Detritus or not.

DETRITUS:

The bag above. The germs that keep getting everybody sick (o universe, thank you and knock very softly and kindly on wood, for keeping my family relatively healthy). The economy. Grumblings. Trees that somehow make more dead leaves even though they're completely bare. Fights over nothing, conducted by children who don't really care who gets to sit on the right side of the couch anyway. Being cold all of the time, even when it's not cold out and students are running around in flipflops and no coats. Grading, and its avoidance. Whiners. Unloading the dishwasher, then realizing that it's stupid to gripe over unloading a dishwasher, since having a dishwasher is a true luxury. Emails without answers. Administrative inheritances of in-kind non-blessings. Updating the calendar, printing it, then having to update it again. Soggy back yard lawns. Ultra-loud music when put on hold, followed by ultra-quiet customer service representative. Knowing it's going to snow some time in the future. Waning supplies of Halloween candy. The lingering reek left when a car in a parking lot turns into a great conflagration.

NOT DETRITUS:

This week we're welcoming visiting writer Matthew Guenette to Akron. He's going to visit several classes, conference with UA NEOMFA students, and read on Thursday night. Photos will be forthcoming. Here are the details:

The University of Akron English Department’s Literary Arts Series presents a poetry reading with Matthew Guenette and Michael Dumanis on November 12, 2009 at 6 pm in The Martin Center Library Room 105 Fir Hill Street Akron, OH 44325

Matthew Guenette's first book, Sudden Anthem, won the 2007 American Poetry Journal Book Prize from Dream Horse Press. He is also the author of a chapbook, Hush of Something Endless, from Ropewalk Press. Sudden Anthem was named a 2008 Outstanding Achievement in Poetry by the Wisconsin Library Association. In 2009, Matthew was named the Writer-in-Residence of the Hessen-Wisconsin Literary Exchange, where he spent three months in Wiesbaden, Germany, giving workshops, readings, and working with prisoners. He lives and works in Madison, WI.

Michael Dumanis is the author of the poetry collection My Soviet Union (University of Massachusetts Press, 2007) and the coeditor of the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (Sarabande, 2006). He is currently an assistant professor at Cleveland State University, where he also directs the CSU Poetry Center.

There will be a complimentary buffet following the reading.