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Saturday, February 8, 2014

February: The Month of Travels, Readings, Panels, and More

29º ~ 3 inches of perfect snow, no wind, struggling to get above freezing, our "new normal" 20 - 30 degrees below our "old normal"


The weather has been downright Midwestern of late, but February is marching on, and it is chock full of poetry adventures and readings to celebrate the publication of book #2: The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths.



This past Thursday, we hosted Jericho Brown at the Big Rock Reading Series at PTC. It was a spectacular reading, and while a wee bit of snow earlier in the day dampened our turnout a bit, we still had about 50 folks there.

Next week, my travels begin. At the end of the week, I'll fly to North Carolina for the following events.

Thursday (2/13): Flyleaf Books Second Thursday Poetry Reading
Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Featured readers at the monthly Second Thursday poetry series will be Maura High, author of The Garden of Persuasions, winner of the Jacar Press 2013 Chapbook Contest, and Sandy Longhorn, author of The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths, winner of the 2013 Jacar Press Full-Length Poetry Book Contest. 

Friday (2/14): Wake Tech Community College
Visiting Al Maginnes' classes at Wake Tech.  Wahoo!

I'll get to read to and talk with Al's students and also spend time with my po-brother!

Saturday (2/15): Second (Third!) Saturday at Tate Street Coffee House
Tate Street Coffee House, Greensboro, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Jacar Press poets Maura High, Edison Jennings, and Sandy Longhorn will be traveling to Greensboro to read for us at Tate Street Coffee House on Saturday, February 15, at 7:00pm. 

This trip means I'll get to meet Richard Krawiec of Jacar Press in person and continue by onslaught of thanks for his publishing of The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths. I also get to spend time with friends I don't get to see nearly often enough, and I get to meet spouses and/or children I've only known through Facebook.  Wahoo!

~~~

Back home in Little Rock, I'll be gearing up for my Little Rock launch of the new book on Tuesday (2/18). I'm so honored to be launching the book here with a reading at South on Main, the restaurant associated with the Oxford American. As part of the extravaganza, my PTC colleague and friend, Dr. Barry McVinney will perform with his jazz ensemble, Trio Cabrito, from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. Then, I'll take the stage (yes, there's a stage!) at 8:00 for some poems and some Q & A.

Double bonus...the food at South on Main is deeeviiiiine.

~~~

Then, we wind up the month with all things AWP (2/26 - 3/2). Seattle, are y'all ready for this?

At this point, I don't have any readings scheduled, but I'll have copies of The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths in my backpack, and a Square reader attached to my phone. Anyone want a copy?

I have one panel, so here is where you are guaranteed to find me. The panel will talk about setting up a reading series or festival at two-year colleges, which present unique hurdles; however, I'm sure much of the information will transfer to community events, four-year colleges/universities, or high schools.

vent Title: Here We Gather: History and Advice on Setting Up a Writers Conference, Festival, or Colloquium at a Two-Year College
Scheduled Day: Saturday, 3/1/2014
Scheduled Time: 12:00:PM - 01:15:PM
Scheduled Room: Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level

Otherwise, I'm playing this one by ear folks. If you want my cell number, send me a message. Texting is the best and surest way of planning once my sneakers hit the concrete floors of the convention center.

~~~

My one request of y'all, Dear Readers, please do whatever weather dance, prayer, sacrifice, or ritual you do to make sure this winter weather blows itself right on outta here early next week, so we may all arrive safely and soundly, AND ON TIME, wherever it is that poetry/writing is taking us in the days to come.




6 comments:

Michelle said...

Can't wait for your visit! I told the kids about your reading, and they are so excited!

Sandy Longhorn said...

Wahoooooo!

Shawnte said...

As someone who has run a monthly reading series at a community college for the past 4 years or so, I would have been curious about your panel (and it would have been cool to meet you in person, too).

Reason #37 for me to be bummed out about not going to AWP (if I remember correctly, reasons 1 through 36 were all BECAUSE IT'S IN SEATTLE.)

Sandy Longhorn said...

Shawnte,
You get a shout out in my presentation. I do the book giveaway at our readings b/c of you!
You will be missed.

John Vanderslice said...

Sorry to be late chiming in here, Sandy. I hope Jericho Brown's talk went well. We're trying to get him to UCA next year as an Artist-in-Residence. We'll see how that shakes out. Our dean's office can very slow with these things. Hoping to make it to your big LR book launch on Tuesday. We have our big Arkatext festival at UCA this week. It might be tough to add something else on, but I'm going to try. Sorry you won't be in Seattle. We almost didn't go ourselves.

Sandy Longhorn said...

Hi, John,

Thanks for the note. I certainly understand about being busy with Arkatext!

Oh, and I'll be in Seattle. No worries there.