Two Reviews

Rigoberto González on Xochiquetzal Candelaria

Emma Trelles on J. Michael Martinez

Hottie of the Week: Roberto Tejada

And surfaced a flame in the dark elsewhere

Today is my birthday! Today it snowed! A lot!

Wood Studio

There are tombstones in my studio. Yes, tombstones: wood boards bearing the signatures of past residents. I always search the tombstones for the names of poets. Here are the poets who have worked in Wood Studio:

Donald Justice
Thomas Lux
Tom Sleigh
Garrett Hongo
Hugh Seidman
Karl Kirchwey
Martha Collins
Jan Heller Levi
Stephen Dunn
Rich Hilles
Melissa Stein
Jennifer Tseng
Xue Di
Geoff Brock
Pamela Alexander
Jennifer Chang
Arielle Greenberg
Patrick Phillips
D. Nurske
Ramon Garcia
Karl Kirchwey
Tess Taylor
Malachi Black
Anna Evans

(Note: the tombstones above are not in Wood Studio. I'll take a pic soon of the tombstones in my studio.)

Latina/o Poets Roundtable (Poetry Society of America)

This conversation is amazing. I've already printed it out and I will be spending a lot of time with it.

Francisco Aragón:
...Spanish is often used to unwittingly render us as Other in the country many of us were born, raised, and educated in. "You speak English really well," she said. Or: "I love it when you read your poems in Spanish: you should do that more often," he said, not realizing the unintended message: English doesn't really belong to you.

Maria Melendez:
...we U.S. Latino poets are called to keep on keepin' on. Que sigue la lucha. When I (or any Latino poet) am tempted to erase or downplay any of my human complexities in my poetry, in order to appear more closely related to some kind of accessible center, I risk relinquishing my own unique powers of perception.

Roberto Tejada:
I still stand by what I argued: that university presses and other publishers were creating a space for Latino/a visibility, but only so long as it conformed to scripted realms of selfhood and accepted notions of rhetorical conduct.

elena minor:
Being identified as a Latina writer/poet never chafes: as a writer I am not apart from who I am. So as a Latina, everything I write is Latin@ literature, even if the content of the particular work doesn't speak to what are presumed to be "matters Latin@".

Congrats to the 2011 CantoMundo fellows!

• Millicent Bórges Accardi
• Diana Marie Delgado
• Carolina Ebeid
• Benjamín A. García
• Rodney Gomez
• Laurie Ann Guerrero
• Leticia Hernández-Linares
• Manuel Paul López
• Carl Marcum
• Juan J. Morales

CantoMundo 2011 will convene July 7-10, 2011, in Austin, Texas. I will be there giving a talk! I can't wait to meet the new fellows.

Master Poets Judith Ortíz Cofer and Benjamín Saenz will each teach a three-hour craft workshop.

These workshops will center on a particular element of poetic craft that is of interest to the instructor. CantoMundo 2011 also will include a reading and book-signing that will be open to the public.

More info here.

colony bits

no work today. did some email. walked downtown to buy a few things: root beer, visine, hand soap, raisins, a chocolate bar and V8.
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i'm going to spend another birthday away from my family. sigh.
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it was cold today. the sun was out, but the temperature didn't climb above 35 degrees.
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i'm still on cloud nine.
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i'm going to make a fire tomorrow. i think. if it snows tomorrow, then i will make a fire.
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thanks for the postcards/notes: sean, john o., and matthew t.
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today's picnic basket contained a yummy treat: an onion tart! my first.
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thank you thank you thank you.
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mini-interview: oliver de la paz

...the "Requiem" poems were originally part of a long poem, "Requiem for the Orchard," which was first published by Guernica. I originally thought of composing a crown of sonnets to serve as a bridge for what I perceived to be a manuscript mess in the collection's earlier form. So I went into the writing of that long poem with a heck of a lot of intent--I wanted the poem to service what I thought were the needs of the manuscript in its current state. I felt the manuscript needed a cohesive voice and a narrative map.

Victor Martínez (QEPD)

Francisco X. Alarcón: Today Mission District photographer Linda Wilson, long time staff member of El Tecolote, the bilingual newspaper of San Francisco, called me at home to let me know that my friend of more than 33 years, Chicano poet/author Victor Martinez had passed away. I am very saddened by the passing of this great poet, author of the celebrated novel Parrot in the Oven which was awarded the 1996 National Book Award for Young People's Literature among other prestigious literary awards.

Working Hard at the MacDowell Colony!

colony bits

i know you all know my good news. i promise to say something soon.
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thanks for the letters/postcards! i'm talking to you: matthew h., rich, emma, kristin. and sandy, too!!
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i dropped my cell phone into a clogged sink tonight. fudge. i'm airing it out right now. i hope it works tomorrow.
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will post more pics of macdowell this weekend. it's so beautiful here. winter, oh, winter.
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thank you. thank you. thank you.

charles simic says

A poem is like a girl at a party who gets to kiss everybody.

first book interview: brent goodman

It's tempting to believe that the only important books being published are those seen advertised as contest winners in Poets & Writers, but this is not the case. Do you want to be the poet recognized by the imprint, or the poet who earns the imprint recognition? It's the living manuscript that ultimately finds its readers, so the circumstances surrounding how the book gets published shouldn't concern us much.

some awp dc pics (i'm too tired to add names. sorry!)

bit

i had a good weekend. more very soon.

colony bits

the food here is great.
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i've almost fallen four times walking back and forth from my studio to colony hall. damn ice patches!
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breakfast: a bowl of oatmeal drizzled with maple syrup (for you, ivy!), a slice of pumpkin bread, coffee.
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i can't work in complete silence. i need some background noise. thank goodness i brought along a stack of golden girls dvds. i just pop in a dvd and start reading/writing.
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i hear there are some deer on colony property, but i haven't seen one yet.
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some have asked if my studio has wi-fi and the answer is no: i'm blog and facebook from the library.
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lunch: a maryland-style crab cake sandwich, potato/leek soup, grapes, carrot and celery sticks, a chocolate/mint cookie.
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doing a lot of reading for my second project.
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it's really spooky walking back to my studio at night. the woods, oh the woods! i hear things. i see things. in the dark. in the dark.
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the talent here is amazing. it blows my mind.
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the library is beautiful. stone floor. walls lined with books. arch windows. a piano.
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dinner: salmon steaks, carrot/lentil mix, salad, freshly-baked bread, squash with sun-dried tomatoes, apple pie with whipped cream.
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i need better gloves. mine are too thin. the wind cuts right through them.
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love.

write me!

i like letters. postcards. small gifts. but don't send fruitcake! ha.

i will send you a macdowell colony postcard. i'm fancy like that.

Eduardo C. Corral
c/o The MacDowell Colony
100 High Street
Peterborough, New Hampshire 03458

colony bit

the hairs in my nostrils froze as i walked to colony hall this morning for breakfast.

winter, 1
eduardo, 0

MacDowell Pix: My Studio: Wood (Click on pix to enlarge)

My studio. Lovely, no?

The fireplace and the rocking chair. And the short hallway leading to my coffee/tea nook and bathroom.

This is going to be my writing desk. It's right next to the fireplace.

The bed in my studio. Yes, that's a Smurf blanket.

My tea and coffee nook!

One of my three desks. I eat my lunch here. Love the views. Snow, snow, snow.

The view from my porch. All that firewood! Do you see the orange Home Depot bucket? I can't escape!

Colony Bits

I'm here.
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Overwhelmed. Grateful. Ecstatic.
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It's snowing. I can see the snowflakes through my window. They are beautiful and they are smaller than the periods at the end of these sentences. No. They are Whitman's atoms. They belong to me. And they belong to you.
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My studio has three desks. A large fireplace. A coffee/tea nook. A porch with a bin full of firewood.
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I brought my Smurf blanket with me! You can see it draped on the bed in one of the photographs.
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I don't have a live-in studio this time. I have a bedroom in a dormitory and a studio. I will be spending most of my time in my studio. I love to wake up and start writing immediately.
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The last time I was here my studio was close to Colony Hall, the place where we eat, wash our clothes, play ping-pong, and hang out. This time my studio is farther out. It takes me about 25 minutes to walk from my studio to Colony hall.
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I got lost yesterday! I made a wrong turn somewhere and I ended up walking and walking around aimlessly. Did I mention I was carrying my laptop bag and a duffel bag while I was doing all this walking? After thirty minutes, I ran into another colonist. She looked at her map, smiled kindly, and told me it might be a good idea if I walked to Colony Hall to ask for a ride to my studio. Ha.
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The staff here is so welcoming and kind.
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I'm in my studio right now. I'm listening to Juan Gabriel and singing out loud. I wouldn't dare sing in public; I can't carry a tune to save my life. But I know nobody can hear me. This place gives me the courage to sing.
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Can I tell you something? I'm already in love with my studio. It's cozy and lovely. I'm surrounded by windows. A beautiful rug covers the brick-red floor. The roof beams are studded with knots.
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Lunch will be delivered soon in a picnic basket. Lunch yesterday was yummy: Vegetarian chili, cornbread, celery and carrot sticks, a pear, two pecan cookies.
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Confession: Not only did I bring along a Smurf blanket, but I also brought my Smurf pajamas.
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Ecstatic. Grateful. Overwhelmed.