What I’ve been reading

It’s been a while since I’ve done a reading report…well, it’s been a while since I’ve done any blogging! But March was a crazy month. Between travel, poetry readings, and getting into the busy season at work, I’ve barely had time for sitting down and writing poems, much less blog posts. But here’s an assortment of great books and articles I’ve read throughout the month.

Sandra Cisneros, Loose Woman. This is one of my all-time favorite poetry collections, and I find myself returning to it as spring really starts to emerge. I don’t do it consciously. But this time of year, this is the book I want to read.

John Darnielle apparently has a novel coming out. This is cause for much joy in my household. (And I am sure I’m going to love it, because John Darnielle made me interested in a novella centered around Black Sabbath, and I quite honestly have no musical interest in Black Sabbath in general. Nothing personal, Ozzy.)

Drew Myron wrote a beautiful post about being a good literary citizen. I’m glad to see I already employ most of these habits.

Poetry in Person: Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America’s Poets, edited by Alexander Neubauer. I just started this book yesterday, and don’t want to put it down. I love reading or listening to poets discuss the process of writing. Often, I enjoy the process more than publication.

Liliana Valenzuela’s Codex of Journeys: Bendito camino. Makes me want to learn Spanish. For real this time.

Poet and friend Debra Winegarten was interviewed for a book marketing blog last month, and I’ve been employing her advice to promote my chapbook. I often say I have to channel my Inner Deb to do the work of marketing. Some people love it; I am not one of them.

 

Big Poetry Giveaway 2013

The Big Poetry Giveaway is happening again this year, and this year it’s being hosted by the amazing Susan Rich. Last year was the first one in which I participated, and I had a great time connecting with writers and readers. I can’t wait to see who comes along this year!

There are two books I’m offering this year. The first one just so happens to be We’re Smaller Than We Think We Are, which will be published next month by Finishing Line Press. Last April I was so bummed that I didn’t yet have a publication of my own to give away. This year I’m ecstatic that I’ll be sending somebody my book.

 

If you’re one of those wonderful people who has already pre-ordered my chapbook, I’m also offering Dale Smith’s American Rambler. Dale Smith, currently based in Toronto, is a former Austin poet, and this book makes me regret that I didn’t discover his work until after he’d left.

To enter my drawing, please leave a name and contact info on the comment section of this post. Please also specify whether you have a preference for one book or another. On May 1st, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner.

Because there might be some new visitors to this blog, and because posting introductions can be fun, here are a few tidbits about me:

1. My all-time favorite band in the history of all music ever is the Mountain Goats.
2. I wear Birkenstocks or cowboy boots almost exclusively.
3. When I was 16, my dream car was a convertible Volkswagen Beetle in either green or orange. When I was 27, I bought said car in green.
4. I eat an avocado at least 6 days a week.
5. Jon and I regular customers at the Torchy’s Tacos on Spicewood. The managers know who we are.
6. Hyperbole is my favorite literary device, but I never exaggerate about my avocado or taco consumption.

That’s all I have for now! I look forward to seeing who jumps in and following the other poets who are already involved.

If you want to participate in the Big Poetry Giveaway, you can sign up here.

 

 

Poet About Town: Addendum (Radio Edition)

I’m back from a great trip to North Carolina, tired but happy. While I was away, I realized that I forgot to add something exciting to my Poet About Town post from last week. This Wednesday, I’ll be featured on Writing on the Air, a show hosted on 91.7 KOOP. I’ll be talking about my chapbook and the Feminist Poetry Festival.

The show runs from 6-7 p.m., and will also be streaming live on KOOP.org, so you can listen if you live out of town! And if you’re on Twitter, you can ask questions during the broadcast by directing them to @WritingOnTheAir.

I’m very excited to have this opportunity. Thanks to Francois Pointeau for bringing me on!

Feminist Friday: Pussy Riot Imprisonment, One Year Later

On Feburary 21, 2012, members of the punk band Pussy Riot, staged a protest against Vladimir Putin in a Russian Orthodox church. Two members, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were sentenced to two years in jail. Yekaterina Samutsevich was imprisoned, but was released in October after hiring a new attorney. The remaining two members at the protest remain at large.

One year after the protest,  Samutsevich says she has no regrets:

I don’t regret the performance. I only regret that they put us in prison. But it’s the government, which brought criminal charges, that’s guilty in this [. . . ] Many people are now critical of the government and state authorities [because of Pussy Riot]. They see the injustice. The situation has changed.

Pussy Riot, an art collective consisting of anonymous members (with 10-20 members at any given time), has not staged any major protests since last year, though Samutsevich has focused her work on the collective rather than on her other career as a computer programmer.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova are 24 and 23, respectively. They’re giving up two years of their lives as punishment for trying to incite political change in Russia. Reading news reports reminding me that a year has passed already reminds me to take stock of my values and beliefs. What would I be willing to go to jail for? What would be worth giving up my freedom? Perhaps this is purely a hypothetical question. But it’s one that I think we need to ask ourselves every now and then. Do we believe in our politics enough to risk imprisonment (or worse)? And if we don’t, then what do we do?

Poet About Town: Wandering Edition

This weekend, I’m attending the Southern Writers Symposium. (I’m writing and scheduling this post ahead of time, but hopefully by the time this gets published, Jon and I will be about ready to land in North Carolina.) I’m looking forward to a change of scenery, especially because I’ve only been to North Carolina once and loved it the first time.

On March 8th, I’ll be a featured reader at the International Women’s Day Reading at BookWoman. I’ll be reading alongside Faylita Hicks, Cindy Huyser, ire’ne lara silva, Jessica Ochoa Zamarripa, and organizer (and Austin Feminist Poetry Festival feature) Liza Wolff-Francis. I’m honored to have been invited and excited to be participating.

And speaking of honored, on March 17th I’ll be a featured reader at the KinCity Reading at the Twig Book Shop in San Antonio. This is an invite-only reading series, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to showcase my work here.

March is going to be a busy month, indeed. I can’t wait.

Supporting my feminist bookstore, because she supports me

 

BookWoman is the cornerstone of my literary career so far. I worked there in 2009 and 2010, and through the store I met Debra Winegarten and thus became a member of the Austin Writergrrls. Helping with the store’s open mic, I met lots of local poets, and gradually found a place in the local poetry community. While working on Sundays, I met Abe Louise Young, who became my mentor. I learned about Gemini Ink and Poetry at Round Top. I bought writing manuals and honed my craft. BookWoman is part and parcel of the writer I am today.

To that end, I’ve decided to turn my pre-sale period into a chance to give back to the store that has given so much to me. My book is available for pre-order until the 27th, and for every copy I sell in pre-order, I’ll give $1 to the store. (This applies if you’ve bought a book before I made this announcement. Congratulations! You’ve pre-emptively donated $1 to BookWoman!

You’re not only supporting poetry; you’re now supporting a bookstore as well. There are only 11 feminist bookstores left in North America. So pre-order now and support BookWoman, small businesses, and feminsm!

Weekend Readings

“50 Sure Signs that Texas is Actually Utopia” by Summer Anne Buton — The whole list is great, but #4 is where it’s at. I don’t want to live in a state without breakfast tacos.

Calvin & Hobbes photoshopped into real photographs. So wonderful.

“Janeites: The curious American cult of Jane Austen” by Jon Kelly — My enjoyment of Pride and Prejudice aside, I’m more fascinated by people’s interest in Jane Austen rather than her work.

Beloved by Toni Morrison — This April, I’ll be participating in the Pulitzer Remix Project and creating a poem a day drafted exclusively from the text of Beloved. Since I haven’t read the novel since college, I’m reading it this month, and then I’ll read it again in March. It’s an interesting experience to read a book for the purpose of making poems out of it. I’ll probably have more detailed reflections on that later.

“Tatau (Tattoo) Poetics” by Craig Santos Perez — I have a soft spot for literary discussions about tattoos. Here, Perez discusses poetics and postcolonialism.

 

Pre-order ending soon!

That’s right! My pre-order period ends on February 27th. That means you have just a few weeks left to get on the discount-shipping bandwagon.

Want to know more? Check out poems from the collection here, here, and here. Like what you see? There’s more of that where that came from. So head over to the Finishing Line Press site and pre-order your copy today!

What I learned while writing poems in January

At the end of December, Hannah Stephenson wrote a post called “Things I Have Accidentally Learned About While Writing Poems.” I decided to keep track of the knowledge I picked up as I generated poems throughout the month. So without further ado, this is what my poems taught me:

• There are five species of pine trees in Texas: Loblolly pine, Longleaf pine, Ponderosa pine, Shortleaf pine, and Slash pine
• I learned about airglow, a phenomena in which light emissions are caused by chemical reactions in the Earth’s atmosphere.
• Given the proper funds, you could buy a bottle of rum for $54,000, whisky for $195,000, vodka for $1.6 million, tequila for $1.5 million, or champagne for $1.9 million.
•  I learned how to respond to a sneeze in a number of languages.

Weekend Readings

“The changing face of ‘nerds’ (and autism) in popular culture” by Noel Murray — A thought-provoking look into comedy, nerdiness, and the autism spectrum.

“Dead Writers Perfume” by Amanda Nelson. I imagine that my own scent might be a mix of oolong tea, red wine, rosemary, and tea tree oil. An odd mix, to be sure, but it’s fun to think about.

Hilary Mantel’s Rules for Writers — I’ve never read Brande’s book, but I will now. At some point. My to-be-read list is very long.

New Goose by Lorine Niedecker — Spinoffs of Mother Goose poems based on life during the Great Depression and World War II. Disturbing, in a way, how the work is still thematically relevant.

“Our No Audio, Ourselves” by Natalie Shapero — A meditation on language, vulgarity, FCC, and the complicated regulations surrounding decency.

“The Roadside Assistance Prayer” by Susan Rooke — Yay local poets! I was also amused because my final poem for the 30/30 project mentioned roadside assistance, and when the poem was done, I opened up my Your Daily Poem email, and discovered Susan’s piece.

Women of the Way: Discovering 2,500 Years of Buddhist Widsom by Sallie Tisdale — I just started this book, which brings to life the stories of female Buddhist figures that have been otherwise obscured or ignored.