post-awp, pre-mfa acceptances (or rejections, for that matter). all this static is making me nervous. awp was incredible fun: so many readings and panels packed back-to-back, lou malnatti's pizza every lunch (pepperoni 6', please), and the bookfair, which reminded me a bit of borges' library. almost every book on my to-read list was not only there, but $5 off! i picked up:
alex lemon, hallelujah blackout
matthew zapruder, the pajamaist
nick flynn, blind huber
wayne miller, only the senses sleep
darcie dennigan, corinna a-maying the apocalypse
paul otremba, the currency
erinn batykefer, allegheny, monogahela
louis streitmatter, a new map of america
joni tevis, the wet collection
and back issues of cream city, bat city, agni, crab orchard, & beloit poetry.
notes: i was thrilled to see paul otremba's book for sale (and him at the four way table signing it); he read 'gorgias in love' at bread loaf last summer, and i haven't been able to get it out of my head. neither, apparently, did my friend brian - we talked about it over drinks and found that we could both still quote some lines. it might be going up on brian's site ink node soon - you should click over there even sooner. (eta: on ink node, paul otremba's gorgias in love.)
otherwise i've been grazing through these collections. i can't get enough of zapruder's poems - elegant, bizarre, and sad - or dennigan's, really, particularly the opening poem, "I Sense a Second Heart":
We used gum to get out gum,
grease to remove grease.
With me this logic stuck--
when quiet got too much I put in earplugs
or hit the one I meant to clinch.
these first few lines have stuck with me the last few days. also john berryman's "I am the girl who did know better but". excess for the love of it, for the fear of scaling back. (no, that wasn't me behind a flock of goose islands at the hotel pub this weekend.) more and more i realize that i'm a full-blooded american girl.
oh, and there were wonderful panels at awp as well - i particularly loved the one on poets writing memoir, with carolyn forche, donald hall, honor moore, and nick flynn. more books coming out soon that i'm going to have to snap up. interesting, too, the thoughts about nonfiction. i have a prose project brewing at the moment that i'm thinking about structuring: in alternating historical and personal fragments, or through the lens of an entirely different subject, or - less interestingly - as a frame story. lots to consider. lots more to read. in the meantime, i need to buy another bookcase. no exaggeration. proof:
on that note, i'm going to go read.
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