New Year's News

Happy 2012!

You guys...2011 was an exceptional year. I saw a lot of my dreams come true: I graduated from my MFA, got a visiting professor position teaching poetry, completed and submitted my full-length manuscript. I'm excited to see what 2012 has in store!

First up--I had the honor of interviewing Saeed Jones about his chapbook, When the Only Light is Fire, over at Eclectica Magazine.

Also, I realize I'm really, really hard on myself. I don't think I'm productive enough, don't think I read or write enough so I was just doing a mental inventory and I realize I'm no less productive than I was in previous years. I may even be more productive! I'm involved in a monthly poetry book club/workshop online. Another friend of mine asked me to be a part of a bi-weekly poetry workshop. And I've written about 12 poems in the last 4 months while teaching 3 college courses. I'm not saying any of this to brag. I'm saying it to say to my Self...shut up!

Right now I'm pulling individual poems from my manuscript that I feel uneasy about and revising them. I need to spend more time on this manuscript before I send it out again in mid-January, so that's my new year's project for now. I think I may be feeling uneasy about the new stuff I'm trying to write because I'm not actually ready to move on from this manuscript yet. So I'm going to focus less on trying to generate new work for awhile.

My resolution: be more self-aware.

More submissions to come!

@UnderPoList

I'm tweeting opportunities for undergraduate poets at https://twitter.com/#!/UnderPoList

Follow @UnderPoList on Twitter for updates.

Non-traditional undergrads included! I got my first publication as a non-traditional undergrad in a nationwide undergrad publication--North Central Review!

See you on Twitter!

More Manuscript Rejections

Got a letter from U. of Wisconsin Press for their 2 prizes. The editor wrote "Sorry" on the note. That makes it feel like they understand how rejection feels. Nice touch, U of Wisconsin!

Also, finally realized the Robert Dana Prize for Anhinga Press was decided. They didn't post it in an obvious part of their website.

So I'm still out there at 17 places!

NEA Goal

Ummmm...they updated the guidelines to apply for the NEA Lit fellowship (see my sidebar) and it looks like I may have already reached my goal!

http://www.nea.gov/grants/apply/Lit/eligibility.html

I'd like to highlight this portion of the eligibility criteria: Twenty or more different poems or pages of poetry in five or more literary journals, anthologies, or publications which regularly include poetry as a portion of their format.

Ummmm...if it's 20 pages of poetry, I've had that! And it doesn't look like half of the poems need to be in print pubs anymore either. The app is due by March 2012. Fingers crossed for a few more pubs by then. I sent 3 poems in to Callaloo. They rejected one and the other two are sitting tight, so hopefully that's a good sign!

Did you know that I've sent my full-length manuscript out to 23 different places so far? I've been rejected by 3, for sure, so far.

That's all for now.

November Updates

Had a poem accepted by Cell Poems today! I like that a short poem found a great home. And I'm two poems away from my NEA goal! Gonna make it. Gonna do the extensive application lol.

Okay, Expecting Magic is also out to a few more places:

Elixer Press, Omnidawn (which I got a book from their catalog for entering. nice!), Perugia Press, University of North Texas Press, Yale Younger Poets, Crab Orchard Review, BOA Editions, and the Academy of American Poets/Walt Whitman award.

All I can do is my part, which is to put it out there. The rest is up to the screeners and judges.

Glad I could stop stalking submission managers long enough to finally update my blog.

Peace to your poems in the piles, poets!

More October Submissions

A leaner version of Expecting Magic is sitting in some new slush piles:

Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Book Prize

Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize

I'll probably do my last October submits by Friday.

I've also been submitting for academic jobs/fellowships. It's hard out here for a poet without a book. I'm hoping to snag a visiting position/fellowship that lasts longer than a year next time. It's actually not been decided if I can stay at my current position for one more year, but since they won't be able to tell me that until January, I've gotta keep putting myself out there. I'm through with the anxiety about it and I've settled comfortably into just doing what I have to do mode. It's nice.

Eh, that's all I have.

Kiss, kiss, poets!

Lit Mag Love: Prime Mincer

So I was one of the winners in the Writer's Relief Lit Mag Love Contest! So now I get a free subscription to Prime Mincer in addition to the subscriptions to Tin House and Poetry that I purchased in order to enter the contest.

Yay for literary citizenship!

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I got my manuscript sent out for two more contests:

Silverfish Review's Gerald Cable Book Award

Fordham University

Both of these were online/email submits which excites me more than it probably should.

I also got a postcard from Sarabande Books saying they received my sample poems. It was handwritten, which also excites me more than it should.

Oh! And I submitted a few poems to Callaloo. They don't do simultaneous submits, so we'll wait and see if I can finally get something in there. We shall see!

Peace to your poems in the piles, poets!