Bernadette K. Geyer's Blog

The 2009 Dream Horse Press National Chapbook Prize winner is Jason Bredle, for his chapbook, The Book of Evil. Bredle has another chapbook, Class Project, forthcoming from Publishing Genius.

Jane Hoogestraat's chapbook, Harvesting All Night, won the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition. Mistress, Reclining, by Cherene Sherrard, won the New Women's Voices Chapbook Competition.

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"You have to get over the notion that you are wasting your time by sitting and writing, by thinking and feeling frustrated at what you've written, and staring out the window and doodling and closing your eyes and seeing these made-up people and imagining their lives. You are doing your job even if those who peek into your writing room and see you gazing off into space think you are squandering your life--they can't see what you see."

from Is Life Like This? A Guide to Writing Your First...

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Even though I do not plan to "attend," I thought some of my writing friends might be interested in this. And it's free!

"Generalist vs. Specialist: Which Is Better for Writers in a Tough Economy?" with Peter Bowerman and Michael Stelzner.

Thursday, September 17th, 2009, at Noon Pacific / 2pm Central / 3pm Eastern.

It looks like the 1000 spaces are nearly full (over 900 have registered so far). For more details, check out http://www.whitepapersource.com/webinar/.

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I was a little disappointed with the poetry selection at the American Association of Univ. Women Book Sale at the McLean Community Center this year. Not to mention having to go through both the Literature and Fiction sections (what's the diff? who knows...) because poetry was lumped into both categories. In past years, book sales were dangerous places for me. But my time is limited now, so I have become much more selective. I got away with only ten books. And one is for my youngest sister, so...

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A couple of recent announcements:

Black Lawrence Press announced David Rigbee's The Pilot House won its 2009 Black River Chapbook Competition. The Press also announced that finalist Mary Biddinger's chapbook, Saint Monica, was also selected for publication.

Burnside Review announced that Martha Ronk has selected Louise Mathias' Above All Else, The Trembling Resembles a Forest as the winner of the 5th Annual Burnside Review Poetry Chapbook Competition.

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For the past few days I've been revisiting poems that have been hanging around for a while and figuring out how to improve them.

Over the summer, I noticed that I've been moving toward more subtlety in my poems. Shorter meditations. Tighter language. I've been trying to get away from painfully obvious poetic gimmicks in my poems. Some of the gimmicks I'm jettisoning:
overworn/cliche metaphorgrand statementsgratuitous demonstrations of my own clevernessI was far more creative this summer than I ...

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Earlier this week, I discovered that Northeastern University suspended the Morse Poetry Prize. This saddened me because of all the wonderful poets whose Morse Prize-winning books I've read, including Dana Roeser, Carl Phillips, and Jennifer Atkinson.

And then today I received a letter from Fulcrum, announcing it has temporarily suspended publication. The letter notes that Fulcrum 7 will still appear later this year and to check the journal's web site for updates, starting in 2010.

Though times are

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I'm on a fiction-reading kick right now. Taking a break from poetry for a few weeks. Next on my list is Mario Vargas Llosa's The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto. Considering that the last book I read by Llosa was The Feast of the Goat, I believe this is going to be a totally different experience with Llosa.

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Last week, Frida started preschool -- five morning a week preschool. I've been anticipating this for three years now. Ever since she dropped from three naps a day to two naps. Then down to one nap. And now there are no naps, just her falling asleep in the car for about 15 minutes while we're on the way to whatever I have planned for the afternoon.

It's become a lot of work planning our free time. Much more than I remember it being back when I was single and the weekend stretched ahead of me with

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I want to know. Is anyone buying books through your links to Barnes & Noble?

Or does everyone still have the mindset that when buying books online, they have to use Amazon?

Or is that what everyone is used to using, so they just keep using it?

If you buy books online, do you use Barnes & Noble? Amazon? Both? Does it really matter to you which online seller a book review links to?

Tell me -- I'm listening...

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