Saint Monica on the loose.

Yeah, so nothing's new here in Akron, OH. Nothing at all. Nope. I'm just busy reading manuscripts and getting ready for the Barn Owl Review reading period to open on 6/1, now using Submishmash. Doing a little yard work, having a few cookouts. Yep, that's it.

Oh, ha ha. I am very funny. The news is that Saint Monica is finally here. Hot off the press, and should be shipping very soon. And it looks great! I have such a hard time meeting and interacting with my own books because much of my business is spent proofing books, and so the prospect of my own work in print is a little terrifying.

Imagine my relief when the book arrived and looked spectacular. Technically Saint Monica is a chapbook, but it weighs in at 42 pages, so it's a bit more on the bookish side. Of course I am biased, but I think it would be nice for a creative writing or lit class, especially one interested in both lineated poems and prose poems.

If you'd like to get a copy, here's some info:

Directly from Black Lawrence Press, ships by June 1st.

From Amazon (to be "released" officially very soon, as it is now in print).

At Powells (on backorder, but that should be remedied soon).

If you're a journal interested in a review copy, you can contact Black Lawrence Press directly.

Okay, now back to the reading and paperwork and other miscellany. Thank you for considering Saint Monica as an addition to your summer reading list! I am so glad she is here.

_______ in the time of _______ .

So there's pretty much nobody on campus, except for the summer school students, and there aren't many of them. This afternoon I did some mild jaywalking, mild being the type where you stand at the crosswalk like an idiot because you aren't paying attention, and then you're like, oh, there aren't any cars, and then start walking.

Only today some strange man decided to yell at me when I jaywalked. His was the only vehicle on the road, stopped at the intersection. He yelled, "Nobody's going to ticket you for jaywalking" and drove past me. But then he slowed down again and leaned out of his window and yelled "...because you're a goddess."

Usually when strangers speak to me I pretend I don't hear them or can't speak English, and that's what I did here, but I keep wondering what am I the goddess of. Please let it be bees, or cake. We had ice cream cake for my birthday and it was awfully good.

Now I am reading a lot of poetry manuscripts for the Akron prize, and getting ready to read lots of poems for Barn Owl Review (submissions open June 1st, via Submishmash). I am pretty damn busy for someone without summer classes and with only a few weeks left of work before the kids are home on break and it's all swimming pool and public library.

My new hobby is purging the house of items such as empty cardboard boxes and baby toys. I need to find a good place to recycle cardboard in Akron. Yes, this is the most fascinating thing I have ever said on this blog. Perhaps of greater interest is the fact that my first box of Saint Monica is said to be shipping out today. That means another box to recycle.

Yesterday, in a flurry of procrastination, I revised a bunch of poems and sent them to journals. I haven't written a poem yet in May, after writing one a day for all of April. I think it's about time. Only not just now. Etc.

That's a wrap.

So long, academic year 2010-2011. I'm not teaching again until the Fall. It's like an enchanted forest on campus right now. It's super quiet, and I believe I may be the only one still here. Perhaps I will scream and see if anyone notices.

I am doing administrative work and reading manuscripts for the Akron Poetry Prize until the end of June, and then I'm pretty much home full time with the kids until school starts in August. I'm pretty much home full time with the kids in June, too. I am going to have to "get creative."

I have an interview here at the Best American Poetry blog with Nin Andrews, who is one of my favorite people on earth. Thank you for taking a peek.

There are about 200+ books in my office that need to be shelved, and many stacks of paper to recycle. Somebody should invent a sort of office thresher that can do both of these tasks at once.

We've had some nice weather lately (yesterday, today). I hope it stays this way for a while.

___ is for ________.

Raymond is unusually excited about Mother's Day this year, and I have no idea why. Maybe because I've been so busy with grading and administrative meetings and visiting writers, or maybe they're making crafts for moms at preschool, but whatever the reason, he's talking about it constantly. Tonight he asked, Mama, can we pray that Mother's Day gets here quickly?

I hope he's not incredibly disappointed. Somehow I think he isn't going to be, though.

May is here, and classes are over (I don't want them to be over!), and (figurative) little birds are leaving the nest, but new birds are arriving. Being a professor is really weird because you are always there, in pretty much the same office, but the students change and then change even more. And then you write a blog post about it. And another. And another.

So it looks like I won't be teaching a summer class after all, as enrollment is back down. I am thinking about making a separate blog about having a lean summer and putting the creativity to alternate use.

In the meantime, I'm making slow progress on the to-do list, and watching Ray count down to Mother's Day. Today he made me two versions of the same picture: one on a standard piece of paper he took from my printer, and one on a smaller piece of paper. To be PORTABLE. Wow...