VCU

So thrilled that the Rams took down Kansas and made it to the Final Four.

I didn't fill out a bracket this year (because I never have a shot, and this year would've probably been no different), but after they destroyed Purdue, I, and I imagine many others, said, "The run won't end with a loss to Florida State."

Props to the program. To the university. To the city of Richmond.

It was a long shot for them to make the tournament, so why not take it up a notch?

I'd love to see them actually win this thing.

I hope they do.

Digitalia

The reading at Allegheny College went extraordinarily well.

Endless thanks go to Christopher Bakken for getting everything set up and for inviting me back.

It doesn't seem like I graduated seven years ago, but I suppose time's doing anything but slowing down.

There were over 100 bodies in the seats, and to to be surrounded by such supportive family and friends was fantastic.

I had conferences with three students the next day, and I have high hopes for each one of them. Each student is ready not only to go to an MFA program, but to do good things there. I had no chops when I was their age (and most often I don't know if I have any chops now), and I'm excited to see what they all do in the future.

I suppose I should mention the oddness of watching the tsunami footage at 4 in the morning in a hotel room, though, since that will always be tied to such an amazing night for me.

That said, infinite thanks go to everyone for being there. It was a humbling and amazing experience.

*

Thanks again to Bear for publishing a poem from my new manuscript that's in the current issue of The National Poetry Review and The American Poetry Journal.

The idea's great, and though I'm sure it's not the first time this has ever happened, I've never seen a journal like this.

Sonora Review did a double issue (flip issue?) a while back like this, but here, you get issues of two different journals in the same space. Flip it over when you get to the end, and you get the Table of Contents in the other.

You should be able to order it here soon.

*

I was pleased to recently get acceptances from Copper Nickel and Whiskey Island Magazine.

The former took a poem from my second manuscript. It's one of my favorites and is the penultimate poem in the manuscript. Sometimes I wonder if it should be the last, but I think I made the right decision.

Whiskey Island Magazine took two poems that I hope will become part of a third manuscript. A couple weeks ago I sent some poems out to some journals, and this is the first I've heard from. The fact that it's not a rejection is welcomed.

I'm writing a lot of different stuff right now, so who knows what the third manuscript will become. I'm trying to work on a series of poems, unsurprisingly film-related, that I like. It gives me a chance to get risky and lyrical at the same time.

We'll see how they're received, but even if the reception's poor, I'm going to keep writing them. If anything, it keeps me on my toes. And if people hate the poems, that's almost always a good sign at this point. At least in my eyes.

*

I'm beginning my run at field exams, the first of which will be this summer.

I'm almost two years in, halfway done.

I plan on completing a third manuscript by the time I'm finished with my final degree.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again. Lofty, it is. Possible, I hope.

*

The VCU Rams are a huge inspiration this year in the NCAA tournament.

I didn't give myself a chance when I got there to do anything. It was a risk.

It paid off. I think.

So I'm thrilled to back a team that shouldn't have made it in the first place... so they say.

I haven't done a lot at this point, I know, but I'm going to keep at it.

*

Spring's here. Officially.

But in Binghamton, we'll see how official it is in a few weeks.

First Book Interview #37 - Sandy Longhorn

Enjoy, folks.

#37 - Sandy Longhorn

Last Minute - Reading

This is happening in a little over 48 hours, but on the off chance that you're not my Facebook friend (I made an event for it, and invited mostly people who I know are going to be there anyway), didn't see the event, and / or would possibly be interested and can make it, here's the information for the upcoming reading I'm doing.

Here's the information in the link from Allegheny College.

Poets Keith Montesano and Robert Murphy will read from their works on Thursday, March 10 at 8 p.m. in the Tippie Alumni Center at Allegheny College. The free public presentation is part of the college’s Single Voice Reading Series.

There you have it. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't been back to Allegheny since I graduated in 2004, so it'll be nice, to say the least.

First Book Interview #36 - Leslie Harrison

Here you go, dear readers...

#36 - Leslie Harrison

And I'm getting really sick of the long lines and colors in the template I have, so I think something simpler and brighter and easier is coming, hopefully sooner than later.

What was the name...?

There are no sentimental breakthroughs in Kore-eda’s day in the life—and the flash-forward epilogue implies that they don’t exist in life, period. In this family, people and relationships don’t change in any fundamental sense; avoidance prevails over confrontation. Some might simply chalk this up to Japanese decorum, but it has at least as much to do with Kore-eda’s gimlet-eyed appraisal of how hurts and grievances play out in most families, whatever the culture: silently and subcutaneously, in coded words and actions. But while Kore-eda grants his characters no epiphanies, he allows them pangs of regret and moments of dawning awareness.

Late to the Party

AWP was a good time.

There's really not too much to review, I suppose, but I should put something down before I forget everything I wanted to say.

We had about eighty or so people in the audience for our panel. Honestly, that was a lot more than I thought would show up.

This was it:

S158. From the Page to the Small Screen: What the Information Age Means for Us . (Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, Terry Hummer, Maggie Dietz, Mary Flinn, Brian Brodeur, Keith Montesano) As digital technologies such as blogs, online periodicals, hypertext, and phone Apps gain legitimacy, more writing than ever before finds its home online. Some big questions loom: What is lost or gained when we translate our work from the page to the screen? Are these technologies promotional tools or new creative forms? Are we witnessing the death of the page or its evolution? Panelists from Slate, Blackbird, the Favorite Poem Project, AmeriCamera, and the blogosphere will answer these questions.

Thanks again to Andrew for getting everything together, and everyone for making it what it was, even only for an hour.

The main reason I went was the panel.

But I also wanted to meet a lot of people I only "know" through Facebook, and that I did.

I also needed to give Ghost Lights to some blurbers (Paul and Lisa, I still owe you a book).

Wojahn had a signing, but Pittsburgh Press was all out of World Tree. Kind of had me bummed.

It's always amazing to me when I see the complete mix of frighteningly egotistical people that are like sharks to just one drop of blood, and then the people who turn out to be absolutely humble and down to earth. I wish everyone could be in the latter category, but even that realization makes me happier to know, now, so many of them.

Books I picked up:

Le Spleen de Poughkeepsie - Joshua Harmon
Requiem for the Orchard - Oliver de la Paz
Vivisect - Lisa Lewis
Reliquary Fever - Beckian Fritz Goldberg

Was going to buy many more, but I already have a ton to read, as we all probably do.

Plus, since we got a new bookshelf, in the words of Jess: "It really doesn't look like the we did anything. We just moved the books from the original onto the second."

Near the end of AWP, as the book fair was closing down, someone handed me an uncorrected proof of Michael Kimball's Us, which seems right up my alley and I can't wait to read.

Was it you, Michael? Or was it Giancarlo?

Unless I have a reason for going next year in Chicago, I'm probably good for a few years. But maybe things will change.

That said, to all the people I met, drank beers with, shot the shit with, I wanted to say thanks to you. You're all what made AWP for me this year.

*

The crossroads point has set in with my second manuscript.

At what point do you say, "It's finished" or, "It's done"?

Is it presumptuous to say that?

Isn't there always something that can be done, even if it's realizing in the .doc file that you have two spaces between a word instead of one?

That said, I'm confident at this point. More confident than I've ever been with it.

The book's not for everyone, just like Ghost Lights was not and is not. But I have a lot of faith in it, more than I ever have with Ghost Lights (is that how it should be?) so hopefully that accounts for something.

I just got it out to five more places, with a handful more added to the list in the coming months.

*

I also feel like I've started, finally, a third project.

It still weirds me out a bit to type that.

I know if I don't move on, I'll be stuck, drafting and shredding, deleting.

But I have an idea and I'm running with it.

Unlike the past two manuscripts, I think I'm going to sit on these poems for a while, amass the good ones, tweak them, keep them in mind.

I'm usually fast to send out poems, but admittedly, I like to think a lot of my drafts don't take months, or sometimes even weeks, for me to be finished with them.

A thought's usually in my head for a while, and then usually I can get what I think is a decent draft down when it starts making itself known that it needs to be in words.

This new thing I'm working on isn't like that, so it's important for me to see how it develops. And slow is the way to go at this point. Or at least contained.

Even if it's just a glimmer at this point, I'm excited to see what happens.

And my last new poem, before the few I wrote in this last week, was written in October.

Too long.

Light the fire.

*

And also speaking of manuscripts and projects, I have First Book Interviews slated until, at the earliest, May 15th.

Again, I'm getting back to doing one every two weeks. Should I get a flood of them in the next few weeks, maybe I'll do a two-for-one every once in a while, but I want to make sure that the schedule fleshes itself out accordingly.

A lot of good interviews are on the way, so stay tuned.

*

You should listen to the new Twilight Singers record, Dynamite Steps.

Greg Dulli has been an influence on me for a long time.

I've written a lot of poems to Dulli-related projects, and somehow the dude never slows down.

The new record's fantastic. It deserves your time.

*

This is a busy semester for me, as it's my last semester of course work.

Soon it'll be time for field exams. And I still have to get the language requirement out of the way.

My main goal for the next two and a half years? Get my second manuscript published and have whatever my third's going to be (hopefully there is one) turn out to be my dissertation.

If I have to set myself up for disappointment, then so be it. But that's what I'm shooting for.

That means I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing, but at the very least, First Book Interviews will still be popping up every couple weeks.