Jeannine Hall Gailey's Blog, page 121

Almost Thanksgiving...If this causes you to think about h...

Almost Thanksgiving...

If this causes you to think about holiday shopping, then check out Kristin Berkey-Abbott's excellent list of poetry books to buy:
http://kristinberkey-abbott.blogspot.com/2009/11/books-with-spine-for-your-holiday.html
and poetry chapbooks:
http://kristinberkey-abbott.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapbooks-make-great-stocking-stuffers.html

If you're thinking about applying for a residency, Susan Rich give some tips at her new blog:
http...

Can Poetry Survive?There has been a lot of interesting ta...

Can Poetry Survive?

There has been a lot of interesting talk on this topic around lately.

Here are two very interesting posts from Charles Jensen on the topic:
--http://kinemapoetics.blogspot.com/2009/11/book-bubble.html
--http://kinemapoetics.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-on-literary-market_16.html

And one by 32 Poems editor Deb Ager on how to keep a lit mag alive in print:
http://blog.32poems.com/1281/can-print-publications-survive

And an amusing discussion of poetry shopoholism:
http...

On Motherhood, Writing, and the Body...An interesting con...

On Motherhood, Writing, and the Body...

An interesting conversation here between Rachel Zucker and Sarah Manguso.
(Thanks to Laurel Synder for the link)

I don't often talk here on the blog about some of the more serious (and sad) things I go through in life. As someone who was told at a young age (21) that she wouldn't be able to have children, life as a mother has pretty much been outside my range of possibilities for a long time. Most of my friends had children by the time they were my age; th...

I apologize because the whole week was filled up with bro...

I apologize because the whole week was filled up with bronchitis and my mom's visit and now I have to account for a whole missing seven days. Hmm, we did still manage to visit Sonoma's main square's little park where there were unaccountably seven tiny thumb-sized yellow ducklings belonging to a large white duck - ducklings in November! And we got to visit with my poet friend Natasha, who drove out from Oakland to see us. Thanks N! Also, I learned how to play Wii Rock Band, a gift from mom...

The miracle of good wishes, sunshine, and very heavy-duty...

The miracle of good wishes, sunshine, and very heavy-duty antibiotics mean that I am feeling much better today and not downing the last of my inhaler every ten minutes. Hope that improvement continues, as husband G is going out of town and my mother is coming in for a visit tomorrow! Reminder: do not ignore bronchitis symptoms. Especially if it is something that requires antibiotics!

Good news today - Redactions literary journal decided to nominate my poem, "Why I Write About Japanese Mytholog...

Woke up in the middle of the night with an asthma attack....

Woke up in the middle of the night with an asthma attack. Went into the doc this morning with 101 fever and they did a pulmonary function test and an albuterol breathing treatment. Doc heard a rattling in my chest which he thinks is bronchitis, not pneumonia. Possible flu. Think good thoughts for me, because the last time this happened, I wound up admitted to the hospital with double-pneumonia and pleurisy - and that was less than six months ago. I do not want a repeat.

Well, I did that thing to my latest manuscript last night...

Well, I did that thing to my latest manuscript last night - that thing where you print out all the poems, lay them out on the floor, and try to decide how they fit together, abandoning previous plans and careful sorting, trying to see if you need one or two or six sections, seeing if there's actually an arc to the groupings. I re-did the manuscript this morning (put in four new poems, took out two or three old ones, and moved almost every poem around) and sent it out into the world in its new...

Thanks to Suzanne for this link:http://bookcritics.org/bl...

Thanks to Suzanne for this link:
http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/to_the_whiting_award_winners_2009/
to Margaret Atwood's speech at the Whiting Awards. My favorite bit was this, because yes, I went pre-med for my first degree, and yes, my parents - even though I am 36, had a decade-long career in business before I devoted my time to writing, and am currently teaching poetry at the university level - still tell me to go get my MD:
"Be vigilant – there are ambushes everywhere. On one side lurk ...

Another beautiful sunny day today as we wind towards the ...

Another beautiful sunny day today as we wind towards the end of October. We carved a huge pumpkin last night, and I've been craving pumpkin-related foods (pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pancakes, etc.) We've been in Napa almost a month now. I can't believe it!

I've been remiss in announcing a couple of publications:
--A few poems and a review in the new "Gender" issue of Poemeleon
--A new poem, "The Robot Scientist's Daughter Journeys West," in issue 6 of The L.A. Review. (I don't think the poem is avai...

More on Contests...Go congratulate my dear friend Kelli o...

More on Contests...

Go congratulate my dear friend Kelli on her win of the White Pine Book award! I told her, the weirdest thing was, the night before she found out, I dreamed she won a book prize. I had the wrong publisher, so I'm not completely pyschic, but still...

I'm very excited for her, and here are a few things I really like about her press: they print beautiful books (which I know because another friend, Susan Rich, has published with them) and they have excellent distribution with Con...