Monthly Archives: March 2013

March 31, 2013 · 3:03 pm

Spring Time

Spring has sprung and with it seeds are flowering across the backyard meadow. Some new seeds are planting here with launch of Three by Five, a new interview series that goes live on April 3rd. Over the course of the month, on days of the month with a ‘3’ in them, five questions from interviews of authors, writers, indie artists and other interesting or intriguing people will be posted. Three by Five will continue as a recurring feature with at least one new interview subject a month.

Author First Look – a chance to read the first chapter, or a few poems, by indie authors and writers.

Book + Review will continue with new reviews posted intermittently. You might find your next favorite author or at least, a good read for an upcoming flight, vacation, commute, treadmill walk or just because.

Through the fall, I’ll continue the current calls for submission for two anthologies, Dress Right Dress: The Uniform and its Stories, and Repeal Day: When DADT Became History.

If you’re part of the writing community, and interested in a guest posting here just send me a message.

And there will be the occasional blog tour where you will find other indie authors tagged for you to discover.

Coming tomorrow – the first Pulitzer Remix posting – found poems from each of the Pulitzer Prize winning fiction books. Eighty-five poets writing thirty poems, posting one each day of the month of April in honor of National Poetry Month. You’ll find mine posted here along with a link for the main site where you’ll be able to visit the other 84 poets and their found poems (and mine).

Links: Three by Five, Author First Look, Book + Review, Dress Right Dress: The Uniform and its Stories Info and Call For Submissions, Repeal Day: When DADT Became History Info and Call for Submissions, Pulitzer Remix, National Poetry Month, Random Spring.

Coming Soon for Poetry Month – Pulitzer Remix

Coming soon – Pulitzer Remix for Poetry Month 2013. Eight-five poets, each taking one of the 85 fiction Pulitzer winners, posting a poem a day created from text drawn from the Pulitzer winning book. Check back every day in April for a new poem. In particular, you can follow the Found Poetry I’m creating from the 1970 Pulitzer for Fiction, The Collected Works of Jean Stafford.

Found poetry uses existing text, creating literary collages, using only what is already in the source text with little change. The Poet refashion and reorders, creating something new.

Read more about Found Poetry at The Found Poetry Review and Poets.org. Visit Pulitzer Remix.

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March 11, 2013 · 11:07 am

Home from AWP 2013

For lack of an original term – I remain a bit shell shocked from my visit to AWP in Boston this past week. This was my first return to AWP since 2007 when I went while still in a MFA program.

My, how AWP has grown. More than 10,000 people, three massive convention halls for the book fair and hundreds of panels. I brought 36 pounds of No Red Pen: Writers, Writing Groups & Critique with me, and returned with 37 pounds of books picked up at the conference. Almost 100 writing programs received a free print copy of No Red Pen – hopefully they will find it useful for their students. “Did I mention the Ebook is free?” was my refrain when speaking with the “Influencers” about the book.

Highlights of my time in Boston – lunch with Andi Cumbo (God’s Whisper Manifesto: The Makings of a Dream) and friends P and Meghan K. Barnes (For the Love of God), visiting with Eloise Healy and a serendipitous encounter walking the book fair, moments with Katherine V. Forrest – Trailblazer and one of my personal literary heros, meeting Annie Rachele Lanzillotto when I walked by the SUNY publishing booth whose book, L is for Lion I just turned in a review for before flying off to AWP, the takeover of the Westin lobby for Kore Press‘s author readings, an intimate dinner discussing writing and life with two other authors, an invitation to send in an essay to Sinister Wisdom, and another author suggesting I write her agent using her name as reference, catching up with Charles Flowers and Bloom… and I did get to a few panels too.

If thinking about studying for the MFA – attend AWP first and check out the programs, hundreds of MFA and writing programs had representatives present. Looking for markets for your work – thousands of journals, many with free editions to hand out, had editors and volunteers at the book fair. Of course panels across a spectrum of subjects, numerous off site readings and if you are young enough to last that long, a dance party every night till midnight.