ACM Etc.

Got my contributor copies of Another Chicago Magazine the other day. I have to say that it was worth the wait. It's honestly one of the best designed journals I've ever seen, which is surprising initially because it seems so compact, which it is, if that makes sense. There's just a lot to look at too, including the art around all the reading. And there's a lot of good stuff so far. Mira Bartok's essay kicks it off amazingly well, and I'll be looking for her work wherever I can find it now. Another reason why journals are so damn good to keep reading all the time. Looking forward to reading what else is within the pages soon.

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Right now there are only four journals who still have to publish poems from Ghost Lights (meaning the issues are still in the works for the printers), and I'm pretty sure by the fall all of the poems will be officially published and out in the world.

I'm pretty sure all the contracts were, "You retain rights after we publish the poem," but I'll probably shoot a mass email to the editors to see if I need to do anything else to have full rights to the poems. Hopefully I won't. Or should I even spend the time to go about something like this? Let me know, you folks with books...

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I've written a good amount of poems I actually like over the past few weeks, so I decided to put what I hope will be the final push for poem submissions, mostly to journals who accept over the summer. Then again, I can probably get some work to journals who have either the end of April or May 1st as their final date for considering work.

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Was said to see that Pebble Lake Review is going to go on hiatus after their next (online) issue. Amanda Auchter was the second editor to ever publish my work, and she actually solicited me, so it was a double confidence boost in that sense during my first MFA year.

Hopefully soon enough they can start it up again. There's been a lot of great work within those pages for years.

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Downloading Nancy looks like it's either going to be awful or really good, with no in between. I get a little skeptical when I see something like, "This is the most controversial movie you'll see all year." I'm really not sure how many folks can make a more violent and compelling movie than Irréversible, which deserves the tag line "controversial," but does so much more in so many ways. We'll see.

Storm

Got some welcoming news via email that both DIAGRAM and Diode took some newer poems, maybe from this chapbook, which seems to be turning into a possible full length manuscript number two, whatever semblance of it I can build at this point.

They're two of my favorite online journals, so it's great to have poems appearing again in the future.

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Speaking of journals, it looks like the new issue of Another Chicago Magazine is out. Not only that, but the website has finally been updated.

They took one of my favorite poems I've ever written (and honestly I don't have many), which was accepted about two years ago, so I'm thrilled that I should finally get my contributor copy soon. It really is a great journal, and I hope that little hiatus they were on in the last couple years was only a small hiccup and that they'll be going full force again.

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Yesterday we got about six inches of snow in Richmond. Being originally from western Pennsylvania, that's nothing to me, but with no salt trucks or plows down here, it turned into a clusterfuck for a lot of Richmonders and Virginians alike. Almost every school was canceled yesterday (and most today), including VCU, and tons of accidents happened on the interstates. Apparently everyone rushes to the grocery stores to get milk, bread, toiler paper, and batteries. I guess you can always leave the milk outside if you don't have power.

We lost power Monday at about midnight until noon. Then it went back on and everything's cool now. Only a bunch of ice and clogged curbs from snow build-up and parked cars. The sun's out now, so hopefully it'll melt within a few days. And Saturday it's supposed to be 60 degrees, so we should be fine by then.

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Does anyone know what happened to Red Morning Press? Their blog hasn't been updated in almost a year, and their website is currently down.

I haven't heard anything, so I'm not sure if they're done or not. It'd be a shame though if that were true, since they put out really nice books, the four or so they did in the last couple years.

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Still haven't heard anything from the other six schools. I have ten days to accept or decline Oklahoma State's offer, and I hope that they give me more time if I need it. With all the money and time I spent on all the applications (and all of us who have applied to more than a few schools), I'd like to weigh all my options, should I have anymore.

Then again, I could get six rejections in the next day or two. Or hear a few positives. You never know. Time goes on.