Susan Rich's Blog, page 35

Meet A Poet at Your Table: Kelli Russell Agodon and Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room

Kelli Russell AgodonAs a way to introduce the poets of A Poet at Your Table I will be running a series of profiles, one poet per week. All of these poets are available to attend your book group -- although we try to match each poet with a geography that is not too far from home --- unless of course book groups in Hawaii or California, London or Paris,  want A Poet at Your Table -- and then we will happily work with you.


Kelli Russell Agodon's most recent book is Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room, winner of the White Pine Press Award, Foreword Book Prize and a Finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Here is what poet Martha Silano says on Goodreads about this award winning collection:

I've been a fan of Kelli Russell Agodon's poetry since her debut collection Small Knots appeared in 2004, but this book is definitely my favorite. There are poems in this collection that will make you laugh, such as "Coming Up Next: How Killer Blue Irises Spread" and "In the 70s, I Confused Macrame and Macabre," and, "What the Universe Makes of Lingerie" (three of my personal favorites), but the cool thing about Agodon's work is how often pain/sadness and humor/joy appear side by side, just as they do in real life. The poem "Other Words" is a great example of this:

We say dishrag and ribtaker
instead of homemaker.
Use whiplash and lackluster
instead of breadwinner . . .

There are days when sippy cups
become purgatory and family vacation
suggests space mission . . .

I don't want to say fishhook
when I mean marriage, or not-tonight
when what I meant to say is: I can't explain
my sadness or the night has stolen the sky.

It's rare to find a poet with such a keen ear for the vernacular. Before Agodon sat down to write this book, she carefully took America's pulse; she "gets" what it means to be a mother/wife/daughter/writer in a consumer-driven, spiritually-anemic culture. With refreshing honesty, the speaker confesses, in "Quiet Collapse in the Dharma Shop": "I charged spirituality / on my VISA" and "what might improve my mood is / a new bra and some bravery. I believe her when she says "I pray to anything these days--/the plants without names, the beetles, / my garden of hissing snakes," and I am buffeted by her news that

We were not born with wings
Like fireflies, we've had to invent what holds us
up.

Agodon is by turns versatile, ambidextrous, inventive, grave, and funny as all get out in this stunning collection. If you like reading poems that encompass not only what's going on down the street but also way past Pluto, this is a book for you.


And here is one of my (many) favorites from the collection originally published in The Atlantic Monthly.


Coming Up Next: How Killer Blue Irises Spread
—Misheard health report on NPR

It’s the quiet ones, the flowers
the neighbors said
kept to themselves,

Iris gettagunandkillus, shoots

and rhizomes reaching
beneath the fence.
The shifty ones,

Mickey Blue Iris, the tubers

that pretend to be dormant
then spread late night into
the garden of evil and no good.

They know hell, their blue flames

fooling van Gogh, the knife
he stuck into soil before he sliced
the bulbs in three, nights

he spent painting in a mad heat.

They swell before the cut
and divide of autumn.
An entire field of tulips,

flattened. Daylilies found

like lean bodies across the path.
The wild blue iris claims
responsibility, weaves through

the gladioli, into the hothouse

where the corpse flower blooms
for a single day, its scent
of death calling to the flies.



For more information on inviting Ms. Agodon to your table please write to "poetatyourtable(at)gmail.com

In addition to three full length collections and one chapbook, Kelli also works as an editor, publisher, and teacher. Read her full bio here. 

Just Do It! More Application Advice for Hedgebrook

Last week I posted a short piece on some tips for writing your Hedgebrook application due September 4th. The response has been overwhelming. You might want to take a look at my post especially for the questions and answers in the comments box. I'm offering again to respond to questions you might have about the application process and I've thought of a few more key things you might want to consider.

The decision process happens in two different steps. (Or it has in past years.) In the first reading of your submission, the essay portion is what counts. Yes, even if you are applying as a poet, the essay segment is central. This is different from most other residency applications where the writing sample rules. At Hedgebrook, you need to pass the essay segment before your writing sample is judged.

Why Hedgebrook? Why now? That is what you must answer. Know that this is a question that should reveal something about yourself. Are you the mother of a young child? Are you working on the final revisions of a chapbook? Do you have a new project that is burning inside you and needs doing now? These are all legitimate answers to the question Why Hedgebrook? Why now? Know that how you say what you say is key because honestly, people's circumstances are not all that different in the end. Be honest. Be yourself. Write your best.

Also, remember there are now several ways to stay at Hedgebrook. A few times a year there are Master Classes held where six writers work closely with a "master" teacher such as Carolyn Forche, Ellen McLaughlin, and Dani Shapiro. You can find out about current master classes right here. Several years ago I took a Master Class with Carolyn Forche at Hedgebrook --- and it was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend this as another option for a stay at Hedgebrook.

Most of all, know that you should just do it: apply. Every year the readers change so your chances begin at 100%. And once you create your writing sample and answer the essay questions for Hedgebrook, you're set to do other residency applications. The time you spend putting the application together is well spent. Filling out applications also allows you to take yourself seriously as a writer.

As I said before, Hedgebrook changed my life. Radical hospitality is what Amy Wheeler, Hedgebrook's director calls the treatment of love and support women find upon entering the grounds. I remember Denise, a Hedgebrook staffer, helping me bring my bags into my cottage. I remember a bowl of fruit on the window ledge and a vase of flowers set out to greet me. It seemed (and perhaps was true) that no one had ever welcomed me so warmly in my life.

Eighteen years later, I'm still in love with Hedgebrook and still involved in a volunteer capacity. This is an intensely transformative place. A place it would be very hard not to love.

If you have questions about the application process or the place, feel free to leave a message in the comment box. You can sign-in as anonymous if that feels more comfortable.

Are You Interested? A Poet at Your Table Coming This Fall - Year Two!

Are you in a book club? Do you like to host dinner parties? A Poet at Your Table is entering its second year and we are still growing strong! Endorsed by Seattle Arts and Lectures (discounts for poetry events when you invite a poet to your table) and Crab Creek Review, we have a roster of Washington State's best loved poets including Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken, KUOW Poet Elizabeth Austen, Annette Spaulding-Convey, Kelli Russell Agodon, Katharine Whitcomb and many more.

You can leave a message here if you are interested in hosting a poet for your book group. You can also learn more about our programs at A Poet at Your Table. So far we have stayed in state, but we would certainly be open to hitting the road --- or the skies.

Looking for Women Poets Who Are Looking for a Broader Audience

Two women on the veranda at Ingham, California. Photo credit: Harriet Pettifore Brim
Kelli Agodon & I are putting together our famous "Welcome Baskets" for the poets of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women and want to include one book of poetry by a woman poet for each of our participants.

We will also be creating a Reading List / Donor List for our participants and your name & book title will be included here.

We see this as a sort of "weekend mentorship" for your book to connect with another writer over the weekend and to be there with her when she returns to her room to write.

If you have a book (or maybe 2) of poems you'd be willing to donate, we'd love include you.


Our participants come from all over the country (and sometimes the world!) and we'd love to share your work with these women.


If you're interested in participating, you can mail your books to me (before August 31) at:


Susan Rich
PO Box 16305
Seattle WA 98116

Thank you in advance for joining forces with us. This is a wonderful opportunity to find a group of new and dedicated readers for your work. And if you want, drop me a note at srich18(at) gmail .com to let me know you're sending a book (or two).

Signed, Sealed, Delivered - CLOUD PHARMACY!

I just pressed send and CLOUD PHARMACY is on its way --- in fact --- has already arrived at the publisher, White Pine Press.

The best part is I think I like it! For the past four days I've done nothing but edit and revise this manuscript. My only relaxation has been gardening and occasionally petting the cats.

Usually when I'm writing in the House of Sky I would focus on weeding or perhaps deadheading geraniums. However, as the manuscript work became more intense, I found myself battling with tree limbs and sawing off dead sections of the old roses and lilacs. It was not lost on me that using 7 ft lopers and saws was all of a sudden a crucial activity. And here's the thing: I think getting rid of dead wood worked both literally and figuratively.

Cloud Pharmacy Travels to White Pine Press, Not Yet But So Very Soon

Our regular schedule programming will commence very soon. First, there will be solo dancing in the House of Sky and other celebrations! Popcorn? Ice cream? A new hot tub? A lemon tree? Something that lets me know that I've finished a book. Yes, there will be edits and proofs, and then the process repeats again --- but once CLOUD PHARMACY is out of my hands, it's time to celebrate. Not yet, but soon.

Application Advice for Hedgebrook. Just Do It!

I had no book when I was accepted to Hedgebrook in 1995. I'd published poems in a few journals but that was all. In fact, I don't remember how I first heard about this new place on an island off of Washington State. Once I was accepted, I started asking around. The word on the poetry street was that lunch was delivered in a basket and there was a garden entirely of flowers meant for the residents to pick. A bathhouse with heated floors and a lion clawed tub.


Fast forward 18 years. The stay at Hedgebrook changed my life in several important ways. The cottages served as a formidable reminder of what can happen in a designated writing space no matter where it is --- my House of Sky used to be a basic one car garage --- and that the gift of time cannot be overestimated. More on all of this soon.


I've also been a reader for these submissions a few times. The packet you send and the essay you write --- these are the mainstay of your application. My advice would be to create a cohesive theme throughout your poems and your essay. Let the readers get to know one aspect of you well. If you have any other questions on the process, I'll be happy to try and answer them -- just leave them in the comments section -- you can sign in as anonymous if that's more comfortable for you.

Almost there, Cloud Pharmacy due this Wednesday!

I am down to the last few days of my time with Cloud Pharmacy. As the date draws closer, I realize I am not ready to let this manuscript into the world. It feels far more personal than the books that have come before. And with three days left, I am now stressing about its bookness.

For the most part I like the poems okay and the section titles were fun to create. However,  I believe that the book needs to be far more than a collection of individual poems in the way a building is important beyond its windows and wooden (or steel) beams. A corner cabinet is not just  a carving of cherry wood. The artistry is in the air around the poems,  it is the movement of last line of one poem and the way it talks to the beginning of another piece.

There's much to say on this subject that no one ever teaches, that until the late 20th century was in the hands of publishers, not poets -- but it will have to wait three more days...

On the Beach with Sylvia Plath

Writers Enjoying Summer

Virginia Woolf outside her summer house with Maynard Keynes, Angelica Bell, Vanessa Bell, and Clive Bell, 1930s.