Blog Posts

Staring at November

10/24/2015

I simply cannot believe that I am facing the last week of October. We've had record warm temperatures this month. However, we've also had our first snow. The trees in my front yard are still clinging to their leaves, so I will probably be doing yard work well into November.

There's plenty to celebrate. First, my poem, "Skinny Dipping with St. Anthony" has been published in the latest issue of Harpur Palate, one of my favorite literary journals.

Second, I just received news that my poem, "Flypaper" has won third prize in The Comstock Review's annual poetry contest. This year's contest was judged by Allison Joseph and I'm thrilled that my work has won such an honor.

Finally, it's Halloween season. And to put poetry readers in the mood, they can take a look at the newest issue of Devilfish Review, where my poem "Picking Up the Vanishing Hitchhiker" has been published.

Autumn Settles In...

10/3/2015

After suffering through a heat wave with temperatures reaching record highs for September, it seems that more normal Autumn weather is slowly settling in. It's been a rainy Saturday, and I've spent the day catching up on my writing, my submitting, and of course, my grading.

District Lit has published its latest issue, and I'm thrilled that three of my poems are included! "The Swimming Hole" is an unusual poem for me, in terms of style, so I'm especially happy that this particular poems has found a home. The whole issue can be read here.

I am continuing to work more with prose, and one of my favorite short pieces I have ever written titled "The Tick" has also been published in The Red Savina Review. This piece can be found in the lastest issue here.

Ending the Summer with Disobedience

8/18/2015

Next week, I'm back in the classroom, and am looking forward to finding some kind of routine. I've gotten off track with my writing, although I have to admit that it's been a rather productive summer, with lots of drafts of poems and prose awaiting revision and possible submission to journals.

I have been good about working on my course syllabi and setting up my new online classes for the fall semester, but still there's a little bit of disobedience left in me. My poem, "Surviving the Rust Belt Apocalypse"" has recently appeared in Poemeleon's latest issue on Disobedience. My poem joins other great works by poets Shaindel Beers, Heather Dobbins, Joshua Jones, Rebecca Foust, and Martha Silano. It's a wonderful issue!

Reflections

8/6/2015

I am staring down the end of summer. As I re-read this first sentence, I am reminded of the Siamese cat I had as a child who would stare at family members for hours, it seemed. As a child, I always tried to hold staring contests with this cat to see who would blink first. I always lost.

So, it would seem, that am losing the same type of staring contest with this summer. In another week or so, school starts and I'm on my way to a brand new semester. As I'm preparing for the new school year, I'm also trying to wrap up some projects I started in July.

Still, there are some accomplishments I'm happy to report.

First, my essay "What Was Reflected" has been published in Souvenir Lit. I'm especially excited about this publication because the piece is about my late mother, who has been on my mind lately. You can read my essay here.

I'm also basking in the good news of a few acceptances. Literary journals District Lit, Mud Season Review and Tahoma Literary Review have all accepted poems. I'm looking forward to these publications as well.

Rust & Rain

7/6/2015

So far this summer, we have seen a lot of rain in my part of the world. (Perhaps that is why I recently picked up Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett at the local library.) Temperatures, also, have been a bit below average (I don't mind cooler temperatures; I am not a hot weather person!) I have just started what poet Sandy Longhorn calls a stay-at-home writer's residency and I am determined to review and/or finish a pile of poetry drafts.

I have spent a lot of time this past month or so catching up on some reading. June was Rust Belt month and I have posted reviews of three books (very different books) that tackle the Rust Belt (or in the case of one book, the general subject of rust itself). You can read the reviews on my Book Picks page.

Finally, for all of my Rust Belt readers: If you haven't discovered Belt Magazine, yet, you really need to take a look! Besides publishing online articles, essays, reviews, and interviews, Belt also has some great anthologies that include writing from Rust Belt cities. Right now, Belt is doing a fundraiser and could really use its readers' support.

Loving Lilly Ledbetter

7/1/2015

There are five reasons why I love Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace, a book that I finished just yesterday.

First, (and I will get the disclaimer out of the way), my poem, "Beauty Tips From the Girls on 3rd Shift" appears in this anthology. Originally published in Anti-, this poem is also in Stealing Dust, my first chapbook. It seems to be a favorite with my readers.

Second, I'm honored (and thrilled) that my poem is published in an anthology with some of my favorite women poets including, Mary Alexandra Agner, Shaindel Beers, Sandra Beasley, Jan Beatty, Denise Duhamel, Daisy Fried, and Dorianne Laux.

Third, although I pride myself on keeping up with poetry about work, this anthology introduced me to work by many poets I did not know. Who are some of these poets? Wendy Barker, Darcy Cummings, Jennifer Dotson, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Sarah Freligh, Erin Fristad, and Mary Ellen Talley, just to name a few. I especially love Talley's poem "Ghazal: Unbuckled Shoes" written in honor of the poet's older sister who is in her mid 70's and still works part time.

Fourth, I love how this book approaches its subject. As the title of this anthology suggests, this collection is about women and work and general responses to Lilly Ledbetter and her struggle for pay equality and justice. When I think of work, I think of women in the factory (perhaps because factory work is what I saw as work when I was young). Yes, there are plenty of factory poems in this anthology, but more importantly, there are poems that explore all types of women's work including retail jobs, waitressing work, teaching positions, and yes, jobs in the sex industry. Equally intriguing is the section dedicated to poems by and/or about women scientists and artists. I always have to remember that work, especially women's work, is not always defined by blue collar jobs!

Finally, this book has taken me back to my roots. In my first college-level English class, poet Judy Vollmer assigned the poetry anthology, Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life edited by Peter Oresick and Nicholas Coles. It was within the pages of this book that I discovered that yes, poetry could speak about the kind of life that I knew, the blue collar life of my family and my friends. I explored a bit of this life in Stealing Dust, but as I look back, I realize that my poetry has evolved a bit, and in some ways, my work has become more surreal. Reading this anthology made me miss the gritty realism often found in poetry about work.

Raising Lilly Ledbetter edited by Carolyne Wright, M.L. Lyons, and Eugenia Toledo, has just been released from Lost Horse Press. You can find out more information about this book and its editor on the publisher's website.

Phoebe Cates Friday

6/26/2015

So, summer is officially here, and in my part of the world, we are bracing for a wet weekend. In the meantime, however, the kind editors at Storm Cellar, have posted my flash work of creative nonfiction, "Phoebe Cates's Bikini" on the journal's website. This piece was published in print form last summer; it's my first published work of flash creative nonfiction.

Incidentally, Fast Times of Ridgemont High was the first rated R movie that I had ever seen. For the particular scene that is mentioned in my piece, you can google "Phoebe Cates in Fast Times of Ridgemont High" and get a visual image of what we were watching.

Of Monsters, Mythic Beasts, and Creatures from Lumber Folklore

6/13/2015

During the past few days, I have been reading the newest issue of Whitefish Review, a volume dedicated to the exploration of monsters and beasts found in folklore and mythology. Often, I have found that many of the pieces explore the monsters that also haunt us, personally. Pictured above is the back cover of this issue which features depictions of the Yeti by various school children who life in Whitefish, Montana. The thoughtful looking Bigfoot is by Stephen S. Bissette. This journal is unique as it contains many works of creative nonfiction (creative nonfiction is the dominant genre in this issue) as well as artwork with artists' statements about their work. I have enjoyed reading about and looking at depictions of Bigfoot, Hell hounds, demon children, forest fairies, Gobi bears, and death worms.

My poem, "Directions for Finding a Squonk" is also included in this volume. Certainly, it's the type of poem that I had fun writing, but deep down inside, I didn't believe this poem would really find a home because of its obscure and unusual subject. The squonk is a creature from Pennsylvania folklore -- and is unique to the Black Forest regions of my home state. Folklore describes the squonk as a creature that is so ugly that it weeps constantly, and often dissolves in its own tears. Its almost impossible to catch and if one does try to capture a squonk, he or she will most likely only get a handful of tears.

Years ago, I was taking a workshop with poet Maggie Anderson at Chautauqua. At that time I was working on a series about the lumber history of northern Pennsylvania. (I never did finish the series; instead, I found that most of the material would be better in prose than poetry.)Many of my poems contained depictions of lumber folklore with a set of creatures that are fairly unique including the splinter cat (a cat that would claw trees to shreds) and fur-covered trout. In one of my poems, the squonk got one line. The people in my group, including Maggie Anderson herself, were very interested in the tales of the squonk, and at the end of the workshop, Maggie told me that she believed that the squonk deserved its own poem, and that its presence shouldn't be buried in a longer piece.

So here it is. Years after that workshop, the squonk of Pennsylvania lumber folklore, not only has its own poem, but is also in great company with other beasts that make their appearances in this issue.

For more information about the Whitefish Review, see its homepage where back issues, with their matching themes, can also be found.

The 2015 Summer Reading List

5/11/2015

Every year, members of Jamestown Community College compile a summer reading list. Here is a list of my contributions:

Cinderland by Amy Jo Burns

The year that Amy Jo Burns turns ten, she finds herself in a scandal that shakes her tiny town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. Howard Lotte, the town's respected piano teacher, has been accused of sexually assaulting several of his female students. Out of Lotte's many students who were questioned, seven came forward to tell the truth, while others lied. Burns was one of the students who lied. Those who told the truth were ostracized by the town; those who lied were safe from the repercussions. Or were they? Burns' memoir traces this incident through her teenage years, reminding us that being silent is not always as easy as it seems, and that there are always consequences to our actions.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

I have yet to see the movie, but thought Lisa Genova’s novel, about a woman who suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, was a compelling read and one of the best books I have completed this year.

Invisible Sisters by Jessica Handler

Jessica Handler's memoir exploring the loss of two sisters is a beautiful read. Without falling into melodrama, she explores grief, guilt, and anger of loss.

Dead Wake by Erik Larson

I am a big fan of Erik Larson's work, and I finished Dead Wake in record time. Larson's latest book thoughtfully investigates the last trip of the Lusitania before it was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat. Featuring an interesting cast of characters, Dead Wake is a must read for history buffs everywhere!

H is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald

When Helen Macdonald's father died suddenly, Helen, in her grief, turns her attention to raising a goshawk, one of nature's most fierce and determined predators. What she learns is not only how we survive grief, but how we navigate life. A wonderful mediation on nature and sorrow.

Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar

Readers may have to brush up on their Bloomsbury history a bit to enjoy this fictional retelling of the relationship between Virginia Woolf and her sister, Vanessa Bell. Still, I found Parmar’s lyrical writing compelling and beautiful as she dives into the literary and art world of the early 1900s.

Finding Abbey by Sean Prentiss

Prentiss looks for the nature writer Edward Abbey’s hidden desert grave in a book that could be described as part memoir, part travelogue, part biography. Finding Abbey is a work that not only explores the life of an elusive literary figure, but also catalogs a young writer's own self-discovery.

Accompanying Dragonflies at About Place

5/6/2015

The Black Earth Institute's journal, About Place, is now live and my essay, "Accompanying Dragonflies" can be found within its pages. This issue is subtitled, The Primal Paradox, and in the general foreword, editor John Briggs explains, "The phrase the primal paradox refers to the diametrically opposed experiences that pull constantly at our consciousness." In other words, the Primal Paradox explores the questions of our boundaries with the natural world and in many ways, with each other.

My essay explores my relationship with dragonflies, but more importantly, our relationship with the insect world -- a world that both dominates the earth (there are more species of insects in the world than any other species) and is fast disappearing. (Note: I do have some of my own pictures of dragonflies, but the one posted above is from Wikipedia Creative Commons).

You can read my essay here. More importantly, however, you should take a look at the entire issue. The next call for submissions is under the theme, The Future Imagined Differently, and will open on June 1.