peterbourgh, new hampshire

The winner of Boulevard magazine's 2010 Emerging Poets Contest is...

Tomás Q. Morin!

Read his wonderful poems here.

I wish I'd written the first one.

bits

today's high? 35 degrees! the wind is blowing and howling. in short, it's cold. and it sucks.
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one week left. a couple of my favorite colonists left this morning. i'm going to miss you, joseph and dan.
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check out these amazing macdowell colony photographs.
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i wish i were pretty.
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there's a herd of deer here. i see them often. white-tailed deer.
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ron slate: nineteen poets write briefly on some of their favorite new and recent collections.
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want

upcoming reading

UTEP Undergraduate Creative Writing Society's, "Buttered Toast Reading Series" presents special guests: Eduardo C. Corral, Carolina Monsivais, and Barbara Jane Reyes

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011. UTEP Centennial Musuem [Tom Lea Gallery]. 7PM

El Paso, Texas.

3 pics

Today's breakfast. Two poached eggs, bacon on toasted bread, coffee, oj, and a muffin.

My foot cracking the surface of a frozen puddle. Exciting, no? I hate my rain boots. They have no arch support. My feet are killing me. The minute my residency is over, I'm throwing them away.

Some of the notecards/gifts people have sent me! RJ, thank you once again for Ken!

poems that i love

Ice Storm

Unable to sleep, or pray, I stand
by the window looking out
at moonstruck trees a December storm
has bowed with ice.

Maple and mountain ash bend
under its glassy weight,
their cracked branches falling upon
the frozen snow.

The trees themselves, as in winters past,
will survive their burdening,
broken thrive. And am I less to You,
my God, than they?

Robert Hayden

Meridian: Rubber, Fabric, Foam, Monofilament: 16' x 16': John Grade: 2008

More stunning work here.

Victoria Chang talks to Rachel Zucker

I am so uncomfortable with other people’s jealousy that I tend to completely sublimate my knowledge of it. I don’t tend to be so jealous of others although every once in a while I have a full out temper tantrum about rejections.

Li Young Lee

this video of Li Young Lee reading just rocked my little world.

oh his poems, oh his poems.

i'd forgotten how much i love his work.

wow.

first book interviews: sandy longhorn

Once the book is accepted, the work of getting it into the hands of readers begins, and that work will fall, mostly, on the poet. Some poets are good at this naturally; others are not. Know yourself and set realistic expectations. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

bits

i have two weeks left!
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my forthcoming book (!!!) is divided into three sections. this fractured corrido is the middle section, the centerpiece.
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i'm reading in el paso, texas in a few weeks. more details soon.
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katherine larson: two poems
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spring is fast approaching. the snow is melting. the pine trees are greener. heck, some of the locals are even wearing shorts!
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love this poem: popcorn and sourdough,/bleached jean and sand.
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i haven't played much ping-pong during this residency. sad, no?
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chickens!
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this week at the macdowell colony i ate...

a moose-shaped cookie!

it was yummy: gingerbread with chocolate frosting.

Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize Guidelines

$1500 and publication by Saturnalia Books
2011 Judge = Denise Duhamel

Manuscripts will be accepted during the month of March only (or postmarked by April 1).

Complete guidelines here.

3 colony bits

less than three weeks left! oh my.
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it's a beautiful day. the sun is out. it's about 50 degrees. i might walk downtown in a few minutes.
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sean singer: The search for identity is pointless; we can use language as a way to learn what we are.
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my interview about the yale is up!

Then my cell phone rang. I walked over to the piano, rested my elbows on it, and answered. After we exchanged a few pleasantries, Carl Phillips asked, Is your manuscript still available for publication? I said, Yes. Then he said, Good, because I've just selected it for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. I honestly don't remember much of the conversation after he said that. But I do remember three things. I thanked him. I asked him to repeat the news. I quietly sobbed while he said amazing things about my poems.

2011 FOUR WAY BOOKS LEVIS PRIZE IN POETRY

Judge: Claudia Rankine

Submission Dates: January 1 – March 31, 2011 (postmark or email deadline) by online submission manager or regular mail. Postmark deadline March 31 and email deadline (by 3 am EST April 1).

Awarding publication of a book-length collection and $1000.

Open to any poet writing in English, regardless of publication history.
Submissions accepted on-line (preferred) and by mail.

Complete guidelines here.

today's lunch

my lunch waiting for me on the porch!

i'm strong! i can lift a picnic basket with one hand!

what's inside?

fishcakes, tomato and feta cheese salad, onion soup, carrot and celery sticks, a cookie and an orange.

I Am Yours: Wool Felt: 64 x 192 Inches: Arturo Herrera: 2000

Click on pic to enlarge

colony bits

it's hard not to fall in love with your studio! it quickly becomes home.
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Erika L. Sánchez: Kindness
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confession: i tried to make a fire about a week ago. i thought i opened the flue all the way. i didn't. smoke poured into my studio. i quickly opened the door and the windows. yes, yes, yes: i'm embarrassed.
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where are all the poets? colonies are usually overrun with poets. not this time. right now, three poets are in residence. including me. i adore the two poets here with me. both are sweet and both write amazing poems. it's been a pleasure getting to know them.
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see, i told you i wouldn't drop names!
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i need to do my laundry. today. seriously: my socks are growing beards.
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2 interviews

Leslie Harrison
I sent it, mostly out of curiosity, to a couple of contests, even though it didn’t feel finished, yet. I’d heard how awfully hard it is to get a first book taken, and I was worried about that, so I wanted to test the waters. Then, a few months later, I’d had a breakthrough concerning structure, and it felt finished, so I sent it out to five places—all on the same day. One of those places was the Bakeless. So, maybe seven in all, but I ended up withdrawing it from three of those places after it won.

Luke Johnson
After the Ark is, more or less, my MFA thesis from Hollins University. There are a few poems from the years before, and one or two from the year after. I think it came together in the relatively common way: poems strewn across the floor of my living room. I spent a few weeks walking among the poems I’d written during that three year period, moving them around, searching for connections in image and some sort of coherent narrative...

mini-interview: c. dale young

I am an obsessive-compulsive person by nature, and I cannot help being that way in my poems. I return to things over and over. In many ways, I would never have a book of poems otherwise. I cannot sit down and decide to write a book of poems on fill-in-the-blank topic. It would never happen. After 4 or 5 poems, I would lose interest and the book would be dead. So, I just write poems.

It's official (Click on pic to enlarge)

I've waited a bit to announce this on my blog.

Carl Phillips has selected my ms for the 2011 Yale Series of Younger Poets.

My book will be published in April 2012.

I really don't know what to say. I've dreamt of writing this post for years.

I'm still adjusting to the news. Crazy, no? I keep whispering to myself: Your poems have found a good home. Your poems have found a good home.

Thank you: Carl Phillips.

I know you want the details. The how, when and where. I'm finishing up an interview that will be published online that will reveal all the good stuff.

I'm the first Latino to win the Yale.

I can't wait to read Radial Symmetry by Katherine Larson. It comes out later this month. What a cover!

The press release hasn't been posted on the Yale website yet. The one above I found pinned to the MacDowell Colony bulletin board. I almost want to keep it. As a keepsake. As tangible evidence that I didn't dream all of this. That I really did win. That I'm really going to have a book out in the world.

Thank you.