Things I Did In November (Sorry, NaNoWriMo)
This November was possibly the busiest I’ve had in years — maybe since the release of DEAR TEEN ME in November 2012. (Shout out to my peeps at Zest Books!)
I figured I ought to do a round up since a) radio silence on the blog has been killing me and b) when I don’t post anything my grandmother thinks I might be dead. (Luckily, Facebook solves the b problem most of the time.)
First, I want to tell you what I didn’t do that I meant to do:
1. Write a NaNo novel. SORRY. It wasn’t in the cards this year. But I still love my idea and intend to write it at some point in 2015.
2. Catch up on writing book reviews. I read some awesome books this fall, and hopefully I can tell you about them in December and January.
ON TO THE GOOD STUFF!
Cicada Magazine, November/December 2014.
So, the first super cool thing that happened in November is that I was published for the first time in Cicada! Cicada is probably the first magazine I’ve been in that my mom has actually heard of, so that was pretty cool. I also grew up reading its sister magazine Cricket, which makes being in Cicada extra special. I mean, it’s already pretty special. Have you read Cicada? It’s an awesome mag! They published three of my erasure poems and hosted an erasure contest for teen readers, which closed yesterday. Oh, and, yeah, I said “for the first time” — this is because a) I have more poems coming up in a later issue and b) I love working with Team Cicada and I hope they’ll want to work with me again down the road!
Crazy author copy face!
The next super cool thing that happened in November is that my second chapbook, A JAB OF DEEP URGENCY came out. This book, as you know, has been blood, sweat and tears. (Mostly sweat, let’s be real.) And being able to hold it in my hands, and to see other people holding it in their hands, has been AWESOME! If you don’t have a copy yet and you’d like a signed/personalized copy, email me at e.kristin.anderson AT gmail DOT com and we’ll make arrangements for that happen — I have copies leftover from events. AND, since ’tis the season and all that, I’ll throw in some treats.
Right on the heels of the release of URGENCY came the YALSA Young Adult Literature Symposium! I was only able to attend the Book Blitz on Saturday evening, but it was so fantastic getting to chat with some of my favorite out of town friends, local pals, and librarians and educators! Thanks to all who came out and got a copy of DEAR TEEN ME.
At the YALSA symposium!
On the same night as the YALSA event, I read for the first time in Austin with fellow Austin writer Tatiana Ryckman at Malvern Books here in Austin. (I felt very fancy jumping in a cab to go from one event to the next. Also stressed. BUT FANCY.) Team Malvern was so gracious, and I had so much fun meeting folks from the literary community. I was crazy nervous, since the only other poetry reading I’d ever really done was at AWP last year at the Pulitzer Remix/er with like 10 other people, with a crowd full of buddies. Apparently, I wasn’t terrible. Here is a video — judge for yourself! Malvern has copies of A GUIDE FOR THE PRACTICAL ABDUCTEE which I am sure they would love to sell you. And they also have a lot of other awesome books and literary journals from small presses. It’s a truly wonderful store!
PAUSING NOW to let you know that at the above events I debuted TWO brand new reading guides written by local educator and writer Colleen Conrad. Colleen is the genius behind the DEAR TEEN ME reading guide, and the ones she did for ABDUCTEE and URGENCY are just as excellent. If you’re looking to have poetry in your classroom this year, check these out. You can download all of my reading guides on my educator resources page. And, as I told all the educators at the YALSA event, I Skype in for free when you buy a class set of any of my books for your classroom or book club.
I REGISTERED FOR AWP 2015. That’s right, y’all. See you in Minneapolis! I may or may not be on the look out for Prince the entire time I’m there.
My pals and I went to a HUNGER GAMES trivia night at Opal Divine’s Marina and had an absolutely awesome time. We came in 6th, which isn’t bad, since I think there were like 30 teams. We also forgot to study MOCKINGJAY because we misinterpreted the “no spoilers from MOCKINGJAY” warning to mean “we won’t be doing any MOCKINGJAY questions.” Woops.
Team Peetaphiles! (I’m told that the goal of your pub trivia team name is to make everyone else a little queasy.) Photo courtesy of Geeks Who Drink.
We then went to see MOCKINGJAY PART I the next night, dressed up like Capitol citizens, because that’s how we do. Here’s me and my pal Alicia:
It took two days to get the purple out of my eyebrows.
My last event of the month was the celebration of my two 2014 chapbooks, which was hosted at The Book Spot in Round Rock, TX. I’ve always loved The Book Spot — they hosted my DEAR TEEN ME launch as well, which was so fun! We had a small crowd, since that Saturday was a day of torrential rain and flood warnings all over the city. So, it was definitely intimate, but very fun, and I’m so grateful to the folks who came out. And I’m also grateful to the folks who wanted to be there, but couldn’t because, you know, danger. I know The Book Spot has some signed copies left, so be sure to stop by!
The lovely crowd who came out to my Book Spot event. Thanks guys! (Yes, I’m wearing Prince.)
I made this pie:
Pie.
This is an Early Grey cream pie. I found the recipe in the Austin American-Statesman in April. (Yep, during Oulipost. Ha!) Upon further research, I discovered that it comes from TEENY’S TOUR OF PIE. I must have this book. So must you.
I finished my inadvertent Prince chapbook and handed it over to two critique partners. Hopefully I can start submitting by the new year. I also began organizing my full-length erasure collection. And by “began organizing” I mean gave it to a CP and said “please please please help me this is a mess.” So, you know. I also keep writing new pieces for that collection, because magazines keep coming and I am terrible.
Throughout November, I had a lucky streak of poetry acceptances. I’ll let you know what and where when they come out. It was pretty wild, since a) it was all for experimental/found poetry and b) they were all accepted at more mainstream journals. So I’m pumped about that! Just to keep it real, though, I got WAY more rejections than I did acceptances. Here is a pile of rejections just from the month of November. (And these are just the ones that came in the mail — you should see my email inbox!)
A nice big pile of NO.
Just this past weekend, I found out that I was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by the poetry editor at Abyss & Apex. I’m effing excited. What’s even more exciting is that fellow Found Poetry Review team member Douglas Luman was nominated by the same magazine. Also, my good pal Emma Fissenden was nominated (by a different magazine). I’m so happy for all of the nominees, and I’m still sort of in this weird place of disbelief that I got a nod. The nominated poem is “At that age when we girls become fairies,” and, just FYI, I probably sent this to at least a hundred magazines over three years before A&A picked it up and championed it. Just goes to show, y’all: a) don’t quit & b) all it takes is one yes.
Today, it is technically no longer November. But I wanted to share that the new issue of Halfway Down the Stairs launched. I have three poems in the issue and I am so proud to have them there. Shout out to my girl Roxanna Bennett who is on the HDtS team and also has an awesome new collection out. Anyway, HDtS is a wonderful online magazine and I’d love for you to give it a gander.
That’s all for now. And, damn, that’s a LOT! Thanks to the folks whose photos I, er, borrowed from social media for this post. And thanks to everyone who has supported me this year, last year, all the years — GROUP HUG. Happy Holidays. Watch out for Krampus. I’m off to send out some more submissions.
