Linebreaking (Again) & News

More news from the manuscript front: my manuscript was named as a semi-finalist for the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. This makes the second time (ahem, third, but that's going to be kept under wraps until July) the ms has been a finalist since I sent it out in November, the first being a finalist for the Beatrice Hawley Award from Alice James Books. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Just kidding -- I'm really excited.

*

You can catch me this week reading Alison Stine's poem "Bug" on Linebreak. Check it out.

*

I've completed my creative thesis and the text of my lecture for my upcoming graduation from Bennington in June. Here's the lecture blurb for the schedule itinerary:

“Contemporary Ekphrasis: The Image of Text.” How are poets moving ekphrastic writing out of the museum and into the contemporary world of technology, comic books, cartoons, graffiti, music, and film? In this lecture, I will discuss how ekphrastic poetry (poetry written from art) began, its purpose, and how ekphrastic poetry has changed to reflect a new generation of poets and readers. Poets mentioned are John Ashbery, Joseph Campana, Sharon Dolin, Natasha Trethewey, Monica Youn, and Kevin Young.

*

I just received Mary Ruefle's first essay collection, The Most of It, and am looking forward to reading it. She read from it at her reading here in Houston last month and the essays are wild, lyrical, beautiful, and a bit crazy, just like her.

If you don't know who Katie Ford is, you must pre-order her newest collection, Colosseum. Her first collection, Deposition, is seriously one of the best books of poems I've ever read, hands down. It, along with Lucie Brock Broido's Trouble in Mind, Nick Flynn's Some Ether, The Descent by Sophie Cabot Black, Broken Helix by Dina Ben-Lev a MUST read!), and all things Louise Gluck, Sharon Olds, and Carolyn Forche, is what inspired me the most during the three year course of writing the manuscript. Buy them all!

*

Tonight: cooking Lemon-Garlic Chicken Pasta with asparagus with the hubby and reading Brenda Shaughnessy's wonderful new collection, Human Dark with Sugar.