Breaking in The Green of Breakable Things

In more good (and very recent) news beyond the Pushcart nomination:

The Lamplighter Review took my poems "Gold Frame," "In Praise of Kevlar" and "When You Came Home from the War." These are the first poems from my unpublished manuscript The Green of Breakable Things to be picked up, and I'm particularly proud of them. Hooray! Look for them in the next issue of Lamplighter. (Also, a side note - the response time was phenomenal, which is always much appreciated!)

I'll also have work out in the next issue of River Styx and Sow's Ear Poetry Review.

And finally for today, The Green of Breakable Things has been entered in her first poetry book contests. Wish her (and me) luck! (And, of course, if you're an editor and want to read the manuscript, I'd be happy to send it along *grin*)

Pushcart Nomination!!

There is no turkey at my house. No stuffing, mashed potatoes, or any of the other foods and smells that I usually associate with Thanksgiving. I should probably be halfway to depressed. But, while I miss all of that usual foodly goodness, i can't quite bring myself to wallow very deeply. My trusty editor, Robert Ward, emailed me yesterday with some lovely news and an early Christmas gift: he nominated me for a Pushcart for my poem "The Light Becomes Us."

I'm absolutely thrilled/tickled/walking on air about it. (Choose your expression of joy and insert it as you will.) And for a number of reasons - first, well, it's a damn Pushcart, only one of the most prestigious writerly awards! Second, "The Light Becomes Us" happens to be one of my favorite, favorite poems of mine. (Can I have a favorite poem of my own without seeming too self-absorbed?) Anyway, it's a poem that makes me happy, each time I read it, that *I'm* the person who wrote it. Those are the best sort, I think, at least from the author's side of things.

And so, as we enter the holiday season and I am trying to make sure my worklife and my home/writing life remain separate and both lively, I am concentrating on how good a year this has been for me in terms of my creative writing. My first book published in June. My MFA completed in November. Various publications and anthologizations (new word!) in lit mags and journals, and now a Pushcart nomination. Quite the haul for a matter of mere months!

And for this turkeyless Thanksgiving, I am thankful to Robert for all of the support and good juju he has given me. I am thankful to the poets at Spalding (Jeanie Thompson, Phil Deaver, Molly Peacock, Greg Pape, Rosemary Royston, heather Wyatt and many others) for helping me to polish my craft and support this whimsical notion I had to become A Writer. To my mother, Joanne, for her unconditional love and support. And to the rest of my family and friends, both in meatspace and on the intarwebs, who humor me and politely ignore (or unabashedly cheer) my obsession with finding just the right word and rhythm. I am also indebted to every person who bought a copy of my book, either for yourself or for your library or as a gift for someone else - that was a wonderful gift to me, whomever the book ended up going to! I am thankful.

Back on the Submissions Train

It is 1:00am. I just finished a few hours of submitting work, limiting myself (for tonight) to only those journals that have print publications and accept online submissions. I managed to get 21 submissions done, each with tailored cover letters, paying attention to who takes simultaneous submissions, who doesn't, and the number of poems each allows. I'm happy to see that more and more folks are utilizing the online submission manager software. it's not any easier on the eyes of the readers 7 editors (having read for the past 12 months for The Louisville Review, I feel your pain!), but it sure does make life a lot easier for writers.

I separate mu submissions by online vs mailing submissions because I prefer an efficient workflow, and it's easier for me to work this way and get more done. I was goaded into action by my poet-pal Rosemary Royston, who told me she was using her post-residency energy to get out her submissions. She inspired me, as I haven't submitted anything in ages and ages. So, twenty-one. Not bad for an initial crack. I'll do a snailmail batch (which tends to be smaller, since postage is expensive) before teh year is out, as well.

And truly? Between using Duotrope to limit the field, and the quick editing between my manuscripts-in-progress and cover letters? It took all of two and a half hours. Less,if you subtract the time I spent walking the dog. Sometimes I forget that it doesn't take much to put yourself out there. Get thee to submitting, writers!

Chugging right along. Heading to bed long past my bedtime. Happy Thanksgiving, all!

And She Lives....

Okay, yes, it's been four months since I've last posted. Eep. How easily those weeks fly by without a thought, and eventually I'm able to ignore that nagging little voice reminding me about this blog. And *that* is all too close to how easy it is to ignore that little voice that tells me to write anything.

The big news: I've graduated! I now hold a Master of Fine Arts in Writing (with a poetry concentration) from Spalding University. I'm so proud I could burst!

My mother and some of my best friends hauled themselves to Louisville for my graduation, and it was wonderful to know they were there to see it and share in my excitement. WOO. Big excitement. This is the degree I am proudest of, so far, in addition to my undergrad degrees. (I appreciate the MLIS, but it was easy *grin*)

I had such a great time at my last residency, and felt so healthy with having time to write (which I did instead of drinking and smoking and staying out late partaking in other writerly bad habits), that I am rededicating myself to my writing. I am working on filling in a few gaps I see in my creative thesis before sending it out, and I have an in-progress collection that's very different from my usual, but which is a lot of fun and I think it has potential. It's tentatively titled The Green of Breakable Things, and I just submitted a few to a journal. (Ack, I've been ignoring submissions, too, and that's the other thing I need to get on.) The goddess collection keeps morphing ad changing and has lost its shape a bit, but it's still in the hopper.

I am thinking about setting up a writing corner and being serious about my writing time (as opposed to perching on the couch with the laptop balanced precariously, in my lazy after-work slouch). I have the corner all set up, and am seriously considering buying a desktop computer (as mine has died, and the wee 12" laptop is not comfortable for long-term writing endeavors). I'm pretty set on the Dell XPS. Pretty, pretty (and I've promised myself if I can polish off the two manuscripts by June, I'll play WoW again, recreationally).

I'm not waiting for the New Year to make my resolutions. I will write now. I will make the changes I need to make to ensure I don't let my job take over and crowd out my writing. It feels like a rebirth. Or at least waking from dormancy. Let's see what i can make happen...

Polishing Book 2: Gonesongs

More from me in a week or two - right now I'm concentrating on polishing Book 2, which will be my creative thesis for the MFA. It's a whole lot different than God in my Throat - more autobiographical and more personal narrative, which makes me a bit more raw when working on it. The working title for it is Gonesongs, though I'm not sure if I'm in love with that. I've got another title percolating, but the poem that includes the title line isn't actually written yet. Working on that, and if it gets written - and fits into the collection - I'll let you know.

Anyway, I've been extremely lucky. I requested poetess Jeanie Thompson as my mentor (if you've been following this blog, you know that she was actually my mentor for my first semester in the program), and happy of happies, I got her. Her first run-through of the manuscript culled a lot of extraneous junk and unnecessaries, and included some commentary that give me a much better idea of how the manuscript stands on its own. It's sort of like the book was a slab of marble with a good sculpture inside, and she managed to carve something worthy out of it. All to say, it's already far better after her first run-through of the manuscript, even though there are a few major rewrites and revisions for me to get done in short order.

Colleen is Anthologized in Against Agamemnon: War Poetry 2009

Happy news! My poem “Tysketöser” has been anthologized in Against Agamemnon: War Poetry 2009, edited by 2007 Pulitzer Prize Nominee James Adams. It's available out of Waterwood Press at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, TX (phone 713.523.0701). The focus was on poetry of witness, which is interesting, and it includes talented poets from around the globe. I am honored be included!

God in my Throat Gone to Print; Paper Proposal for Wales Conference

Hi, all! Long time no write, I know. The best of news: God in my Throat: The Lilith Poems has gone to print, so if you pre-ordered a copy when the order form and website first went active, you should be seeing it quite shortly! Thank you both for your patience, and for your support of my work and the small press willing to put it out. You warm the cockles of my heart.

In other fun news, because it coincided nicely with the topic of my MFA critical thesis (which was on the poet H.D.'s revisionist mythmaking in her book length poem Helen in Egypt), I decided to pitch something to the "Recycling Myths, Inventing Nations" 2010 conference at Aberystwyth University in Wales (call for paper and panel proposals here). I almost feel guilty for it not really being related to my librarian-type research, but not enough not to make my pitch and cross the hell out of my fingers that it gets picked up for the conference. It's my first ever paper proposal (usually I pitch presentations). See my abstract below:

Revisionist Myth-Making: Poets Reclaiming and Rewriting History

Colleen S. Harris

Abstract

After a brief study of the classical foundation for contemporizing myth and some of the treatments of it that bring us to the present, the proposed paper examines how the American poet H. D. breaks from the traditional poetic epic by developing a female heroic character. The paper explores the importance and impact of H.D. writing a female hero out of the character of Helen of Troy to conquer manifestations of male archetypes such as the warrior, the lover, and the protector. Expanding from the exploration of H.D.’s revision of the Helen myth, the examination moves into the broader impact of modern poets creating revisionist mythologies by rewriting major (and minor) historical and mythological characters to reflect modern values and contemporary concerns. Other myth and history-modifying poets discussed in the context of the paper include Louise Glück, Michael Ondaatje, Claudia Emerson, Andrew Hudgins and Frank X. Walker. The paper concludes with a discussion of the impact of this revisionist mythmaking and alternative history-writing on perspectives of history, and the opportunities – and pitfalls - of contemporizing myth by infusing old mythologies with modern voice and contemporary issues.

So, here's to hoping I'm interesting enough to get tapped for Wales. (Do I get "exotic" points for being American? Doubtful, but I can hope.) Cross your fingers (and anything else you can cross) that they contact me!