Kaleidowhirl

I just found out that Kaleidowhirl's new issue has just gone live.

Check out my poem here:

Kaleidowhirl

Gob Pile Chapbook Series News

We are happy to announce our first four chapbooks in the Gob Pile Chapbook Series. These chaps will be out in November, but we will be announcing a pre-order soon.

Chaps:
Alex Stolis’ How to Drink Yourself Sober
Cory Mesler’s Grit
Michael Campagnoli’s Kikukus
Mark Jackley’s Cracks and Slats

Editors for the series: Cindy Kelly and Laura Wackerly. Reader: Shaun Barcalow.

Three more chapbooks should be coming out in December, as a result of the Flip Kelly Poetry Prize. If you haven’t checked out the submission guidelines for this contest, you should. It’s got one of the lowest entry fees around (only $15), and you get a year’s subscription to Plain Spoke (a $24 value!) for free.

Everybody likes free.

A Sestina and a Short Fiction: Publishing news

Plain Spoke Vol. 2. No. 1. is going to be out very shortly, and it's the longest issue yet, full of the fabulous, charming, and lovely works of an eclectic group of writers, featuring the poet Deborah Bogen (www.deborahbogen.net), who resides in Pittsburgh.  

In my own personal quest for publication, I received two good pieces of news today. 

Forthcoming in their "oldest profession" issue, my creative nonfiction piece, "The Brief Existence of Lainey O'Galeigh," will be published in MiPOesias .

Also, forthcoming in the Spring 2008 issue of Kaleidowhirl is one of my favorite pieces, "Homesick Sestina." 

Today I went to the first annual Lady of Mercy Handmade Craft Show in Carrollton, Ohio.  I didn't sell a ton of stuff, but I passed out lots of flyers about our grand-reopening in May (12th-18th, if you're in the area - check www.oldegarage.com for details and schedule of events).  So we made back the table money, sold a few things, and got some (basically) free advertising.  

The weird thing was people were buying lots of fall-flavored (read:  orange and brown and fall colors) things.  I thought it was Spring, people!  :)  

Anyway, I've got a ton of work to catch up on.  

Two Poems and one contest.

I had bronchitis last week, and I missed all of my classes and did not even check my email.  

So when I did sit down to check it, I was overwhelmed with the amount of it (And Gmail does get a "good boy!" for making sure it was 99% spam-free).  

So first, I'll share all the good news:  

1.  Apparently there is an English department award each year, given to two English majors who "who not only earn high grades but who are also actively involved in class and contribute to other students and the life of the campus" according to the email I received.  So yay!  I won!  I never win anything.  

2.  "I Dreamed of Drowning" is forthcoming at Bakers Dozen.  

3.  "A Record of Things" is forthcoming at The Hiss Quarterly.  (This poem is one of my new favorites, and chronicles a piece of my mother's childhood, creatively, with wallpaper.  It should be up on or around May 1.)  

And now a little disappointment:  

I was hoping to be among the winners of the Akron Art Museum's New Words poetry contest, but I wasn't.  They don't send you any kind of loser notification, so I just kept checking the site occasionally.  Oh well.  I just thought it would have been cool to have won that one.  

Bit of disappointment with Forklift, OH

So I found this journal:  

Forklift, and it's so charming and unusual that, of course, upon consuming all of the available text, I wished to submit something charming and unusual of my very own.  

I was a little bit hesitant because there are several big name poets (including Dean Young - and since one of the two poets who influenced me in a Great Big Way was my teacher, Bob King, and since Bob King was under the poetry-teacherish-influence of Dean Young - it makes sense to me that they might like my poems.  They might not publish them, but they might like them just the same)  I thought maybe submitting to them was a waste of time.  But then I got a little bit of that "don't hurt to try" spunk out of the closet (maybe it fell on my head) and decided what the hell.  

So I clicked around (not the most obvious website in terms of labelling their links according to the information stored within - instead it's all metaphoric, which might just be a little bit of an indication of their snobbery, but I didn't catch on), until I found their submission guidelines under logistics.  

Now.  I don't know about the average Joe (or Jane, and why does Jane usually get paired with Dick until she dies and then it's John, and what's up with Joe, anyway?), but this seems a little sketchy to me: 

"If you are interested in being included in an issue of Forklift, Ohio, we request that you first purchase and read a copy of the journal. 

Then, before sending any work for consideration, please query the editors by E-mail at editors@ForkliftOhio.com. " 

I understand that journals are often battling to stay afloat financially (as the editor of Plain Spoke, I can empathize wholeheartedly), and I often purchase copies of journals in order to read them and familiarize myself with them before I submit work.  However, forcing people to purchase in order to query is a bit snitty, to say the least.  

Also, even if I wasn't opposed to being forced into a purchase, I could not buy the journal if I wanted to because it's sold out.  I get that it's "Be hand-assembled in limited quantities from a variety of unusual materials," but that much exclusivity is just for the birds.  

I guess I just have to stick this one in that big heap of crap I'm not interested in, and move on.  

How disappointing.  

Here I am.

I'm always saying that I'm going to keep up with blogging, and I never do it.  

So what's the harm of a little "try try again?" 

Stuff I should keep track of a little better: 

to-do-lists

crafty artsy projects 

accomplishments 

writing 

publication 

things I want