Jeannine Hall Gailey's Blog, page 51

New review of Robot Scientist’s Daughter, new poem in Interfictions, Lucia Perillo, and Dark Days

First, the good stuff!

Happy to have a new poem up at Interfictions called “Serendipity” (and yes, it references the sort of mediocre romantic comedy of the same name, and also has a line from the show “Community” and a reference to The Last Unicorn. Points if you can find them all!)

Thanks to Jannell McConnell Parsons and CrossTalk CellPress for this lovely – and science-minded – review of my fourth book, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, along with Natasha K. Moni’s The Cardiologist’s Daughter –  here: http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/the-poetry-of-nuclear-physics-and-cardiology

Dark Days

It’s the beginning of November, when the bright leaves of Seattle’s extremely brief fall have been blown away and the dark pretty non-metaphorically begins taking over. It’s dark when you wake, dark when you go to sleep, and often dark in between. The rain, which becomes ever-present this time of year, is cold – not midwest or northeastern cold, just cold enough to make you feel a little miserable, to make your face hurt and your lungs work harder to keep up.

After the death of Brigit Pegeen Kelly last month, Lucia Perillo, local (and terrific) poet, essayist and novelist – who started out as a wildlife biologist and became a writer after being diagnosed with MS at midlife – has passed away. She was tough, and funny. Her work – not just her poems, but her essays, and when I saw her speak – was breathtaking in its intelligence and bravery. She was a true inspiration as a writer and a person. Go read her work! “The body tells a story/ mostly about loss.” (From “Rotator Cuff Vortex.”) She has great things to say about responding to the question: “How are you doing” and not saying “fine,” about having a body – and then losing a body, slowly – that allowed her to paddle across lakes and climb mountains. She talked about disability in a way that helped me when I was stuck in a wheelchair and unable to process what was happening to me.

And it’s not just the loss of these two poets. I also lost a family member this week. This is on top of dealing with the unknowns of a metastasized cancer diagnosis that highly paid specialists cannot agree on how to treat, having a new neurologist tell me that my neural-lesion-related motor skill loss, difficulty with proprioception, and foot and hand numbness were permanent but it was obvious I was “working hard’ at physical therapy to help these problems (yeah, no doubt, I’ve been going once a week for six years, so hooray, finally some minor improvement!)  and of course the terror that is modern politics. (I’ve already voted, and I can’t tell you the feeling of sheer relief I felt when I got that voting ballot in the mail.)

I’ve found myself unmotivated to write or send out work in a way that’s unfamiliar to me. Maybe this year’s unfortunate surprises have started to wear on me. I actually bought a magazine yesterday because it had an article on planning “end of life” stuff. I read Max Ritvo’s pretty amazing Four Reincarnations – which is beautiful, but maybe not the best thing to read when you’re pretty sure you’re dying of cancer – the author died of cancer at 25 right before his first book was published by Milkweed. I don’t know if I’ve been processing the bad news enough, or maybe trying to ignore it a lot.  I have a life-long survival skill of focusing on the good stuff whenever possible, but there are times when you kind of have to face the bad stuff, too. I don’t know what to do next, because I feel unable to plan for the first time in a long time. I’m the kind of person who plans things out in advance, who likes to be prepared. And now I have to prepare for…what? The unknown, mystery. I’ve never been very comfortable with the unknown, even though I’m a poet and love Jung and the subconscious and folk tales that celebrate that dark forest path. I hope, I hope, I get a little light for the path.

Open Books Reading, Halloween-y Poem up at Women’s Voices for Change, Wonder Woman Poetry Videos, and More

Today one of the poems from the new book, “Introduction to the Body in Fairy Tales,” is featured on Women’s Voices for Change. It’s a very Halloween-appropriate poem – it was even included in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Six[image error]!

Thanks to The University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Review who featured my poem “Wonder Woman Dreams of the Amazon” – from my first book, Becoming the Villainess, as a video they made from one of my readings and images they put together in their first foray into video poems! Here it is. A lot of fun!

So, last night was the Seattle debut of the new book, Field Guide to the End of the World, at Open Books. We did a little reception, a little book signing, a little reading – it was really cool. Thanks to everyone who came out! Here are a few pics that Glenn snapped. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the book during a very difficult year!

I’m hosting the Twitter #poetparty tonight at 6 PM Pacific/9 PM Eastern to talk spooky and speculative poetry. Come in and join the hashtagging!

Wishing you all a happy and safe Halloween!

Apocalypse Poetry for Halloween Weekend this Saturday! Spooky Poems from Field Guide to the End of the World

Looking forward to this Saturday’s reading and reception for Field Guide to the End of the World at Open Books at 4 PM. Apocalypse-themed costumes welcomed, and festive treats (i.e. cupcakes, cheese and fruit, and sparkly celebratory drinks) will be served! I’ll read poems about the apocalypse, sure, but also about teen witches and vampires, zombies, plagues and pop-culture! This is only my second reading for the new book, and the last one I’ll do in the Seattle area for a while. (I’m reading in Port Townsend in November, but that’s a trek for most Seattle-ites!) I hope it’ll be a fun celebration and also appropriately Halloween-y. We could use some cheering up!

(And thanks to The Stranger for listing my reading on their 29 things to do this weekend on Saturday!

http://www.thestranger.com/things-to-do/2016/10/25/24649448/96-stranger-than-usual-things-to-do-in-seattle-this-week-october-25-30)

Here are a few pics from Woodinville’s October – Mt. Baker view, Chateau Ste Michelle winery grounds, fall!

In addition, I’m hosting this Sunday, the 30th’s, official Twitter #poetparty! You show up, ask questions, give advice, learn how to use hashtags correctly, etc! 6 PM Pacific/9 PM Eastern. We’re talking spooooky poems (and where to send them) in light of the Halloween holiday!

Here are a couple of poems from Field Guide to the End of the World:

Introduction to Witchcraft

Always these young women in search of power,

their eyes rolled back in their heads, midriffs exposed.

Always some girl with a candle in a dark room –

and poof, her face brightens as she achieves

some moment of bliss. The raindrops around her freeze

in midair, the wolves stop baring their fangs, and for a moment

the young girl marvels at her own invincibility.

But then it’s fire, fire, always someone with a stake or a knife

ready to do her in. She is a spark about to go out.

Introduction to Teen Girl Vampires

turn feral while defending their human boyfriends, harmless and blond

in Varsity jackets and crewcuts. These girls just want to be loved, and fed,

in that order, and can we blame them? A nurse here or there won’t be missed,

or the guy playing “second policeman.” Bram Stoker equated blood and sex,

Mina chaste and clever while hunting her Dracula down, his bite awaking

impulses that ignited and were ignored. These days, teen vampire girls enjoy sex

with abandon, tossing lovers around like tree limbs. These days, the girl

doesn’t succumb to the monster, she is the monster, teeth gleaming in the moonlight,

coquettish limbs and curls masking superpowers. Oh, she still wants to be

the prettiest girl at the prom, and perhaps she mourns some future idea

of motherhood. But men line up for the promise of her bite, her blood.

And she has nothing to fear; she cannot be broken, tarnished by age, her heart

impenetrable to anything except for that wooden stake.

They Are Not Regenerating (from the movie “Zombie Stripper Clones”)

We are not zombies, thrown into a pool

of dubious origin and coming back beautiful

but decaying

unsure of how to live – pretending to swim,

eat yogurt like regular girls.

We are not clones, despite being drawn to specifications

(36-26-36) and bearing bouffants and bikinis

we might hack each other to pieces

but we are not confused about our identities

(living or not living) we continue

in this shape we were given

our cells cannot regenerate and the scientist

names us “Dead”

we are not regenerating we cannot reproduce ourselves we cannot be anything

but the fulfillment of your fantasy, flesh-eating or not.

Brigit Pegeen Kelly, a New Review of Field Guide, Internet Attacks and Poems of the Apocalypse

First: I was so sorry to hear of the passing of the truly great poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly. I never met her in person (though reports of her kindness and generosity are widespread) but her poetry was an important discovery for me years ago and definitely an influence on my own work. Her combination of darkness, morality, and surrealism – especially in Song – are unsurpassed. If you have never read her work, see the title poem from that book, Song, here.

I meant to post this morning but the internet had been shut down by a hacker attack. It reminds me of the limits and vulnerability of online communities, our writing, and our communication. Security on the web – especially in web services – is still mostly pretty easy to hack, and it’s difficult to defend against all types of hacks (DDoS attacks are simple to perform, hard to stop.)

Kathleen Kirk compares and contrasts a poem of mine from Field Guide to the End of the World with a poem from Donna Vorreyer’s Every Love Story is an Apocalypse here, “The Bounce and the Chaos” . An interesting and thoughtful discussion of two poems whose subjects – human relationships and electromagnetism – are very similar.

As I’m also currently working on a review of Dana Levin’s Banana Palace, another apocalyptic collection, and recently read Render: An Apocalypse by Nick Flynn and Rebecca Gayle Howell,  I was thinking of our current obsession with apocalypse in the news, in pop culture, in weather reporting. The last time I saw so much apocalypse in the poetry zeitgeist was back in the 1920’s, what with Eliot’s “The Waste Land” and Yeats’ “The Second Coming.” I even noticed the theme in children’s movies – not the teen dystopias like Maze Runner/The Giver/Hunger Games/Divergent stuff, but the children’s stuff, like, every “Ice Age” movie is another version of the characters facing an apocalypse, the latest caused by asteroids. Think of what people were about to face in the twenties – a huge stock market crash, the second World War, arguably more horrifying than the first, the Great Depression.  A decimation. They could not have known what was coming, but perhaps they sensed this. What do you think accounts for our current obsession – the movies, the television shows (the latest – “No Tomorrow” – has another asteroid destroys the earth plot), the novels and poems of imagining beyond the end of the world. I know that my own personal medical crises – first of the brain, in the discovery of brain lesions a few years ago and their effects, like memory and motor skill problems, and this year, being diagnosed – not once, but twice, in six months, with metastasized cancer in my liver – definitely spurs thoughts of afterlife, survival, luck, the spirit versus the body. With Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s death, my thoughts drift to how a poet survives beyond reach of her physical person, her short lifespan. Her three books continue to be taught and loved, and that is a kind of immortality and grace.

Thank you to Melanie at the Teabird book blog for this kind review of Field Guide to the End of the World. http://teabird17.blogspot.com/2016/10/field-guide-to-end-of-world-by-jeannine.html

I’m also hoping for a friendly crowd at tomorrow night’s Hugo House event at the Pine Box, where I’m participating in a crazy-scary contest-reading sort of thing – you can read more about it here.

And please put October 29th on your calendar for my updated reading/reception at Open Books for Field Guide to the End of the World. Apocalypse-related costumes welcomes. Cupcakes and sparkling drinks provided! Put on your poetry-apocalypse shoes and come party!

After the Storm, New Review of Field Guide and a poem in the Fall 2016 of North American Review

There were three days of storms from a typhoon in the Pacific that came through over the weekend. They caused water spouts/tornadoes in coastal Oregon, some downed trees and power outages, but we were not hit as hard as they had predicted. So Thursday night, we watched the weather and bought water and found our flashlights; there was a mild storm, no big deal. Friday was windier and wetter, we waited anxiously for updates on the historic Saturday storm – when it would start, where it would hit the hardest. Saturday was the day we were supposed to get the “historic” storm, so dangerous we were told not to go out of our houses. There was a bit of heavy rain at 6:30 PM, but not much else. (I was supposed to have an artist date with a friend, a poetry group, and have my reading/reception at Open Books on Saturday – none of which happened. We rescheduled the Open Books reading/reception til October 29th due to this weather event.  Oh well – hope to see some of you at 4 PM on October 29th – it’ll be more spooky as it’ll be Halloween weekend!)  So we took a trip to downtown Seattle during a rainless, wind-less lull on Saturday and took this picture of the ferry boat and ferris wheel, checked out the work at SAM’s newly relocated gallery of local artist’s work (right behind the gift shop – so cool!), checked out Pike Place market (still plenty of tourists there)  and we visited Open Books and bought some books! And here are my books on their shelf! Always cheering!

So that is how I spent my weekend. I felt so tired and frustrated and stressed out from the over-reaction to possible – but not actual – disaster that the weather people made me feel. (Just like the first poem in Field Guide to the End of the World, “Introduction to Disaster Preparedness” – ironic!) It reminded me of how I’ve been buffeted by medical news this year; in February, a random hospital stay resulted in the news that I had metastasized cancer in my liver. Many tests and doctors later, a group of liver specialists told me that the tumors were benign adenomas. A month later, I was told I definitely had a rare terminal cancer called carcinoid. Now my endocrinologists think that might wrong and are arguing with the liver oncologist about it. The stress and anxiety have been worse than any symptoms I’ve had. I’m tired of the ups and downs of both weather and medical reports. (Plus, I’m having nightmares about Trump every night.) I just want to sleep all the time as a result. Or maybe that’s just a beginning of fall thing?

On the plus side, I’m thankful for a few pieces of good news. Here’s a new review of Field Guide to the End of the World from Everything Distills into Reading (thank you!!

Apocalyptic Storms and Rescheduling my Open Books Reading, Seattle Review of Books review of Field Guide, and More!

Every weather report has been crying apocalypse as a series of storms brought on by a waning Pacific typhoon has hit the Pacific Northwest. We’ve been lucky in our new home – no power outages, merely a few flickers, no downed trees. I haven’t watched this much weather news in a while.

In the intersection of apocalyptic poetry and apocalyptic weather, my poetry reading/reception for Field Guide to the End of the World – the last one I’m doing in Seattle – was supposed to be this Saturday afternoon at Open Books. It’s now been rescheduled to October 29th at the same time, 4-6 PM. Hope to see you there! It will be spooky appropriate fun for Halloween weekend!

A big thank you to Seattle Review of Books and Paul Constant, who were kind enough to do a review of Field Guide to the End of the World – local press is always an unexpected happy thing. I was excited that the book’s cover was briefly on the home page of Seattle Weekly! You can read it here at Seattle Review of Books!

http://www.seattleweekly.com/arts/seattle-poet-jeannine-hall-gaileys-latest-book-ends-the-world-again-and-again/

 

Pumpkins, Politics, New Reviews of Field Guide, Dark Reading Recs, and Rainy Day Reception at Open Books

Welcome to October 2016, pumpkin and politics season! The politics is giving me a stomach ache, so I’m going to focus on the pumpkins. We raced out in any small blip in the rainy weather to look for pumpkins, local squash, and other seasonal beauty. I kind of love pumpkin patches, even when they’re not that sincere. And here is a hummingbird on my back tree for good measure.

A new review of Field Guide to the End of the World appeared today at the 5 Minutes for Books blog – one of the nice things said about the book was it was “the best book I have read in a long time in any genre.” So kind!

And Serena of Savvy Verse and Wit recommends dark reads for October at Book Bloggers International – including The Robot Scientist’s Daughter and Field Guide to the End of the World! Check in out! Thanks Serena!

Today we have some sun, but the upcoming weather report says we have a week of rain, storms, and wind ahead. I have an online class visit tomorrow, then a writer friend coming over Thursday, and the Open Books reception for Field Guide to the End of the World on Saturday afternoon (starting at 4 PM!) I’d say on a cold, rainy day, there’s nothing like going into a bookshop like Open Books, seeing friends, maybe eating a few gluten-free cupcakes – so if you’re looking for something to do this Saturday, I hope to see you there! There will be a short reading of appropriately spooky poems, a book signing, but mostly celebrating!

Review of Field Guide to the End of the World up at Entropy, Ada Limon SAL Reading, Upcoming Readings, Hurricanes, and Feeling Grateful

Thanks to Donna Vorreyer and Entropy Magazine for this amazingly thought-provoking review of Field Guide to the End of the World. I confess I got a little tear-y reading it. I know how much energy it takes to write a review like that, and I appreciate it!

Spent a wonderful night listening to Ada Limon read at SAL’s poetry series last night, and then Rebecca Hoogs interviewed her after the reading, which was great. My favorite quote from Ada was something I’d often told students “Embrace your weirdness. It’s what will make your poetry special.” She talked about working with Phil Levine and Sharon Olds at NYU, living in Kentucky due to dating someone in the racehorse business (!!), not seeing whales at Provincetown, her first time witnessing fireflies as an adult, and even her theater degree at UW. Ada was not only super talented and a great reader, she also radiates beauty and light. I was so glad I got to see her in person! I had really liked Bright Dead Things when I read it last year, but now I can connect to the book even more. Isn’t that why we go to readings?

Tonight, I’ll be trying to connect to readers myself when I do a class visit for a class down in California. How great is our technology lets us do that? We’ll be talking about genre, robots, class, and The Robot Scientist’s Daughter. Should be fun!

In the meantime, I’ve been worrying about my friends and family on the Southern East Coast and that crazy hurricane. Nothing I can do anything about, of course, but worry and watch the weather reports.

I got a rejection today, after sending out two subs – isn’t that always the way, some poems come back, then they go out again. I had some random (?) mail like “sign up for cancer insurance!” (What up, HIPAA?) Despite all this, I was feeling extraordinarily grateful – I don’t know, for everything, for my friends, for a wonderful poetry community both in person and online, for the good things in our lives. I do get discouraged and depressed, like anyone, as you could probably tell from my last post – but for some reason, the last day or so, I’ve just had this odd feeling of hopefulness and well-being. I know some of this is from the good wishes and sweetness of my family and friends.

I got to talk to Billie at the SAL reading about our celebration/reception/reading October 15 at Open Books. I think we’re going to bring gluten-free cupcakes, sparkling drinks, cheese and fruit. I’m going to pick a few poems to read (nothing too long, as we want to have time to actually celebrate with friends!) and then sign books and socialize. I’m really looking forward to it! I’m so grateful to have a second opportunity to celebrate the book with friends at one of my very favorite all-time bookstores!

Stay safe, everyone in the path of Hurricane Matthew. And thank you to everyone who has sent me supportive messages and good thoughts and prayers, people who have bought, read and reviewed Field Guide to the End of the World and my other books (just had a new review pop up on Amazon for Unexplained Fevers – how cool is that?) and my family and friends who have tried to keep me cheerful during this challenging year.

 

Making October Brighter: Oct 15th Open Books Reception, Mythic Delirium Poems, Other Poetry Business and More

October can be a rough month for us in the Northwest. The days get shorter, colder, and much, much wetter, all at once. We did have a brief sunbreak during which Glenn and I ran around taking pictures to prove that sun and autumn leaves could happen at the same time, see below! Otherwise, we’ve been trying to stay positive while going to looong cancer doctor appointments (right now, my main two cancer specialist folks don’t agree on next steps, tests, or what exact kind of cancer I have…which makes all the appointments emotional and exhausting), doing dental work, getting feet x-rayed (I had a nerve contusion, not a break, yay), and of course, trying to avoid getting the flu as I recover from pneumonia. (Finally, my oxygen levels are back to normal. Yay! Oxygen=good!) Having pneumonia and having to deal with complicated diagnoses and tests at the same time are not my recommendation for fun times. It’s been rough trying to do enough to promote the new book (at least in my mind) but then I remember that the Bronte sisters’ first book of poetry sold two copies. So maybe I’m doing okay. In general I’ve just felt a little tired and down. I need an espresso shot for the spirit!

I’m doing some things to counter my tiredness and bit of discouragement – tomorrow I’m attending Ada Limon’s SAL reading, I’m doing a few online class visits to talk about my various books – I think I’ll be talking about The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, Becoming the Villainess, and Field Guide to the End of the World for the different classes –  in the next couple of weeks, and visiting with some other writers to talk poetry next week. I love doing online class visits as long as my technology cooperates, and it’ll be nice to hang out with other writers for a bit. I’ve mostly finished my review of Dana Levin’s Banana Palace. I’ve written a few new poems, and plan to do some more fall submissions. It is the season for that!

Then, the big news – I’ve got a reception/reading thing coming up – my second event for Field Guide to the End of the World – at Open Books in Seattle on October 15 at 4 PM. It’s not a formal reading, more of a book signing plus with fun, I’m so excited that I can bring cupcakes and sparkling drinks and can make it a real sort of celebration with all my friends down in Seattle who couldn’t make it out to Woodinville last month. Plus, I’ll actually have a voice this time, and no coughing, I promise! It should be fun! I’m kind of glad now I spaced the two main events for Seattle a month apart – who knew it would take me almost that long to get all the way better? And it’s never bad to be at Open Books – still one of my fave places in Seattle, now with a new owner, a new coat of paint and a children’s corner.

Also, thank you to Mythic Delirium because their new issue features a poem from Field Guide to the End of the World, “To the Ends of the Earth.” Mythic Delirium has always been one of my fave speculative publications.

What are are you guys doing to keep your spirits up now that October and fall are here? We’re already started making little gluten-free pumpkin cheesecakes, checking out all the new fall shows (what do you like so far? Timeless seems promising…) and stocking up on new reading material…including the new Maria Semple novel (whose main character is a poet!) and the issue of APR with Marie Howe AND Beth Ann Fennelly!

Friday Updates: Two New Reviews for Field Guide, Black Moons, Shifting Energies, and Small Annoyances

Two new reviews for Field Guide to the End of the World!

Thanks to the Chick with Books blog for this review:

http://chickwithbooks.blogspot.com/2016/09/field-guide-to-end-of-world-by-jeannine.htm

And to Suko’s Notebook blog for this:

http://www.sukosnotebook.net/2016/09/field-guide-to-end-of-world.html

Thank you so much to the reviewers for their hard work!

So, the end of September, the Black Moon tonight, which of course you can’t see as it’s a new moon, all these things represent  changes, shifting energies, the ends of one season and the beginnings of another. (Download the cool song “In a Blackout” by Hamilton Leithauser & Rostam for good melodic accompaniment to the new moon!)  I’ve been experiencing a series of – not tragedies, but annoyances. For instance, I dropped something heavy on my foot a few days ago, and it might be broken – I’ve been resting and wrapping it and hoping for the best! I’m going to get it x-rayed today. They’ve also been paving my neighborhood this week, so we got trapped in our house (or conversely, outside our house) at awkward times – when I was supposed to go to the doctor, or when we were coming home with groceries. The air has heavily smelled of tar, so being outside the house for even a small amount of time – like going outside to watch the birds – brought on coughing fits. This could be a metaphor – the destruction of the old sidewalk and road and the laying down of new materials – but this week it’s just felt…well, annoying. Like my foot! Not the end of the world, but enough to make things a little painful and awkward.

On the plus side, I finished one of the book reviews I was working on (When the Rewards Can Be So Great, a collection of craft talks from Pacific University’s MFA program) and am almost done with another (Dana Levin’s apocalyptic Banana Palace.) I wrote a few new poems. I moved summer clothes out of my closet, and warm jackets in. It’s been beautiful – sunny and in the sixties, which is my favorite weather. Now if I can just get back to walking!

I’ve been invited to do several class visits in the upcoming two weeks – a couple of them by Skype/Google Hangouts – which I feel very lucky to do. I’m going to see Ada Limon read on the 5th, which I’m excited about. I love visiting with students! And of course the Open Books signing/reception for the new book on October 15th. Then a bunch of poetry stuff goes on at the end of the month – including a Hugo House event (with Sherman Alexie as judge!) and LitCrawl. October looks like it’s going to be busy but hopefully more productive (and less pneumonia-y) than September!