I’m Indie Bound

{ November 20, 2009 @ 1:08 pm } · { Non Poetry Ramblings }
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This time of year I have heard bloggers shouting Shop Independent! – and I always have simply sighed.  In rural Western New York, bookstores — independent or otherwise — are a bit hard to come by, so in the past I have resorted to ordering from the evil empires of the book world (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc…)  But not this year — I’m happy to report that the Jamestown area has a new independent bookstore called Off the Beaten Path located in Lakewood (right outside of Jamestown).   I know I don’t have very many readers from this area, but if you happen to stumble into my part of the world, stop by Holly Richardson’s independent bookstore.  She does special ordering — and she is now offering a program for teachers (at any level!)   And guess what?  She even has a poetry section that has more than the token Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Billy Collins books!

Monday, Monday

{ November 16, 2009 @ 3:56 pm } · { Stealing Dust }
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Well, there are Mondays and then there are Mondays.  Today has fallen into the latter category.  For those of you who teach in the college setting (and perhaps high school, as well, I never taught in the high school atmosphere so I don’t want to speak for high school teachers), you know how things go a little crazy in November.  That’s what my life is right now: totally nuts.

On the bright side, special thanks goes out to Sandy, for highlighting one of my poems found in Stealing Dust!  Thanks again, Sandy!

In a Flood Year

{ November 14, 2009 @ 9:56 am } · { Poetry Books, Sense of Place }
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Because I have read Sara Tracey’s work before, I just knew that her chapbook, Flood Year (Dancing Girl Press), would be fantastic. And I wasn’t disappointed.  Flood Year is a dance between two cousins, a relationship described in the opening poem, “Two Wombs,” as two people close at birth: “We were so small, the nurses/kept us in one crib like twins.”  The poet goes on to explain that “Our mothers found us holding hands,/foreheads pressed together/as if telling secrets.”

And so the scene has been set.  Throughout this slim collection, Tracey explores the bond between the two cousins who are like sisters.  When the beloved Stella moves to Arizona at the age of five, we, as readers, watch the two cousins grow and change.  One cousin seems angry, the other bewildered.  One dyes her “hair blond/eyebrows too, used SPF 60 and wore/long sleeves all summer” while the other lets her boyfriend “trace her tan lines with his tongue.”  The poems seem to slide in and out of their relationship, so that we see the way that both girls grow, the way they both change.

But readers will be sadly mistaken if they believe that this is a work of female angst. Flood Year is also a careful study of place and how place affects us and inspires us.  We understand the poet’s world of Rust Belt Ohio where a person could chronicle a flood, where “ever night/the air was heavy with shit and people/who lived in the ravine were trapped/for three days” and we also see a world where someone could fall asleep in the grass and wake up damp from dew, not quite understanding “where water came from nothing.”  But we also understand the world of Stella, where an “agave farmer taught her to shoot tequila when she was fourteen” and the dirt is “made of bones.”

Sara Tracey has the gift of place.  She knows landscape and she knows people. In this first chapbook, we, as readers, find ourselves straddling different worlds, longing to learn more about the people we have met.  I have said before that 2009 is the year of the chapbook, and I believe that Flood Year is another book that should be added to everyone’s reading list.  As for me, I am now looking forward to Sara Tracey’s first full length of poetry.

Happy Friday the 13th!

{ November 13, 2009 @ 11:20 am } · { Non Poetry Ramblings }
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I know that today is not a national holiday — but apparently, my students decided that Friday the 13th is an optional attendance day, for I had almost no one in class today.  Maybe it’s the nice weather — 50 degrees and sunny in November!  In Western New York! Last year at this time I was on my way to the Winter Wheat Festival.  I decided that this year I just couldn’t go.  Boo. Maybe next year.

Precious Thoughts

{ November 8, 2009 @ 6:33 pm } · { Novels }
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A few years ago, I taught Push by Sapphire in my Modern Novel class.  I was surprised at how shocked my students were at the story.  I mean, really, this is the generation that sees people’s heads get chopped off on the Internet.  When I revised my Modern Novel course to teach it a second time, I took Push off the reading list and replaced it with The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.  It wasn’t that I was afraid of shocking my students.  I just felt that I didn’t do a good job teaching Sapphire’s brillant novel.  On the other hand, there is a lot of critical material about The Bluest Eye — so I felt that I had more “help.” 

Now, with all the press out about Precious (the movie based after Push), I’m rethinking my decision.   Did I just chicken out of dealing with the Push’s themes of violence, incest, abuse, and poverty?  I know, of course, that The Bluest Eye deals a lot with the same themes; still, there is something far more disturbing about the issues in Push.  Or perhaps, it’s the way that Sapphire approached these issues — unflinching and almost matter of fact.  My Entertainment Weekly (I know — not a great “literary” source, but it works here) recently published a review of Precious stating “What’s terrifying about the abuse here is how casuallly it’s accepted as a fact of life, by both perpetrator and victim.”   I know that I have students who know this way of life.  Perhaps that is what made teaching Push so challenging.  And painful.

With all this said, I want to see Precious.  I know that it’s out in limited release — so I doubt that the film will make its way to rural New York.  Still, there is always DVD.  I also believe that this film has the power to make people talk.  Sapphire, of course, has not been silent about the challenges of making this film, and I’m looking forward to seeing the end result.

Hello, November!

{ November 4, 2009 @ 6:09 pm } · { Acceptances }
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November comes in like a lion and goes out like a lam…no wait.  I’m in the wrong month.  Still, it feels like the start of November has been crazier than usual.  School has been keeping me busy, and of course, I am horribly behind in my work.  But…I have been reading Poetic Asides Chapbook Challenge.   I’m not officially taking part — but I like a lot of the prompts.

In other news, I just found out that The Avatar Review has picked up three of my poems.  Looking forward to that issue which will be out next year.

Home, Again

{ October 30, 2009 @ 11:21 pm } · { Stealing Dust }
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What can I say?  My visit to Clarion University was nothing short of fabulous.  It’s been ten years since I have been back to Clarion — and it’s amazing that nothing has really changed in the town itself.  Even the little coffee shop where I read looks exactly the same (the name has changed, but yep — nothing else has!).  I also got to see faculty members I have not seen in years.  Simply wonderful.

The best part of the day, of course, was meeting students.  Besides visiting two classes, I also spoke to a group about my hodgepodge of a career, and my life as a poet.  My presentation (which was pretty informal) spoke about marketing oneself, and I talked quite a bit about blogging.  I was a bit surprised — the students in the audience were in their late teens and early 20’s (I think) and most really did not know a lot about blogging.  I guess Facebook really is taking over the world.

And my reading was fantastic — I think I spoke to a room of over 40 students.  I received a lot of compliments — and even sold a few more books (many of the students already had my chapbook from class.  Poet Philip Terman used Stealing Dust in his classes).  One student came up to me after the reading and said “That was awesome.” 

Okay — so this post is coming out like a me, me, me, shameless plug me posting, so I will stop here.  For those faculty members who may take a look at my blog, and for students who may now google my name, special thanks and warm hugs are being sent to you from Western New York.  I truly had a great time!  With the warm Autumn weather holding out, and the beautiful drive through rural Pennsylvania, it really was like going home again.

 

Autumn is Fading…

{ October 27, 2009 @ 5:20 pm } · { Stealing Dust, Working-class Studies }
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We have had a beautiful week in Western New York, but as I am looking out my office window, I am noticing that the leaves are almost gone and the blue sky is slowly fading to Snow Belt Gray….

I was hoping that the beautiful weather would continue  because I am traveling a bit this week.  On Thursday and Friday, I will be visiting my Alma Mater, Clarion University of Pennsylvania, for a reading at Michelle’s Cafe on Main Street in Clarion.  A professor at Clarion University is using Stealing Dust for his class and I will not only be reading, but also visiting classes to talk about working class literature and poetry.  The full news release is here.  If you happen to be in Western PA, please stop by and say hi –

CFS: The Indiana Review

{ October 26, 2009 @ 5:14 pm } · { Call for Submissions }
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Am I Blue?  Not really.  But The Indiana Review’s  note on its blog looks interesting.  The Indiana Review is currently looking for “art, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction for a special feature on Blue in its Summer 2010 issue.”  Take a look at the guidelines here.  The deadline is December 1.

Just in Time for Halloween

{ October 25, 2009 @ 2:21 pm } · { Novels }
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I’m reading Dracula: The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt.  I know what most of you are thinking.  Great, another vampire book.  But this book is a sequel to the classic  by Bram Stoker, and yep, you guessed it —  Dacre and Bram are related — Dacre is actually Bram’s great grandnephew.  I was against reading this book for many reasons — I really don’t like it when contemporary authors mess with the classics.  They can mess with classic authors (see my post on Emily’s Ghost), but not the actual works.   But, the reviews have been good, and so far, I have enjoyed what I have read.  The book picks up 25 or so years after the original Dracula ended, and includes almost all of the main characters.  In fact, the two authors conclude that they based their book after Bram Stoker’s notes — so I guess in some ways, it’s a book that Bram Stoker never got to write.  I doubt that Dracula: The Un-Dead will go down as classic literature — but it’s a fun read.  And of course, it’s perfect for this time of year.

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