Susan Rich's Blog, page 97

The Writer's Life: In Community with Other Writers

Poets for Penguins has a nice ring to it, I think. Tonight, I'm thinking about what it means to be a poet in community. This question has me thinking about the different ways that poets can support each other. What does it mean to be a contributing citizen to the country of poetry? How do we pay our literary dues?

I spent today with my friend Kelli Agodon, author of the forthcoming Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room and a poet who has done much for the cause of poetry. Right now she is spe...

The Writer's Life: Thinking about Ireland the Day After St. Patrick's Day

I don't know a better country to visit as a poet than Ireland. Did you know writers in Ireland pay no taxes? Did you know taxi drivers can recite Yeats to you as they negotiate Dublin Streets and perhaps point out the statue of Patrick Kavanagh contemplating the River Liffey? I've been to Ireland twice and am seriously contemplating a return visit. My first visit was to an artist residency, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Newbliss. I spent almost a month in "the farmyard" - which meant I had my ...

Poetry Book Giveaway 2010: A Poem from Natasha Tretheway

Here's a poem from Bellocqs Ophelia to interest you in Natasha Tretheway's work and the National Poetry Month Poetry Book Giveaway. If you don't have a blog, please know that you can still enter! Just leave a comment that has your email address so there is a way to get in touch with you. You may need a gmail account to sign up on blogger. I will do some sleuthing and find out for you. Meanwhile, here is a poem from my favorite of Tretheway's three strong collections. Natasha Tretheway won the...

Poetry Book Giveaway 2010: A Poem from Natasha Trethewey

Here's a poem from Bellocqs Ophelia to interest you in Natasha Tretheway's work and the National Poetry Month Poetry Book Giveaway. If you don't have a blog, please know that you can still enter! Just leave a comment that has your email address so there is a way to get in touch with you. You may need a gmail account to sign up on blogger. I will do some sleuthing and find out for you. Meanwhile, here is a poem from my favorite of Tretheway's three strong collections. Natasha Tretheway won the...

Poetry Book Giveaway 2010: Getting Prepped for National Poetry Month

And here we go. Poet Kelli Agodon over at Book of Kells is reinterpreting a cool project that bloggers in the visual arts world have been doing for awhile. The idea is that giving something of value away (a book of poems or a piece of handmade jewelery) benefits both the artist and the audience. Starting tonight and continuing through the month of April, I will be collecting names of people who leave comments on my blog (yay! I love, love, love, receiving comments) and two of those lucky...

TriQuarterly - 45 Years!

Yes, the cover is beautiful in its art deco style; but it is also funereal. TriQuarterly will no longer be produced with paper and ink after this spring. This issue, which celebrates the journal's 45 years of publication, is also the last one by longtime editor Susan Firestone Hahn. By luck, fate, or happenstance, I have two poems included in this issue as does the short story writer Midge Raymond (whose book of short stories I reviewed here on 1 January). Poems by Rick Barot are another high...

Poems on Aging - brought to you by Carol Anne Duffy and The Guardian

Today's Guardian newspaper (UK)  features poems on aging. Britain's Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, introduces a variety of poems that she invited "senior poets" to submit. It's Mothers' Day weekend in the UK and so Duffy uses the occasion to praise aging. Or is it merely acceptance? I know my latest book has many poems that take how to deal with aging as their jumping off point. It's a subject I've always been obsessed with. I remember turning seventeen my senior year of high school and noti...

A Favorite Poem for Thursday Night

I know I am not alone. The book And Her Soul Out of Nothing by Olena Kalytiak Davis seems to have captivated a wide variety of 21st century poets. This poem is one of the first that I kept re-reading and re-reading. What I did not know (but should have!) is that Lascaux is a set of intricate caves in the town of Lascaux, France. It's known for these intricate caves and the cave paintings like the one I've posted above.

WELCOME TO LASCAUX

What I'd like to suggest
are chimney swifts and charm quar...

And From the Other Side of the Desk - Poet as Editor

Is this what editors do? She seems to be slicing a book in half with her sword, taming the words or destroying them? At the moment I am guest editing a portfolio of ekphrastic poems for the fall issue of Crab Creek Review. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's fascinating, and many times I wonder what I have gotten myself into...

I've been amazed at the volume of poems that come into my email box (a box set aside just for this project) and the various ways that people care to identify themselves....

Actual Post Number 101 - Naked Self Promotion - One Time Only ...

Please humor me tonight. I am not keene on using this blog for self promotion. Usually I try hard to avoid indulging in the story of me. However, my new book The Alchemist's Kitchen has arrived after four long years. As of tonight, you can order personally signed copies from me via my website. I offer this incase you are like me and buying a signed copy of a book means much more than an unsigned one. The Alchemist's Kitchen is published by White Pine Press and distributed by Consortium which...