News

As we progress rather quickly toward WAR with Iran, remember to write to whomever will listen (or not) and try to stop it! Meanwhile, if you are not convinced that Iran is NOT THE DEVIL STATE rent 'The Apple.'

I'm reading tomorrow at Pete's Candy Store with the fabulous Betsy Andrews and the wonderful Jim Stewart.
7PM
709 Lormier
Drinks, Sandwiches, and Poetry
What more could you ask for!

Also, there is a benefit for Will Alexander:

BENEFIT READING FOR WILL ALEXANDER
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1ST, 6-8PM
BOWERY POETRY CLUB
308 Bowery / F to 2nd Ave, or 6 to Bleecker
$10 suggested donation, more if you can

Poet and artist Will Alexander has become seriously ill and has no health insurance. In order to help him defray the cost of treatment his friends will gather and read Will’s work as well as poems for Will.

JEROME ROTHENBERG
TONYA FOSTER
JOEL KUSZAI
BILL MARSH
MARCELLA DURAND
TOD THILLEMAN
JOHN HIGH
RODRIGO TOSCANO
ELIOT WEINBERGER

(and more tba)

Funds raised will be sent to POETS IN NEED, a nonprofit organization set up to help poets in crises. If you can’t make it please send a tax-deductible donation with a note that it is for Will Alexander to:
POETS IN NEED
PO BOX 5411
BERKELEY, CA 94705

The Brookyln Rail

If you are out & about in New York, I have a poem on the last page of the Brooklyn Rail. Yeah!

Awww, yes. Snuggling up with a good book!

I am really surprised at the way I feel now that I am able to hold my book. All the rampant critisms I have of myself have faded, and I feel utterly at peace. I was telling a friend today that this has been such a journey for me. Tarn called it an "epic." I have waited so long, and held on for much longer than almost anyone I know has had to. Most of my contemporaries are on their second or third book by my old age -- nearly forty! Some of the delay is my own fault. I think that I am kind of a famously underachiever. Someone who was always too shy and insecure to really accomplish much. There were a series of events that really pulled me into poetry and made me more self assured.

The first of these was my move to New York, and my access to poets. Then can my marriage to Jim who was on the same frustrating path. A big boost was our decision to create Saint Elizabeth Street. Then, UNM Press accepted my book with the help of VB Price. When I met the poet Andrea Baker ...who lives around the corner...her success provided a new model, and she has been enormously supportive and helpful, as I hope I have of her! Finally, the relentless egging on of my father and Nathaniel closed the deal.

I am in sort of a strange space, however, because my immediate circle has seen the book, but it won't be in the world for another week. Neither of my parents have seen it, nor have Nathaniel and Bill Olsen. It's another waiting game...with lots of work to come. Luckily, I have my students, my kid, my husband, my mother's pending trip to NY, and laundry to distract me!

Blessings are always mixed. Some people who are everywhere in the book will never see it. My beloved sister most of all, my step-mother Elizabeth, Gene, Mary Higgins, and my super-hero of a grandfather. But, overall, life is good...

Now if only I could find that paint guy's number...

New Arrival

My book is here! And it's lovely, thanks to the good folks at UNM Press. Last night, we had a wonderful celebration with the Bakers, Julia, Nancy, and three nutty boys. There was champange all around! I'm too exhausted to say more.