Ten Fingers Typing

Clicky, Part Deux

2010-04-25T10:26:00.002-05:00

The lovely and talented Ruth Ellen Kocher asked me to write a guest blog post for her blog, About a Word. Here's the link.

Clicky

2010-04-14T19:40:00.008-05:00

The good people at The Rumpus have done me a tremendous favor today by posting a poem from the new manuscript as well as an incredibly generous review of Cradle Song by Brian Spears. I'm so grateful for the kind words and happy to be included on such a fine site. Thank you!

AWP Bits, For Eduardo

2010-04-11T10:19:00.014-05:00

I'm back in St. Louis after an amazing and utterly exhausting AWP. I don't mean to rub it in for all the folks who couldn't make it, but this year's AWP in Denver was one of the best I've ever been to. Aside from the obvious beauty of the city itself, and the fact that it is clean and walkable and friendly and ringed by mountains so beautiful they make my heart hurt, the convention center itself was large enough to gracefully handle the bedlam of panels and people milling about. Since most of the panels were in the conference center, the hotel was less jammed up, and the bookfair was in an expansive room with wide aisles for walking and high ceilings. All in all, it made navigating the conference easy and enjoyable, and unlike the conference in Chicago last year, I didn't feel stifled or claustrophobic at all. Good call, AWP.

Here are some highlights, for Eduardo:

Meeting Sandy Longhorn on the plane from St. Louis out to Denver. I never strike up conversations on planes, especially when I have my two favorite people in the world sitting next to me to talk to, but there was something about Sandy, who was sitting across the aisle reading a back issue of a journal, that made me want to chat with her. We hadn't landed in Denver yet, and already I'd met one of my Facebook "friends." (I think that was the most overheard comment this year--"I recognize you from Facebook!") And once I met her, we ran into each other again and again, which was great. We even shared a pedi-cab back from the Copper Nickel reading with Allison Benis-White.

Thursday I signed books at the C&R Press table, milled around the bookfair, and ran into and met delightful folks like Suzanne Frischkorn and Mary Biddinger. (I can't even try to list everyone for fear I'll leave people out. Suffice it to say I met great people and saw old friends, you know, the AWP way.)

Later that night, I read for Copper Nickel's 8 Debut Poets reading with Jericho Brown, Dan Albergotti, Michael Dumanis, Farrah Field, J. Michael Martinez, and the lovely and exceptionally talented Allison Benis-White. It was a great event, and a great space and turnout, and I was thrilled to be in such company. Thanks to everyone who organized and attended it!

Friday I met up with my oldest and dearest poet-friend, Brian Turner. Since he's been abroad on the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, we hadn't seen each other in almost a year. So good to see you, Bri. Come home soon.

Friday I also went to the From the Fishouse Reading, which featured my man Adrian Matejka, my fabulous co-editor Oliver de la Paz, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Jeffrey Thomson, the lovely Erika Meitner (who read one of my poems and got a better audience response than I ever do), and Major Jackson. Later, we got this group shot of the Oregon MFA contingent representing:

(Brian Turner, Keetje Kuipers, Major Jackson, me.)

That night, I had a two-hour window of free childcare (thanks, Mom, for flying out to help take care of the little one!), and I maximized it by having drinks with some friends on the 27th floor of the hotel, complete with panoramic views of the city and mountains. At altitude, 2 drinks = 8 drinks for me, so I was pretty well buttered. No pictures of that.

All in all, it was a great conference. Glad to meet you, good to see you, missed you. Hope to see you next year.

Where I'll Be at AWP

2010-04-06T14:35:00.002-05:00

Last-minute packing, printing, and prospectus writing as I get ready to head to Denver tomorrow. Here's where I'll be:

Thursday April 7, 10 am: Booksigning at the C&R Press table
Thursday April 7, 6 pm to 8:30 pm: Copper Nickel Presents 8 Debut Poets. It's in the Tivoli Turnhalle (900 Auraria Parkway), and I'll be reading with Dan Albergotti, Jericho Brown, Michael Dumanis, Farrah Field, J. Michael Martinez, Alison Stine, and Allison Benis White. If you're in town, swing on by!

Those are my official obligations. There will also be some book-fair wandering, some searching for vegan foodstuffs, some catching up with old friends, and some drinking and carousing (especially since we're importing a grandmother to help with childcare).

If you see me, stop and say hello. See you at altitude!

Call for Submissions and An Unveiling

2010-01-07T15:23:00.002-06:00

The editors, Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz, are pleased to announce a call for submissions for A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry.

We are seeking poems that work within the literary tradition of persona poetry: poems written as dramatic monologues, whose speakers employ masks, or whose character and voice are different from the poet's own.

Please submit up to 5 unpublished poems. We will also consider poems whose rights have reverted back to the author.

All submissions will be accepted electronically. Please send an email to the editors at facesanthology@gmail.com with the poet's name and "Submission for Persona Anthology" as the subject line, with the poems as an attachment.

The submission deadline has been extended to February 15th. We look forward to reading your work!

Gratitude

2009-12-31T16:05:00.003-06:00

Among the many, many things that I've been this year--mother, wife, newly published poet, assistant professor--blogger has not been high on my list. It's not that I don't have good intentions. I read and enjoy other people's blogs immensely, and I'm grateful for those poets who still keep them and haven't fully succumbed to the twitterversion of sharing information. But in a year full of changing and rearranging, time has become even more of a commodity, and I didn't manage to eke out very much of it for blogging. A new year's resolution to do better? Perhaps. But mainly I'm just promising to remember to be grateful and be present for my life.

This year brought with it so many things, some highly anticipated and others I wouldn't have seen coming. My first book came out. And people actually read it and discussed it and bought it--so much so that it sold out its first print run in the first nine months or so. It went into its second printing late this fall, and I was given the opportunity to make a couple of small corrections and changes when it went back to press, for which I am also grateful.

In support of the book, I got to travel--a lot. Oregon three times in a year. Seattle. Miami. Atlanta. I got to meet wonderful writers and festival-goers and organizers and booksellers, a whole continuum of people who value the written word and work to ensure its longevity and importance. Along the way, we had some harrowing times (a hotel fire in Oregon, for example), but those moments also served to heighten my gratitude and remind me again and again to be mindful and stay in the moment, wherever and whenever I am.

And the book led to a full-time, tenure-track job at SIUE, which led to start-up funds and more and more interested, talented students to work with and tons of new books for my office and a new netbook and a $10k grant to support me in writing the next book, which materialized and presented itself to me once I let myself sit down and listen to what was trying to be heard. Gratitude.

I got to spend good time with good friends and family and somehow we all managed to make it through the harder stuff. Gratitude.

In my personal life, gratitude.
In my professional life, gratitude.

And my wish for all of you for this and every year? Gratitude and much to be grateful for, known and unknown, seen and unseen.

Happy new year, everyone. May you live and love well in 2010.

Breaking a Line

2009-09-22T09:01:00.002-05:00

I'm up today on Linebreak, reading a gorgeous poem by Keith Montesano. Clicky!

Memory

2009-09-11T10:07:00.003-05:00

On the eight anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to share this excerpt from an essay called "Leap" by Brian Doyle. The link to read the full essay is here.

A couple leaped from the South Tower, hand in hand. They reached for each other and their hands met and they jumped. So many people saw this as a scar burned onto our brains. But a man reached for a woman's hand and she reached for his hand, and they jumped out the window holding hands. I try to whisper prayers for the sudden dead and the harrowed families of the dead and the screaming souls of the murderers, but I keep coming back to his hand in her hand, nestled in each other with such extraordinary, ordinary, naked love. It is the most powerful prayer I can imagine, the most eloquent, the most graceful. It is everything that we are capable of against horror and loss and tragedy. It is what makes me believe that we are not fools to believe in God, to believe that human beings have greatness and holiness within them like seeds that open only under great fire, to believe that who we are persists past what we were, to believe against evil evidenced hourly that love is why we are here.

Along Came Venus

2009-08-26T18:43:00.007-05:00

It's back-to-school time, and I'm crunched: prepping classes, creating last-minute syllabi for classes I haven't taught before, trying to find the office decoration balance between what's appropriate for students to see and what I want to spend my time looking at. Which means the Radiohead poster is in, but the holographic album cover from Their Satanic Majesties Request? Not so much.

And in the midst of all of this, when I don't have a single moment to spare, along comes a review copy of Collin Kelley's Conquering Venus. I pick it up. I read the blurbs. And suddenly, I find myself taking "just a minute" I don't really have to read just the Prologue. Okay, just the first chapter or two. Or five. (I think you see where this is going.)

Flash forward a few days. I still haven't finished my syllabus for tomorrow's class, but I somehow found the time to go to Borders and buy an Itty Bitty Book Light so that I can keep reading Conquering Venus late at night without waking anyone up. Addictive? Yeah. Pretty much. Poetic? Yes. Compelling? Absolutely. But I'm not going to give out any plot details or spoilers. One of my pet peeves is knowing too much about a book or movie going in and having preconceived notions or expectations either way. What I will do is tell you the five things that will happen when you read this book:

1) You will remember the differences between poetry and fiction and be grateful for an author who can write both--and who blurs the genres in such a satisfying way.

2) You will want to travel. Again. Or still. Or all of a sudden.

3) About 1/4 of the way in, you will start imagining which actors would play which characters in the movie version of the book. Thinking about the movie version, and imagining these actors smooching, will get you more than a little hot.

4) You will buy an Itty Bitty Book Light if you don't already have one so that you can keep reading. Or, if you have the time to devote to it all at once, you will devote that time. Happily.

5) You will be grateful for the fact that this is part of a trilogy, but at the same time, you'll find yourself a little foot-stampy and impatient to know what happens next. And that's a really good thing.

It's just too bad I can't assign it on my syllabus.

For My Next Trick

2009-06-29T20:25:00.013-05:00

I finally started working on The Next Thing. It's taken me a long time to come around to it, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, the production of a book, from start to finish, is quite a daunting thing--the seedling ideas, the writing of poems that may or may not work, the visions and revisions, the contest gamut (or the equivalent: open reading periods, queries, publishing on demand, whatever you may choose), the rejections, the acceptance, the changes and edits, the final proofs, the waiting, worrying, and fretting about the final product, the final product itself. I went through it at almost exactly the same time that my husband was going through it, with our books coming out 4 months apart. (The experience was very different for each of us, but that's a different post.) And when I was in the midst of all of that, the last thing on my mind was writing what came next.

But apparently, that's something I was supposed to be thinking about. When my book first won a prize, I got a call from my dear friend Rodney Jones, who said, "That's wonderful. Now you're free to move on to the next thing."

The next thing? What next thing?! I was just getting started with this thing! For me, getting the book taken and slated for publication meant that the serious work on that book was just beginning. Getting it ready. Making the changes that needed to be made to make it right. Marketing. Drumming up readings. Finding ways to get the word out about the book (which, I realize, is an ongoing process). And all of that work left me little time to think about what came next, much less actually engage in it.

But apparently, it's something you're supposed to be thinking about.

After my husband's first book came out, he was tapped by the Poetry Society of America as one of the upcoming poets to watch. We flew to New York for the reading and celebration. He and the other twelve poets took the stage one at a time, with each one reading from--and talking a little about--their Next Things. It seemed a rite of passage almost to create something tangible to hold on to and work on and toward--regardless of whether or not that specific project ever came to fruition.

But I was stymied. I was languishing in the space between books and between projects. Instead of picking up a pen, I put on my philosophical hat and started thinking about how we navigate our second book. For some authors, it seems like the second book is a logical extension of the first, both in terms of content and stylistic approach. But for others, the second book marks a radical departure from the aesthetics of the first. Hmmm, I thought. Why is that? And where will my second book position itself? Will it be an extension or a departure? Hmmm.

One thing I've learned about myself is that if I spend too much time thinking around something, it always means there's something there, smack dab in the middle, that I'm not letting myself think about.

And once I looked at it, really looked at it, I realized that I knew what my next project would be all along. It was there, gestating, accumulating, gathering momentum and words and images. It was just that the subject is really close, and difficult, and more than a little painful, and so I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to dive into it. I wrote a couple of children's books. I negotiated some nonfiction work. But always, the poems were there, just beneath the surface.

That's how poetry works, isn't it? Even when we're not working on it, it's working on us--feeding itself, fueling its own fire, readying for the moment when we come to it, open our arms, and embrace it, welcomed back.

And so my arms are open. My pen is finally uncapped. The poems are falling into place in my mind and in my ears and on my page. I'm letting the games begin, again. And I couldn't be happier. I've got a project!

Loss

2009-05-09T12:58:00.002-05:00

Bird-Understander
by Craig Arnold

Of many reasons I love you here is one

the way you write me from the gate at the airport
so I can tell you everything will be alright

so you can tell me there is a bird
trapped in the terminal all the people
ignoring it because they do not know
what do with it except to leave it alone
until it scares itself to death

it makes you terribly terribly sad

You wish you could take the bird outside
and set it free or (failing that)
call a bird-understander
to come help the bird

All you can do is notice the bird
and feel for the bird and write
to tell me how language feels
impossibly useless

but you are wrong

You are a bird-understander
better than I could ever be
who make so many noises
and call them song

These are your own words
your way of noticing
and saying plainly
of not turning away
from hurt

you have offered them
to me I am only
giving them back

if only I could show you
how very useless
they are not

Blinking in the Spotlight

2009-05-04T14:14:00.006-05:00

Many, many thanks to the wonderful and talented Rigoberto González for choosing Cradle Song for the Small Press Spotlight on the National Book Critics Circle blog. His questions were incredibly thoughtful and thought provoking, and I am honored and grateful to be included in this series.

In other news, my website is almost up and running. Amber Smith of Lostlogo Design has worked with me to create a site that captures the feel of the South and the sentiment of the things I write about. I'll post the link when it's all done.

Later this week, I'll be reading with three other poets (Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Gabriel Fried, and Adrian Matejka) as part of the St. Louis celebration of the publication of From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great. It's part of the Observable Reading Series, sponsored by the St. Louis Poetry Center, and it's at the Schlafly Bottleworks at 8 pm on Thursday May 7th. If you're in the area, come on by!

Gobsmacked

2009-03-29T08:37:00.018-05:00

I woke up on this gray and leftover-wintry day, only to find that the kind folks at Poetry Daily had posted not one but three of the poems from Cradle Song!

I was gobsmacked. Not only because it was Poetry Daily, which thrills me like a schoolgirl whose crush smiled back at her, but also because of the individual poems they chose. The first one I'm down with and might have seen coming, but the other two are sections that never really see the light of day with me. It's not that I don't like them. They do their job in the poem of building pillars and holding up ideas and furthering the overall missive of the collection, but they aren't counted among my pretties, or favorites, and so I don't ever really think about them much.

Until today. Now, I'm thinking about them a lot. And I'm thinking about subjectivity and why it is that we like what we like. I've taught literature for a number of years now, and always, some student asks me, "Who decides which poems/poets/stories/writers are 'good enough' to be canonized, anthologized, reproduced, and referenced?" This leads to a larger discussion of the included and the excluded, how we know what we know, and why we as individuals are drawn to certain texts more than others.

A text is important to me when it does one of two things: it either 1) tells me something I didn't already know, schools me, as it were or 2) articulates something I know or recognize to be true but hadn't ever articulated or wrapped my head around, and it does so in a profound or resonant way that makes me say, "Exactly! I totally know what you're talking about!"

I don't know what kinds of reactions my poems created in the editors at Poetry Daily, or in anyone who might have read the book. But the machinations behind such things intrigue me. They keep me guessing--and keep me writing. And I'm thrilled to be up there on that website today, thrilled that these previously closeted sections are getting their moment in the sun. I'm happy to be forced to reconsider them. And who knows? Maybe I'll even air them out in the next reading that I give.

Westward, Ho

2009-03-10T17:37:00.005-05:00

I'm going to be taking a little trip soon, a little poetry trip. I say it's a poetry trip only because I plan to claim it on my next year's taxes. It's actually a trip back to Oregon, back to the green and verdant landscape that I miss so much. Back to the people I love and the little ones who have, no doubt, grown as much as mine has. Back to Market of Choice and Bambini and The Laughing Planet and the very best little Mexican cafe in the world--Fond Rosa in Portland.

But there will be poetry. I'll be reading at The Press Club in Portland on Monday the 16th at 7 pm. Apparently, it's the bee's knees. It has crepes and booze and magazines and, at least this one night, me, reading poems. The next day, St. Paddy's, I'll be reading at the Eugene Library at 7 pm as part of the Windfall Reading Series with Miriam Gershow. If you're in the area, come by and see me. Meet the little one. Buy me a crepe. And I'll sing you song, and I'll try not to sing out of key.

Live Nude Girl in the Devil's Territory Sings a Cradle Song

2009-02-23T11:46:00.011-06:00

I didn't post an AWP recap because it was a really disjointed experience for me. I guess I'm old school now because I'm still clinging to those AWPs of yore, when there was only one bookfair, and I actually could count on running into the folks I wait all year to see. This year, I didn't make it to a single panel, not even the ones on Saturday that I really, really wanted to see. But I did have a wonderful book release party at The Woman Made Gallery (an excellent space in Chicago for women artists), featuring my fellow C&R Press ladies Michelle Bitting and Allison Funk.

The company--and the cupcakes--rocked. And I got to meet my excellent editors, including the fabulous Chad Prevost

and sold some books and met some folks, so overall, it was a success. If you didn't get a copy of the book, please email me, and I'll send it to you--autographed and eveything.

Meanwhile, I'm gearing up for more readings (see sidebar for a full list). I'll be heading out to Oregon to read in the middle of March, and I'll be down in Carbondale at the end of it. But before I hit the road for my little tour, THE road tour is coming to me, and I'm thrilled to be part of it:

If you're in the area, roll on by. It promises to be an amazing night.

Up, Up, and Away

2009-02-10T08:16:00.003-06:00

It's crazy to me that it's that time of year again. Even though we didn't make it there last year, it always feels like it's impossibly soon for AWP to be happening. (Maybe that's because it's an impossibly cold time of year to have it in an impossible cold, wintry, and windy city.)

Regardless, today is the last day of running around maniacally ahead of flying out. Luggage? Check. Extra copies of the book to give away, sell, and trade? Husband? Check. Preschooler? Check. Mother flying in to meet us there to take care of said preschooler? Check.

I'll be giving a reading on Friday night and a book-signing on Saturday morning. If you're free from the maddening crush on Friday from, say, 6 to 8 pm, shoot me an email, and I'll fill you in. And if you're still there on Saturday, please stop by the C&R Press table (Table 663, Lower Level, Southwest Hall) sometime between 10 and 11 am to say hello and chit chat. I promise to hide you from the person you hooked up with the night before when he or she comes looking for you.

***

In non-AWP-related news, I'm the featured poet over at Anti-.

***

Here's hoping our paths cross in Chicago. Safe travels, everyone.

Hail to the Chief

2009-01-21T09:14:00.003-06:00

A Cottage Industry

2009-01-15T06:17:00.007-06:00

I'm leaving in a few hours to head to Atlanta for my first reading from the book as a book. It feels very fitting that this debut is happening in Atlanta, my hometown and the locus of most of the narrative in these poems. If you're nearby, swing over to Wordsmiths Books in Decatur on Saturday at 2 and check out the Poetry Atlanta reading I'll be doing with Karen Head and Chad Prevost, hosted by the fabulous Collin Kelley.

Also, I've gotten a lot of requests about how to order signed copies of the book (thank you, kind people). The easiest thing to do is to send me a check, and I'll send you the signed book. Shoot me an email, and we'll work out the details: stacebro@gmail.com. And it's also now available on Amazon as well as the C&R Press website.

See you in Atlanta!

Blossom on the Tree, You Know How I Feel

2009-01-14T08:43:00.013-06:00

My box of books arrived this weekend, and while I've been waiting and waiting for this moment for what seemed like a lifetime, I didn't dive right into them. Instead, I went to Disney on Ice with my daughter. I had lunch. I did some work. I waited until the champagne was chilled and night had fallen. And then we opened them.

And they were beautiful.

Thanks, C&R Press!!

Cradle Song

2009-01-02T12:47:00.011-06:00

It's here! At long last, Cradle Song is available for order.

For all of you who sent your empathy, your sympathy, and your support during that whole fiasco this summer, thank you. It was well worth it to find the book's true home at C&R Press, and I couldn't be more pleased.

(And if you want a signed copy, back channel me.)

2008: A Recap

2008-12-30T15:58:00.019-06:00

With one day officially left in 2008, I've been looking back on this year. It's been a momentous one on many, many fronts: the highest highs and some of the most devastating lows. Here are some of the highlights:

January: Celebrated my third anniversary.
February: Found out that Cradle Song had won its prize.
March: Father, suffering.
April-June: Editing book, working on layout, getting it ready for press.
July: Lost book award. Fallout. Tailspin. Amazing support in the blogsphere.
August: Book picked up by the wonderful C&R Press. Fabulous husband wins National Poetry Series.
September: My little one and I start (co-op)preschool.
October: Little one turns 3.
November: Final edits for Cradle Song. OBAMA!!!!
December: Cradle Song gets sent to press. I win the Caption Contest, get nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and accept a tenure-track job as a poet at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

All in all, an amazing year. I'm anxiously awaiting my box of books, which should be arriving on my doorstep soon. For all of you out there who were so supportive throughout the fiasco with the Apple Dumpling Gang and all the way through to the book finding its true home with C&R, thank you. Find me at AWP, and I'll buy you a drink.

Meanwhile, here's hoping you all have a safe and happy new year.

And tell me: What's your New Year's resolution for '09?

The Second Most Important Vote of 2008

2008-12-14T20:44:00.006-06:00

A vote for my captions is a vote for change. And for Obama--again. And for bringing the troops home.

Stacey Lynn Brown: Captions you can believe in.

Give Me Moe

2008-12-03T14:58:00.005-06:00

One thing I've figured out about myself is that I'm a sparse blogger. An intermittent one. A random, "Sure, I read other people's blogs every day, and oh, yeah, I have one, too. Wow. I should actually post something new on it sometime soon" kind of gal.

Happily, I've been busy doing book-related things, the most recent of which happened this morning, when I had the pleasure of reading for the Moe Green Poetry Hour. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Moe Green is a Blog Talk Radio show created and hosted by Rafael F.J. Alvarado. He's had a slew of excellent writers on the show, and I was very excited to be part of it.

Radio, as a format, is an unknown for me, and I was a little unsure of what to expect. On some level, I thought it would be like giving a poetry reading behind one-way glass, where I would just be sending poems blindly out into the ether, but Rafael was an engaged and charming host, and it turned into a true dialogue about the poems and the forthcoming book. I really enjoyed the whole experience.

Here's the link for the show. I read first, and my part lasts about half an hour. And the very talented Margaret Randall shines in the second half.

Enjoy! And thanks again to Rafael for asking me to join him.

Fear of a Gay Planet

2008-11-08T13:06:00.013-06:00

Now that we've made epic, historical strides toward equality on the racial front by electing an African-American President, a lot of people feel complacent and sated. As if racism has been eradicated. As if magically America has become the true land of (equal) opportunity. As if civil rights and human rights and equal rights weren't dealt a devastating blow and trounced on the same night that we all felt so overjoyed by how far we've come.

As you all know by now, the hatemongering Prop 8 passed in California. The Mormon Church emptied its collection plates to fight against letting two people who love each other get married (because Mormons have such a noble approach to marriage? Because heterosexuals do such a stellar job of upholding its sanctity?), and a preliminary petition has been created to strip it of its tax-exempt status. You can find out more about helping with that cause here.

In Arizona, a measure was passed that prevents couples who aren't married from adopting or fostering children. The real losers and victims in this scenario are not just the people who are openly being discriminated against, but the ones they would take in and love: the children whose chances of getting adopted or helped or loved have now been drastically diminished. Statistically, gay couples have the highest rates of taking in children with physical and emotional disabilites, so it's a double blow to those who need love the most. Is the Mormon Church going to adopt and foster these kids? Are the people who voted for it going to? If not, then they should butt the f**k out.

I'm a straight, married parent who wants nothing more for her child than for her to inherit a world that is better off than the one I inherited. This isn't happening on so many fronts--the deficit, global warming, starvation and genocide and rape and torture and exile and hate crimes and wars have consumed our country, our reserves, our economy. There are so many things we can't change, but there are some that we can. Our right to vote is still one of the most important tools we have--that and the ways in which we choose to spend our money. The people of California let everyone down in terms of not getting out the vote, but now that we're here, we have to turn our attention to what can be done next.

Complacency is the real enemy. Yes, we can imagine a better future and believe in our leader(s) once again. But we must also believe in ourselves and our own abilities to make a difference in the lives of others and in creating a better collective story for our nation. Remember what Martin Luther King said: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

The path to change is through action, not inaction. It's through daring to hope and then working to change.

Sign a petition to overturn prop 8. Donate what you can. Do what you can. Do more than you can. Go to overturnprop8.com or noonprop8.com to find out what you can do to help.

If my daughter turns to me in 15 years and tells me she's a lesbian, I don't want to have to get out a map and direct her to a state where she can be free to love whoever she loves. I want to give her the map of the United States and say, "Pick a state. Any state. This is America. You will be respected."

Don't It Make Your Red States Blue

2008-11-04T22:26:00.012-06:00

Editors and Publishers

2008-10-21T22:55:00.032-05:00

As many of you know, I had a horrible experience this summer with Cider Press Review. And as you also may know by now, Kevin Larimer, the deputy editor of Poets and Writers, wrote an article about this debacle for the November/December issue.

I've debated responding to this article for a number of reasons. For one, I'm just plain tired of the whole thing. It took up most of my summer and cast a pall over my household--and over the incredibly happy prospect of my book coming out. And given the nature of this article, and the ways in which I've been painted as a poet who just "complains" about things, I felt that offering my critique would just be playing into that portrait and prolonging this whole thing. But to remain silent is to play into his "moral of the story," which is that poets should either allow editors to do whatever they want or "self-publish." So I'll make my comment anyway.

When he approached me about writing this article, I embraced it. I don't have anything to hide. I've disclosed what happened between me and the press, and since I knew that they couldn't deny what they did, I expected that they would badmouth me and blame me and try to justify their actions, which is exactly what they did.

I knew that as a reporter Mr. Larimer would have, at his disposal, the transcript of what happened between the press and me. I knew that he would inevitably make choices about what to include and how to shape the story. And while I'm glad that the story got out to a larger audience, the ways in which he shaped it, and the way he focused it, truly surprised me.

I didn't expect him to frame this as "who has the final editorial say--author or editor?" because in our case, as in most cases for poets, it was a non-issue. According to the contract they created and we all signed, they did. Period. So they weren't obligated to do a damn thing I asked. But when it came down to it, they chose to break that contract instead of honoring it, and apparently, that's okay, as long as your "feelings are hurt" by said layout disagreement.

I was also surprised by the way in which he chose to (not) present the legal aspects of this situation--and the fact that he never touched on any of the ethical ones.

He casually mentioned that if I paid them back the money they gave me (as well as money they didn't give me), I would "get my rights back," but he never mentioned the fact that they didn't actually own my rights. Once a contract has been broken, neither party is entitled to the fruits of that contract--a little legal detail that got overlooked. And the way the discussion was framed, I just hired a lawyer to avoid having to repay prize money (and their cover art expenses). In reality, the fact that they were withholding my rights meant I had to spend almost all of that prize money just to get my own book back.

But all of this got glossed over on the way to the "real meat" of this story--the gossipy he said/she said about a back cover disagreement. The thrust of this was editorially sensationalized, with various quotes parsed so that they were taken out of context, leaving out the elements (and the facts) that made them fair and reasonable requests and leaving only the most contentious, foot-stamping stuff.

For example, Mr. Larimer chose not to include the fact that the full contest guidelines already appeared in a full-page ad for the book contest on the last page of the book. That fact made the repeated ad on the back cover redundant and unnecessary, which was the point I made to the editors at the time. Oddly, that fact never made it into the story.

If I were going to be cynical about it, I could point out his position as "Deputy Editor" at the magazine. I could focus my critique on the issue of editorialization as a whole, and on the fact that this article is a metaphor for its inevitable conclusion: poets should just be quiet and be grateful for whatever they get and however it turns out for them because in the end, the editors are the ones who get to shape and control both the text at hand as well as the ways in which this information gets presented to the larger world.

Don't get me wrong. A good editor is a blessing. The wonderful editors at my new press gave me pages of notes, comments, and suggestions within days of acquiring my manuscript, and I was incredibly grateful for their input. In the olden days of poetry, editors and poets worked closely together to create a better text. But creating those relationships now is a hard thing to do, and you're damned lucky if you find yourself matched up with people who can not only understand what you're doing but can also help you to do it more effectively.

But what about a bad editor? Or an ineffectual one? Or one who believes that because she runs a contest out of her basement, she knows more about the poet's work than the poet does (even though she never actually read my book until she was putting into layout form)? And who believes she gets to change that poet's work without her consent?

And what about the journalist who knowingly includes, in a "researched" article, a quotation that was never actually said? As noted, Mr. Larimer had the entire transcript of the four-day dispute over the back cover, and as he noted in his article, no other conversations took place.

So he knew for a fact that I NEVER wrote that going back to the blurb authors would be "horribly unprofessional." And while he covered himself by noting that Robert Wynne "claimed" that I said it, this claim was undocumented because I never did. And yet, for some reason, he included it anyway. And I wanted to know why.

I emailed Mr. Larimer the day after I read this article and asked him the following:

"If you knew there was no documentation for this quote, why did you include it? Especially when you had, at your disposal, all of the things that I did say?"

His response? "We invite you to write a letter to the editor."

I have to admit that I'm surprised because I want(ed) to believe that Poets and Writers took its job as being an advocate for writers at least halfway seriously. To me, that means don't include anything, in either direction, that isn't true. To this end, I did not mention anything in my correspondence with Mr. Larimer that I could not provide evidence for. And I tried my best to represent the tenor and tone of communications honestly without augmenting or omitting important details.

But the editorial decision in this article that really left a bad taste in my mouth was the way Mr. Larimer "outed" last year's contest winner. Not only did he broadcast her name and the title of her book, which were supposed to be kept under wraps as part of the settlement between her and Cider Press, but he also betrayed her as a "source."

When he asked for her comment on the situation, she wrote him an email explaining that she couldn't comment on it because of the gag order and the settlement they had reached. And instead of honoring that, he QUOTED from her email.

Let me do a Joe Biden here and say that again. He quoted from an email in which she said she couldn't comment on the situation. He created a comment from her "no comment."

All of these "choices" seem to shape this article in a very specific direction. Even though it was about the dynamics between authors and editors, no authors were interviewed for the piece. He didn't ask any poets or fiction writers for their take on having their work edited without their consent (which was, to me, the biggest issue--not the author photo BS). Instead, he asked a fellow editor for his opinion, and his take on it was not at all surprising.

What disappoints me most about this article is that it does little to further the conversations that should be happening--about the relationships between writers and publishers, about the ethics and the contest system as a whole, about alternatives to the current publishing paradigms. Instead, it just reifies the belief that the publishers are the kings of the kingdom, and poets are just peasants who should happily lap and snap up any crumbs that might get tossed our way--a dynamic that is faulty and dangerous to poetry.

While this article could and should have focused on preventing this kind of thing from happening to another poet, the main subtext is that the only way to prevent this scenario is for poets to just shut up and "be grateful" for whatever they get--and for however their book turns out. Even if the books are full of typos. Even if the editors change your language without your consent.

So I stand by everything that I wrote in that original blog post, and then some. My aim in all of this was to let poets know the facts about Cider Press Review. They believe it is acceptable to enter into contracts with poets and break them without legal cause. They'll do it and then try to get money out of those poets in exchange for "rights" they don't actually own. And after they do it, they'll badmouth the poet they dropped and blame her and lie about what she did and didn't say. And apparently, they'll get away with it.

If you want to enter into a contract with people like that, have at it. Just remember that thanks to my $750 lawyer, they now have a "new contract," and one of the clauses mandates that the communication between the poet and the editors belongs to the press and can't be shared, which amounts to a pre-emptive gag order. So if they do to you what they did to me, you won't be able to talk about it.

Me? I'm brushing the dirt off my shoulder and moving on. Again.

The Weight of the World

2008-10-20T21:07:00.001-05:00

Send some good thoughts to Obama and his grandmother.

Super Obama

2008-10-17T09:30:00.007-05:00

I know you've probably seen this picture by now, but I have to post it again, along with his quotations from the Al Smith dinner in New York:

“I do love the Waldorf-Astoria. I hear from the doorstep you can see all the way to the Russian Tea Room.”

and

"I obviously never knew your grandfather, but from what Senator McCain has told me, they had a great time before Prohibition."

and

"The housing crisis has been 8 times harder on John McCain."

and

"Fox news accused me of fathering two African-American children in wedlock."

and, finally,

“Contrary to rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was born on Krypton and sent here by my father Jor-El to save the Planet Earth."

Yes, he was. And yes, he can.

The Only Palin We Want is Tina Fey

2008-10-13T18:26:00.003-05:00

Hi, everyone.

There's a petition going around that asks Lorne Michaels NOT to give Sarah Palin any more network exposure by allowing her to appear on SNL on October 25th--just one week before the election.

The information and link are below. There is an optional donation link afterwards, but you don't have to donate in order to sign the petition. Please read it and pass it on.

From the petition:

Since joining John McCain on the Republican ticket, Governor Sarah Palin has injected the presidential campaign with a venomous tone unbecoming of the office she seeks.

In her most recent rallies, she has fueled racial hatred, riling up her angry base by questioning Barack Obama's background and suggesting he "pals around with terrorists."

Now Palin is angling to appear on Saturday Night Live alongside her alter ego Tina Fey. And rumors are circulating that she has been invited to appear on the October 25th episode of the highly rated comedy. That's just one week before the election.

We have all witnessed this year how Saturday Night Live's political sketches can affect the political conversation and sway public opinion. In particular, any candidate who has appeared on the show has experienced a post SNL bump in popularity.

Providing Sarah Palin with this televised forum to charm the American audience just one week before the election would not only be a misguided decision, it would be downright irresponsible.

So I hope you will take a moment to sign this petition urging Lorne Michaels and the other writers and producers of Saturday Night Live not to give Sarah Palin this additional network exposure. And I hope you will pass this petition along to anyone you know who might be interested in signing it.

Let's remind the producers of Saturday Night Live that the only Sarah Palin we wish to see on their show is the one played by Tina Fey.

HERE'S THE LINK: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nopalinsnl?e

More Goodly News

2008-10-12T14:24:00.002-05:00

C. Dale Young has some exciting news. Drop by and help him celebrate!

Unbelievable

2008-10-10T19:26:00.004-05:00

I don't have a link for this yet, as I can't find it online yet, but it appears that McCain was forced to defend Obama at one of his rallies today. In response to a woman who said she didn't trust Obama because he was "an Arab," McCain shook his head and corrected her, calling Obama a decent family man. Later, he said that "a President Obama" shouldn't be feared.

It's about time that he stepped up in an effort to try to curtail some of the hate-filled rhetoric that has been rising at their rallies, spurred on by his pitbull during her rallies, but the fact remains that the damage has been done. The fire has been stoked. The legions are marching, and in a show of how far out of control this has already spun, McCain was booed by his own supporters for defending Obama as a decent human being.

McCain came face to face today with the ugliness of his own creation, his Frankenstein monster, and I have to admit that I almost feel a little sorry for him. He's an obviously conflicted man--torn between trying to be someone he's not on both fronts. I think he wants to be the ethical man he purports himself to be. I know he wants to be the President. But I also think his heart isn't 100% in the ruthless, cutthroat tactics that he's been engaging in these past few desperate days. One of his biggest mistakes was in hiring an acolyte of Karl Rove to run his campaign. We watched what these very same tactics did to him in 2000, and now, he's a shell of the man he used to be--ethically and otherwise.

But the proof will be in his actions in the next couple of days--and in whether or not he puts his attack dog back on her leash. She needs to step up and disavow the violence and the epithets and the hatred, too. And if she doesn't, he needs to denounce her, too. Especially now that she's been found guilty of abusing her power (surprise, surprise).

What a day.

A Flow Chart of the VP Debate

2008-10-06T16:01:00.001-05:00

In case you haven't seen it yet (and with a shout out to Kerry and Alex).

Tina Fey as Caribou Barbie

2008-10-05T10:17:00.001-05:00

Sufferin' Sarah

2008-10-03T09:29:00.003-05:00

Don't tell my department chair, but I let my creative writing workshop out early last night so we could watch the Vice Presidential debate. Or, should I say, so I could watch it. I printed out my Palin Bingo card--and had BINGO about 8 minutes in.

One of the obvious things I noticed was the fact that even though Palin danced around questions and changed the topics to whatever talking points she wanted to hit, Gwen Ifill, the moderator, didn't follow up very much, or ask that she stay on point. She and Biden both allowed the moose-skinning mama to direct the flow of that debate, which is disappointing. As moderator, it was Ifill's responsibility to actually moderate--to keep the candidates on track, to steer them back to the requested topic when they veered away, and to ask follow-up questions whenver she tried to sing and dance her way out of something. Or play the flute out of something. It just made me miss Tim Russert all the more.

Biden, for his part, was well behaved and well trained. His coaches had obviously hammered the importance of not attacking her ad hominem, and even though he looked, as Rich Villar said, like he wanted to "piledrive her through the floor," he refrained, and his behavior, though careful and measured, was beyond rebuke. He answered his questions without being overly loquacious, and he hammered certain necessary points home again and again, which I was glad to see. I think his closing statement could have reiterated that Bush=McCain and that this call of "change" coming from more of the same is preposterous, but it was good enough.

And that seems to have been the mantra for Palin's camp. "Good enough." The playbook for Palin? "Just don't show the world that famous gaping lack of intelligence you've shown the media whenever you're off book. Stand at that podium by the creek in Sedona and memorize, memorize, memorize. Ignore Joe Biden and Gwen Ifill and the actual questions and say what WE want you to say. Bring it back to whatever talking points you remember. Try to get that 'There you go again' quote in there--people love remembering Reagan. Look directly at the camera and pretend like it's just you and the American people because without Joe Biden and Gwen Ifill, it is! Make it folksy. Throw out as many references to your 'pedigree' as possible, and mix it up with some 'youbetchas' and 'goshdarnits.' Wink as often as possible without going overboard. And above all, DON'T SAY ANYTHING YOU THINK UP ALL BY YOURSELF!"

After her part of it was over, nothing of substance had been said, no real questions had been answered, no policy differences had been cited, and only Joe Biden seemed to notice.

And when the pundits came on afterwards, they seemed to believe that since her performance in the past few weeks had set the bar so low, the fact that she didn't self-combust or implode or say one of her characteristically vapid statements meant that somehow she had succeeded. Since when does the ability to memorize and regurgitate talking points--when it's the ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO DO FOR FIVE WEEKS--equal intelligence? And the moment when she furthered Dick Cheney's agenda of having the VP have even more power sent chills down my spine. Literally. As if Cheney as the Emperor wasn't dark enough, in this sequel, Sarah Palin's Jar Jar Binks would be wrapped up in those robes, with no Jedis in sight to save us.

Sometimes Nothing is a Really Cool Hand

2008-09-27T09:30:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite actors, Paul Newman, passed away today. One of the many things I loved about this man was the fact that he played these fundamentally flawed characters and rendered them as so human, and so fully lovable and worthy of being loved, that it filled me with hope. He was, quite simply, beautiful.

Of all of his movies, and all of the scenes that have stayed with me over the years, here is the one I remember the most often--the song I find myself singing whenever grief rises in my throat.

Rest in peace, Paul Newman.

Schoolhouse Rocks--or Knowledge is Power

2008-09-25T08:21:00.013-05:00

Like most people, I've spent the past couple of weeks scraping my jaw off the floor as the Republican Spin Machine has gerrymandered about, scooping up tough-as-nails moose hunters and then sequestering them from scrutiny and questioning until they've adequately "crammed" for the final exam. Most of the people who already bought the load are thrilled with this "country first" choice. Some are uneasy because they realize that 40 days is a long time to try to duck and dodge an increasingly furious media who realizes it was played by the whole "don't be sexist to our candidate by actually asking her questions" move. And a whopping 18% is, according to recent polls, still undecided. I ask you: in these times, with the economy and war and abortion and all the other galvanizing issues, how can anyone still be on the fence? Or is "undecided" just code for "I'm not comfortable admitting that I won't vote for a Black man"?

Anyway, there are plenty of excellent blogs addressing daily happenings (I'm a particular fan of the "other" CNN--The Collin News Network--and Seth Abramson's blog, but I thought I'd post these figures about the education (or lack thereof) of these particular candidates. I don't know about you, but I want a President and VP who have had at least as much educational experience as I have--if not a lot more.

Obama:

Occidental College: Two years studying Politics and Public Policy
Columbia University: B.A.Political Science, specialization in International Relations
Harvard University: Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude, Editor-in-Chief, Harvard Law Review

Biden:

University of Delaware: B.A. in History & B.A. in Political Science
Syracuse University College of Law : Juris Doctor (J.D.)

McCain:

U.S. Naval Academy: Graduate--Class rank 894 of 899

Palin:

Hawaii Pacific Univ: 1 semester, Business Administration
North Idaho College: 2 semesters, general study
University of Idaho 2 semesters, Journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College: 1 semester
University of Idaho: 3 semesters, B.A. Journalism

A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

The Poetry Couch

2008-09-17T08:09:00.003-05:00

I've been remiss in my new blogger duties recently. This has happened for a few reasons, not the least of which has been juggling the many hats I wear as the fall semester began. I teach a creative writing workshop at the university here, I teach up to six courses online at a time, and I've got a preschooler who's only in preschool five hours a week. Blessings all, to be sure. And recently, I've been doing the really fun stuff that has to do with the book.

One of my (many) complaints about the last experience was that I didn't get a single piece of significant editorial advice. Now, I like a good ego stroke as much as the next poet, but I know that my work needs work, and I enjoy doing it. So I'm always looking for a reader to point things out to me, to make me re-envision as part of my revision. (Maybe that's why I married a poet.)

So when I sat down with the editorial notes from my new editors at C&R Press, I was beyond excited. The notes came in two different styles, one from each of the editors. One was a list of comments, questions, and points that went for a few pages, and the other was a long conversation on the phone where we talked through a lot of points and options. Both were really interesting, enlightening, and helpful. And both made me think.

Some of the questions raised had to do with the syntax that I use in my poetry. I should give a little backstory here and say that my book is about growing up in the South and is peppered with vernacular and idioms. There are several voices in the book, and some of them have their own poems. And as I tried to recreate their voices both in terms of sound and content, I found myself straying from what I know to be true, accepted, and maybe even required about the English language. In short, in my efforts to use the syntax to create the effect I wanted and needed, it was necessarily not correct.

Now, I'm not talking about "ain't" and long, drawn out syllables. I'm talking about transliteration and the like. So while it may work on the page to do its job in terms of its sound and music, it leaves some grammatical issues to be addressed. For example, when I write lines that use compound modifiers, do I hyphenate them, which is the correct thing to do in terms of the grammar rules?

This may not seem like a big issue, and in truth, it's not. But the process it made me go through is what interests me the most. I had to look back through my book and comb it for its discrepancies. For the choices I made consciously, knowing better. (I'm a grammarian in all other parts of my life--just not my poetry.) I had to look at those choices and determine why I made them, whether or not they were the right thing to do, what consequences they may have had, or not had. In short, I went to therapy. For my poetry. I went to poetry therapy. And it showed me a lot.

I looked (again) at the people I was writing about. I considered their language and their demeanors. Was it a fallacy to correctly punctuate for a person who never went past the fourth grade in school? Or was it a fallacy not to? If I was trying to write the stories as I heard them, did that mean that I needed to privilege sound over sight?

I decided at the end of it all to not punctuate the words correctly. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. There was a heightened self-consciousness implicit in hyphenating these words that felt at odds with the language itself--and the people who speak and spoke it. And what, in terms of my poetry therapy, did that reveal?

The South is, at best, a beautiful difficulty for me. There are wonderful people there, and natural beauty, and kindnesses that are unparalleled. But there is also a pervasive ugliness that can transcend even the best of these beauties. It's difficult. It's complicated. It's full of contradiction and counter point. And ultimately, I had to leave it. To better understand it. To make sense of it. To make peace with it.

And in the end, I've come to realize that I abhor and love and hope that it will change but meanwhile have to accept it as it is. That I can't force it to fit into any neat category or properness of rules, in terms of grammar or otherwise. I can only speak of it, and my experience with it, on its own terms and let the spoken to take from it what they will. Those are the choices I made in leaving the place. In returning to it. And in trying to decipher and represent it.

So forgive me, readers and editors, for the broken sytnax and disobeyed rules. Forgive me for knowing better and doing it anyway.

Dirge for the Unwritten

2008-09-14T08:45:00.004-05:00

For Reginald Shepherd. And for David Foster Wallace.

A Really Bad Disney Movie

2008-09-11T09:02:00.003-05:00

The Mighty Ducks 3: The Mighty Conservatives.

More Good News of the Poetic Kind

2008-09-09T13:06:00.001-05:00

Steve Schroeder has some good news to share. Hop on over and check it out.

Most Excellent News of the Better Half Kind

2008-09-08T08:44:00.004-05:00

I've been waiting to post this, hoping that they'd get the announcement up on their website, but they're taking too long.

My badass husband, poet Adrian Matejka, was one of the winners of the National Poetry Series this year. His second collection, Mixology, will be published by Penguin (!) in June, 2009.

Huzzah, my love!

One Last Thought...

2008-08-30T09:09:00.004-05:00

...that I can't quite shake. I don't want this whole situation to adversely affect the poet who was named as the new winner of that contest. It's not her fault that this happened, and she didn't know what she was getting herself into, as this story wasn't public. She's a poet who just wants what we all want--to get her poems out there and let them speak for themselves. So do me a favor--read her book, if it strikes you. And after you do, pass it on.

And with that, I am Officially Done with this whole thing.

Don't Cry for Me, Argentina

2008-08-28T13:49:00.019-05:00

When that whole fiasco happened last month, I had a couple of choices--wallow around in my own misery (which I did for a few days, don't get me wrong), wait until the next round of contests, or research the kind of press I really would want to be a part of. I decided to do the latter, and I was guided to one press in particular.

We've been talking and working on things for the past few weeks. And I knew that I would not take my story public until I had this situation worked out, for various reasons: I would never want the press to be viewed as capitalizing on what has happened on the Internet in response to the story, and I don't want my own intentions in getting this story out there to be misconstrued.

I didn't tell my story to try to get a new home for this book. And it wasn't offered as a wholesale indictment of small presses, or contests, or their judges. I know there are tons of small presses with a great love for poetry and a matching sense of integrity. They provide an invaluable service to the literary community, and contests are a major way for them to raise the necessary revenue to create their books. But I do encourage all poets out there to explore all of their options in trying to find a place for their work--and to research the contests and presses thoroughly as well. (Maybe the way to do it is to choose presses you want to support anyway, and look at your entry fee as a donation to them--with a possible thrilling byproduct for one in __________ entries.)

And finally, I didn't tell my story to be the ruination of anyone or anything. Many, many poets are still going to submit to CPR, as they should. No one has to take my word on anything here (though I can prove every single claim). I just believed that if you're the kind of person who believes that breaking a legally binding contract--and your word--is an acceptable thing to do, then the poets who sign those contracts with you should know that about you--before they sign those contracts.

I don't want to be Known for this situation. I want what I've always wanted--to get my poems out there and let them speak for themselves. And now, finally, I feel like I can turn the corner, and turn the page. I can get on with the real business at hand, and this blog can be what it was always supposed to be instead of how it had to start.

So, that said...

For obvious reasons, I couldn't say anything until it was official and everything was signed (which happened just this morning), but now I can announce that I have some very good news.

C&R Press is run by Ryan G. Van Cleave and Chad Prevost. They are a nonprofit organization with a great love for literature and the highest integrity. And I am thrilled and deeply relieved to have found my home with them.

Now let's just hope they can handle how abusive I am.

I Big Heart You

2008-08-26T12:19:00.007-05:00

Hi, everyone.

I just wanted to thank you all again for your supportive and insightful comments on these posts. I'm glad that this situation has prompted futher discussions about the ethics of contests and the viability of alternatives--starting your own press, publishing collectives, publishing on demand, micro presses, etc. It's a rich and necessary dialogue, and while it's a conversation that has been happening on different channels for a while, the fact that it is happening so passionately here and now indicates to me that more and more poets need to examine the alternatives and to question their own belief systems about what constitutes "real poetry" and how we as poets get validated. (If I knew how to link to these discussions, I would, but Reb Livingston, Collin Kelley, and Barbara Jane Reyes are having very interesting conversations on their blogs, to name just a few that I've found.)

That said, I also wanted to thank the poets who actually contacted the press itself to ask for their side of the story. It's only fair that we each have our turn, and an audience for that turn, which is why I posted Robert Wynne's rebuttal on my blog. At this point, I realize that it is what it is. They have their version, and I guess they feel justified in breaking a contract over what they acknowledge was just a layout disagreement. And they seem to think there's nothing wrong in breaking that contract and then maintaining that they still own the rights to that work. Or in trying to get the author to pay them off to get those rights back. They're going to say I was "unreasonable and abusive," just like they told me last year's winner was "crazy." They're not going to apologize or try to remedy the situation. And I don't need for them to.

Given what I now know about that press, I'm relieved that my manuscript is out from under them and that it won't be associated with them when it gets released. And whatever you, as new readers of this blog, choose to do with the information that I've given you, and the story I have told, is entirely up to you. Small press, large press, contests or open submission periods, avenues that are conventional or innovative--I wish you luck in finding a space for your poems and in finding the respect that you and your work deserve.

The Maelstrom, Part Two

2008-08-25T19:58:00.007-05:00

First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for the overwhelming support and kindness I have received from you in the past 24 hours. The comments, the responses, the blog posts, the links--all of them have, quite simply, stunned me. And made me grateful to be part of such an amazing community. Thank you.

I was planning on waiting until tomorrow to write another post, expressing this gratitude, but tonight I received the official response and rebuttal from Cider Press by way of a friend, and I thought it best to address their points and claims and to set this "one-sided blog" straight.

So, for the record, I am posting the rebuttal by Robert Wynne, the formerly silent partner in the Cider Press Review:

Robert Wynne says:

We gave Stacey every single thing she asked for except a photo on the back cover (and we had originally offered that, but she refused to allow us to consider editing the blurbs so it would fit). We spent countless hours and more than $200 of extra money (including purchasing a special font and securing specific cover art) to make the book look exactly the way she wanted. There were certainly misunderstandings along the way, but each one was dealt with as it arose and the only thing we were aware that she was dissatisfied with was the placement of her photograph. In the end, she refused to allow us to publish the book unless we put her picture on the back - when we, instead, wanted to put it inside the back of the book where we deemed it would look better, particularly given the lengthy blurbs on the back.

During the process, Stacey became demanding about every aspect of the book's design, until she became unreasonable and even abusive. At that time we decided to revoke the book award. Since then, she has undertaken a campaign to 'get us back' in whatever way she thinks she can. First she went to a lawyer to assure that she would not have to return the prize money to retain the rights to her book, and we conceded that in an effort to put an end to this unfortunate situation. But she was still apparently unsatisfied, and so she agitated a writer at Poets & Writers (to whom we are providing detailed accounts of precisely what occurred, which may be used in a comprehensive story regarding the matter), and wrote her one-sided blog entry.

Based on her blog entry, she seems to have confused proofreading with editing, since we don't commonly "edit" prize-winning manuscripts but always work with the author to proofread the text for formatting issues only an author could recognize. And she certainly has preconceived notions as to the role of author vs. press, which we can certainly do nothing at this point to rectify. We continue to do what we do because we care about poetry, and want to put out a quality product based on our years of experience as a small press. We have had many good experiences with authors, and very few bad ones. We look forward to more good experiences, and more wonderful poetry, in the future.

I hope that will do the trick.

Thanks,
Robert Wynne
Cider Press Review

_____________________________________________________

That doesn't really "do the trick" for me.

They didn't once address what happened with the previous winner, or the pattern of unethical behavior that has been established in their dealings with their prize winners and has resulted in two consecutive years of legal action against them--and no books by the writers who were chosen by the judges.

They didn't address the whole website debacle and the fact that until I refused to pay Caron Andregg (yes, that's her name) to design my website, everything was fine. My edits and corrections of the editor's mistakes were helpful and great--until this happened. And then I was "becoming demanding."

I also noticed that they didn't address the fact that they insisted upon putting the five-sentence ad and guidelines for the book prize on the back cover *instead of* the author photo. In the Cider Press Review world, it's either chop up the eloquent blurbs of talented writers or ditch the author photo. Getting rid of the ad and guidelines is not an option. Which is why it isn't mentioned.

When each email begins with "With all due respect" and goes on to logically argue for the right to have my picture on the book that I wrote instead of being replaced by a redundant ad and contest guidelines, I'm being "unreasonable and abusive."

And when I ask for a compromise and say that I'm (and I quote) "not comfortable with a book that disrespects its author so blatantly," I am all of a sudden "refusing to allow them to publish the book."

Here's the skinny on that one: I wish I had that kind of power. I wish I could refuse to allow them to do anything. But the truth is, they didn't need my permission for anything. According to the contract we all signed, they had the final editorial say so on every aspect of the book. I couldn't stop them if I wanted to. But rather than respecting that agreement and either moving ahead with the book or working toward compromise, they chose the third option: breaking the contract and revoking the book award.

Mr. Wynne maintains that I'm "out to get them." I guess I understand why he sees his press as the victim here. After all, because I had the audacity to go to a lawyer to protect my rights, they didn't get their prize money back. And because I responded when the writer from Poets and Writers contacted me, I'm "agitating" him.

Please.

Yes, Mr. Wynne. I am dissatisfied. Immensely dissatisfied. And if you're going to issue a rebuttal, you could at least address the major accusations levelled against you.

As my lawyer made clear to both of you, you had no legal or ethical reason to do what you did. You see, breaking a legally binding contract is not an ethical option for conflict resolution--especially when one party has more than fulfilled her end of things. And you had no legal leg to stand on in trying to withhold my rights from me, or demanding a ransom repayment of prize money that I rightfully won. Obviously, your lawyer made this clear to you, or else I'm sure you wouldn't have signed the waiver, and this would have become a protracted legal endeavor--just like it did last year.

And no, Mr. Wynne. I am not confused about the differences between proofreading and editing. "Proofreading" is what *I* did to my own book. And "editing" is what the two of you didn't adequately do at any stage of this process. The problem is that I've saved all of our correspondence, so when you try to paint me as being unruly and difficult to work with, I have sheafs of emails that disprove those claims. I'd re-think that strategy if I were you.

But maybe you're right, Mr. Wynne. I guess in the CPR world, I *should* have been satisfied. I should have paid the $1200 ransom to get my rights to my own book back when, in fact, you never really owned them if you didn't actually fulfill your end of the contract. Or I should have paid my $750 bill for legal fees and just shut up about the whole thing.

I should have just rolled over and taken it. But instead, I chose to speak the truth in a way that last year's winner could not--because you and Caron made sure that she couldn't. Of the four contests you've collected money for, only half of the books selected by the judges have come out. And the poets who give you their money should know this--and know why.

But let me clarify one thing, and this is for the record--and for the woman who was named as the (new) winner of the 2007 Cider Press Review Book Award: I am proud of you, and your work, for getting to this point, and I know this is a dream come true for you. I wish nothing for the best for you, and I hope that this dream stays just that--and doesn't turn into what it became for me. And for the winner of last year's prize.

A Cautionary Tale

2008-08-24T09:45:00.007-05:00

I had every intention of starting a blog once my poetry collection was taken. That was always the plan. I've been reading and occasionally commenting on other poets' blogs for a long while now, and once I even won the infamous caption contest on C. Dale Young's site. But for some reason, I marked actually getting my book taken as the launching point for something like this.

Like many other poets, I submitted my manuscript to many, many contests. At first, it didn't get much traction, but I kept on revising it and kept on sending it out, and at some point, it started to become a finalist. Which was sweet--the first few times. But it turned into something a little different once it started hitting the double digits. At last count, it reached the number 19.

19 times I was a finalist. Sometimes even first runner up. One time, I actually won the contest, but once my name was put with my ms., it was realized that I had gone to high school with the judge, and even though it was a blind read, and even though he had never read any of my poems, I was disqualified. Apologetically.

So you could say that I didn't have very good luck with this sort of thing.

This past February, I told my husband, who is also a poet, that if my manuscript hit the number 20, if it was a finalist one more time without winning anything, I was going to put it in a drawer and write porn under an assumed name. Later that day, I got the email that I had won! Tony Hoagland had chosen my manuscript, and it was going to be published, with a target release date of January '09.

You can imagine my joy. The muffled-because-my-toddler-is-asleep whoooping silent celebration. The not-so-muffled bottles of champagne later that night. The plans and motions and commotions of the past few months of editing, revising, finding cover art, getting the author photo taken, setting up readings and a website and then...

And then...

And then...

July 22nd, I was notified that my book award was "revoked" and that the press was no longer going to publish it. Even though we had a contract. Even though it was almost all the way done and ready to go to press.

Why?

First, let me tell you that this press has a history of unethical dealings with its authors. The only reason why I didn't know this is because last year's winner had to agree to a gag order as part of the settlement with the press. At their insistence, she is not allowed to tell her story, or warn other poets about what happened. So I submitted to a press that I NEVER would have submitted to if I had known.

Which is why I'm writing this post.

Anyway, back to my story. Everything was hunky dory with this press, though I was a little surprised and disappointed that I didn't get one single editorial suggestion from the editor and, in fact, that I had to do the majority of both my own editing as well as the editing for the book as a whole. At last count, I had found and corrected 32 errors--only 3 of which were mine. The other errors were ones made by the editor--jagged margins, dropped italics, misspelled words. But I didn't mind doing the editing. After all, this was my book, and I wanted it to be right.

Early on, the editor had asked me if I would hire (pay) her to design my personal website. At first, I thought sure, why not? It would streamline the whole process. But in June, as we discussed it and she showed me some mockups, I realized that she wasn't going to be able to do what I needed for her to do, so I told her I was going to go in a different direction and get someone else to do it. From that moment on, EVERYTHING changed. And got really, really contentious.

I guess that since this woman designs websites for a living, my choice offended her on some very deep level. And all of a sudden, everything became a power struggle.

My collection is a book-length poem in sections, and as such, there are no titles. The Table of Contents is just an Index of First Lines. And this was fine--until the website debacle happened. Then she decided that it was her right as an editor to assign titles to my poems. What?!?

She actually told me, in one of our exchanges over this, that I needed to stick with the contents of the book and let her and the other editor do their jobs, which included deciding what went in the Table of Contents. Hello? It's the table OF CONTENTS--as in, the contents that *I* wrote. Needless to say, we disagreed. Big time.

That standoff got resolved in my favor, and things were ready to go to press. Then she sent me a mockup of the cover. When I read the blurbs, I just about fell out. She had taken the eloquent and thoughtful words that serious authors like Naomi Shihab Nye, Major Jackson, and Rodney Jones had written and had mangled them--brutally. I mean, chopped up sentences, moving them around so that the subject and predicate no longer talked about the same things. Just butchered them. Without the permission of these authors.

Although I shouldn't have to remind an editor of this, I had to remind her that these were not her authors and that she did not have the right to change what they said so fundamentally without their consent or approval. In fact, since one of the blurb-ers had specifically said she did NOT want her work edited, this presented a real problem.

And the final power struggle began.

She came back and said, "Okay, we'll reinstate the full blurbs, but in exchange, we're taking your author photo off the book."

What?!?!

At this point, you might be thinking that it was a spatial issue, that the blurbs were so long that there wasn't any room for an author photo. No. That wasn't the case at all. In fact, there was enough room left over for the press to put on a five-sentence advertisement for themselves and for the book award for next year, including guidelines. On the back cover of a book!

Let me say at this point that the very last page of the book was already a FULL-PAGE ad for the book award, with a full list of the guidelines. So this five-sentence ad on the back cover was redundant at best and unprofessional to say the least. How many books of poetry do you own? Do *any* of them have ads and guidelines for the book contests on the back cover instead of an author photo?

I argued with them about it, always beginning each and every email with, "With all due respect," but to no avail. I made logical points--blurbs and an author photo are expected on the back cover of a book, but contest guidelines are not. An author photo provides an emotional point of connection and entry between author and audience. None of it worked. This wasn't about what was right, or about respecting the person who wrote the book. It was about power and bruised egos and control.

And when I asked for a compromise, when I said please, can you reduce the five-sentence ad to one or two sentences, or wrap the text around my author photo, I got a certified letter in the mail saying that my book award had been revoked because I wasn't fulfilling my "contractual obligations."

{Update: Because the contract was rendered void ab initio, its contents are not private, and I can clarify this: there were only three things that I as the author had to do according to the contract before the book came out: provide the text itself, my author photo, and my bio. I obviously did those things.}

But it gets even better.

The letter went on to say that even though they had "revoked" the book award and were not publishing the book, the publishing contract was still valid and in effect and that they owned the rights to my book in all its formats. In order for me to get my rights back, I had to repay them the $1000 prize money I had been given as well as give them the $200 they had spent acquiring the cover art for a book THEY were choosing not to publish.

In short, they were breaching the contract, refusing to publish my book, and holding the rights to my own work hostage.

Needless to say, I wasn't going to pay them one thin dime.

I hired a lawyer and told him straight up that I would pay him that $1200 but that I refused to give them any of it. He drafted a letter of demand detailing the ways in which they had broken the contract and giving them one week to sign a waiver relinquishing all claims to my work. If they didn't sign, we were going to move ahead with litigation against them. They signed--immediately. But it cost me almost all of the money that I had won just to keep the rights to my own book--a book, might I add, that was no closer to getting published now than it was a year ago, when I submitted to this contest.

And in the meantime, the day after they sent me this letter of revocation, they gave the award to the runner-up and erased all signs of me, and my book, off their website. Just like they did to last year's winner.

So there it is. A sordid tale, indeed. But unlike last year's winner, I wasn't forced to sign a gag order. And I'm telling my story far and wide, to anyone who'll listen, because the poetry world is small, and it's hard enough to get your work seen and taken seriously. Because it's supposed to work out if you're lucky enough to get that phone call and win that prize. Because poetry presses should be in this because they love poetry and want to produce quality books--not because they have issues and poetic insecurities of their own and need to feel validated and in control. I'm telling this story because once you sign a contract and give up your finalist position in other contests, you shouldn't have to start over at square one--all because an unethical press broke the law and its word.

And I'm telling you this because their new book award contest opens for submissions September 1st, and I want every poet out there who is considering sending their manuscripts to reconsider. Your work deserves to be seen and placed in a press with ethics and integrity. I know it's tempting to just blanket the market and hope for the best, but if you hit with this press, it could happen to you, too, as both of the last two contest winners had to enter into legal action against this press--and neither has a book to show for it.

The name of the press? Cider Press Review. Pass it on.