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Had a good weekend with Corey and Sarah visiting. Richmond's a crazy place, and I hope they enjoyed it. We hope to hit some more sites and such next time instead of just Hollywood Cemetery and in and around The Fan.
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Mary Biddinger apparently is starting some posts about first books. I have to say I'm disillusioned with everyone's opinions about it all, meaning with things like that. As I've said in a past post, I've learned more from Kate Greenstreet's interviews on her site. What better than to hear from actual poets who went through it with their own experiences? So much is hysterical, though. Using different clips, and thicker paper, and different fonts. If your book sucks monumentally, it ain't gonna get published. If it's worth publication, then hopefully you're not sending a manuscript bound with a 4x6 Clifford the Big Red Dog Clip in 16-font Palantino on a ream of paper that cost you $50. And I love advice from people who think they're "editors" because they run an online "journal" mainly filled with other poet bloggers who they became friends with so they could solicit them. OK, there are only a few of these folks, but they make me want to switch to fiction sometimes. Still, discussing this stuff I think can be a good thing, even though a lot of it leaves me confused, and annoyed, and sometimes sad.
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Sometimes when I'm teaching I picture Matthew Broderick's Jim McAllister in Election, wearing a different shirt and different tie everyday, but saying the same things, essentially: "Legislative, Executive, Judicial.." "Judicial, Executive, Legislative..." "Executive, Legislative, Judicial..." -- standing some
where slightly different by the board. Putting a different spin on it. But essentially saying the same thing, and wondering how many students are actually listening or getting anything from it. I do like teaching, especially when someone writes a really great and original and professional argumentative essay (when involving teaching composition of course), but I do hope to try and teach creative writing, and be good at it. No offense to anyone doing such a thing, the adjunct thing, the teaching comp thing, but if I'm doing what I'm doing now in 10 years when I'm 36, I'll be thinking of ways to drive my car off a cliff and make it look like an accident. Maybe I have it too easy, but I'm hoping for big things ahead, and am pushing myself as much as possible toward those goals.*
I'm hoping, after the 4th, to start getting a kind of spreadsheet going for the Ph.D information. Most likely we'll be some place close to home, the western PA, Pittsburgh area, though this can vary I suppose if a school in the Midwest wants to give me a fellowship and a 1/1 teaching load. Doubtful, yes, but if it happens who knows what direction we'll be moving toward. I know the process is going to suck, but I'm dying without a community, without reading for pleasure amidst criticism, without writing papers and exploring the many aspects and parts of the craft I have yet to discover and learn about. It's time.
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The new Ninth Letter is out. It's a great issue. Lots of good stuff so far I've read, and still a ton to go through. I'm so happy to have been a part of the last issue, and I hope in the future I don't get as many rejections as I had anticipated by the time I got the acceptance after only one rejection. I really don't think any magazine compares to, especially solely in the graphics and design. It smells like freshly wallpapered room, it weighs a ton, most of the work is of high quality in every issue (of course no one's going to like every piece in an issue of a journal or magazine). If you put it up to The Paris Review, or anything else for that matter, it's pretty laughable how much it kicks ass. I have one more issue in my contributor subscription, but I'll most likely keep subscribing.
