Getting back on track

For the last month and a half, life seems to have taken over and poetry neglected. Sad times. But there have been books--lots and lots and lots of books. Although I have been shamefully absent from my personal blog, I have been frequently updating my professional blog for the Chestertown Book Festival (I don't mean professional in that I actually get paid, but in that it is a part of my job as Secretary to the Festival Committee). The second annual Chestertown Book Festival is almost here and we have been working our bibliophile-butts off to get everything together--but it should be wonderful! So, remember: October 8 & 9, Downtown Chestertown. Be there!

In other news, I have been writing a little (as in one poem completed in the last month) and I am trying to get back in the swing of that submitting-thing. I have sent this one to Moon Milk Review, a great (mostly online) literary magazine with a focus on magic realism in the vein of Italo Calvino. So cool! I should hear back from them within a month's time (so they say) and if they don't want my little poem, I plan to send it along to another great literary magazine I've recently discovered called A cappella Zoo, also dedicated to literature of magic realism and slipstream.

One really interesting thing I have discovered looking around their submissions pages is that both of these magazines use a submissions manager called Submishmash to handle their incoming slush piles. Not only does this service have a fun name, they're free for any publisher of literature and art! A great service to keep in mind should I ever decide I want to start up a literary magazine of my own... although I don't see that happening any time soon.

Also, I now have a second cat! A friendly Siamese-mix stray with blue eyes whom I have named Kevin. Pictures soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gone Paper-pickin'

Image
All three poems have been set now. So we shift focus to what they will be printed on (I tried this sentence without ending in a preposition and it just didn't work for me--so excuse the grammatical error). For the text paper, Emily and I searched the bowels of the print shop at the Literary House (Mike always some great extras laying around). We decided on a creamy white handmade paper with soft deckled edges. For the cover and end papers we went to Paper Mojo . They have some absolutely beautiful paper! After ordering some samples and having a look at them in person, we decided on the Mauve Unryu Thread paper for the end papers (figuring that the delicate translucent quality of the paper goes well with our "sleight" theme and the reddish threading follows our color scheme) and the Ivory Linen Cardstock for the cover paper. We will be printing on the covers with a deep red ink (similar to our thread color). Now we are just waiting for our backordered paper pick
Read more

"Imago" on Hannibal season finale

Image
While watching the eagerly-awaited season 2 finale of Hannibal (one of my absolute favorite TV shows of the moment), I was happily surprised when a vocabulary lesson emerged mid-conversation between Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham. — "Do you know what an imago is, Will?" — "It's a flying insect." — "It's the last stage of a transformation." — "When you become who you will be?" — "It's also a term from the dead religion of psychoanalysis. An imago is an image of a loved one, buried in the unconscious, carried with us all our lives." — "An ideal." — "The concept of an ideal." Of course this term, in both of its definitions, has some great significance for me. It is a word I didn't even know until I stumbled across it in my dictionary browsing and knew immediately that this is the title of my chapbook . It was perfect. So when it snuck up on me again in my favorite TV show, in
Read more

On the end of a year & a decade: 2019

Image
In this last month of the year, I've had five poems accepted by three different literary journals and two new reviews of my book appear in The Cincinnati Review  and Harbor Review . I also completed the letterpress printing of the Rossetti Prize broadside for American Literary Review , designs for four more digital broadsides , and the initial edits & contributor proofs for Cherry Tree 's sixth issue. Whew! It's been an amazing and overwhelming and utterly fulfilling year ; and I'm riding into the new year on 2019's coattails.  Also featuring the gorgeous handmade scarf that Jehanne Dubrow wove for me this past year. One of my favorite December inventories will always be reflecting on a year's worth of personal accomplishments and progress. By the time the end of the year arrives, it's so easy to forget all that happened just a few short months ago. Making a list has a way of bringing it all into perspective. Here's my roundup for the yea
Read more