A Flutter, A Flurry

61º ~ ah, spring, what took you so long? (full sun, a moderate southern breeze)

This morning has been a flurry of activity at the Kangaroo desk. So here are some links and a few bits of news.

Congrats to Jehanne Dubrow for the arrival of her new book: Stateside. I still need to pick up From the Fever-World, but I plan to get both at AWP next week.

How a Poem Happens, one of my favorite poetry sites, features Jake Adam York this week, exploring the process of writing one of my favorite poems of his, "Shall be Taught to Speak."

Two bits of good news:

The new issue of Terrain.org is LIVE and includes two of my poems. In Monday's blog I wrote about reading styles. If you click on my poems you'll be able to hear me read. Feel free to let me know what you think.

After submitting for seven years, I *finally* placed two poems at Passages North. As I've said before, persistence has been my tool of choice in the world of publications. This proves the tool is sturdy. For the past several rounds of submissions, I've received the hand-written note to try again. This year, I first received an email stating that the editors liked my work but wanted me to send one more batch before making a final decision. I've never had that happen before, but dutifully, I mailed off five more poems. It turns out that the two selected were from this second group, and I am thankful to the readers and editors at the journal who took the time to reach out and work with me.

One last note: I've been feeling a bit of a geek for studying the AWP schedule and drafting a game plan. I even made my own calendar in excel so I could pencil in panels and readings/signings I do not want to miss. Today, while catching up on reading blogs, I must have read three or four written by people admitting to this very activity, advocating it actually. Writer geeks unite!