Good News! A JAB OF DEEP URGENCY: FOUND POEMS to be published by Finishing Line Press

Hi Everyone!

I can barely contain myself as I type out this exciting news, just in time for my trek up to Seattle for my very first AWP conference.  (Squee!  More on that later.)

Anchor, Paperback Edition, March 2011.

So back in April of 2013, I participated in one of the most exciting and exhausting and challenging and rewarding National Poetry Month events ever: Found Poetry Review‘s Pulitzer Remix.  Using Jennifer Egan‘s A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD as source text, I created 30 erasure poems, which I later compiled into a chapbook entitled A JAB OF DEEP URGENCY.  I sent this chapbook off into the world last fall and over the winter, thinking maybe, just maybe, someone would give it a home. I knew it was weird and different, but, hey, I’d seen a few of my remixer friends publish their found poems in chapbooks and I thought maybe I should try doing the same.  Maybe.  It was a very big maybe.

And then this:

GOOD NEWS!!!

Which I shared on Facebook and Twitter last week.  The photo, but not the details.  Here are the details. (Huzzah!) This was the snail-mail follow up to an email I received not too long ago, saying that Finishing Line Press, a chapbook publisher that I LOVE, wanted to publish A JAB OF DEEP URGENCY.  Holy crap, right?  I knew that this chapbook was pushing a few envelopes.  And I was clinging to the fact that precedent existed, to the fact that I thought my poems were, well, pretty good.  And that sometimes you just really need good news.

GOOD NEWS CAME.

And I finally get to tell you about it!  That is kind of the best part.  Other than the my-chapbook-is-being-published part.

So…what is a chapbook?  Most of y’all who read my blog might not have heard of a chapbook.  That’s okay.  I hadn’t either until I’d been publishing poetry in magazines for a few years.  A chapbook is like a mini-collection of poetry, often centered on a theme, and containing between 15-30ish pages of poetry, depending on the author and publisher.  It’s usually printed in a limited run, and sometimes even hand-bound.  Still curious?  The Wikipedia article on chapbooks is actually pretty great.

So…CHAPBOOK!  A JAB OF DEEP URGENCY! COMING OUT!  FROM FINISHING LINE PRESS!  It’s still too soon to pre-order or have a cover (though I have a fab artist for the cover and I am SO EXCITED) or any of that, but Finishing Line will be sending out a bunch of postcards to announce pre-order things and release date details.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE A POSTCARD, email e.kristin.andersonATgmailDOTcom with your mailing address.  We’ll make sure you get one!

Meanwhile, I’ll be doing my happy dance.  All the way to AWP, in Seattle, where hopefully I will see some of y’all!  This conference will really be feeding the poetical/adult literary side of my writing life, and I’m very excited for that.  But I’m also thrilled to hear that there will be kidlit folks there as well.  Huzzah!  I’m presenting on a panel with Found Poetry Review editors and Pulitzer Remix participants on organizing projects on the internet and gaining publicity for your organization.  If you’ll be at AWP, be sure to come check us out on Thursday morning: R112 Project-Driven Publicity for Publishers and Writers. We’ll also be hosting a reading on Friday evening.  Check out the Facebook Page for the Pulitzer Remix/er, and join us!

The Remix/er is open to the public, so even if you won’t be attending AWP, you’re welcome to attend.  This is actually my first “real” poetry reading.  I’m nervous and excited, and, incidentally, I’ll be reading selections from my forthcoming chapbook.  See?  It comes full circle.

Have a great week, y’all.  Here’s hoping everyone gets some good news in their mailboxes soon!