Ruth Goring's Blog: palabritas, page 2
October 14, 2014
Glass Lyre Press!
It's public now: my publisher is Glass Lyre. I have been friends with Ami Kaye in the Poetry group for some time, but I didn't know she headed up this literary press, nor that she lives in the Chicago area. But recently I attended a Glass Lyre-sponsored poetry reading in which several of my friends were featured readers. The event was lovely, the books for sale looked wonderful, & Ami herself was a gracious host. I got to chat with the managing editor, who also designs many of the books--very nice guy.
The reading period was open, so I submitted my manuscript forthwith. Communication with Ami has been fantastic. I'll never forget opening the e-mail offering acceptance. I laughed with joy (& cried a little). I've been published before, but each project is a new hurdle, & I've worked on this book far longer & harder than any others. My childhood is in it, & my adolescence, & the solidarity work of recent years, my love of the Spanish language, & especially many stories of Colombians' struggle & suffering & heroism. It is my heart.
We've already identified a couple of possible cover images (one of my own photos is in the running!). There will be other tasks for me in the coming months. And my photographer friend Michael Bracey & I are simultaneously working on another book--images of Afro-Colombians & their communities, his photos & my text. We'll be seeking a publisher for that too. So it's going to be a busy time.
But if all goes well. Soap Is Political will be in print in 2015!
The reading period was open, so I submitted my manuscript forthwith. Communication with Ami has been fantastic. I'll never forget opening the e-mail offering acceptance. I laughed with joy (& cried a little). I've been published before, but each project is a new hurdle, & I've worked on this book far longer & harder than any others. My childhood is in it, & my adolescence, & the solidarity work of recent years, my love of the Spanish language, & especially many stories of Colombians' struggle & suffering & heroism. It is my heart.
We've already identified a couple of possible cover images (one of my own photos is in the running!). There will be other tasks for me in the coming months. And my photographer friend Michael Bracey & I are simultaneously working on another book--images of Afro-Colombians & their communities, his photos & my text. We'll be seeking a publisher for that too. So it's going to be a busy time.
But if all goes well. Soap Is Political will be in print in 2015!
September 30, 2014
Soon to be revealed
In the past few days I have been in happy communication with a literary-press publisher who wants to publish my book of Colombia-rooted poems!
!!!
I won't post details until after we've signed the contract, just to be respectful of the process.
In the meantime, estoy de fiesta--I'm partying! And feeling such gratitude to all those who have supported & helped strengthen my work over the years.
!!!
I won't post details until after we've signed the contract, just to be respectful of the process.
In the meantime, estoy de fiesta--I'm partying! And feeling such gratitude to all those who have supported & helped strengthen my work over the years.
July 21, 2012
I DID it!
A couple of years ago I sent my second poetry book manuscript to a contest. It was unsuccessful, of course--otherwise you would have heard lots about it here! Ever since I have been dithering, looking at other possibilities, collecting websites of various publishers, looking at their missions & what they publish. And working on the poems themselves, & writing some new ones. I think the manuscript is significantly stronger now.
Tonight I decided to celebrate my having fixed a months-long problem with my printer by using it to print a few carefully chosen pages from my updated manuscript plus a cover letter and bio/publication list to a publisher that I would just love to be adopted by. They require paper submissions rather than electronic. This is not a contest; the editors here actually read regular submissions--something that's becoming rare.
I don't begrudge publishers their contests, as they make much-needed $$ with them to keep their important work going. But since this long-revered publisher is not requiring a $25 fee from me, I am happy not to have to pay it. In my cover letter I included a few sentences about how I would hope to help find sales for my book if they graciously consented to add it to their list.
Another recent risk: a week ago, with some trepidation, I (electronically) submitted a few poems to a particular esteemed poetry journal. I know one of the editors, & my trepidation was precisely because of that: it seems more awkward to have one's work rejected by a friend. On the website the editors request no simultaneous submissions, but they promise a really speedy response for any poems that are clearly not a good fit. If the delay is longer than a few days, they say, you'll know that your poems are being considered.
It has been 8 days thus far. From duotrope.com I know that the average rejection from this journal arrives in just 4 days. A few days past the average, then--there's hope! :-)
Sorry to be coy about the publisher & journal names. I just feel shy about such things until I get a response one way or the other.
Tonight I decided to celebrate my having fixed a months-long problem with my printer by using it to print a few carefully chosen pages from my updated manuscript plus a cover letter and bio/publication list to a publisher that I would just love to be adopted by. They require paper submissions rather than electronic. This is not a contest; the editors here actually read regular submissions--something that's becoming rare.
I don't begrudge publishers their contests, as they make much-needed $$ with them to keep their important work going. But since this long-revered publisher is not requiring a $25 fee from me, I am happy not to have to pay it. In my cover letter I included a few sentences about how I would hope to help find sales for my book if they graciously consented to add it to their list.
Another recent risk: a week ago, with some trepidation, I (electronically) submitted a few poems to a particular esteemed poetry journal. I know one of the editors, & my trepidation was precisely because of that: it seems more awkward to have one's work rejected by a friend. On the website the editors request no simultaneous submissions, but they promise a really speedy response for any poems that are clearly not a good fit. If the delay is longer than a few days, they say, you'll know that your poems are being considered.
It has been 8 days thus far. From duotrope.com I know that the average rejection from this journal arrives in just 4 days. A few days past the average, then--there's hope! :-)
Sorry to be coy about the publisher & journal names. I just feel shy about such things until I get a response one way or the other.
March 3, 2012
Two new things
1. A pair of poems that I wrote first in Spanish & then translated into English have been accepted for publication! The Spanish & English will be published together in Reunion: The Dallas Review.
Last night I read them along with a few others during an event at AWP--& it turned out that the young man sitting next to me was a Colombian writer, & he really liked the Spanish versions! He is involved in a literary/cultural journal & invited me to submit work. That's high praise; Colombians traditionally value poetry very highly.
2. I'm judging a poetry contest! I was recruited for the task by an old friend from a writing group back in the 1990s. He's now teaching high school English & helps to run an annual literary contest & festival among regional schools. So I have about 150 poems to read, comment on, & rank this month. No need to do numerical rankings, but I'll need to assign awards or honorable mention to about a third of them. And in late April I'll spend a day at my friend's school, leading a poetry workshop twice & then presenting the top awards at a ceremony.
Taking on new challenges makes me happy.
Last night I read them along with a few others during an event at AWP--& it turned out that the young man sitting next to me was a Colombian writer, & he really liked the Spanish versions! He is involved in a literary/cultural journal & invited me to submit work. That's high praise; Colombians traditionally value poetry very highly.
2. I'm judging a poetry contest! I was recruited for the task by an old friend from a writing group back in the 1990s. He's now teaching high school English & helps to run an annual literary contest & festival among regional schools. So I have about 150 poems to read, comment on, & rank this month. No need to do numerical rankings, but I'll need to assign awards or honorable mention to about a third of them. And in late April I'll spend a day at my friend's school, leading a poetry workshop twice & then presenting the top awards at a ceremony.
Taking on new challenges makes me happy.
September 29, 2011
Raúl Zurita
Tuesday night I had the immense privilege of attending a reading by the Chilean poet Raul Zurita. His use of words & images to bear witness to the 1973 Chilean coup (supported by the US govt) & the terrible repression that followed blows open my sense of the possibilities for deep empathy in poetry.
It is always sobering to meet a torture survivor. Both Sr. Zurita & another survivor I know, a Colombian man, have chronic hand tremors, probably long-term effects of the torture, but manifest amazing gentleness & love.
It is always sobering to meet a torture survivor. Both Sr. Zurita & another survivor I know, a Colombian man, have chronic hand tremors, probably long-term effects of the torture, but manifest amazing gentleness & love.
November 26, 2010
Thankful for . . .
* how my parents built me & ruined me & blessed me just by being themselves & failing & trying & loving
* my children's forgiveness of my own failures
* the granddaughter (due to emerge in March) who showed us a tiny emphatic hand in a recent ultrasound
* the way that writing poetry allows me to process pain, taking me deep into it but also detaching me as I become absorbed in making something of it
* the earth's stubborn smelly beauty
* my children's forgiveness of my own failures
* the granddaughter (due to emerge in March) who showed us a tiny emphatic hand in a recent ultrasound
* the way that writing poetry allows me to process pain, taking me deep into it but also detaching me as I become absorbed in making something of it
* the earth's stubborn smelly beauty
February 10, 2010
A flurry
After poking at my manuscript of Colombia poems for months, revising, reordering, writing new poems to fill it out, I have come to a much anticipated & scary moment: I've identified a small press to send it to!
Like friends who have slaved over doctoral dissertations, I could go on poking & smoothing & fussing indefinitely. But at some point it has to stop, at least long enough for my little manuscript to be printed out, tucked into a manila envelope, & be bundled off to be scrutinized by others. The publisher I've identified has an open reading period that ends in just a few days, so I have to do some serious work to finish up--make a glossary, trim down the intro, make sure the poems included are in their most recent & best-honed form, insert part pages.
It's a lot to do--yikes! Well, it's good to have a deadline. Wish me luck!
Like friends who have slaved over doctoral dissertations, I could go on poking & smoothing & fussing indefinitely. But at some point it has to stop, at least long enough for my little manuscript to be printed out, tucked into a manila envelope, & be bundled off to be scrutinized by others. The publisher I've identified has an open reading period that ends in just a few days, so I have to do some serious work to finish up--make a glossary, trim down the intro, make sure the poems included are in their most recent & best-honed form, insert part pages.
It's a lot to do--yikes! Well, it's good to have a deadline. Wish me luck!
November 11, 2009
Being a dangerous poet
I recently discovered that my poem collection, Yellow Doors, is offered on a Europe-based online shop, Metropolis/The Store, that says it stocks innovative jazz & "dangerous poetry." I love having my work included in that category--it challenges me to make sure that my poems really ARE dangerous, unsettling me & calling me to change my life.
This summer I wrote a poem, "Braids," about the Afro-Colombian community I accompanied in 2003 and 2004, and now I'm getting ready to go back & revise it. It's rather beautiful but not yet dangerous. In the poem some women of the community are braiding their daughters' hair, & each other's, which seems quite sedate & innocuous. Braiding someone's hair is definitely a bonding activity, & thus an act of solidarity in suffering/struggle, but I want to jar the reader by picturing it from the start as an act of resistance. So I'm going to go back & "unbraid" the poem's neatness a bit, put in some spikes & dreads.
Sadly, the grandchild I had been expecting with great joy (see prior post) slipped away from us while still in the womb. Parents, sister, aunt, grandparents--we're all very sad about this loss. Loving is always dangerous.
This summer I wrote a poem, "Braids," about the Afro-Colombian community I accompanied in 2003 and 2004, and now I'm getting ready to go back & revise it. It's rather beautiful but not yet dangerous. In the poem some women of the community are braiding their daughters' hair, & each other's, which seems quite sedate & innocuous. Braiding someone's hair is definitely a bonding activity, & thus an act of solidarity in suffering/struggle, but I want to jar the reader by picturing it from the start as an act of resistance. So I'm going to go back & "unbraid" the poem's neatness a bit, put in some spikes & dreads.
Sadly, the grandchild I had been expecting with great joy (see prior post) slipped away from us while still in the womb. Parents, sister, aunt, grandparents--we're all very sad about this loss. Loving is always dangerous.
September 30, 2009
I wonder
I wonder how much being a grandmother will affect my poetry. Because I just found out that I will be one come June 2010, Lord willing!!! And yesterday during my bus & train commute home, when I'm usually way too tired to think about writing, a poem for the Little Wombed One came rushing out.
Unfortunately I wasn't very active as a poet when my daughter & son were small. I did end up writing one for/about each of them, but I didn't have the tools to keep at it. Different story now . . . & maybe it helps that most of the time I won't be the one getting up for night feedings. :-)
Unfortunately I wasn't very active as a poet when my daughter & son were small. I did end up writing one for/about each of them, but I didn't have the tools to keep at it. Different story now . . . & maybe it helps that most of the time I won't be the one getting up for night feedings. :-)
August 3, 2009
Singing
Right now I'm working on a long poem about singing! My family sang a LOT--in church, at bedtime when we were little, on car & bus trips, as a social activity with friends, & whenever we were especially bored or happy or scared. Two of my sisters & I still have at least one songfest every time we take a cross-country trip to visit each other.
It has been amazing to write about this. I hadn't anticipated that it would to take me into some experiences of intense fear, but that's what has happened. And these memories have unearthed the most painful moment of my childhood, which did not involve singing: a fight that I witnessed--not a physical fight, but terrifying nonetheless. I'll be writing about that next--but thankfully, for now there's still work to do on the singing poem.
It has been amazing to write about this. I hadn't anticipated that it would to take me into some experiences of intense fear, but that's what has happened. And these memories have unearthed the most painful moment of my childhood, which did not involve singing: a fight that I witnessed--not a physical fight, but terrifying nonetheless. I'll be writing about that next--but thankfully, for now there's still work to do on the singing poem.
