Dear Poets,
I heard this phrase not long ago and had to laugh. As ideas often coalesce when poem-writing, the more I mulled this over the more I began to see it elsewhere. Even YouTube agrees. I got back from the East Coast later than usual, my son went back to school a full week later than usual, and several other unusual things have crowded into these past weeks. For all these reasons, I am embracing February as a fresh start. To show I really mean it, I’ve ditched my decorative (i.e. aspirational) planner and ordered a new one whose arrival I am stalking on UPS.com. Since this fall, I’ve been working more with single clients on their manuscripts (and welcome more!) so am going to put classes on hold for a bit. But I plan to send these newsletters more regularly and you (yes, you❣️) will be the first to know when I relaunch.
Hearty congratulations to Nancy Murphy whose new book The Space Carved By The Sharpness of Your Absence is just out. I was honored to read at her launch party this past Sunday, with the always enigmatic and astounding L.A. poet Sarah Maclay. It was delightful to meet new poetry acquaintances and I send you all a wave 👋.
A shout out to my fellow Gen X’ers. I deeply admire the community Jessica Smock and Stephanie Sprenger have built through HerStories. Their online summit runs through mid-February. There is a ‘pay what you can’ option and you can watch a recording of the class I taught this past week: “Returning to Poetry.”
Sharing with you:
Speaking of Gen X, did you grow up watching Theo Huxtable on TV? I enjoyed this NPR interview with Malcolm-Jamal Warner. His album, Hiding in Plain View, is nominated for a Grammy for best spoken-word poetry. It was a thoughtful discussion about the power of poetry, race, hiding and being seen.
You might have been too busy in late December to catch this op-ed about poetry in the NYT: “Poetry Died 100 Years Ago This Month.” The general response among poets (and myself) was: Yawn. Kevin Young’s rejoinder “Deadism” (written in 2012) seems the perfect retort to this perennial (and unuseful) “poetry is dead” trope that gets trotted out every few years.
Much more interesting to me was this recent article in LARB: “Fuck the Poetry Police: On the Index of Major Literary Prizes in the United States.” Glad to discuss.
If you’re going to apply for a Sustainable Arts Foundation grant (and if you’re eligible, you should: “unrestricted cash awards to artists and writers with children”) don’t miss their free application deadline of February 3rd. And don’t miss (like I did last year!) the fact that applications close at 3pm ET (on Friday, February 24th).
This Tuesday (January 29th) from 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Altadena’s co-Poet Laureates, Carla Sameth and Peter Harris will host a Poets & Writers Literary Roundtable, co-sponsored by Altadena Libraries. “We hope you'll join us to network, share ideas, and learn about Poets & Writers' resources for writers. Feel free to bring your own flyers and promotions to display on the community table.” I hope to be there. You should come, too! Sign up here.
Ever since I met Diane Zinna when she ran the AWP Writer to Writer Mentorship program (where I served as a mentor way back when), I’ve been a fan. I loved her novel, The All-Night Sun. She’s running free drop-in “Grief Writing Sundays” workshops all year. But her February Publishing Circle (starting next week) will be dynamite with many guest editors visiting. Gotta say, it’s a little early for those of us on the west coast, but I’m sure anything she offers will be wonderful.
The Woodland Pattern Book Center is a fantastic resource. Based in Milwaukee, they offered incredible (free) resources online during the pandemic. Looks like their two-day Poetry Marathon fundraiser is happening as I type! It’s being livestreamed through Crowdcast and I’m sure is worth a donation.
In the spirit of ‘23 intentions, I did attend Oliver Burkeman’s January Zoom weekend workshop — it was great. His next (March 11 & 12), “Designing Your System for Creativity,” sounds even better. I’ve already signed up. If you do, too, would love to talk about it.
I was sorry to hear of Alex Maslansky’s passing. Alex was the co-owner of Stories, the bookstore in Echo Park. Way back when I was teaching with Writing Workshops LA, my enthusiastic and deeply talented group agreed they wanted to do a reading and I asked Alex if Stories would host it. I’ll never forget how gracious he was, how welcoming. Bookstores are such community pillars — and the people who run them the heart of that. He held that space through Stories and welcomed others in.
Also in the department of sad news, I never met L.A. poet Tonya Ingram, but I was moved by this write up in the LAT.
If I can get this out in time, let me give a last-minute plug for this wonderful poetry series (where I read this past fall). Brendan Constantine is a bold and theatrical reader and I’m told Amy Shimshon-Santo is as well. They’re going to blow the house down.
Finally, Marie Kondo, who were you kidding? As this WaPo article says: “Good luck with that….”
As ever, I hope to hear from you! ✍️
Hi Elline -- this was so chock-full of interesting and useful information! Thanks so much! And love the notion of February as the new January -- can we just do a reset each month? Melanie