Jeannine Hall Gailey's Blog, page 120

If you just can't get enough of interviews with me, Jeann...

If you just can't get enough of interviews with me, Jeannine Hall Gailey, check out my new interview at Public Republic :
http://www.public-republic.net/i%E2%80%99m-attempting-to-connect-poetry-and-science.php
The interviewer, Bob Baker, really liked the poem "In the Faces of Lichtenstein's Women" so I put up a recording of it on my sample readings page here in case you are interested:
http://www.webbish6.com/audio.htm

Plus, my artist friend Michaela Eaves (who did the cover of Becoming the Villai...

How is your new year going so far? I was feeling a bit di...

How is your new year going so far? I was feeling a bit discouraged yesterday, but was helped by getting out into the watery sunshine in nearby lovely Yountville, where I can't afford to eat at the many fabulous starred restaurants but I can afford a loaf of bread and lemonade from one of their bakeries.
I finally got my contributor copy of the Fall 2009 The LA Review , which was really fun to read - particularly the poetry - many of which were playful and refreshingly non-downbeat, including th...

Happy New Year! I mean it!2009 was a hard year on a lot o...

Happy New Year! I mean it!

2009 was a hard year on a lot of people I know. Including me. That is why I'm happy to be waving goodbye. At the end of the year, my husband and I always listen to an old song by the Counting Crows called "A Long December" whose chorus goes something like "It's been a long December/and there's reason to believe/maybe this year will be better than the last."
There's always something hopeful about the beginning of the new year, even with all the bad news of 2009 poundin...

Happy after-Christmas, everyone! Hope you all got your wi...

Happy after-Christmas, everyone! Hope you all got your wishes from Santa!
Well, I asked Santa for two working ankles, but he must have thought I said two matching ankles, because I sprained my other ankle on Christmas Eve. Now I have one mildly sprained ankle and one severely sprained ankle with tendonosis, which means I've got a degenerated tendon. I always thought part of me was degenerate. And I threw my neck out using my crutches, so, generally, feeling a little physcially discombobulated....

Merry Holidays Everyone! My Christmas shopping is finishe...

Merry Holidays Everyone! My Christmas shopping is finished, the tree is up and decorated, and tomorrow I'm buying a tiny ham (well, tiny is relative - only four pounds!) for Christmas dinner. I am wishing you all a lot of writing time under the tree. Speaking of which...

Thanks Mary for your "three poems before the end of the year" challenge. I've now written four! I don't think I would have done that without the challenge.

I also checkout out a boatload of books from the library. One was Gluck...

I liked Stephen Burt as a critic before this - in fact, I...

I liked Stephen Burt as a critic before this - in fact, I've assigned his essays to my class before - but after this terrific essay on poetry and superheroes:
http://poems.com/special_features/prose/essay_burt3.php
I am even more of a fan. He talks about how poets can connect to wider mythology through superheroes, and also how they can be used as a kind of subversive accessibility:
"Poems about superheroes, famous or obscure, announce their divorce from expectations about high culture, antiquit...

The holidays are speeding towards us! So much last-minute...

The holidays are speeding towards us! So much last-minute holiday shopping, packing up, and shipping to do...But I love the lights, and the tree, and making egg-nog french toast and pumpkin bread and other weird foods we only make at this time of the year.


I owe you some little mini-book reviews, which will be coming soon.


My review of Kim Addonizio's Lucifer at the Starlite is up at the Rattle blog. They are one of the few places that want you to personalize your reviews a little bit, so it's ...

I haven't written anything in a couple of weeks and it's ...

I haven't written anything in a couple of weeks and it's making me a little...itchy.

I got two rejections and an acceptance today. After weeks of nothing. Isn't that always the way.

A poem of mine is out in the new issue of The Cincinnati Review. It's one of my "element" series, called "Cesium Burns Blue." It's one of my husband's favorite poems. The issue also has poems by Nance Van Winckel, Chase Twichell, and Sherman Alexie.

Speaking of Alexie, he went on The Colbert Report and talked about h...

Because my last post about the 2000's first decade might ...

Because my last post about the 2000's first decade might have been too depressing, I present this:

Happy post-Thanksgiving! I've had a cold and been grading...

Happy post-Thanksgiving! I've had a cold and been grading. I know, too much fun - you're jealous!

Ring in the new...

Peter put up a post about the first decade of the 2000's being the "decade from Hell." Although there have been some good things to come out of it, I'm going to go ahead and put it on my "not favorite decade" lists. Now, the 90's - there were some good times. The music was loud, everyone was optimistic, and I remember that I always had too many job offers on my hands. (Of course,...