Monthly Archives: September 2011

A Tale of Two Chapbooks

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I recently finished reading two chapbooks. I had them both on my desk (well, one on my virtual desk) because I wanted to review them, but then I decided I wanted to talk more about just how different (and wonderful) the world of publishing is.

These two chapbooks are terrific examples of how diverse and amazing chapbook publishing can be.

The first one I finished is C.L. Bledsoe titled goodbye to noise. This poetry chapbook appears online as a publication of Right Hand Pointing. I loved clicking through on each pointing hand to take me to the poems. I remarked, in my virtual notes, how the contents page was a poem in itself. The only real negative with the production of this chapbook as an online item is that I would have liked for the table of contents to be hyperlinked and/or there to be a navigation back and/or to the table of contents on the page with each poem. This is just me being nitpicky because the chapbook itself is wonderful mysterious and dense.

I’ve read a decent amount of Bledsoe’s work before (and I’ve reviwed at least one of his books before) and he just has this gift for engaging darkness. My favorite poem is probably Gravity. This poem is a terrific study in verb selection as a way to move a poem forward.

The second chapbook I completed was a fiction collection by Nora Nadjarian titled Girl, Wolf, Bones. This chapbook is in Folded Word’s signature series. My collection The Wait of Atom was also produced in this series. So, as a reader, I go from the online poetry chapbook to the handmade poetry chapbook and find both satisfying to read and admire for the collected writing as well as for the presentation.

Nora’s collection takes us through retellings of several fairy tales with a definite feminst slant. That is not to say these flash fiction pieces aren’t open to all readers, but the women definitely get to tell their stories this time (not that all the narrators are women).

It is hard for me to pick a favorite piece but I have to give a shout out to ‘Marzipan” which is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel which opens with, “We stood int he marzipan snow and hugged each other.” What a terrific image: marzipan snow!

Quite often Nora will have a longer flash fiction (I know!) piece with a shorter piece that follows on the same story, perhaps from a different point of view and I found in those cases I often liked the shortest of the pieces the most.

I’m so happy that terrific work is appearing online and in print still. I hope that this is the treand we see in publishing: quality no matter which world (virtual or “real”) in which we decide to share our stories.

:)

Review: 2012 Poet’s Market

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And now the Poet’s Market has a permanent place on my office shelf :)
2012 Poet's Market
2012 Poet’s Market by Robert Lee Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When editor, Robert Lee Brewer, asked me if I’d like to write a blurb for the 2012 Poet’s Market I was thrilled! I’ve bought and used various copies of Poet’s Market since about 1996. This is a wonderfully updated edition with essays on craft, seeking publication, and the process of marketing yourself to name a few. Speaking of marketing, I love how many of the article writers in this edition that I “know”: at least virtually, including Collin Kelley, Sandra Beasley, and Jeannine Hall Gailey just to name a few.

It takes a lot of work for Robert to keep a print edition current, and he does the trick with this extremely helpful book. I do have to giggle a bit about how different my life is from the interview with me that he included, but I love reading back and seeing how much I still agree with that me. READ I always tell aspiring writers, READ.

The book also contains the very detailed lit mag (Referential makes its first appearance!), contest, book publisher etc lists included. I rather like the new format (the last issue I had still used the long paragraph style for entries versus this streamlined column look) of these alphabetized sections.

I look forward to recommending the Poet’s Market to my friends and students. Great work, Robert!

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Review: Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories

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I thought I might teach this book in the Spring as we are trying to host Fred at my school’s literary festival, but my guilty pleasure is always doing literary analysis on poetry – I think I’ll stick to that. His verse novel like poetry collection “Midquest” may be what I settle on . . .
Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories
Ancestors and Others: New and Selected Stories by Fred Chappell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Way back around 1997 I had the opportunity to take a Modern Poetry class while Fred was still teaching at UNC-Greensboro. His intellect and humor were ever present in that classroom and are on full display in this witty and compelling collection of short stories.

This collection has a really great balance to it. There are shorter stories paced with longer ones. Some tales have a religious/spiritual element to them while others dip into the fantastic with my favorite story being much of an ars poetica (writing about writing) in the cheeky “Mankind Journeys Through Forests of Symbols” which opens with, “There was a dream, and a big gaudy thing it was, too, and for six hours it had been blocking HIighway 51 between Turkey Knob and Ember Forks.”

If you enjoy Southern literature, Fred, fables, and/or short stories in general then this is a collection I would highly recommend.

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Review: Tar Heel Dead: Tales of Mystery and Mayhem from North Carolina

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I may not be teaching mystery to my students after all, but reading a mystery collection has made me more interested in the differences that exist within the genre. Ah genre theory – how I love to study thee :)
Tar Heel Dead: Tales of Mystery and Mayhem from North Carolina
Tar Heel Dead: Tales of Mystery and Mayhem from North Carolina by Sarah R. Shaber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I had the idea that I might teach the concept of mystery writing for the literary analysis portion of my composition classes so I borrowed this book from a friend. The fact that I don’t really read a lot of mysteries makes it difficult for me to really review this collection from writers with NC connections (and stories often set in NC).

Out of the 18 stories collected, I found about 5 particularly compelling especially “Maniac Loose” by Michael Malone. I do love the diversity in this collection. You have stories with a sci-fi edge to them along with your more traditional who done it. There is even the wonderfully written “Spilled Salt” that deals more with a mystery of the soul rather than a typical crime related mystery.

If you are a fan of NC writers, NC settings and/or the mystery genre then I’d recommend this as a nice read. I didn’t find enough to push me towards teaching mystery this term. I’m back to focusing on poetry :)

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Make Friday Write

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I fully intended to have some book reviews this week, but the combination of a busy schedule and a cold kept me away from the computer. But, I’m getting back on the horse and I’m thrilled to report a terrific picture published this week in Referential to emphasize that.

It is hard for me to even think back to the beginning of the week to wrap my brain around all that has been keeping me busy, but I do recall starting the week with professional development/meetings about Writing Across the Curriculum and then I finished up with another one last night for the UNCC branch of the National Writing Project. The kind of fun stuff to keep you busy.

My classes worked on revision, conjunctions, team work, basics of writing an argument essay and I showed some tech tools that involved audio. Any questions on any of those? Ask in comments and I’ll oblige!

Next week we move into basics of professional writing, research, documenting sources, commas, social bookmarking etc etc

I only managed one poem draft this week so I’m including it below for your comments

–and my poem is gone!

 

Feel free to post your poems, thoughts, questions etc below. I did manage to submit two sets of poems and I started to apply for a grant, but I didn’t have a good “reason” for the grant funding so -alas- maybe another time. Anyone want to find an excuse for me to have an iPad?

This weekend I’ll be reading in Pittsboro as part of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s reading. The bookstore is McIntyre’s. I’m looking forward to the reading, but really hoping I get a chance to sleep a bit this weekend to.

I made a shout out earlier in the week for contemporary poetry books for a lending library. I found I don’t need as many as I thought because there has been a follow-up to some rulings about textbooks at school (long story), but I love how generous the poets were who promptly sent me their books along with the books by other poets. I’ll be mentioning them more as I scan through them over the coming months.

Extremely rainy weather today where my office is in Cabarrus County and I’m rapidly running out of time before I need to jet up North to teach my final two classes of the week in Rowan County. But, there is something about the rain that makes me ponder. What are you pondering today? Perhaps . . . write that down :)

Make Friday Write

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Friday sort of snuck up on me this week. I can’t tell if I have been sick or if it is just allergy season for me, but I’ve been in a bit of a fog . . .

Last Saturday my husband and I drove up to downtown Winston-Salem for the Bookmarks Literary Festival. Barnhill’s Books (and wine!) had invited me to meet and greet at their booth. They made us this terrific stickers with our names and one of our book covers (mine had “The Wait of Atom”). I had a chance to chat with lots of local writers such as Becky Gould Gibson whom I’m pictured with as well as Helen Losse, Richard Kraiweck and Malaika Albrecht. I saw at least one person pick up a copy of “Paper House” for purchase and I left several copies of “Fat Girl” as well as some of my last copies of the signature version of “The Wait of Atom.” It really was a nice event (although the sun was OUT) What a terrific event Winston-Salem has going.

Speaking of great events, I also read a Fat Girl poem on Tuesday night as part of the 4th anniversary celebration for Poetry Hickory. Main Street Rag who helps sponsor the event has put out an anthology of the Best of Poetry Hickory. I’m thrilled to be involved. My current work schedule has kept me from attending Poetry Hickory as much as I would have liked recently, but the spring will be much better. I’ll be back as a feature in February!

I managed to submit a few poems that were recently rejected as well as some recently new ones composed. I’m down to about a poem draft a week, and they aren’t all keepers. But, I’m trucking along!

I do have a poem for you today. I wrote it LAST NIGHT! This is my first typing up of it. The formatting is not going to look completely correct. The intent is that the words in parenthesis would be tabbed over some and that the last line would be tabbed over far to the right, but accomplishing that with my limited HTML skills is a bit more than I have time for this morning.

Gone poem!-

As always with any poem share portion of this: please share your own in comments and/or link to it. You can feel free to comment on mine or others (be honest, fair and kind). I will take down any poems posted (including mine) next Friday.

This week my classes had mock interviews, in class debates and peer review for first rough drafts. Next week we’ll be talking about revision, basics of argument essay writing and teamwork. For grammar I’ll be focusing on conjunctions. Have you given much thought to the power of and, but, or, so, although? Maybe that is your writing challenge for today. Play with words.

Always play with words :)

-Quick add: I forgot to add this great poem by one of favorites Carl Sandburg that was on the poetry app!