This is what my Thursday night looked like

After dinner @ Chuy's with the hubby & then meeting friends for drinks @ Poison Girl, we left the bar (with the intent on giving said friends Elvis masks I scored @ Chuy's), I found that my car had been TOWED from the lot next door. 1:45 AM on a Thursday, all businesses closed & still I'm towed. After Eddie G. took us through "the ward" to the impound lot, $190 later, I had my car. What made it all worthwhile? The above photo of Eddie G. in his Elvis mask. Quite a spectacular night indeed.

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I have recently acquired two addictions: fruit (more specifically, blueberries, blackberries & clementines) and jeans (more specifically, this pair and this pair). I can't stop eating the fruit, buying the jeans, though, I must add, I saved 80% on the former pair, which makes my bank account very happy.

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I think I'm going back for more on Saturday night -- I'm meeting up with my Bread Loaf roommate, Tess T., @ Poison Girl. This time, I'm parking around the corner on the street. Sigh. I need a cocktail.

Joy

I am fall back in my chair stunned by two books right now: Mary Ruefle's Indeed I Was Pleased With the World and Ava by Carole Maso. My friend Eddie G. lent me Ava and I can't stop reading it -- it's such a strange book about the interior thoughts of a woman on her last day on earth. It's a novel, but almost a novel in verse -- each line is a separate thought, a memory, a snip of beauty or sorrow. My favorite line? "Strange the way joy keeps changing." I am a die-hard Ruefle fan, and her newest is possibly her best. Take this poem, "Kiss of the Sun":

If, as they say, poetry is a sign of something
among people, then let this be prearranged now,
between us, while we are still peoples: that
at the end of time, which is also the end of poetry
(and wheat and evile and insects and love),
when the entire human race gathers in the flesh,
reconstituted down to the infant's tiniest fold
and littlest nail, I will be standing at the edge
of that fathomless crown with an orange for you,
reconstituted down to its innermost seed protected
by white thread, in case you are thirsty, which
does not at this time seem like such a wild guess,
and thought there will be no poetry between us then,
at the end of time, the geese all gone with the seas,
I hope you will take it, and remember on earth
I did not know how to touch it it was all so raw,
as if by chance there is no edge to the crowd
or anything else so that I am of it,
I will take the orange and toss it as high as I can.

This poem devastates me in that way that Forche's poem "For the Stranger" makes me want to weep each time I read it. Seriously, go right now and buy these books.

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Have you submitted to PLR's theme issue on health and illness, yet?

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I haven't sent out poems in quite a while, except to one journal who kindly invited me to do so @ AWP. I did, however, receive two acceptances for 5 poems last week from LUMINA and Relief Journal.

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PLR will be in your mailbox ASAP. We apologize for the delay, but it's oh so worth the wait.

AWP Wrap-Up

This was the busiest, craziest AWP I've attended to date and I (mostly) loved every minute of it! The PLR table was such a success: we sold most of the 200+ copies we brought. It was great to see our contributors and to put faces to the names we've published over the past 5 years. Hello and thanks to Steven Schroeder, Mary Biddinger, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Sandra Beasley, Suzanne Frischkorn, Christine Hamm, Simone Muench, Laura McCullough, the Switchback Books gals, and many, many others! Start the rumor now: there WILL be a PLR reading in Chicago.

I love AWP for the bookfair, the amazing readings (Sharon Olds & Yusef Komunyakaa! Carolyn Forche! The Alice James Books Crew -- Brian Turner! Christina Davis! Mary Szybist!), and reuniting with old friends (I'm thinking of the cold midnight (smoky) hang-out outside the Hilton w/ Eduardo Corral, Jericho Brown, and James Hall. I'm thinking of catching up with Nick Flynn @ the PLR table and hearing him talk about his newborn daughter, May and loving the delight about him. The Bread Loafers, The Bucknellians, The Benningtonites.) and meeting new ones. Though I spent all of AWP with a ridiculous post-flu cough and, as a result, porn star husky voice, I had a fun time and was so glad to see everyone again.

With what little time I had away from the table, I snagged:

a copy of Poetry International (swapped w/ Ilya Kaminsky for a PLR)
Pleiades (2 back issues)
Barn Owl Review (2 contributor copies)
Harpur Palate + HP pen
Art of the Gettysburg Review 2008 calendar
Gulf Coast
Forklift, Ohio
Rain Taxi
Potomac Review
Now You're the Enemy by James Hall
Astoria by Malena Morling
This Clumsy Living by Bob Hicok
Babel by Barbara Hamby
The Partial Autobiography of Jane Doe by Daniela Olszewska

Funny side story: as I was waiting for my flight @ La Guardia, I ran into Claudia Rankine at the Hudson News. I worked w/ Claudia in the Spring of 06 on my undergrad creative honors thesis. We caught up a bit before parting ways. What did I have on prominent display in my hands while talking to her, much to my dismay? US Weekly and Star, the junk food of 3+ hour flights.

When I got home, I found two contributor copies of The Best of The Bellevue Literary Review in my mailbox. I didn't know that I was selected for this anthology and was quite delighted to see the amazing roster from BLR, including Sharon Olds, James Tate, Michael Collier, Amy Hempel, Philip Levine, Alicia Ostriker, Rick Moody, Rachel Hadas, Rafael Campo, David Lehman, and others. It's a beautiful issue, and at under $12, you should pick one up.

PLR News:

PLR is taking submissions for its first-ever theme issue on illness and health. Please see the website for details and deadline. Submit!

PLR will be reviewing chapbooks in the Summer 2008 issue (late August). If you would like us to consider reviewing your chapbook or if you are interested in writing a chapbook review, please query/send review copy by April 15. Please visit the website for details.