Tag Archives: writing

Media Miscellany

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Thought I’d make another quick check in to report on a few more items I’ve been “consuming.” I wonder what other word I could use to cover all the minutia that I take in from the web, books, TV, radio etc?

Somehow each of these seems to float back to thinking about my creative life.

  • Even the documentary Dumbstruck which was about ventriloquists. I am TERRIBLE at anything involving puppets although I used to love making masks in art class. I felt you could be creative making masks. What intrigued me, besides the interesting people presented, about the documentary was how I could feel for these guys since I’m primarily a poet. It is hard to make a living as a poet or for anyone to take you seriously because – poetry? – what is that?
  • Really enjoyed Mindy Kaling’s book especially about how she makes lists as well as how she talks about making a beautiful writing area even as she just ends up writing in her bed or in more social settings since she is a working writer for “The Office”. Interesting to hear how she developed as a writer and as a person. Very real and just a fun read.
  • Finished an issue of Iodine Poetry Journal. I had a poem in it but that’s not the reason I was reading it! Well, maybe a little :) I have read Iodine for years though. I thought I might make it to the open mike that the editor of the mag hosts the second Thursday of the month but I’m feeling a little peeved with multiple cat scratches on my arms and legs. Note to self: don’t try to package the smallest cat for her visit to the vet. She is wily.
  • I finished the third book in a YA series by Libba Bray known as the Gemma Doyle series. The third book was a monster at around 800 pages but I LOVED it. The 2nd book in the series was a bit slow, but when I finished The Sweet Far Thing I thought – I could teach this to talk about coming of age, a woman’s place in the world and many other things including speaking to me as a writer when the main character says (about literal magic), “I have lost my magic, and that I am nothing without it.” Don’t you feel that way when the words won’t come down the way you want them to?
  • I also really loved this article that Camille Dungy wrote about whether or not it is “easy” to get published. So much of that depends on where you want to be published and the type of work that you want out there in the world. I’m thinking a lot about that now.
  • I also finished reading a local friend’s (speaking of that open mike I won’t be going to!) first chapbook of poems Splintered Memories which is a very personal collection dedicated to her mother (and family) as her mother is slipping away due to chronic debilitating illnesses. My favorite poems from the slim collection aren’t on the link provided but maybe you’ll just have to find them for yourselves :) And no I won’t tell you which ones. Whose feeling ornery today?

 

Any new books, movies, shows etc to suggest? What else will I have for you tomorrow on Make Friday Write? Come back and see :)

Review Round Up

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I’m not really sure I should call this a review round up but it is the closest description I could come up with this morning. Here are some things, in no particular order, that I’ve read – watched – otherwise interacted with over the last few weeks or so

I often use this TedTalk called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind in class. It is inspirational but also informative as I try to encourage students to write a biorgraphy of someone for their informative essay. They rarely do the assignment, but they enjoy the video. I recently downloaded the book version of William’s story and it is a really good read. There are some passages that get pretty technical, explanining how he got electricity to work from his homemade windmill, but he is still an inspiration. How I love someone who LOVES to learn.

On Netflix I came across a documentary about the Rock-afire Explosion. Well, my spouse really told me to stop on it because I didn’t know who the Rock-afire Explosion were. Showbiz Pizza was one of those places that I had heard of when I was a kid, but it wasn’t a place I was ever going to go to. I did finally take my nephew to Chuck E Cheese as an adult. We didn’t live close to a Showbiz and even when we were closer to it I just don’t think I can picture my parents surviving through all that loud music and games. We preferred the quieter game rooms next to the laundrymat :) The documentary is pretty well put together and what fascinates me about it is how we all seem to have something from our childhood that is a safe place for us; something we look back to with almost reverence. Now, for many of us, maybe we went back and read the revered book, watched the favorite movie again etc as adults and thought – hmm – why did I like that so well? But, I appreciate the deciation that the Rock-afire fans still have to what represents childhood to them.

I was reading magazines and blogs on my Kindle, but it just got to be too much so I back to finding articles and blog posts to read via Twitter and Facebook feeds. I do want to subscribe to some print magazines again. Any suggestions? I have plenty of litmags and I have Poets & Writers I’m thinking more in the educational field and/or just interesting. I was reading The Chronicle and National Geographic on the Kindle.

Speaking of NatGeo I’ve watched quite a few documentaries there as well recently including one on the FBI. I also caught up on quite a few PBS ones that are now on Netflix including one on the Lost Treasures of Tibet that was pretty fascinating. Still, none of these things have been quite enough to get me writing where I want to be writing. My writing feels a bit off lately. I have faith that it is just a matter of time before my need to join one of these conversations that I’m reading, watching, and talking about above (and others) will pull me back into a poem, story or essay.

And, in the mean time, I’ll keep watching, listening, and journaling away as if it was summer vacation. Wait – I’m almost there!

What have you guys been up to?

Make Friday Write

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We’ve made it back around to Friday, and I hope everyone else has a had a good start to National Poetry Month. I haven’t written anything that I’m overjoyed with thus far, but I’m trucking along. I am posting what I started working on on 4-2-12. This was from my idea sheet so it had been a while since I came up with the idea. I’ve worked on it for a few days, but still not sure exactly what direction it is headed in.

–and I will go to try and salvage my poem :)  

I haven’t had any poems to submit this week, but I’m only waiting on one last item from 2011 that was submitted before I can go back and see how I did with my submissions to acceptance ratio for 2011. For someone who was never particularly great at math I sure like playing with percentages.

I have to cut back on my online reading lately, but I did manage to read through a few items recently including this great article in The Rumpus about whether or not a doctor should keep their politics out of the exam room. I’m wary of bringing my personal views on things like politics and religion into my classroom so I appreciate reading that other professionals think about those same issues.

I also enjoyed the Sarcastic Guide to Book Publishing as well as the most recent issue of Diverse Voices Quarterly where my friend, Jenny Beaver, has a poem!

In other news I found out I was nominated for a storySouth award! Wow! Wish I could come up with a new essay topic. I need to write some more prose. Maybe I should write some more about the Histories Mysteries special I saw on the Wright Brothers. What if, as I spent my whole childhood believing, they weren’t the first in flight? Can you guys think of things you just KNEW to be true that you found out later weren’t?

As always feel free to comment on my work in progress and/or to post your own. I will take down my work and anything you dear readers post one week from today. Have a great weekend!

Flyleaf Reading

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On Sunday March 25th I had the pleasure of reading with poet Maureen Sherbondy at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC.  Maureen and I seem to cross poetic paths a lot given that we live a good 3 hours apart; which is a wonderful thing. I am currently reading her chapbook “Scar Girl” which came out from Finishing Line Press late in 2011.

Flyleaf is a terrific store and even with many other events going on (including a NCPS reading at another store within a 30 minute drive and pre-playoff parties for the Carolina game that was on later in the day) we still had a good 10-12 people to read to. The store also took on a few copies of “Paper House” and “Fat Girl” so if you know anyone in the area send them down to the store if they need a copy.

I hope I get a chance to go back to read when my next full length is out in the fall of 2013. I’d hope to have “An Amateur Marriage” with me, but it hasn’t quite arrived yet. Those of you who pre-ordered I will rush them to you when they get here! I read a variety of poems, but I found myself focusing on “Fat Girl.” She is just sooo much fun to read from. I also heard recently that a teacher will be using FG in a class in the Fall! How cool is that? Which also means I need to decide which poetry book I might assign to my composition classes . . . hmm . . . I’m thinking my comp 2 might get a novel this time. Perhaps? Or a non-fiction book?

Maybe, if I was crazy, each of my classes would read a different book?

All in all this says: I love books;  I love writing; I love to read (as in eyes on the page); I love to read (as in voice to the words); and I love to be read to. So, yep, I always continue to encourage you – even here during National Poetry Month – to surely try and write everyday if you desire, but wouldn’t it be a better challenge to read everyday?

Make Friday Write

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The RCCC Literary & Fine Arts Festival is now complete, and I’m hoping to do a post about it soon. I, however, need to first find my way back something called TIME.

  • Here is the most interesting post I have read yet about the current Ghost Writing debate. It reminds me of that old question about authorship and editorship. Where does the line go?
  • I recently (how recent is recent at this point!) watched a documentary titled Vietnam’s Unseen War where an American photographer visited Vietnamese photographers from war time (on both sides of the war). Fascinating to see that view. A while back I reviewed the Vietnam War memoir Two of the Missing and the photographer they follow in the documentary is one of the photographer’s also mentioned in that memoir. That’s always the fascinating thing to me about research and/or study of one subject: when things start to connect.
  • Tomorrow in Charlotte there is a NCWN meet-up at Julia’s Coffee from 3-5. The idea is to bring a book and/or an idea you want to swap with other writers. If I get caught up on grading I just might have to stop by there because, speaking of connections, my spouse has to work tomorrow because of the Vietnam War Remembered parade tomorrow
  • And, of course, it is almost NaPoWriMo. Is anyone diving in to do 30 poems in 30 days? I’m undecided at this point.

Now do I have a poem this week? Hmmm. I actually scribbled this down during a directed free write at one of the LitFest sessions. I will note the poem (as always, without a form yet) that I typed up from my notes but that hasn’t been revised in anyway. I’ll tell you more about the free-write exercise itself if you’d like later. Below it are some notes to myself about where I could go with this.

–going to take my notes, and your notes and see what I can do with this :)  

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As always feel free to post your work in progress in comments and I will take your work and my work down one week from today.

Looking forward to chatting with you and I have several great blog topics that I want to post when I get a free moment :)

Make Friday Write

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I’m at that point in the evening of grading when I ask myself: why did I assign that again? Seriously though I’ve seen some really great short information/research essays, but there are just so many of them. Thanks, students, for actually turning your work in!

So, for my break, I wanted to go ahead and get the Friday blog posted for everyone. I had a few poems this week so I actually have something to post although what I am going to post really has nothing to do with what my TV watching has seemed to be swirling around: Judaism. Why? I’m not really sure. Maybe because after watching this one documentary Constantine’s Sword I found myself wondering how much did I really know about Jewish history? My Netflix Queue also found me watching Hollywood’s historical take on the Holocaust via the documentary Imaginary Witness and then even the okay vampire movie Daybreakers made me think about how we treat “the other.”

The poem I tried to write as all these thoughts swarmed in my head didn’t quite work out (it involved the Vulcan hand sign – which has a Jewish origin – and the itchy roots of racism in the South), but I tried. And, I think I’ll continue to study more about Jewish history because I’m still interested and I still have questions. So, here is another poem I worked on this week. I knew someday my old job would start to speak through a poem. I just take a long time to process.

Contributory Negligence

NC Civil law states if you contribute even 1%
to your own injury you can not collect
from the other negligent party.

The adjuster knows the black and white of it,
but there is the grey of interpretation.
What does the adjuster do when the negligence

is obvious of the 23 year old who got into the car
with a drunk drive who then rolled the car
and died, leaving the passenger with facial

scars but nothing else. This is also called
assumption of risk. But the 23 yr old
was the daughter of the driver, wanting

to get her father home but she couldn’t drive
a stick shift and they were only two miles
from home and – well – he is – was her father.

His keys. His signature on checks for her
student loans. His draining face she sees
everytime the insurance company, the police,

the laywers looking for work call or when
she sees her younger brother – same jaw -
only in profile because he doesn’t turn

from his handle on the coffin as he lays it
for the funeral. She wears her hair back
so she can’t see the black curls – his black curls.

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Feel free to comment on my work in progress or to post your own in comments. I will remove my poem and any poems posted in comments one week from today.

Besides the informative writing my literature course was discussing early sonnets and my creative writing 2 students have started workshopping their writing. It was a busy, busy, week, but good.

On a side note I also finished an issue of The Kenyon Review. I somehow never actually read a print issue until now. It is as good as you’d think; definitely as good as you’d think.