First Books 3/26/09

A reading and panel discussion regarding one's first literary publication, with Salvatore Scibona, novel, The End (Graywolf Press) nominated for the National Book Award; Nicole Johns, memoir, Purge: Rehab Diaries (Seal Press); and Kao Kalia Yang, memoir, The Latehomecomer (Coffee House Press) nominated for a Minnesota Book Award.



It was a nice evening, well-attended by prospective students and the local literary community. I was the only program poet there... and tired and stressed and generally not in good form. When it came time for Q & A I slurred a question about poetry publishing that included the phrase "Gray House." Oh dear.



The readings were fantastic. I've heard parts of The Latehomecomer before, and this different excerpt did not disappoint. Kao Kalia Yang has a high-pitched voice that contributes to her memoir's urgent tone. It's always nice to get more exposure to the work of recent program grads, and Nicole Johns' work was excellent. Salvatore Scibona's novel was lively and inventive, his demeanor charming and funny.



The panel discussion wasn't too relevant to poetry publishing, about literary agents and decisions on the numbers of copies to print. The response to my question was basically that since poetry is "protected" from the marketplace there are generally less unknown factors: print-runs will always be small. But the comments about author-promotion apply to poets very much. The panelists emphasized forming relationships with people in the literary community: your fellow students will one day be running journals and reading series... keep in touch for your book tour! "Web-Presence" is also important, and they seemed to think we should be cultivating that nebulous entity now... which probably means I should stop avoiding those social networking sites, ugh! Author websites were also mentioned, but that's a step I personally don't feel the need to take until one has a book to sell. Unless of course you have a super-dope project like CAM!!!

Edit: on the subject of author websites, I've added links to the three readers. They certainly represent a diverse range of styles/approaches.

Just a quick question: Anyone interested in the Bly Conference? It's $25 for students until the end of this month.

power politics

Plath: me too, me too. When I first read The Bell Jar, I felt intimate with Sylvia. It was something about the body, merging with an(other) abject current, and there finding a voice. Now I sometimes wonder if I read Plath's death into her writing - and feel guilty that my reader's tooth/claw might have preyed upon her actual turmoil. But in whatever scorched earth, the ecstasy of Plath's language - its own carnival - disarms. So: maybe violence doesn't thrive here after all, even that which I fear in myself-as-reader. Plath's generous tumult seems to generate more of itself, with or without me.

Which is why I have to share this section of a four part poem by Adrienne Rich, "For Ethel Rosenberg," which features in an anthology I'm reading for my nuclear study, Atomic Ghost: Poets Respond to the Nuclear Age.

But first, a slightly sheepish plug for Fission Kitchen, where I'm studying nuclear power, from bombs to bulbs, from light to might: Visit http://fissionkitchen.tumblr.com to learn more and take a short, anonymous nuclear survey.


iv.
Why do I even want to call her up
to console my pain (she feels no pain at all)
why do I wish to put such questions

to ease myself (she feels no pain at all
she finally burned to death like so many)
why all this exercise of hindsight?

since if I imagine her at all
I have to imagine first
the pain inflicted on her by women

her mother testifies against her
her sister-in-law testifies against her
and how she sees it

not the impersonal forces
not the historical reasons
why they might have hated her strength

If I have held her at arm's length till now
if I have believed it was
my loyalty, my punishment at stake

if I dare imagine her surviving
I must be fair to what she must have lived through
I must allow her to be at last

political in her ways not in mine...

(1980)

plath / hughes

I was thirteen when I first read The Bell Jar.

I grew up in Chattanooga, went to an arts and sciences magnet school (where a second language was learned from kindergarten on, where theatre and art were a regular part of the curriculum, and dissections of nurse sharks occurred in the parking lot) and we had summer reading lists. I think The Bell Jar was one of the options for freshmen, though I could be wrong. Did those list-makers know, when they put together that list, how much angst they were encouraging in their students? I had moved by the time I spotted it on the list, but being the reader that I am, I asked a friend to save her copy of the list (which includes all the grades' assignments) so I wouldn't miss out.

And I fell in love.

And I expanded to Anne Sexton and read Girl, Interrupted in the summer sun (while my mother changed a flat--I remember sitting on a park bench in downtown Appleton while my father looked on; gender roles in our house were always a little muddy).

When I was fifteen, I photocopied pictures from Plath's biographies and put them up my bedroom wall, which was entirely made of cork and tucked away in the basement.


And when I started my undergraduate career here at the U of MN, Frieda Hughes came to what was then called The Hungry Mind bookstore (later Ruminator, and after expanding to a second store in the Open Book, it folded), located on Grand just next to Macalaster. I made my friend Jesse come with me; this was my first "author event." (I was nineteen.) Hughes was touring to promote her own book of poetry, Wooroloo, and I sat, rapt, and guiltily kept thinking: This is the daughter of Sylvia Plath, this is the daughter of Sylvia Plath.



And, as you may have already heard, the son of Sylvia Plath committed suicide last week.

These kinds of things always rock me a bit, the early losses of people whose lives have always been in my periphery. (A side note: I'd been going through a Natasha Richardson marathon last week--Gothic and Evening and The Handmaid's Tale--and then.)

So my question to all of you, I suppose, is this: who is it for you? Maybe it was in high school, maybe some other time, but who moved you in such ways, in the days before poetry became a daily part of your life? Who began to open up those doors for you? Plath started it for me, and Sharon Olds really cemented it, among others, but I'm curious as to your beginnings.

Grading Poetry Portfolios

Are pedagogy posts allowed? I wish I wasn't thinking about teaching over break, but I just handed back a stack of poetry portfolios on Friday and it's taken this long to catch up on lost sleep. So my mind hasn't had much of a chance yet to turn to other things, but now I'll get the grading out of my system and move on!

This was my first experience using a rubric to grade creative work, and I have to admit I was surprised about how well it turned out. There were a couple portfolios that didn't seem as well served by the categories, but for the vast majority of them I felt like I was giving more detailed feedback than I would have been with solely a paragraph of comments. I had room to type a little over 100 words to each student, and the grid freed me to discuss specifics in that space.

There is a companion sheet to this rubric that specifies what each category means (ex: within rhythm they're asked to think about their line breaks, stanzas, and punctuation) that I handed out on the first day. Then of the 3-4 poems that were required I asked that at least one be dramatically rethought and approached an entirely different way through revision, while all must employ basic nuance-based editing.

I have overcome my resistance to rubrics and will definitely be using them in the future! Where do you all weigh in?

april events / deadlines

Events:
- 4/2: John Graber will read from his collection of poems Thanksgiving Dawn at Best of Times Bookstore in Red Wing at 7 pm.
- 4/14: Bill Holm (with Robert Bly, hosted by Fred Child) tribute produced by MPR at Fitzgerald Theatre at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25, with proceeds going to a Bill Holm fund for authors, artists, and community programs. Tickets available on 3/18 by calling 651-290-1221
- 4/16: Free Verse at the Walker. Discussion of collaborative artists' books. 7 pm.
- 4/17: Tina Chang and Ravi Shankar, editors of Language for a New Century. Reading and discussion. 7 pm at The Loft.
- 4/21: Sandra Cisneros at Talking Volumes.
- 4/28: St Paul Poets. With readings by Naomi Cohn, Jim Heynen, Leslie Adrienne Miller, John Minczeski, and Mary Jo Thomps

Deadlines:
- 4/6: Gesell Summer Residency at the Anderson Center for two week residency in July 2009. Cover letter stating intended creativing work project. Selected by CW faculty. Due 222 Lind by 4 pm.

Also: Graywolf is celebrating spring cleaning with a free book giveaway until the end of March on their website. More information here.

Also always, please leave comments on this post so I can add more deadlines and events!

Dislocate Reading

The reading was lovely and full; I really admire Morgan and Amy Mae and Shantha's work a great deal, and it was nice to hear it. I'd also read Laura Flynn's Swallow the Ocean in the autumn; it's always good to hear work out loud.

The next reading is in April with Wang Ping. I'll have to do an April events / deadlines post fairly soon, as that month is sure to be busy!

See the rest of the photos here.

PS: Also, apologies if I am absent from Maria's class tomorrow. I am now officially a juror, and this case could go into next week. I can't believe the amount of nuttiness this semester: snowstorms and poetry festivals, sick professors and AWP.