Almost Halloween

Thanks to Carolyn Kellogg for the shout out in the Jacket Copy blog from the LA Times about the first book interviews.

As I said from the beginning, I'm hoping there's enough interest in this for the word to spread as more people find out about it, both at Kate's site and my continuation of it, without me having to spam people or make a Facebook group and bombard people that way for others to go to it.

Not only that, but I found out about Kate's interviews when she had already conducted around forty or so. You can image how thrilled I was when I had all that reading material to go back to in the archives.

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Took the GRE Lit Subject Test finally last Saturday. I always find the process and the dynamic so interesting and weird with these tests. We were in a room I've probably taught in before in the new VCU Business Building, and there were maybe 20-25 of us. Most were taking tests like Biology or Physics, and only a few were taking the Lit Subject Test. I wondered how everyone's future would go, how far some of them drove for a test, what everyone's reasons were for taking it, whatever the subject was.

There were a decent amount of questions I knew. Per the ETS policy, I shall not speak of such specifics regarding those questions here, but many of the everyone-talks-about-this-writer-or-this-poem-being-on-the-test folks were indeed on the test in some fashion. Either way, now I can focus on applications and the rest of the application process. High five for no more standardized tests. Borat style.

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The new Helios record, Caesura, and the new Near the Parenthesis record, L'Eixample, may just end up being at the top of my year-end best-of list.

Beautiful stuff all around, and perfect for the fall. Both of these guys have such a knack for writing gorgeous music, and though sometimes (in the best possible way) a band like Hammock can be sleep-inducing, there's usually more bass and background keyboards and computerized drums and drum machines and percussion sounds like that to make it listenable in so many environments. Reading, writing, road trip. But I think these records coming out in the fall months are melding into some ineffably perfect soundtrack for me.

They'll be getting a ton of plays as the months go on, and you should do your favor and check them out.

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There are a few manuscript contests coming up that call for about ten more pages than I have for the minimum to be considered. It's weird to beef it up for contests now that I trimmed so much off. Like putting deleted scenes back into a movie once you've already cut what you deem as the final print.

But I'm trying to figure out what I can put back in, since I really haven't written or published much new stuff that would fit with the first manuscript. Many poems have come and gone, as they do with the manuscript process, so I don't feel like the poems necessarily don't belong again, but it's just an odd feeling: putting poems back in when you haven't seen them for so long. Maybe some of them will make a case for a permanent stay. I'm not sure yet.

Wednesday City

I got my contributor copies of The Pinch (which used to be River City) yesterday, and I must say I'm very impressed. I've been lucky with my contributor copies as of late, as I've liked much of the work within the pages. And of course that isn't always the case with journals.


And another plus is that physically the journal's like a toned-down sexy Ninth Letter. Meaning it has that same smell, quality paper, beautiful artwork spaced throughout, and a variety of styles as far as the work goes. I had a subscription to River City as it turned into The Pinch and I always wanted to be within the pages.

So there you have it.

Also included within the pages: Michael Czyzniejewski, Farrah Field, Troy Jollimore, Allison Joseph, Paul Lisicky, Tim Lockridge, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, D.A. Powell, D. Antwan Stewart, Patricia Waters, and many more. There's also a great interview with C.K. Williams, whose work has always been a huge influence and vastly important in my poetic life.

I also have to mention that D. Antwan Stewart's poem, "Leitmotif," blew me out of the water. I found his email and emailed him about it right away I liked it so much. It's the small things like that which can break me out of any poetic rut I'm in. It's a vulnerable poem, one that's beautiful, honest, and heartbreaking. The sad thing is: I don't see much work like that anymore among the pages of journals, and that in itself saddens me. I read enough journals, so it's not that I'm limiting myself, but that's the poetry that really can mess with my emotional conscience in an oh-so-good way, and if the work isn't doing that, then I wonder why I'm reading it in the first place.

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Speaking of beautiful, the new Jóhann Jóhannson record, Fordlandia, is just that. In the world of all the classical composers, I think there are the folks my age who are listening more to Jóhann Jóhannson, Nico Muhly, Steve Reich, Hauschka, Philip Glass. The classical composers are classical composers for a reason, and their works will be heard until the world is no longer. But it's time for the young folks to change things and start spreading the word about the music from our generation. Or music that are generation is listening to in the realm of the classical.

At any rate, I think Jóhann Jóhannson is immensely talented and will be around for a very long time. He only has a few records out, but they're all gorgeous and worth your time.

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I have to mention Leslie Harrison again, because she has another good post that deserves at least a glance, especially for those of us who are still trying to get our first books published.

And this is what a lot of folks don't talk about during interviews or manuscript conversation: the small mechanics and design on the page. I feel like a few of the first books recently I've read aren't necessarily copy-edited poorly, but there were some things I would've changed. Maybe I wouldn't mind eventually working for a published in that sense. I don't know. But even in the post, I never thought about the serial comma, or even knew that it had a name. I'm a stickler for including the comma before the last "and," as that's always how I've written. Maybe I like forced caesuras. I think I do.

But even before this post, that's something that I was looking for in my manuscript: consistency. Colon, or Dickinson dash? Semi-colon, or new sentence? Bold titles or capital letters? How should poetic sequences look on the page? And this maybe takes it above and beyond, but in some manuscripts I've seen the letter f, because of the prongs on the top, make it look there are two spaces between a word, and that's something I can always spot. I think eventually if an editor is sharp enough and cares enough they'll add their two cents on both consistency, possibly the proper form, and would read and look the best.

It's still nuts, though interesting and always a concern of mine. All this work for the few people who will care about the book. Why do we torture ourselves this way?

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I haven't been sleeping well lately, and I'm not sure why, especially since the weather is so nice for sleeping now. I have the GRE Lit Subject Test in a week and change, so maybe that's it, even though it probably doesn't matter what I score on it, especially since there are a few schools that aren't requiring it in their application process. The thing is ridiculous. Everyone who's taken it or is planning on taking it knows that.

Maybe the fact that Jess and I will be moving in a year to who-knows-where. If a school wants me. I'm not sure what's going on, but I need to get it under control. I can't use lack of sleep for creative means like some people.

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In a completely other world, Big Blue is 4-0, though I'm not sure I like the touting of them being the best team in the NFL. I do, however, think they're a legitimate contender, and we're looking pretty fantastic so far. It's what I said from the very beginning: our core is ridiculously strong. If guys get hurt, we have back-ups. Look at the Yankees and the Cowboys. Just because your team's essentially an all-star team as far as players, it really doesn't mean anything by the end. The core's gotta be strong.

My brother's going to Cleveland on Monday night to watch the game with a friend, who's a Cleveland fan, and as he said, "Since I'm in the Dawg Pound I probably can't wear any of my Giants stuff," to which I replied, "I don't think it's a big deal, but you just don't want to get drunk and start saying stuff to the wrong people."

There was some old guy who got stabbed a few years ago because of shit that was talked between Steelers and Browns fans. Though that rivalry's one of the most insane in football, I still think Steelers and Browns fans can get a bit crazy. My hometown is an hour and a half between the two cities, so I unfortunately grew up around a wealth of them on both sides.