Links and Anecdotes

Returned last night from four big-time days in Denver. There's too much to mention, both from there and links from elsewhere. So, laziness prevails. But check out all this sweet stuff.


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Short list of cool things that happened in Denver: went to a Colorado Rockies game that lasted 14 innings (though, I left after 9), was standing in a circle at the hotel bar that included 3 Pulitzer Prize winning poets (2 of them were folks I'd been lucky to encounter in other places, the other took a picture on their camera in which I appear--both of these things are surreal to me), met someone who actually reads (and, miraculously, enjoys!) this blog and shared drinks and good conversation with her in Michael Chabon's hotel room (he had left, but the place was massive and included a baby grand piano, it was a party--I did not break in...mostly), rode bikes through downtown Denver at 2 in the morning and ended up at Confluence Park to watch and listen to the Platte River; all this along with too many book-fair encounters/smalltalks to mention, a score of shared drinks with friends from Sewanee, from Hollins, from Elon, from the interwebs. If only this kind of community were not so rare (though, maybe, for my liver's sake, it's a good thing it isn't).

But still: after all this activity, all these great people and artists, I didn't see half of the folks I wanted to see. I need to make a list next time. Apologies to everyone I missed. Let's all go to DC next year and do it again. Same good vibe, lower altitude. And this time, let's ignore the police when they come to close down the hotel bar...


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In a move that qualifies as a shocker, Conan O’Brien has made a deal to return to television in a new late-night show on cable — not network — television.

-from NYT. Conan on TBS!


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2010 Pulitzers announced!


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Favorite AWP Reading: Beloit Poetry Journal 60th Anniversary featuring Albert Goldbarth, Carl Elder, Susan Tichey, Janet Holmes, and Sherman Alexie. All read beautiful poems, but Goldbarth and Alexie stole the show. First off, Goldbarth just had a perfect poem for the the setting, a long dramatic monologue in which a director is speaking to his cast ("The Clothes" which shows up in the forthcoming issue of BPJ). Then, Alexie read "Defending Walt Whitman," which is just a kick ass poem for any occassion. Man alive, what good writers, what a good journal (that now takes online submissions!).


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No verdict yet on new HBO show (from The Wire folks) Treme as I got in too late last night to watch it. But, it was DVR-ed, hope to watch it tonight. If it's half as good as The Wire, I'll be satisfied...


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Received contributor copies of Georgetown Review and Birmingham Poetry Review. Both stellar so far, both unique experiences that I'm super stoked about. Georgetown Review published my poem "Crossing," and it's actually the first piece in the journal, which is a first for me. Birmingham Poetry Review published four of my poems (a new record!) alongside an all-star cast, with some very cool fiction writers crossing genres. Dig this list of contributors: Richard Bausch, Claudia Emerson, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Leslie Harrison, William Logan, Jill McCorkle, and Caki Wilkinson, among others. Both journals are clearly worth full-on front-porch experiences.


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Running out of steam. There's more, but it will have to wait. There's a Redbone Coonhound sleeping on my couch and he's in dire need of company. Hope everyone made it home safe, hope everyone is getting this long-awaited taste of spring.