Mary Biddinger's Blog, page 19

[Instrumental Interlude feat. Moderate Panic]

Hello! It has been almost a month. The academic year is back with a vengeance. It's week four. Look at these steeple-taunting clouds. A few new poems of the cirrus or near-cumulus variety. Feeling tired. Wondering if I'll ever, ever catch up.

Dreaming about a sabbatical. Posting some photos here, if nothing else.

Last splash.

And then, suddenly, the children were back in school.

And then she opened the door to an office inhabited for months by office plants and nothing else.

And that is how it started all over again.

And it was strangely calm and totally okay.

Augustnesses.

Oh strange little summer, you are moving along.

We left and then we came back. Now we are in the final weeks of being home before that thing called Fall pitches itself over the cliff.

I have been reading, cooking, and not writing like a champion of not writing. Everything needs a champion, right?

And how.

First poem in how long? Weeks? Not necessarily a good one, but a new poem. Can I really be longing for fall semester to begin, so the kids are back in school and I have time to write?

This weekend we had several self-enforced stretches of mandatory reading time. It was glorious. Restorative, etc. I wish I could have more right now.

Feeling a bit daunted by looming syllabi needing to be written, but for now enjoying the extra sleep and general being home-ness.

[Instrumental Interlude]

Hey, I'm on vacation. It finally happened. No alarm clocks, away message up, etc. And the kids are going to the beach with their grandparents for five days, so it will be mega project + mega relaxing + super quiet time around here for a while. I think Sadie and the Cats will be so doted upon that they may be sad for the kids to come home. But not really.

There's absolutely no excuse for new poems not to come out of this spell of quiet.

I wrote some nonfiction last week and loved it.

But now: poems.

I have been thinking of several story ideas.

But no. Poems. Poems now. In a world where tomorrow = now.

Limitlessnesses.

I'm having one of those thresholdy moments right now. I have just finished the last of my summer grading. On Wednesday I'll be completely done with (most) work things until the fall. There's a lot of writing to do now. And relaxing. I would like to look at things more than I've been able to lately.

I got myself a new notebook. I intend to use it.

Tomorrow: sleeping in, and pancakes.

Forth.

Where were we? Heat, deadlines, world literature? Now it's July. I'm glad it's July, though so far it hasn't been especially cheerful. The outdoor sister of this monster gave up the ghost, so we had some hot days in our headquarters. I've been scrambling. So many deadlines, and a lot of grading. At first July looked like a distant oasis, but now it's more like undertow. At least two more weeks before I'm vacationing. My 4th of July will be a grade-a-thon. Right about now I'd rather have rain than fireworks.

The crux.

Things are hot here in Akron, Ohio. I've been busy with everything but writing poetry, and I have two more weeks of this ahead. Finally acclimated to teaching lit again, still not used to teaching every day of the week, but coping. Some moderate sinus drama, and I taught one day feeling like the classroom was under water, but generally surviving. Three weeks down, two to go, and then one glorious month of downtime. 
I had quite a bit of anxiety over grading papers again, after years of mostly commenting on poems and lyric essays and such. It all came back to me, thankfully, and the feeling of having a stack of essays graded was quite monumental. I've been thinking about getting a better desk situation at home, so I can grade there rather than in the office. I don't have much of a workspace right now.
I was super thrilled to see that New Pages mentioned (and quoted from) one of my poems in the new issue of Interrupture. You can check that out here. And many thanks to The Country Dog Review for publishing my poem "To a Wrecking Ball." This is one of the very few poems I've written this summer, so I'm glad it found a good home. I have poems forthcoming in Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, The Laurel Review,  Pleiades, Quarterly West, Crab Orchard Review, and Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics. It's time to send more poems out. 
One thing I do love about teaching lit again is being able to set aside time for reading. Reading still feels like such a luxury for me (when it's not editorial work, etc). Today we discussed some stories from Margaret Atwood's Moral Disorder, and I almost did a cartwheel when I realized that the students loved the book. Cartwheels aren't good for sinus drama, but I bet reading has a salubrious effect. 

An acute case of the Fridays.

This week has been all kinds of crazy. Keep in mind that I haven't taught five days a week in quite some time, and now I am doing so with a brand new prep, albeit one where I get to teach a bunch of my favorite books. I can't think of a better way to be initiated back into the world of professor-not-administrator. 
I have been blessed with a bunch of smart students who are open-minded and have things to say. The last time I taught lit was Fall 2009, and since then I have only taught poetry writing classes. I'd like to know how many calories I burn per class. It's a whole new ballgame. 
In other news, I have some new poems to share. Yeah! 
Three poems from A Sunny Place with Adequate Water, my newest collection (BLP, 2014) are now up at Blackbird.
I also have two poems from the manuscript I'm currently at work on, up at Interrupture.

This is all making me want to write more poems and send them out. I did revise two poems yesterday, and I wrote a new one with little fanfare and moderate success. I find that I'm editing more lately. Writing less. I need to set some goals, but I am giving myself a bit of a break due to the intense summer class (cramming fifteen weeks into five).
Tomorrow I am reading at the Cedar Lee Pub, for Heavy Feather Review. Here's the scoop. It's an honor to be among such fine company. I'll be reading at least one brand new poem.
It's funny how I feel more comfortable about not-writing now that I'm super swamped. I do really love "having to" read all of the time. After 7/11 I will be on vacation for a month. Perhaps next week I'll start a countdown. 

Midwest Chapbook Series (& I'm the judge)

Here's the full scoop, from John Gallaher's blog.

The deadline is 7/1. Spread the word!

Klaus is so excited that he wrapped his tail around his feet in joy (above).

~*~


The Midwest Chapbook SeriesGreenTower Press/The Laurel Review
Final Judge: Mary Biddinger
The contest is open to anyone who is living in, from, or closely associated with the Midwest, excluding close friends and former students of the editors or contest judge, as well as employees and students of Northwest Missouri State University.
Guidelines:
20-30 pages (typed, single-sided, one poem per page).
Individual poems may have been previously published. You may include an acknowledgements page if you wish, though one is not required.
Include two cover pages: one with title only, the other with name, address, email address, manuscript title, and a short note establishing your connection to the Midwest.
Your name should ONLY appear on the cover page, which the staff will keep on file. Manuscripts will be read blind.
Reading period opens February 1 and ends July 1, 2012.
$10.00 reading fee. Please make checks payable to GreenTower Press. Reading fee gets you a one-year subscription to The Laurel Review, starting with the summer issue.
The winning chapbook will be published in an edition of 300 copies. Winner will receive one hundred copies. Additional copies offered at 40% off the list price ($7.00) plus shipping and handling.
Winner also will be invited to give a reading at Northwest Missouri State University’s Visiting Writers series, which includes travel expenses paid and an honorarium of $250.00
All entries will be considered for publication in The Laurel Review.
Winner will be notified by email or telephone, and will be announced on our website (http://catpages.nwmissouri.edu/m/tlr/) in September, 2012.
If you’d like an acknowledgement of receipt send a SASP; please do not send a SASE.
Send entries to:
GreenTower PressMidwest Chapbook SeriesNorthwest Missouri State UniversityMaryville, MO 64468
Questions may be addressed to the editors of The Laurel Review at: TLR@nwmissouri.edu
Recent chapbooks available from GreenTower Press:
Elizabeth Clark Wessel, Wither WeatherBLOOM, Rob SchlegelShow Me Yours, Hadara bar-NadavOff the Fire Road, Greg WrennInstructions for a Painting, Molly BrodakITINERARY, Reginald ShepherdAnatomy of a Ghost, Rumit PancholiGrenade, Rebecca HoogsThe BirdGirl Handbook, Amy Newman