Deborah Ager's Blog, page 24

Literary House Party AWP

Come one and come four. 32 Poems, Drunken Boat, Born, Defunct and Tuesday: An Art Project meld minds and join forces to offer a literary house party during the AWP 2011 Conference.

Date: Friday, February 4 · 8:00pm – 11:00pm

Location:The Biltmore, 1977 Biltmore St., DC (5 minutes from AWP)

With performances by Daniel Nester, Don Share, Ander Monson, Lia Purpura, Melanie Henderson, Patrick Rosal, Garret Socol, DeLana Dameron, Bernadette Geyer.

32 POEMS is just that—a journal of thirty-two poems, one to a page. They're available in print biannually, for a total of 64 poems a year.

DRUNKEN BOAT is one of the oldest online arts journals, dedicated to exposure of literary, visual, digital, and cross-media work from around the world.

DEFUNCT is a twice-annual publication featuring writing on all things defunct. New issues appear in April and October.

BORN MAGAZINE is an experimental venue marrying literary arts and multimedia.

Danielle Sellers: An Interview With Serena M. Agusto-Cox

Poet Danielle Sellers; Copyright Chris Hayes

1. How would you introduce yourself to a crowded room eager to hang on your every word? Are you just a poet, what else should people know about you?

My mother loves to tell the story of me, age 4 or 5, called up with the other children by the preacher at Old Stone Methodist church in Key West. When I arrived at the front of the church, all the other children were already seated, the preacher had begun his sermon, and I interrupted with a big wave and an overly-enthusiastic, "Hi, Kids!" So once that would happen, what people would most likely find out about me is that I'm a single mom to a very silly girl, much like the one about whom I just told you. I'm a foodie, and a lover of animals. I do rescue work when I can. I am spiritual, but not religious.

2. Do you see spoken word, performance, or written poetry as more powerful or powerful in different ways and why? Also, do you believe that writing can be an equalizer to help humanity become more tolerant or collaborative? Why or why not?

I have never been moved by spoken or performance poetry, but perhaps I'm not attending the right events. I'm open to persuasion.

3. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

I've watched The Young and the Restless faithfully since I was a child. One of the many obsessions taught to me by my late maternal grandmother. That, and baking, and growing daylilies. Unfortunately, her obsession with cleaning and ironing never took.

4. Most writers will read inspirational/how-to manuals, take workshops, or belong to writing groups. Did you subscribe to any of these aids and if so which did you find most helpful? Please feel free to name any "writing" books you enjoyed most (i.e. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott).

I have been faithful to the workshop scene since college, but I find the readership of one or two close friends to be the best kind of intimate discussion. But it's hard to find friends whose work you admire who aren't insanely busy. I do have several good readers I'd like to keep in a brass bottle, to call on them whenever I wished. But then they'd be servants, not friends, and that would defeat the purpose.

5. Poetry is often considered elitist or inaccessible by mainstream readers. Do poets have an obligation to dispel that myth and how do you think it could be accomplished?

My poetry has been called accessible, but I don't think it was meant as a compliment. I don't think poets are obligated to dispel the myth of poetry. I do, however, think it's a poet's obligation to write their truths. This doesn't mean a poet should be honest at all times, but he or she should write honestly.

6. When writing poetry, prose, essays, and other works do you listen to music, do you have a particular playlist for each genre you work in or does the playlist stay the same? What are the top 5 songs on that playlist? If you don't listen to music while writing, do you have any other routines or habits?

I only listen to music if I'm writing about music. Otherwise, I need silence, which is why writing with a toddler and a house full of animals is almost impossible. Even if the tot is asleep, a good train of thought can be easily broken by the shrill yip of a cocker spaniel. Writing in cafes or libraries doesn't work for me either. I'm too easily distracted by goings-on.

7. In terms of friendships, have your friendships changed since you began focusing on writing? Are there more writers among your friends or have your relationships remained the same?

I'm sad to say my friendships have changed. I still keep in touch with pals from high school and college, but my fellowship with other writers is more immediate. It's important to feel as though someone "gets" you. When I was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins, we had a very small, intimate class, and most of us were about the same age. We are still very close. I also made good friends with my classmates in the MFA program at Ole Miss, and count them as some of the most important friendships of my life. Friendships have also been made at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, which I've attended twice, once as a participant, and once as a scholar. Even for those who choose not to attend MFA programs, conferences like these are key to a writer's development and socialization.

8. How do you stay fit and healthy as a writer?

I quit exercising altogether. It frees up time for writing.

9. Do you have any favorite foods or foods that you find keep you inspired? What are the ways in which you pump yourself up to keep writing and overcome writer's block?

First, I don't believe in writer's block. I think it's a crutch. You're either writing, or you're not. And it's ok if you're not. If you're a real writer, you will come back to it, eventually. I think it's very important for a writer to spend time living life, soaking it in, and then to make sense of it in a poem later.

For me, food isn't directly related to writing, though I have a lot of food in my poems. I always write on an empty stomach, just coffee and cream, first thing in the morning. When I get hungry, which is usually in the afternoon, I stop writing for the day.

10. Please describe your writing space and how it would differ from your ideal writing space.

My writing space is definitely not ideal. I don't even have a desk at the moment, just the dining room table.

I visited my mother in Key West, my hometown, last summer. She was renting a charming little house with a large screened porch. I took a little desk out there and made a writing space. For several days I wrote, it was very hot, and sweat, even under a fan, but I wrote for eight hours straight every day, even when it rained. Astonished at what poured out of me.

11. What current projects are you working on and would you like to share some details with the readers?

I'm working on a second manuscript of poems, love poems, mostly, and anti-love poems. Poems about motherhood and domesticity. Like with my first book, the idea of place plays a strong role, though almost none of the poems take place in Key West, but rather at various locations in the south. The material is emotionally very difficult, which makes me a slow writer, but I'll get there.

Thanks to Danielle for answering my questions. Please do check out a sample of her work below:

STRANGE-COUNTRIED MEN

My daughter, alive only twenty months,

climbs up to the World Market

polished oak table, to rearrange

my fall tribute of gourds and maize.

She takes a withered husk

in her mouth, new teeth gnaw

the dry texture. Her fingers

grip the technicolor kernels.

I think of our Cherokee ancestors,

Georgia and Mexico, who married

young and hungry, forced

from the lush Smokies to the bluffs

of Cooter, MO. On the other side,

Stonewall Jackson's a distant cousin.

She has his blue eyes, stubborn

streak, and the aptitude to shoot.

Senator-talk moves through the house:

immigration cases on the rise, the need

for an electrified perimeter, protection

from the outside. Now, my daughter

flaps her arms like a turkey, feathered

boa slung across her human neck.

Her father volunteered to kill

Sunni and Shiite men in war.

I married him for his blue-collar

arms, nimble hands

and thick cock. He liked me tan,

soft-bellied, full with child.

In the desert, he wrote letters

home, the squat script promising

me daughters. He delivered one,

but does not love her well.

–previously published by Old Red Kimono

AWP Conference 2011

We Who Are About to Die (WWAATD) created the AWP Bingo Card in case you need one. WWAARD is there for you…They even have a PDF version you can use to check items off as you encounter them throughout the AWP conference.

Each item, of course, is inside its own square. The big question on everyone's mind is when will we have a panel during which we can all play?

A few of my favorites items include:

He/she married who?
Meet internet friends with awkward hugs, silence.
Your MFA program is a sponsor but didn't give you funding.
Live Tweet one's own nervous breakdown, add hashtag.

Where Will 32 Poems be at AWP?

After two phone calls, two emails, and two tweets, 32 Poems was finally able to find out that we're at table C21. Twitter rocks.

What did we learn from this? If you have a secret or want to hide your great-grandmother's engagement ring, send it to the AWP office. They are on lockdown over there (or something).

Oh, and do you follow us on Twitter? We host a Poet Party every Sunday night at 9 pm ET (or ER, if you prefer). We chatted about rejection last week and will discuss mentoring and mentorship, and maybe Mentos, this coming Sunday.

Lesley Jenike: An Interview With Serena M. Agusto-Cox

1. How would you introduce yourself to a crowded room eager to hang on your every word? Are you just a poet, what else should people know about you?

I think my first approach would be self-deprecation; in fact, I'd probably make a joke about having spent quite a few years in costumes and wigs singing and dancing. I find that once one admits to an improbable love for musical theatre, any crowd immediately relaxes.

2. Do you see spoken word, performance, or written poetry as more powerful or powerful in different ways and why? Also, do you believe that writing can be an equalizer to help humanity become more tolerant or collaborative? Why or why not?

Well, I love theatre (see above). When I was younger, there seemed to me to be very little difference between theatre and poetry, and I still feel that way. If you listen to a Beckett or Mamet script, for example, you're hearing language shaped to emphasize repeated rhythms and patterns, right? So naturally I love poetry "for performance" in all its guises. But theatre is a collaborative art, while writing shorter lyrics meant primarily for the page seems to me to be a solitary activity. Both satisfy competing desires for introspection and extroversion, as I imagine they do for a lot of writers, and writers are a part of humanity—or at least they'd like to think they are.

3. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

Yes! Lately I've been obsessed with John Singer Sargent, Thomas Jefferson's one-time girlfriend Maria Cosway, all things Italian, Marianne Moore, finding decent white oxford shirts at the Goodwill, red wine (of various varieties), Bravo (the cable station), Joni Mitchell, and stuff my cat does.

4. Most writers will read inspirational/how-to manuals, take workshops, or belong to writing groups. Did you subscribe to any of these aids and if so which did you find most helpful? Please feel free to name any "writing" books you enjoyed most (i.e. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott).

I've taken writing workshops of various kinds since I was in high school (so you'd think I'd have more to show for my time, right?). Workshops are mixed bags, as are most things. Some have been life changing, some just blah, some frankly troubling. But I've found that meeting and connecting with other writers is really (beyond the reading) the best thing about workshops. And yes, it's the conversations we have after workshop (at the bar), that are the most rewarding. I was never really into manuals and how-to's, probably because I don't like to use them to put an Ikea desk together, so why should I use them to put a poem together? I do like John Drury's The Poetry Dictionary and Creating Poetry. Drury's a terrific writer and a sensitive teacher.

5. Poetry is often considered elitist or inaccessible by mainstream readers. Do poets have an obligation to dispel that myth and how do you think it could be accomplished?

As someone who's drawn very few lines in the poetic sand, so to speak, I find "academic" or theoretically-driven writing as well as more "popular" writing equally rewarding, and I'm sticking to that assessment. I respect and admire all kinds of writers and all kinds of poetry, but I made a conscious decision recently to rethink my relationship with those "wonderful people out there in the dark" (to quote Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard). Sometimes too many years spent in the classroom as a graduate student can stifle a writer's drive to reach out to different kinds of readers, and I do believe there is an audience for poetry beyond other writers of poetry. I believe there are people hungry for language that's used with dignity, integrity, and beauty, who don't necessarily need poetry to make "sense" in a facile way. People are hungry for the kind of good mystery poetry can provide.

6. When writing poetry, prose, essays, and other works do you listen to music, do you have a particular playlist for each genre you work in or does the playlist stay the same? What are the top 5 songs on that playlist? If you don't listen to music while writing, do you have any other routines or habits?

I love listening to music as I write! I used to listen to music with lyrics, but, much in the same way that I can't stay up too late anymore, I can't focus on my own songs these days while someone else is singing to me. So lately I've been listening to, and trying to teach myself something about, traditional Indian music and orchestral music. I like what it does to my brain and what it does for a budding poem's potential tone or atmosphere. At the moment I'm especially into Arvo Pärt, John Adams, and Erik Satie.

7. In terms of friendships, have your friendships changed since you began focusing on writing? Are there more writers among your friends or have your relationships remained the same?

This is a tough question and one that I think about quite a bit. In the past I tended to romanticize writers who made "sacrifices" for their art, and I was especially drawn to stories about people who are compelled to turn away from conventional relationships in order to dedicate themselves more fully to their art. But as a 33 year-old woman, I finally understand my own shortcomings in respect to family and friendships. I know that my desperate need for solitude and that my prickliness and impatience can make me hard to be around. I realize I'm sometimes disappointing as a daughter, a sister, and an aunt. But that's the everyday reality of being writer while trying to maintain relationships; it's not particularly romantic. It can actually be pretty painful.

Of course I have quite a few writer-friends because I've spent twelve (plus) years in writing and literature departments, but I'm especially grateful to my even older friends who still put up with me, and to my family for their patience. I'm lucky to have a wonderful husband (also a writer), who knows me better than anybody in the world, and who still seems to love me.

8. How do you stay fit and healthy as a writer?

I run quite a bit, but I don't have any desire to run in races or anything like that. For some reason (and this may sound unreasonably kinky and/or ascetic), pounding my body into submission gives my mind more clarity. Plus my regular running route takes me through the park so I can check out the birds. Hawks! Herons!

9. Do you have any favorite foods or foods that you find keep you inspired? What are the ways in which you pump yourself up to keep writing and overcome writer's block?

Well, I love seafood but I hardly ever get to eat it because I live in Ohio. The very thought of clams is inspiring. And in order to keep myself writing, I read lots and lots, watch movies, look at art and listen to music. Something's bound to come up. The Red Shoes, for example, gets me going without fail.

10. Please describe your writing space and how it would differ from your ideal writing space.

I write in my office on the second floor of our apartment in Columbus, Ohio's Olde Towne East neighborhood. It's ideal because I can look out my window and down into the garden. We had some beautiful cockscombs and bleeding hearts along with the usual vegetables and herbs this year. There's a peach tree in one neighbor's yard, and whatever kind of plant that attracts loads of butterflies and bees in the other neighbor's yard, plus I get a lovely view of some of the historic homes in the neighborhood (some of the oldest in Columbus). It's not ideal, however, because the floor's sort-of pitched and because it's not in Florence, Italy.

11. What current projects are you working on and would you like to share some details with the readers?

I've got two new poetry manuscripts in the works, though one's farther along than the other. I'm slowly working on a "verse" play (yikes!) about the aforementioned Maria Cosway. I've also got one paragraph of a novel written, and that might be all it needs.

Check out a sample of Lesley Jenike's work:

A Rauschenberg Conversation

"The artist's job is to be a witness to his time in history."

-Robert Rauschenberg

He asked me about the painting that's black. Just black.

And wondered if its blackness is somehow representative

of the twenty-first century dead, dead because we had

every opportunity and blew every opportunity and I sd,

No. This was painted during the twentieth and so reflects

an apocalyptic return to what's original and what's more

original? No. I see possibility in futures that will contain

the hum of a breathing machine carried in an easy breeze

through a window just to catch in the arms of a potted tree.

This is the twenty-first century. Encoded in the DNA

of every living thing is a sketch of the man or woman

that will bear witness to your demise, my demise,

the demise of a pet that in sleep twitches in an incalculable

pet dream world and all the while Florida will grow more

Florida with its sun, prehistoric mid-section sprouting

embarrassingly thick, dark hair where hair should never

grow. And I reminded him: Below the black is a strip

of news and the news, I guess, never ends even after

history has etched its loss and its gain into recusant

material, I mean recyclable. In the middle of the gallery

he just looked at me, at the painting, back at me

and sd, Where is the human figure? What happened

to the figure who in terrible gesture remakes the air

around him? Isn't he both the blackness and the news

and isn't he, asleep in amnion, even then, before birth

and after stellar reconnaissance, the textbook definition,

the end and the all that is and was—no god , no fall?

A Mini Editorial Rant

Back in 2008, I started a literary magazine called Shape of a Box via YouTube. I ran it for a little over a year and it was a great experience yet also stressful. I realized that I wasn't going to be able to continue to create a weekly video of writers who submitted their work to me, so I archived the site.

As many who edit will tell you, the editorial bug does not go away. I still had it. However, I didn't want create another literary magazine that was like every other one out there. And I didn't have the finances to launch a print one. I wanted to do something different. It took a while but then the idea for Referential Magazine hit me and I started taking submissions in January 2010.

In addition to working on my own literary magazine, I read a lot of literary publications in print and online. With that being said, I want to note my personal mantra:  with anything you write/publish (again print or online) assume that everyone in the universe may have a chance to read it.

Why do I put these two things together?

Recently, I was reading my contributor copy of a print literary magazine. Let's call it Saddlestitch Review. I was reading along when I recognized an author's name. I thought, "Neat, I also published that poet." (You might see where I am going with this). But, the poem felt all too familiar. I reviewed my records and noted that I had not only published this poet, but I had also published this poem.

I also helped to revise/edit the poem in question.

Now, I don't have a problem with the poet publishing the poem again in another magazine but the polite thing to do is to acknowledge the previous publication—especially since not all journals accept previously published work.

Saddlestitch Review did publish previously published work from time to time (even in this same issue) and they always acknowledged the previous placement, so I knew the editor was not aware of what had happened.

What to do?

First, I got a little angry. I have to admit. Most editors do their work for free (or for negative costs once you factor in expenses to publish even an online magazine) and I felt let down by this poet whom I had taken the time to help.

I decided to let the editor and the poet know. I feel I was polite about the whole thing. The editor was not aware and offered future accreditation for anything they publish online, but the poet? . . .

Never responded.

Why do I post this? Does it seem like something that would rarely happen? Perhaps, but I just wanted to ask my fellow humble poets to give editors a break. Try to keep good records of where you send your poems as well as where they are published. Most editors are writers too; we know you took time to write the work, but we also took time to read, revise and/or publish the piece.

Let's be a team.

And, now, I'll step off my soapbox.

-

Jessie Carty is a poet, teacher and editor who has been told she has far too good of a memory for the small things and not the big things like quantum physics.

Erin Belieu

Congratulations to Erin Belieu. Her poem, "When At A Certain Party In NYC," first published in 32 Poems Magazine, will be honored in Best American Poetry 2011, edited by Kevin Young.

More About Erin:

FSU Bio

Wikipedia

How to Make the Most of Networking at the AWP Conference in Washington, D.C.

Every year, the AWP (Associated Writing Programs) Conference takes place in a major North American city. A few thousand writers converge upon the city during one—usually cold—weekend during the first three months of the year. While committees interview academic job applicants in hotel rooms, the book fair fills with readers and writers perusing the tables of their favorite publishers and literary magazines. At the same time, readings and panels are scheduled all day and well into the evening. At night, cocktail and private happy hours compete with more readings and events.

How can you take this once-a-year opportunity and make the most of your time at the awp Conference in Washington, d.c. this coming February?

Turn Virtual People into Real People: Through my blog (blog.32poems.com), I've begun conversations with poets from around the country. In 2006, a poet-blogger arranged a happy hour in Austin, tx, so a group of online acquaintances could actually meet in person. I suggest attending at least a few group events like these, because you get to meet more people in a limited time.



Consider Attending Outside Parties: At a conference, I was invited to a party at a poet's house. Although I was tired, I forced myself to attend. I barely knew anyone, yet the poets welcomed a stranger. I immediately felt at home and met several interesting people. Who knows what, if anything, will come of these chance encounters? Sometimes, you just need to get out from behind your computer screen to socialize.

Work a Table: If you run a press or magazine or know someone who does, volunteer to work at their table at the book fair. The organizer will probably be happy to have your help. One grateful graduate student volunteered at the 32 Poems table in Chicago. Several times, she mentioned how glad she was to have this table as an anchor since she was attending the conference for the first time and felt completely overwhelmed. Since the conference presented a sensory overload, by representing the magazine, she was able to put her bookbag down for an hour or two and have some sustained conversations in one spot.

Review Your Choices: Enter the conference with a strategy. Check through the entire list of panel presentations to see what you want to attend. Since interesting panels can overlap, you'll probably have to make hard choices. Narrow these down as best you can and then allow for some unexpected plans. You may have in mind to attend a panel and see a friend in the hallway and decide to have lunch instead. Similarly, check out the list of exhibitors at the book fair. Which tables will you want to spend time visiting? There's value to serendipity—but set your targets too.

Maybe the new person you meet will become a friend. Maybe you'll work on a book together. You might get an idea for an outstanding class to take or good advice on agents. In some cases, you might get nothing beyond having a good conversation with someone at a party. The only way you'll know is to attend AWP and network. ¶

Deborah Ager's poetry collection, Midnight Voices, appeared in 2009. Ager founded 32 Poems Magazine in 2003. Many poems first appearing in 32 Poems have been honored in the Best American Poetry and Best New Poets anthologies and on Verse Daily and Poetry Daily.

This article originally appeared in the Winter/Spring issue of The Writer's Center's Workshop & Event Guide.

Kim Bridgford: An Interview With Serena M. Agusto-Cox

1. How would you introduce yourself to a crowded room eager to hang on your every word? Are you just a poet, what else should people know about you?

I would call myself "a woman poet entrepreneur." I like making things happen and creating communities. For example, I edit Mezzo Cammin, an online journal of formalist poetry by women, which is now approaching its fifth anniversary, and I founded The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project, a comprehensive database of women poets, which was launched at the National Museum of Women in the Arts last March. These projects have brought poets together from all over the world. My new job is directing the West Chester Poetry Conference, so my preoccupations, in many ways, are all coming together.

2. Do you see spoken word, performance, or written poetry as more powerful or powerful in different ways and why? Also, do you believe that writing can be an equalizer to help humanity become more tolerant or collaborative? Why or why not?

I think we are at a pivotal time in poetry, with spoken word/hip hop communities affecting, for lack of a better word, more "literary" communities, and vice versa. In fact, at West Chester this year, I am working to have more of a dialogue between these communities. The new Anthology of Rap, edited by Adam Bradley and Adam DuBois, for example, brings performance to the page. By the same token, I think some poets do not think enough about performance, and so miss an opportunity to make poetry more vital and electric for an audience.

In a technological age that is more and more distracted, less communal, poetry has an even more important role to play. Poetry helps to unite us and show our commonalities.

3. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

I'm obsessed by wonderful books. I loved Nick Flynn's The Ticking Is the Bomb, for example, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly's The Orchard. I was profoundly moved by Marilyn Nelson's A Wreath for Emmett Till.

If I'm working on something, I am obsessed by reaching for what might seem impossible. I would rather have reached for excellence and fallen short than not have reached high enough in the first place. I don't think there is enough grandeur in modern life.

4. Most writers will read inspirational/how-to manuals, take workshops, or belong to writing groups. Did you subscribe to any of these aids and if so which did you find most helpful? Please feel free to name any "writing" books you enjoyed most (i.e. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott).

I think reading widely is very important and having at least one person who will tell you the truth about your writing. By this, I mean both strengths and flaws– especially flaws. I can sometimes write too quickly or be overly dramatic. My husband will tell me to take another look or to tone it down.

5. Poetry is often considered elitist or inaccessible by mainstream readers. Do poets have an obligation to dispel that myth and how do you think it could be accomplished?

I think the most important aspect of poetry is to communicate something. When I have a "share a favorite poem" day in my classes, many share songs, and love them for the same reason I love poetry. I think too many people think that poetry does not have heart, that it is just a list of inaccessible words made into a puzzle. At the same time, I'm often asked to recommend poems for births, weddings, and funerals, so clearly, at pivotal moments, people want a poem. It is strange that people often don't believe that school will help them find a poem to make sense of the most important moments in their lives. They think they need to go elsewhere for what matters.

6. When writing poetry, prose, essays, and other works do you listen to music, do you have a particular playlist for each genre you work in or does the playlist stay the same? What are the top 5 songs on that playlist? If you don't listen to music while writing, do you have any other routines or habits?

I like to look out a window when I'm writing. When I lived in Connecticut, I used to look out at a gorgeous tree–like Frost's "Tree at My Window." Now I look out at the rooftops of Chinatown when I'm at home, or at an idyllic leaf-strewn scene at work. It's as if, in between the words, I need "blinks" from the outside world.

7. In terms of friendships, have your friendships changed since you began focusing on writing? Are there more writers among your friends or have your relationships remained the same?

My best friends are all in the arts. Jo Yarrington, my collaborative partner (we have traveled to Iceland and Venezuela together, and will be traveling to Bhutan), is a visual artist, and Russell Goings, the founder of Essence and the author of The Children of Children Keep Coming, is a poet. I'm married to a fiction writer and editor, Pete Duval, the author of Rear View, and my son, Nick Duval, is a film critic at The Flick Pick Monster. More important than the arts themselves, though, is that all of these people in my life are completely passionate about what they do, and they want everything they do to be amazing. Nothing by halves, they would all say.

8. How do you stay fit and healthy as a writer?

I walk as much as I can, and I try to eat well. I live in Center City, Philadelphia, so it is easy to do both. I begin each day with a few cups of very strong coffee, and that ritual makes me feel alert and alive, ready to face the day.

9. Do you have any favorite foods or foods that you find keep you inspired? What are the ways in which you pump yourself up to keep writing and overcome writer's block?

I don't know that I'm inspired by food, but I currently live in Philadelphia: in other words, I can't help finding wonderful food wherever I go.

I'm very work-obsessed, so writer's block is not really an issue. The issue is finding time to write, given my other responsibilities.

10. Please describe your writing space and how it would differ from your ideal writing space.

I write when I can, where I can. It's mostly the writing space in my head that think about, that sense of transformation. To me, physical space is less important than spiritual space.

11. What current projects are you working on and would you like to share some details with the readers?

I just finished an essay on Susanna Kaysen and Sylvia Plath, as well as a piece on women poets and entrepreneurship. I'm working on essays on Rachel Hadas and A. E. Stallings. I'm finishing up the next couple of issues of Mezzo Cammin. In terms of my poetry, I tend to be more obsessed by form than subject matter, although that can change. I've currently fallen back in love with the villanelle.

Thanks to Kim for answering my questions. Please do check out a sample of her work below:

Of Course

          There's no such thing as an ordinary cat.

          Lucky Numbers 20, 34, 12, 7, 38, 2

There's no real way to disagree with that.

A cat will place its faith upon the air,

Believing in the solid of somewhere.

There's no such thing as an ordinary cat.

There's no real way to disagree with that.

It brings a mouse as gift, or else a bird,

The way a poet springs upon a word.

There's no such thing as an ordinary cat.

There's no real way to disagree with that.

A cat and poet place themselves outside,

And find an open place in which to hide.

There's no such thing as an ordinary cat.

A dog's superior? Don't tell me that.

If you want beauty, there's the poet-cat.

From Take-Out, reprinted from Poem.

Books of Poetry And New Year's Resolutions

The new year has arrived. We all know what that means. After we woke up with a hangover from our new year's celebrating, we opened up the paper and read the long list of what is "in" and what is "out." We nodded at some, laughed with others, and were generally glad to have a day off work. And now, it has hit us like a wild baseball pitch: the new year resolution. Ugh. Not that again.

We have a love/hate relationship with resolutions, don't we? We love to hate them. On the one hand, we see them as insignificant ill-attempts to make our lives better. On the other hand, they make our lives better.

Here is a novel idea as a new year's resolution: give your friends and family books of poetry. This may seem like an odd resolution, and that's because it is. Giving a gift seems more like an idea for the holidays. New year's resolutions were designed to make our lives better. I'm going to lose weight this year. I'm going to stop smoking. I'm going to finish that novel.

Being a lover of poetry, how would it seem to others if I gave poetry books for Christmas? "Oh, he's giving gifts he would like; he's not thinking about what I might want."

I finished a weekend-long personal development course back in November, and one of the things that was brought forward by the instructor is that the "self" goes beyond the individual — the "self" and the "community" are one. This idea inspired a thought: what if the new year's resolution was a resolution for the "self/community" instead of just me ("individual")? In other words, by giving to others, I am also giving to myself.

So, buying books of poetry for others as a new year's resolution is a gift to me, and it is a gift to the person I have bought it for. They may not like poetry, or they may be vaguely interested. But that's okay with me. Even if it takes a year for them to take that book off the bookshelf and blow the dust off the cover, if they read any part of it, and even like some or all the poems inside it, that is a great gift to me, and so much more powerful than "I am going to stop drinking soda."

If you like this idea as well, but don't know what you would buy, here are a few (inexpensive) books of poetry I can recommend:

Ants on the Melon — Virginia Hamilton Adair

77 Dream Songs — John Berryman

After Oz — Michael J. Bugeja

Ballistics: Poems — Billy Collins

Complete Poems — Ernest Hemingway

A guest poet by Joshua Gray