Remembering Carrie Allen McCray Nickens -- posted in the SC Writers' Workshop blog

Thank you to the South Carolina Writers' Workshop for asking me to be a judge for their Carrie McCray Poetry Award this year and for posting a piece I wrote about Carrie, remembering a special visit with her. Carrie Allen McCray Nickens, we still miss you!

Remembering Carrie McCray

Carrie

Poem "Dear Yellow Speed Bump" featured in Poetry Newsletter

I've had yet again the good fortune of beng featured by poet Diane Lockward, this time in her monthly Poetry Newsletter. In the December issue my poem "Dear Yellow Speed Bump" is featured. Immediately following the poem Diane discusses its craft and uses the poem as the basis for a prompt. What a delight for me!

If you're a poet, I hope you'll try the prompt. Writing epistolary, or letter, poems is fun. It offers a good opportunity for talking about surface things while delving deeper at the same time. Be sure to sign up for Diane's Poetry Newsletter, so you'll receive monthly prompts, craft tips, book recommendations, links, and videos--all about poetry. And the newsletter is free! You can go to Diane's website to sign up.

I feel lucky to have my work in such a terrific resource, among the works of so many talented poets!

Here are Diane's two latest books, both available at Amazon.com or Wind Publications.

Diane's book on craft

Diane's latest poems  

Poem "Coastland" featured on Diane Lockward's Blogalicious

Poet Diane Lockward has a blog that is a rich resource for poets: Blogalicious: Notes on Poetry, Poets, and Books, and she periodically features poems on the blog, with an interview and a recording of the poet reading the featured poem. I am honored that a few days ago she posted my poem "Coastland" as a feature. Please visit her blog and see what questions she has about my process of writing this poem, one from my new book My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass. The interview was a meaningful experience for me, giving me a chance to think about how this poem came about and how I arrived at decisions along the way in writing it. I am positive that I know the poem better now than I ever would have without the interview.

Recording a reading of the poem was a challenge, mostly because I don't record often enough to remember how to use the recording software from one time to the next. So I was at it for a number of takes. But I'm grateful for what I learned, and I hope the step-by-step process will stick with me for next time. I can tell that when you know what you're doing, recording is great fun; and I hope--ha!--to one day know what I'm doing. I welcome every chance to get better at it.

Thank you, Diane Lockward!

Poetry of Recovery blog feature



Check out the Poetry of Recovery blog, which is currently featuring my poem "That Year" from the anthology After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events. The feature also includes two poems from My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass, as well as an interview that editor Tom Lombardo did with me.

In the anthology poet and editor Tom Lombardo brings together 115 poets from 15 nations. This brilliant collection bears messages of recovery to its readers from the raw beginnings to long-term acceptance, delivered through the language of poetry: Grief, War, Exile, Abuse, Divorce, Addiction, Injury, Illness, Bigotry, Loss of Innocence. So pleased to be featured there. Thank you Tom!

The Next Big Thing -- a self-interview

The talented poet Melanie McCabe, author of the newly released History of the Body, tagged me for The Next Big Thing, a series of self-interviews making its way around the blogosphere among poets and writers, one by one. Thank you, Melanie. You can read her self-interview at her blog.
 

Below is my own self-interview answering the set of questions that is traveling from blog to blog as a part of The Next Big Thing project. My answers all pertain to my second full-length volume of poems, forthcoming this fall.

________________________________

THE NEXT BIG THING

 

What is the working title of the book?

My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass

Where did the idea come from for the book?

In 2007 I began collecting and writing epistolary poems in preparation for a poetry workshop I was to teach on the subject, and immediately I was hooked. Besides that, I always loved writing and reading letters.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass doesn’t really want to be a movie. It would much prefer to be a musical composition by, say, Philip Glass. Wouldn't that be a dream!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

What does it mean, this journey of beauty and grief—of the dangerous and the ordinary—when language and love are almost enough to make a connection?

 

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I’d have to guess—probably about a year. Or maybe ten. My whole life.

What books within the same genre would you compare yours to?

Instead of making comparisons I’ll just name some contemporary books I much admire for all sorts of reasons: Rose, by Li-Young Lee; Carolina Ghost Woods, by Judy Jordan; Romey’s Order, by Atsuro Riley; A Metaphorical God, Kimbery Johnson; Kingdom Animalia, Aracelis Girmay; Trapeze, Deborah Digges; Columbarium, Susan Stewart; Ornithologies, Joshua Poteat; We Don’t Know We Don’t Know, Nick Lantz; Compulsions of Silkworms & Bees, Julianna Baggott; Bad Boats, Laura Jensen

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Emily Dickinson. A. R. Ammons. Every poet I ever read. The moon. A lack of bees. The South Carolina Lowcountry. Redbelly water snakes. The weather. Back roads. My husband, always.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

How about a few poem titles: “Why I Am Not a Tightrope Walker,” “Dear Yellow Speed Bump,” “Dear Melancholy,” “Why Does Rain Cast This Longsome Spell?” “Dear Morning after the Hailstorm”

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Cider Press Review will release it this fall (Septemberish). I’m delighted that they selected it for their inaugural Editor’s Prize.

 

_________________________________

Thanks for reading this little sneak preview of My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass. In turn, I've tagged several poets so you can read about their new works.  Here are three poets with their own self-interviews for The Next Big Thing:

Mary Hutchins Harris, Do Not Fault the Mockingbird (ms. in progress)

Al Maginnes:  read Al's self-interview about his book Inventing Constellations on Facebook

Cassie Premo Steele,  Wednesday: poems

 

 

May 2011: "Living above the Frost Line" blog features more of my poems

Once again, thanks to Nancy Simpson for featuring my poems this month. "Guitar" and "That Year" have been added to her blog "Living above the Frost Line." Each poem is accompanied by colorful photos or artwork.

May 2011: Featured poet on "Living above the Frost Line" blog

This month I am the featured poet on "Living above the Frost Line," a blog by Nancy Simpson. Many thanks to Nancy for this honor! She has posted my poem "Hat of Many Goldfinches" and will be posting other poems of mine several times throughout the month.

Nancy is a poet living in the mountains of North Carolina, my native state; and although we haven't met, I have long known of her poetry and all the work she does there for the poetry community.

Please visit Nancy's blog: Living Above the Frost Line

Featured at r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary journal

r.kv.r.y. quarterly literary journal is a favorite of mine, and I'm happy to have been featured recently on their blog:

Feature