Bernadette K. Geyer's Blog

Incredible Sale on UND Press Titles

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:49:30 -0800

I just got the University of Notre Dame Press Poetry & Fiction catalog and wanted to pass along the buzz -- they are selling older titles for up to 60 percent off! Here are some of the titles on sale:

Jude Nutter's I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman for $10 (orig $20.00)
Janet Holmes' Humanophone (cloth) for $8.00 (orig $28.00)
Ned Balbo's Lives of the Sleepers for $7.00 (orig $15.00)
David Citino's The News and Other Poems for $5.00 (orig $16.00)
Susan Neville's In the House of Blue...

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 27

The Brass Hussy GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:35:57 -0800

The Brass Hussy GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I'm trying to do my best to support small, independent shops and sellers this Christmas... This jewelry looks amazing!

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 23

NaLeafBloMo Update!

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:35:57 -0800

For all those of you out there keeping track of my National Leaf-Blowing Month updates, I've added 5 more bags of leaves to my tally -- bringing the total to 40 bags of leaves so far this month! Yahoo!

And the month is only little more than halfway over... thirteen more days of leaf-blowing fun to go!

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 23

Doing It Wrong

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:46:47 -0800

With all the hubbub about Poets & Writer's Top 50 List of M.F.A. schools, I enjoyed this post by Sandra Beasley on the W.W. Norton Poems Out Loud blog. An excerpt:

Returning to the print magazine for comfort, I instead found "Get the Most Out of Your MFA Experience: Tips for Success," which indexes helpful hints and red flags for your graduate years. Proper strategy extends far beyond picking a program. As I read onward, my suspicions congealing into unease, my unease cresting into nausea, a...

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 27

Prufrock: The Exhibit

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:26:27 -0800

I am thrilled to be one of 47 artists/writers -- including Michael Gushue, Dan Vera, and Kim Roberts -- participating in Prufrock: The Exhibit, organized by Barbara DeCesare and Mira Foote. Each participant was assigned lines from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and told to make art from their response to the lines.

The exhibit will run November 16-28, 2009, at:

YorkArts Gallery
10 North Beaver Street
York, Pennsylvania
Opening reception: November 21, 2009, 6pm

My lines were...

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 14

NaLeafBloMo

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:38:06 -0800

While for most writers November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and while many writers I know are posting daily updates on how many words they've written so far or how many poem drafts, I feel as if I'm going through a National Non-Writing Month.

But that's not true. Every day, I write. I'm writing queries, proposals, cover letters, book reviews. Just not fiction or poetry.

This weekend, I will have a short "getaway" to Alexandria for my own writing-sanity weekend. Yeah, it's not f...

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 27

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:31:32 -0800

Aunty Ollie $100 Gift Card GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

The patterns on these childrens' clothes are absolutely adorable. I wish they made the peacock print raincoat & hat in my size.

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 12

May Sarton Answers the Question "When is a poem finished?"

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:08:04 -0800

I'm currently reading A Celebration of Poets, edited by Don Cameron Allen, which is a collection of essays by nine poets. In May Sarton's essay, "The School of Babylon," she tackles the common question "When is a poem finished?"

The answer is, I think, when all the tensions it has posited are perfectly equilibrated, when the change of a single syllable would so affect the structure that the poem would fall like a house of cards under the shift.

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 04

Crazy Poetry Reading Dream

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:08:36 -0800

I don't often dream about my writing, but last night's was a doozy:

I traveled fairly far to read in a poetry series held in a bar/restaurant. I was the featured reader. My new book had not been published yet, so I had to read from my chapbook. I realized that I only had one copy of my chapbook with me to sell. I started my reading and I casually commented that it's been so long since my chapbook was published that I don't even recognize the poems anymore. After reading several poems, I realiz...

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 03

Overimprovement

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:07:29 -0800

I'm making lentil soup today -- raining, Sunday, football -- and came across this in the recipe I'm using from The German Cookbook, edited by Mimi Sheraton:

"Legumes that are absolutely untreated and need to be soaked make a much better
soup, but they are a little hard to find in this age of overimprovement."

I loved that sentence because, when you think about it, there are many things we tend to ruin simply by "overimprovement."

As a poet, I have a tendency to tinker with some of my poem drafts ...

posted by Bernadette K. Geyer on November, 01