The wrap-up.

Today is my last day of teaching for the 2009-2010 academic year. It's foolish of me to be posting a wrap-up when I have an office teeming and seething with student chapbooks, but I was struck by the emptiness of my emergency to-annotate pile this morning.

Typically I give myself a lengthy, prolonged timeline for finishing up my grading, but not this year. I'm doing it all early next week. Thus, I may be able to get a little bit of vacation in before my summer workshop starts.

Oh yes, and then there's this:

I won't be needing this box any more.

Slow ride.

Here comes the end of the semester. My office has reached critical mess stage, and all I can think about is the recycling-fest that will take place once everything's graded and handed back and/or filed. I'm teaching an undergrad poetry workshop in Summer I, so after the recycling-fest I will start generating more piles of paper in my Olin Hall office. I will simultaneously be cultivating an ever-growing stack of poetry manuscripts in my UA Press office. Did you know that the Akron Poetry Prize reading period begins this Saturday, May first? Guidelines are here. I'm super excited that GC Waldrep is judging this time around.

I just finished commenting on my last "regular" batch of student poems for the semester. Now it's all chapbooks, and a few papers here and there.

This is always such a strange time of year.

For the next three semesters (summer, fall, spring) I am teaching nothing but creative writing workshops. I think I may need to mix it up a bit and try some new tricks.

The party's over.

Dear National No Poetry Writing Month, I have failed you. I really thought I could make it. I mean, May is just a week away, and my office is full of things to do. I could have recycled some paper in honor of Earth Day. I could have gone for a jog across campus, or spent more time on facebook, or eaten two granola bars instead of one, and organized my paper clips. This morning on my way to work, I should not have noted something funny that I misread. I should have left my office door open all the way, instead of just ajar. I should have taken a picture of that little ripped-up piece of sod on the sidewalk, anything but this. But now it's too late, and I have failed to comply. I have disrespected my own holiday. I have spit upon my own history month. Just days after its declaration! I have let teaching this book get to me, and now there's no turning back. This chicken's had its head cut off, and now there's no stitching it. The body is still running around the barnyard. Perhaps I should stop declaring holidays. The chicken's head is laughing at me, and I am laughing back.

Minczeski in Akron

Northeast Ohio folks will have two chances to hear poet John Minczeski, author of A Letter to Serafin, read from his work this weekend. As I'm sure you can imagine, I am a person who attends a lot of readings, and I can say with much certainty that Minczeski is among the best readers I've ever heard. I hope you'll be able to attend one (or both!) of these events.

John Minczeski at the Akron Art Museum
New Words Poetry Reading
Sunday, 25 April
2:00-4:00 pm
Akron Art Museum
1 South High Street
Akron, OH

Minczeski also has a lovely poem in Barn Owl Review #3. We can't wait to welcome him to Akron.

Schomburg + Dumanis + Morris

Mark your calendars for this not-to-miss event.

National No Poetry Writing Month

Like most good things, it happened by accident. All of a sudden it was April. I had a conference to prepare for. I had to put my ancient, beloved cat Schubert to sleep. I had to upbraid myself for thinking that it was a good idea to deal with all of this at the same time. There were student poems that needed comments, and they weren't going anywhere. A colossal project that my daughter had to do for 2nd grade. And so National No Poetry Writing Month began, with frantic cute-dress shopping, frequent hysterics over the loss of Schubert, a million messages in the inbox, a million.5 student poems, and a calendar that just kept rolling.

Now we're over halfway done with April, and the conference is history, and I still haven't written a poem. I am totally fine with it. This weekend I cleaned my entire house instead of writing poems. I commented on other people's poems. I read Barbara Guest's poems for my class. I missed Schubert. I tried to like my other cats a little more (I only have three now! That's, like, almost normal people numbers).

Anyway, once May is here I'll be a loaded gun. I've taken time off before. But as of right now, I declare April 2010 to be my National No Poetry Writing Month. As I think of new ways to observe it, I will share them. So far I have tried: telling people how I feel, rather than cloaking the same ideas in poems. The results: to be determined, but so far not terribly impressive.

To be continued. Rest in peace, Schubert.

Seen and unseen.

The post-AWP lag finally hit me yesterday. Before then I was just fine, cruising along, riding on the fumes of all the annotating I did on the plane (even when we landed--hardcore). Now I'm pretty damn tired. So I present to you the above photo. Yes, that's a park bench wrapped in plastic back there. That's about how I feel right now.

So far my National Poetry Month has been a National Absence of Poetry Month. At least in the writing department. This late AWP has me all discombobulated.

Hyacinths are out, though, so that's a good thing.

My Bloody AWP (which wasn't bloody after all)

I don't know what the deal was with this year's AWP, but the manic, hectic, grotesque vibe that usually pervades the conference was somehow gone. Maybe we're all feeling luckier, and nicer. Perhaps bad AWP mojo can't survive mile high. At any rate, I'm back in my office after a vile 17-hour trip back (by plane, not stagecoach), and feeling as if I've just had a vacation, not endured a major conference. Here are some highlights. Everything went great. I'm ready to be home, but strangely energized. Perhaps it was all of the parlor games.

I took this picture on a bridge, at night.


This AWP, by far, had the finest Parlor Games of any AWP.


There is some very good food in Denver. I even ate the head off the cherub behind me.


In a taxi with Oliver (aren't you jealous, Gallaher?) on the way to the UA Press + CSU Poetry Center offsite, which many people told me was the best reading ever.


You wouldn't know it from this picture of me with Michael, but everything at the offiste reading went according to plan. All of the poets were on time! Everyone read for six minutes! It was amazing. Thanks to all who read, and attended.


No highlights would be complete without pictures of the tables.

NEOMFA TABLE

UA PRESS TABLE

BARN OWL REVIEW TABLE, HOME OF THE OWL EX MACHINA

We did a really cool panel with the amazing Erika Meitner, featured below dazzling the crowd (we actually had one!) with her power point.


As mentioned above, our return travels were dreadful, with a 6+ hour unexpected layover in Hotlanta, but we survived. The good vibe has even made that fiasco seem like a fond memory (almost).

I will hopefully write more soon about all of the awesome people I got to meet, and tell you the story of how I mustered up the courage to ask Rachel Dacus to blurb Saint Monica (she said yes! so excited!). Right now I need to get ready to teach my night class. I annotated all of my poems on the plane, including one during a rather bumpy landing. Dedication: I has it. AWP 10, you were pretty damn cool.

Did I mention that there was going to be a reading?

We're having a party. You should come.

AWP Denver
Friday, April 9th
6:30PM-8:30PM
Mary Biddinger & Michael Dumanis host a Cleveland State University Poetry Center & University of Akron Press Poetry Reading

Location: Paris on the Platte Cafe & Bar
Cost: Free admission, Cash Bar, Appetizers gratis

Please join us for readings by Allison Benis White, John Bradley, Ashley Capps, Oliver de la Paz, Heather Derr-Smith, David Dodd Lee, Elyse Fenton, John Gallaher, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Helena Mesa, Mathias Svalina, & Allison Titus. Come by table A22 to pick up your invitation and map.