Received these way cool postcards the other day from UVA Press. It's a great way to let folks know about the release of Best New Poets--in theory, but here's my question: to whom do I send them (question sponsored by Lisa Fay Coutley)? I mean, apart from my Dad I'm sort of at a loss. I don't send many postcards. As a matter of fact, I've only ever sent one--a father's day card to my Dad while I was on a 3-week camping trip in Alaska. Well, I wrote it then, but I sent it nearly a year later when I found it bookmarking the back pages of TC Boyle's "Drop City."
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I need to listen to more Traveling Wilburys. I need to eat less macaroni and cheese that comes in a box.
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Have posted some new readings to the sidebar.
They've given us the specific date of the Hollins 50th Anniversary Reading I'll be participating in at AWP (with fellow alums Madison Smartt Bell, Jill McCorkle, David Huddle, Jeanne Larsen, and Jenny Boully; holy F that's one hell of a parenthetical): Friday afternoon in the Maryland Room of the Marriott. Is that good? Have I told you how excited I am about this? (very) Who's your favorite Hollins writer? For real, tell me. (Annie Dillard? Kiran Desai? Erin McKee?)
I've also posted two other East Coast readings in March, both of which are surreal seeming. The first will be at my alma mater, Elon University, on March 10. This is surreal for all the obvious readings: someone is offering to fly me across the country to read my poems. This someone is the person who first taught me poetry, someone other folks might call a mentor. My Dad lives in town and will get to hear me read from the book. Lots of old/new friends in the area. Can't wait.
The other is at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I'll be reading at the University of Virginia Bookstore with Jeff Baker and Eleanor Tipton to celebrate Best New Poets 2010. And here's the kicker: Claudia Emerson is going to introduce us. How's that for ridiculous? She's in my starting five if I'm making an all-star team of American folks writing poetry today (along with Alan Shapiro, d.a. powell, Louise Gluck, and James Galvin--is that a boring list? who's your top-five?)
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Killer first line of the moment:
Listen. Do you hear ghosts? Connect them to the sound of a canoe
from Mukoma Wa Ngugi's "Recipe: How to Become An Immigrant and an Exile"
(Satellite Convulsions: Poems from Tin House, Tin House Books, 2008)
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2 comments:
Wow, Luke, such great goings-on. So many congrats to send to you for all these milestones.
When my first book came out, I also got to return to my alma mater and was hosted by the first person who made me believe I could BE a poet. Surreal and so real at the same time. I hope you have as wonderful a time as I had.
Luke, you champion, you! I am going to try my damnedest to get to AWP, even if it's just for the Hollins reading. (Do you happen to know the date of that event? I couldn't find specifics online. For that matter, is there some sort of Hollins e-mail going out that I am not getting? Forever arriving late to the news...)
Thanks for including me in that impossibly unrealistic parenthetical. For what it's worth, I don't think you're out of place one bit. EEM
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