my first interview...

Last spring, Samuel Lloyd interviewed me for the online version of Southeast Review, published at Florida State University. It's very cool to have it published--now everyone from students to my parents can see what I have to say about the writing life (for what it's worth). And I admit I'm hoping it will bring a few more book sales--keep them trickling in! I thank Samuel for his patience (he had to wait four months for me to answer his questions), as well as Julianna Baggott (the online contributing editor and one of my writing heroes), for setting things in motion.

You can read it here.

mad for BAP!

This is the THIRD TIME I HAVE TRIED TO POST THIS! Dang Mozilla Firefox. Please go to the Best American Poetry blog, not only because I am a guest blogger this week, but because I am in such fantastic company (including pals Bruce, Denise, Jilly, Jimmy, Moira, Reb, et al.) that I am humbled.

fine motor: the chapbook

It's here! I got my first shipment from Sow's Ear Poetry Review Press. Cover design and illustration by the fabulous Bri Hermanson.

Come hear me read from it tomorrow night at Perch Cafe in Park Slope, Brooklyn!

red hen in da house

Red Hen Press (aka "the gang from the Coast" aka "my" publisher aka some really rockin' folks) are in town this week. Check out the readings if you can:

FRIDAY, 7:00 P.M.
May 16, 2008
KGB Bar
85 East 4th Street
Featuring: Nick Flynn
Jennifer Michael Hecht
Nickole Brown

SUNDAY, 6:00 P.M.
May 18, 2008
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
Featuring: Steve Huff
Kurt Brown
Laure-Anne Bosselaar
Brooke Bognanni
Nickole Brown

TUESDAY, 6:00 P.M.
May 20, 2008
Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia Street
Featuring: Kate Gale
Sarah Bein
Greg Sanders

a parliament of owls

Tu-whoo! tu-whoo! What a to-do!! Bobby and I have been reading The Silver Chair from the Narnia series, and I feel I need to quote the wise owl Glimfeather, because my contributor's copies of the fabulous first issue of Barn Owl Review have arrived! I'm so glad to be published in this excellent magazine from my home state with fellow Ohioans Nin Andrews and Susan Grimm, and many other wonderful poets.

The poem is "Subway Blunder," from the collaborative series that Denise Duhamel and I have been working on, ABBA: The Poems. Our rules are that each poem has eight quatrains, rhyming in abba scheme, and there must be one reference to 70s pop superstars ABBA. We've had a lot of fun with these poems, and fortunately, Barn Owl's Mary Biddinger is an ABBA fan!

Happy 100th Post, Saint Nobody!!!

Yes, it's finally happened, and how appropriate that it occurs smack in the middle of Down Syndrome Awareness Month (and could it have happened without Tricia's challenge? Prob. not.).

In honor of the Saint's centenary entry, I would like to officially announce that Saint Nobody, the poetry collection, has been accepted for publication by Red Hen Press! More details, and plenty of grateful admiration for this wonderful press, will most certainly be forthcoming. Don't change that dial!

Thanks to an anonymous tip from a Very Scholarly Blogger, I researched the medieval concept of a "Saint Nobody" and found the illustration you'll see if you scroll all the way the the very bottom of this page. The motto reads, "Nobody is my name that beyreth [beareth] every bodies blame." I'm considering asking the designer to incorporate it into the cover art.

Now it's on to revising the manuscript! Woo hoo! (or, as Tricia would say, "Woot.")

into a sow's ear...

Forgive me for oinking a bit, but now that it's really, really official (I just received the prize money check), I finally feel I can announce the first part of my two-part good news: my chapbook, Fine Motor, was awarded the Sow's Ear poetry prize, and will be published in Spring 2008!
Check out their website by clicking here.
Second part: sorry, you'll have to wait a bit longer. I'm still too nervous to announce it!

good news afloat

I will not yet elaborate, but the Saint has received some very, very good writing-related news.

Oh, and I'm having a great time at the Sewanee Writers' Conference.