Bernadette K. Geyer's Blog

I used to think I wanted an MFA to help me set aside time and space to work on my poetry. But after five years of reading essays on the pros & cons of MFAs, the diatribes for and against the "MFA-workshop-poem", as well as the latest saga on whether someone is evil for making a buck off of the truly confused... I have decided that I don't really need an MFA right now. I mean, I've published a chapbook, my poems are being published, my manuscripts have been finalists for publication at various pr

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

Some days, productivity is energizing. Some days, it's exhausting.

Today was very productive, but in an exhausting way. And it didn't even involve weeding the back yard.

We are now at the point in the summer when the heat and humidity really start getting to me. What I've termed "August lethargy" sets in. I await the promise of 50-degree mornings. Fall revives me.

But, August's heat also brings August's tomatoes. Ours have just begun turning.

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

The George Washington University is now accepting applications for its Jenny McKean Moore Free Community Workshop. The Fall 2009 Poetry Workshop will be led by Ed Skoog.


The JMM Workshop is a free, semester-long program. Unfortunately, the English Department has no information posted on its web site about this opportunity, so the info below is from the flyer I received in the mail.


--------------


To apply, you do not need academic qualifications or publications. The class will include some readings

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

The subject of book reviewing has been weighing on my mind recently, especially as I have seen a lot of discourse on the matter, including: there are not enough reviews being written, reviews are not in-depth enough anymore, does every book deserve to be reviewed, online reviews have more potential audience than print reviews, etc.

What I want to know is: if you have purchased a book based on a review, what was it about the review that inspired you to purchase the book?

To me, the key ingredients

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

So ideas are like asses: everybody has one ... Sometimes you win the poem lottery, but for me the muse doesn't hand out the free samples very often.

Erin Belieu discusses How a Poem Happens with Brian Brodeur. Read the entire interview by linking through the above quote.

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

Cooper Dillon, a new independent poetry press founded by Colleen Ryor and Adam Deutsch, has announced its first 2 chapbooks, which are due out in Fall 2009:

The Devastation, by Jill Alexander Essbaum

They Speak of Fruit, by Gary L. McDowell

Cooper Dillon is currently reading for full-length poetry manuscripts. Guidelines can be found on the press web site.

--------------------------------

In other chapbook news, I should be receiving my review copy of Lisa Sewell's chapbook, Long Corridor, published

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

Right?

At least, that's what I keep hearing. Over and over.

And with all of the new reviews of American Hybrid, edited by Cole Swenson and David St. John, we can only expect to hear about these types of poetry more and more.

The first review I read was by Ron Silliman. Then I read Andrew Wessels' reaction to Silliman's review. Then I read the Rain Taxi review by Johannes Göransson. There may have been one or two more short reviews on blogs I've scanned recently as well.

What strikes me most about th

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

River Styx, one of the nation's premier independent literary magazines, invites applications for the part-time position of Managing Editor. The areas of primary responsibility include general editorial, event coordination, volunteer management, grant writing, and data base management. Candidates must have a minimum of a BA, with experience in literary publishing and computer literacy in both MAC and PC environments. Attention to detail, creativity, self-initiative and a passion for literature ar

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

In my research for my monthly fuel cell newsletter, I scan hundreds of Requests for Proposals or Information from the government, but this is the first that has intrigued me so much that I thought it might be relevant to my literary friends...

NASA has a full collection of Dr. Wernher von Braun's Weekly Notes, written during the 1960s and 1970s. Dr. Von Braun was the first director of the Marshall Space Flight Center and is considered a key figure in the development of the Saturn V rocket and NAS

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »

Summer Fever has hit me hard... Of course, it doesn't help to spend 2 full days outside at Sesame Place, the Sesame Street-themed amusement park in Pennsylvania, reliving my childhood vicariously through my 3-year-old daughter.

I posed with Cookie Monster. I high-fived Ernie. I will admit that Big Bird's vapid stare gave me the creeps during our lunch with him.

I relished a 2-hr nap back in the hotel on the first day during the rainshowers which served mainly to clear out the park so that we could

View full post on Bernadette K. Geyer's website »