet.
And yet -- finally! -- this slam poet's application crossed the finish line.
And even more amazing: in the release itself, UPenn spotted my involvement with slam as a reason they were ATTRACTED to my application, which is really incredible for them to be putting that out there.
So really: I share this with all of you! And I hope this appointment inspires more poets to test the waters of opportunities (grants, fellowships, residencies, etc...) that they thought were beyond their reach.
If you have any questions, let me know or hit me up at NPS. I'll be hosting a Publishing 101 panel with Mahogany Brown (Penmanship Books), Anis Mojgani (Write Bloody) and Karen Finneyfrock (Penguin) too, if you want to check that out or ask questions there too. I'm happy to encourage y'all!
And again: THANK YOU ALL for being so awesome. I really truly appreciate it!
* NOTE: I should really add to this list "books / anthologies that feature me and/or my poetry" since I don't review stuff I'm in. Which means I won't be able to review Tim's incredible classroom friendly Write Bloody anthology Learn Then Burn, but that doesn't mean you should pick up (and maybe review it!) yourselves: www.writebloody.com
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Sight-New-Selected-Poems/dp/155597564X/ref=cm_cr-mr-title
Writing the review this morning was inspired in part by Tim Stafford (aka brazencaucasian who posted a really lovely review of my book earlier this week. It was so unexpected & kind & awesome, that it made me crave doing another review myself -- with the hope that the poet might stumble upon it the way I stumbled upon Tim's, and have their heart just burst into joy the way mine did.
With Amazon reviews, I try to commit to doing two a month (remember the rules: books I love, that don't already have reviews)*, but since making the NYC-Urbana 2010 team & having my mind blown by the news of this residency, time just slipped by with no reviews. Boo.
So I was happy to make the time: both find & read a book I'd love, and then write up some loveletters for it. Thank you, Tim -- for both the super generous words & your rad inspiration.
And somewhat relatedly, I want to thank everyone who has been so kind & encouraging about my UPenn news. I am so grateful to be a community of supportive artists. All the positive reaction (both here & on the Facebook page Shap set up for me) has been incredibly heartening and humbling.
I applied for a lot (for real: A LOT) of residencies & fellowships before being awarded this one, and so it really is my biggest hope is that you view this appointment as a victory for all of us poets in the slam.
I don't have an MFA. My undergrad degree is in playwriting /screenwriting. My CV is filled with slam creditials & pimps my involvement with the organizational end of the poetry slam [my role with Urbana, my experiences at NPS/WOWps/iWPS, etc...). And my one non-poetry book is a history of the NYC slam movement. So there is no escaping it: signing me up = signing up a slam poet.
And yet -- finally! -- this slam poet's application crossed the finish line.
And even more amazing: in the release itself, UPenn spotted my involvement with slam as a reason they were ATTRACTED to my application, which is really incredible for them to be putting that out there.
So really: I share this with all of you! And I hope this appointment inspires more poets to test the waters of opportunities (grants, fellowships, residencies, etc...) that they thought were beyond their reach.
If you have any questions, let me know or hit me up at NPS. I'll be hosting a Publishing 101 panel with Mahogany Brown (Penmanship Books), Anis Mojgani (Write Bloody) and Karen Finneyfrock (Penguin) too, if you want to check that out or ask questions there too. I'm happy to encourage y'all!
And again: THANK YOU ALL for being so awesome. I really truly appreciate it!
* NOTE: I should really add to this list "books / anthologies that feature me and/or my poetry" since I don't review stuff I'm in. Which means I won't be able to review Tim's incredible classroom friendly Write Bloody anthology Learn Then Burn, but that doesn't mean you should pick up (and maybe review it!) yourselves: www.writebloody.com