In all the excitement of recent weeks I have forgotten to mention an anthology publication that would have been perfect for yesterday but remains timely for Valentine's Days yet to come.
My poem "Intermezzo" (originally published as "First Blush") is included in the recently released Touching: Poems of Love, Longing and Desire, edited by Sari Friedman and D. Patrick Miller, which is the second volume of the Fearless Poetry Series from Fearless Books of Berkeley, California.
I am honored to appear in this volume with quite a few accomplished poets, who include but are not limitied to the following: Maureen Tolman Flannery, Linda Nemec Foster, David Knopfler and Sy Safransky. Last but by no means least among my neighbors in the anthology is Myra Sklarew, with whom I had the great good fortune to study while I was an undergraduate at American University.
Come for the poems, and stay for the photographs by Kelly Puleio.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
AWP 2011 and Ideas for AWP 2012
It was fun, and it was exhausting.
After a few days of attempting my best impersonation of an extrovert, I am now ready to sit back and make sense of AWP 2011 in Washington, DC, where I live.
There are many lovely people I see only there, or only there and a couple of other places during the year. I may sing their praises in a separate post if I can do justice to anything like the right number of people.
Yet the mind already turns to AWP 2012 in Chicago, where I have lived and studied; I grew up in the Far West suburb of Aurora.
While it seems unlikely that I will propose a panel for 2012 myself, a glance at this year's schedule suggested a few that others may wish to take on.
They are the following:
After a few days of attempting my best impersonation of an extrovert, I am now ready to sit back and make sense of AWP 2011 in Washington, DC, where I live.
There are many lovely people I see only there, or only there and a couple of other places during the year. I may sing their praises in a separate post if I can do justice to anything like the right number of people.
Yet the mind already turns to AWP 2012 in Chicago, where I have lived and studied; I grew up in the Far West suburb of Aurora.
While it seems unlikely that I will propose a panel for 2012 myself, a glance at this year's schedule suggested a few that others may wish to take on.
They are the following:
- No Text Please, We're Students: Reluctant Readers in the College Classroom
- Writing Auto-Erotic Identities
- Libel and How to Get It Right
- Dairy Queens: Gay Male Poets of Wisconsin
- New Opportunities in the Teaching of Fortune Cookie Composition
- He Takes Out a Felt Tip, You Take Out a Ballpoint: Writing the Chicago Way
- Establishing and Maintaining a Lactose-Intolerant Writers' Group
- When Your Promotional Strategy is Better than Your Writing: How to Hide the Gap
- War of 1812 Bicentennial Reading
- Desire and Ambivalence in the Rejection Letter
- Stranger Things Have Happened, but Not Many: When Political Poetry Is Actually Good
- Reconsidering William McGonagall
- Deservedly Neglected Illinois Writers
- The Barbaric Yawp, or Teaching Creative Writing to Dogs
- A Celebration of Solipsism: New Confessional Poets
- Prize Winners Display their Fabulosity
- What Would Nelson Algren Do?
- The Ego Has Landed: Projecting False Modesty Once Your Career Takes Off
I wish the best of luck to anyone who wishes to make these ideas a reality. Attribution of the original source will be most welcome.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Off to the Fair, or AWP and Me
To paraphrase Emily Dickinson, and do so badly, because I would not come to AWP, AWP kindly came to me.
AWP, generally pronounced by its letters rather than as rhyming with Walt Whitman's "barbaric yawp", is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. The initials also serve as shorthand for the annual conference, which begins today in Washington, DC, where I live.
Avoiding travel in a snowstorm of historic proportions is a stroke of good luck, and there are others. Without the burdens of representing an academic institution or speaking on a panel, I can take in readings and other events, as well as check out the Bookfair without any great pressure.
Of course, I will have a few goals and one scheduled event. Tomorrow, February 3, I will be joining edtor Jessie Lendennie and other contributing poets in a signing of Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology at the Salmon Press table.
Other projects will involve freestyle hawking of my wares. Newest among them is my sonnet "Botanical Garden," which is the February selection of Broadsided. I will be handing out copies myself, and others are encouraged to print out and post the poem, illustrated by Ira Joel Haber.
Also debuting at AWP is Issue 9 of Los Angeles Review, which includes my unusually long free verse poem "Labor Day at Venice Beach"--inspired, as they say, by actual events.
I am also in the pleasantly odd position of promoting a book I don't yet have in hand. My essay collection Dowsing and Science, described on page 49 of the Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&M University Press consortium, will be published on March 1. It will be a challenge to make people remember the title of a book they haven't seen. Still, the collection contains essays of varying lengths, tones, and subjects, including a few personal essays as well as a preponderance of intellectual and cultural criticism, and that variety makes Dowsing and Science a compact and reasonably priced choice for classroom use as well as personal reading. (Yes, I am selling my book here.) It is presently available for pre-order from the publisher and online sellers in the United States and nine other countries.
Finally, I will be reminding people that they can still obtain my collection Settling for Beauty, which recently received a favorable review from poet and fiction writer Eric Hendrixson.
In the midst of all this I will have the opportunity to see friends and pass out my card, which includes the URL for this blog. Comfortable shoes will be crucial.
And now it's off to the fair or, in the word of British novelist David Lodge, "Whee!"
AWP, generally pronounced by its letters rather than as rhyming with Walt Whitman's "barbaric yawp", is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. The initials also serve as shorthand for the annual conference, which begins today in Washington, DC, where I live.
Avoiding travel in a snowstorm of historic proportions is a stroke of good luck, and there are others. Without the burdens of representing an academic institution or speaking on a panel, I can take in readings and other events, as well as check out the Bookfair without any great pressure.
Of course, I will have a few goals and one scheduled event. Tomorrow, February 3, I will be joining edtor Jessie Lendennie and other contributing poets in a signing of Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology at the Salmon Press table.
Other projects will involve freestyle hawking of my wares. Newest among them is my sonnet "Botanical Garden," which is the February selection of Broadsided. I will be handing out copies myself, and others are encouraged to print out and post the poem, illustrated by Ira Joel Haber.
Also debuting at AWP is Issue 9 of Los Angeles Review, which includes my unusually long free verse poem "Labor Day at Venice Beach"--inspired, as they say, by actual events.
I am also in the pleasantly odd position of promoting a book I don't yet have in hand. My essay collection Dowsing and Science, described on page 49 of the Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&M University Press consortium, will be published on March 1. It will be a challenge to make people remember the title of a book they haven't seen. Still, the collection contains essays of varying lengths, tones, and subjects, including a few personal essays as well as a preponderance of intellectual and cultural criticism, and that variety makes Dowsing and Science a compact and reasonably priced choice for classroom use as well as personal reading. (Yes, I am selling my book here.) It is presently available for pre-order from the publisher and online sellers in the United States and nine other countries.
Finally, I will be reminding people that they can still obtain my collection Settling for Beauty, which recently received a favorable review from poet and fiction writer Eric Hendrixson.
In the midst of all this I will have the opportunity to see friends and pass out my card, which includes the URL for this blog. Comfortable shoes will be crucial.
And now it's off to the fair or, in the word of British novelist David Lodge, "Whee!"
Monday, December 13, 2010
Anthologies and Me
If you've received money during the winter holiday of your choice, or if you've saved money by frugality and comparison-shopping, you may now feel the need to treat yourself with a new book or two.
Far be it from me to dissuade you from this impulse.
In fact, I have a few ideas that include my work among that of many other people, some far better known.
First up is The Expeditioner's Guide: Intrepid Tales of Awesomeness from the Open Road. This project by the editors of online travel magazine The Expeditioner includes, in addition to my poems "Andante" and "Travelogue," work on destinations including Copenhagen, Delhi, Kenya, Kosovo, Rome and Rwanda, among others.
Second is a project I should have mentioned about this time last year. Still, a thing of beauty is a joy forever, so I can recommend Chicago photographer Adeline Sides' book The Silver Series, an album of classically composed nudes accompanied by poems from a variety of Chicago-based and farther-flung authors.
Third, I would be remiss if I didn't again mention Dogs Singing: A Tribute Anthology, edited by Jessie Lendenni and published by Salmon Poetry of Ireland. Proceeds will be donated to dog rescue and welfare organizations in Ireland and Thailand.
Finally, I would suggest two anthologies that came into being well before I started this blog in 2008. The first is Northern Music: Poems about and Inspired by Glenn Gould, which I edited and which includes one poem of my own, as well as work by Philip Dacey and Leslie Monsour. The second is In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare. My two poems in the book are a retelling of the Seven Ages of Man and a sonnet that combines elements of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and the script of Goodfellas. Seriously. Also appearing among the collection's ninety poets are R.S. Gwynn, Diane Lockward and Leon Stokesbury.
Further updates on anthologies and more will be coming to this space soon.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Late Fall Harvest: Dowsing and Science
As noted in a previous post, the harvest is coming in.
There will be a list of other items later this week, but for now I am pleased to report that my first essay collection, Dowsing and Science, appears on page 49 of the Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium.
Published by consortium member Texas Review Press, whose authors include Richard Burgin, George Williams and Eric Miles Williamson, Dowsing and Science consists of essays appearing in publications such as Boulevard, Chelsea, and Pleiades. The topics range from the title essay to a discussion of Romanian history as symbolic condition and the survival value of esthetics. A few personal accounts appear in the collection as well, discussing my first experiences with salt water (a rude shock for a Midwesterner) and how in some circles I came to be known as a king. The bulk of the collection, though, is made up of what could be called the "Impersonal Essay" in a tradition practiced by Montesquieu, eighteenth-century English writers such as Addison, Johnson and Steele, and nineteenth-century American writers like Emerson and Thoreau.
I have been going over page proofs in the last several days and plan to make this collection the best possible experience for a wide range of readers.
Watch this space for a few more announcements in the days ahead.
There will be a list of other items later this week, but for now I am pleased to report that my first essay collection, Dowsing and Science, appears on page 49 of the Spring/Summer Catalog of the Texas A&M University Press Consortium.
Published by consortium member Texas Review Press, whose authors include Richard Burgin, George Williams and Eric Miles Williamson, Dowsing and Science consists of essays appearing in publications such as Boulevard, Chelsea, and Pleiades. The topics range from the title essay to a discussion of Romanian history as symbolic condition and the survival value of esthetics. A few personal accounts appear in the collection as well, discussing my first experiences with salt water (a rude shock for a Midwesterner) and how in some circles I came to be known as a king. The bulk of the collection, though, is made up of what could be called the "Impersonal Essay" in a tradition practiced by Montesquieu, eighteenth-century English writers such as Addison, Johnson and Steele, and nineteenth-century American writers like Emerson and Thoreau.
I have been going over page proofs in the last several days and plan to make this collection the best possible experience for a wide range of readers.
Watch this space for a few more announcements in the days ahead.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Skin in the Game
As noted in my previous post, director Joshua Caldwell is using creative project funding platform Kickstarter to support the film adaptation of my one-act play "Dig", which was produced by CurvingRoad at London's Old Red Lion Theatre in June of 2010.
I realized, though, that the appeal could become more credible by having skin in the game. With that in mind, I am now one of the film's backers and not just someone passing the hat. It would be indiscreet to mention the exact amount, but it is safely above the $1 minimum pledge.
I will name others backers in this space only if I have their permission first, but I can say that those I know include two UK-based writers and a friend I have known since high school.
If you want to know more about what is going on, I invite you to take a look at the Dig Short Film website, which went online in the last couple of days and is being frequently updated. You may also want to check out this post on Joshua's blog Hollywood Bound and Down.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Dig: The Film
As noted in this space a while back, director Joshua Caldwell has renewed his option to make a film based on my one-act play "Dig," which was produced in June at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London. Preserving the central conflict of the original, Joshua has clothed the narrative with a new set of details in the screenplay, and he will be making the film as a new work of art in its own right, as described on his blog Hollywood Bound and Down.
At this point Joshua has nailed down locations in Southern California and has finished casting. The leads will be Mark Margolis, who has appeared in numerous films, among them The Wrestler, and Aaron Himelstein, whose credits feature appearances on television series such as House M.D. and films including Fast Food Nation and High Fidelity.
The adaptation of "Dig" is what Joshua has called a "passion project" that will be shown largely on the film festival circuit. As such, it won't be making anyone rich, and as a matter of fact he is continuing to seek backers for post-production expenses.
Through the magic of Kickstarter, anyone can become such a backer by pledging $1 or more to the short film adaptation of "Dig". In the last two days $796 has been pledged to the total of $6,000 needed by 4:09 p.m. EST on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving. Pledges of various sizes entitle backers to premiums that range from acknowledgments in the credits to a private screening with the cast and crew to the opportunity to appear as a featured extra. Larger backers can even be listed as Associate Producer or Executive Producer. So far the project has 19 backers, including author Duane Swierczynski, whose book The Wheelman I have read and can wholeheartedly recommend.
I invite you to make a pledge to the short film adaptation of "Dig" if you are at all able, and please pass this information along if you aren't. Joshua works like a dog, and he has been a consummate professional in his dealings with me. Backing this project will mean being involved in an early stage of what promises to be a remarkable career.
At this point Joshua has nailed down locations in Southern California and has finished casting. The leads will be Mark Margolis, who has appeared in numerous films, among them The Wrestler, and Aaron Himelstein, whose credits feature appearances on television series such as House M.D. and films including Fast Food Nation and High Fidelity.
The adaptation of "Dig" is what Joshua has called a "passion project" that will be shown largely on the film festival circuit. As such, it won't be making anyone rich, and as a matter of fact he is continuing to seek backers for post-production expenses.
Through the magic of Kickstarter, anyone can become such a backer by pledging $1 or more to the short film adaptation of "Dig". In the last two days $796 has been pledged to the total of $6,000 needed by 4:09 p.m. EST on November 24, the day before Thanksgiving. Pledges of various sizes entitle backers to premiums that range from acknowledgments in the credits to a private screening with the cast and crew to the opportunity to appear as a featured extra. Larger backers can even be listed as Associate Producer or Executive Producer. So far the project has 19 backers, including author Duane Swierczynski, whose book The Wheelman I have read and can wholeheartedly recommend.
I invite you to make a pledge to the short film adaptation of "Dig" if you are at all able, and please pass this information along if you aren't. Joshua works like a dog, and he has been a consummate professional in his dealings with me. Backing this project will mean being involved in an early stage of what promises to be a remarkable career.
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