9 to 5 Poet

The lovely chapbook Savage Machinery by Karen Rigby is about to be released by Finishing Line Press. I reviewed this book a while ago for Read Write Poem, and I cannot say enough good things about this amazing book.  I would strongly urge you to pick up a copy here.  (Scroll to the bottom to find her title — the list is alphabetical by author last name.)  Support this poet — buy her book!

SARK, one of my favorite writers in the universe, has a new book coming out this August. I was disappointed with her last book, Fabulous Friendship Festival, mainly because it wasn’t an engaging topic for me.  But her new one is entitled Juicy Pens, Thirsty Paper: Gifting the World with Your Words and Stories, and Creating the Time and Energy to Actually Do It. Now that sounds like a book for me! 

August 5 can’t come fast enough!

As I was writing my review of this month’s PBC selection (discussion on Deborah Keenan’s Willow Room, Green Door will be next Monday), I realized I never put up a poll for the May book.  It was probably due to that whole domain switching business. 

 At any rate, I am going to make the executive decision to select Rae Armantrout’s Next Life as our May Poetry Book Club selection.  During the last poll, Armantrout was the close second, so I feel it would be a good choice.  We’ll have the discussion post on Monday, May 12.  Enjoy!

The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

– “To Be of Use” by Marge Piercy

Today, a professor at work sent me this Marge Piercy poem in the campus mail, because we had discussed it in passing two weeks ago.  He couldn’t recall the name or the author, just the ending image of the vases and bodies being of use.   It helped to inform my work all day today, since I hung it above my computer monitor.  I love working at a college.

I am very pleased to announce that Deborah Keenan’s Willow Room, Green Door has been selected for our April Poetry Book Club book.

Deborah has been a fixture in the Twin Cities literary scene for many years, and she fosters younger poets’ talents through her work at Hamline University’s Master of Fine Arts program and the Loft Literary Center. She’s also a founding member of the Laurel Poetry Collective. Obviously, I’m biased, because I am a former student of Deborah’s and I have a lot of admiration for her talent and generosity.

I’ll post the conversation post on Monday, April 7. Until then, happy reading!

Over at Poetry Foundation, Jeannine Hall Gailey just posted a fantastic interview with Matthea Harvey. If you want to know about some of Harvey’s artistic influences, check it out!

According to this article in the LA Times, Minnesotans are just like Europeans. Well, sort of. We both cleaned up at the Oscars! It wasn’t particularly surprising, given the quality of their respective movies, but Minnesota natives Diablo Cody won Best Original Screenplay for cutest-movie-ever Juno, and Joel and Ethan Cohen won Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture for scary-and-brilliant No Country for Old Men.

I wonder if they had hotdish at their respective victory parties….

David Orr has written a truly lovely review of Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life, last month’s PBC selection. I think he captures the strengths, flaws, and spirit of Harvey’s book perfectly. This is truly the kind of review a writer would murder another writer for, or some other dastardly deed.

My mentor from graduate school, Deborah Keenan, was nominated for Minnesota Book Award this year for her book Willow Room, Green Door. Keenan is an accomplished poet and teacher, with eight books to her name. (My favorite is Happiness.) It is long overdue that Deborah is recognized for her amazing poetry!

Buy her book today!

I’ve been busy, as you probably know. But that’s no excuse for the backlog of posts that I planned on posting these past weeks. So, here is a lame attempt to catch up.

I have several articles I’ve published recently that I haven’t shared with you, including an interview with Kirsten Dierking, author of Northern Oracle (pg of the PDF); a review of Kevin Kling’s The Dog Says How (also pg 4); and a review of Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life.

Whew! I feel better, now that I’ve caught up.

I will write an actual post sometime this weekend. It may contain something about poetry.