Weirdness Called Love

halfway there and ahead of schedule

Fourteen days into NaPoWriMo and I have fifteen poems. Rad!

It was an accident. I wrote two poems yesterday after trying to write an erasure poem, which I didn't finish it until today. It will count for tomorrow.

So I'm ahead by one which is a relief. I've been wanting to write a sestina for a while. I like them for the same reason I like puzzle games like Freecell and Tetris: I get to solve an interesting problem and I know when I'm finished. Very satisfying. 

I started a new workshop today. Poet Cathy Barber, who I know through CPITS, asked if I'd be interested in forming a writing group a few weeks ago. Yes yes! I said and asked if I could invite my poetry partner-in-crime, Molly. Cathy's friend Sara joined us and it was really magical. We took each other's writing seriously while laughing and munching on chips and guacamole. We're gathering monthly now. It feels good to have a group and it feels really good to make new friends.

On an unrelated note, one of my 3rd grade students drew the picture below for me. She tucked it into a book I'd left in the classroom last week. I'm pretty sure I'll keep this forever.

Hope your Saturday is as enjoyable as mine.

Three Impromptu Poetry Prompts

For the first time ever, I'm participating in NaPoWriMo by writing a poem everyday this month. I'm always amazed by people who have a really high output of poem-writing. The trance-like state of mind I require for poem-writing seems to come only when forced these days, so I haven't been writing nearly as much as last year. Nor have I been submitting my work as much. I think I've send five packets the entire year. But this month is about writing, not submitting.

I was going strong through April 5th and then somehow on Friday I completely forgot. I didn't remember until Saturday evening when Sal and I were on our way to a movie. So I found myself on Easter Sunday with three poems to write and not a shred of ideas. Luckily, I've got practice at creating impromptu prompts when my lesson has fallen flat or finished with 20 minutes to spare and I need to keep my students busy!

Since I couldn't think of the last time I wrote three poems in one day, I created three prompts to give me momentum. Momentum. One of my weakest muscles. Once I start I can focus if I don't have a lot of anxiety. It's the starting that's trouble and the procrastination that feeds the anxiety. In case you're a procrastinator too, here are my three impromptu prompts. Feel free to borrow and manipulate.

1. The 2-Minute Poem

This is exactly what it sounds like. I drafted a poem in two minutes. The inspiration came from heating water for tea this morning, which also takes two minutes. If I was clairvoyant, I would have written while it heated, but instead I set a timer on my phone and wrote as quickly as I could for two minutes. After that was up, I left it alone for a while and came back to write the tentatively named, "Welcome to the Grown-Up Portion of the Decade."

In the future, I would recommend quickly going back over what you write and fixing any words that might be hard to read later. There's an entire sentence I can't read in my original chicken scratch draft.

2. The 30-Rock Poem

So, I watch TV. A lot of TV actually. Mostly I have it on in the background while I clean the apartment. I also like to watch TV while I eat. Today I was relaxing and eating my English muffin with PB and honey watching 30 Rock when I decided to just start writing down words from the episode. Once I made a list of about 20 words I wrote a poem draft that used every word in the poem.

Having a word bank is useful because it forces you to stretch language and gets the pen moving or fingers typing when you are stuck. I drafted this poem in a notebook by hand and then typed and revised it later. It's fun watching a story or character or universe emerge from this crop of words you harvested. The title of this prompt's poem is "This is Our Prize for the Silent Years."

3. The Anti-Imitation Poem

When I'm really struggling for my own words, I like to borrow someone else's. I found a poem online by Ada Limon called "Crush" and copied it into my own Word document twice. Have the original there to reference when you need to restart a line or phrase. Then I went through each word and line and rewrote its opposite. This gets hard when you have to come up with the opposite of persimmon (which I decided was the poisonous hedge-apple).

That's where originality enters: you choose for what constitutes an opposite, which words you change, which you leave. Eventually I will take this draft and use it in a different way by either stealing some of the lines or inventing a different structure. The poem "Yield" came from this prompt.

Sense, Nonsense, and the Poetic Sense

I have spent the entire day working on a student anthology. Since I've started waking up super early - 5:30am - with Sal each day, it's amazing how much work I manage to accomplish before noon. Before 10! I feel like I've found these extra hidden hours of the day that only some people know about.

It's been a busy week, but a good one. I haven't been reading the blogs much or the news. Lowkey on the social networks. Busy with teaching a bunch of classes and now this weekend I'll be prepping for nine classes next week (yikes!). I think I'll be overlapping some of my lessons.

I continue to be surprised and impressed with what kids can write when you show them non-kid's poetry (by that I mean poetry written for children, not poetry by children). The third grade class I started this week had me over-preparing; I knew they would need a lot of structure and poem-language such as line and stanza. Most of them had never read or heard a non-rhyming poem before. We read different poems out loud, some written by professional poets and others by kids their age. Some with full sentences. Others were mostly fragments. One poem was just a big stanza. The others were in couplets, triplets and free verse. There were real words and invented words. There were beautiful poems and haunted poems and mighty poems and animal poems.

Their poems were amazing. Here is one of my favorite lines:

Have you ever felt / the riversfire the glow / the gleam


Whoa.

This poet made the word "riversfire" by borrowing from a technique we saw in an example poem. You create a word by putting together two real words to make a new compound word. The rest of the poem is just as beautiful and musical.

There were other student poems that were just as powerful. I swear, kids this age have poems in their skin. I wonder if the end of third grade is just the perfectly ripe age for poetry. They are still children in a way where they don't worry about being "cool" just yet. However, they are capable of some more sophisticated, metaphorical thinking. Puberty hasn't gotten them yet. Social cliques haven't ostracized individual kids yet. And when you show them a poem or two, they think, "oh, I can do that?" Then they take risks. Try something new.

That sense of freedom is familiar to me. I remember feeling that way when I read Dara Wier. I read her poems and said, "oh, I can do that?" It's okay to write strange and nonsensical poems. Yet, I found sense in them, in their music, patterns, repeated images. Not a thinking sense, but a poetic sense.

That's what I think this age group still has - their natural poetic senses haven't been stolen yet. Our culture is so hard on adolescents, so much pressure to fit in, succeed, look good, be cool. But pre-tweens are mostly unaware of that pressure still.

I can't wait to read what they write next.

Poetry book GIVEAWAY to celebrate National Poetry Month!

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Big Poetry Book Giveaway! This event is in honor of National Poetry Month and was started by poet Kelli Russell Agodon. If you want to participate and have questions about the process, check out Kelli's FAQs.

If you're new to Dear Outer Space, here's a little background on me and my blog.

I'm Laura. I'm a poet, writer, editor, and educator. I live in San Francisco where I teach poetry in the public schools for Poetry Inside Out and California Poets in the Schools. I'm also the founding editor of Weave Magazine, a biannual literary publication.

My chapbook, Braiding the Storm, is coming out in September 2012 by Finishing Line Press. If you'd like to be included on my mailing list, sign up here.

I write about a lot of things on Dear Outer Space. I like to interview other writers, review books, tell you about my day or upcoming readings, discuss hot literary topics. I like making lists. I love spreadsheets!

I love a good sandwich, preferably one with cheese and condiments. I'm an extroverted homebody. I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I miss my hometown.

My writing process changes a lot. My natural process involves me drafting something by hand and then forgetting about it for months, discovering it, typing it on my computer, putting it in a folder, forgetting I wrote it, rediscovering it months later, revising, eventually sending it out for publication. Sometimes I have spurts where I write five poems in a day. When I'm more disciplined, I write about one poem a week. In order to help improve by writing habits, I'm going to try to write a poem a day for NaPoWriMo.

I like a tidy workspace. I'm hopelessly disorganized. I lose things often. I'm learning to not care about losing things often.

Finally, I love giving things away!

onto the...FREE POETRY BOOK GIVEAWAY!

One - Chapbook!

The first book in the giveaway is my forthcoming debut chapbook, Braiding the Storm (Finishing Line Press, 2012). I'd call this a coming-of-age collection of poems. A revolution of sorts. Here are links to a couple poems that are in the collection, to give you a taste. This chapbook will be published in September, so the winner will receive a copy in the fall. 

Two - Chapbook !
The second poetry chapbook I'm giving away is called Catch & Release (Seven Kitchens Press, 2012) written by my dearest and most awesome poet friend, D. Gilson. Catch & Release is the winner of the 2012 Robin Becker Prize. This fierce collection of poems grapples with the home, sexuality, religion, family, culture, and class. I can't recommend it highly enough. This book comes out this month, so I should be able to mail it right away.

Weave is awesome!

Three - Lit Journal!
We only need to give out two books, but I'm offering a third chance to win! The third giveaway is a copy of issue 07 of Weave Magazine! This issue features poems from Noelle Kocot, Mary Stone Dockery, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, and Lawrence Wray, and includes fiction and nonfiction pieces as well. Copies are currently available.


Four - Lit Journal!

I realized I have an extra copy of the first issue of Adanna: A Journal for Women, about Women. Great first issue of a lovely journal featuring poems (and other genres) by Yours Truly, Molly Spencer, Sarah Sloat, and Carol Berg, among many others! This will be sent to the winner once chosen.

RULES!

There will be four winners total, two getting one of the chapbooks, the third getting Weave Issue 07, and the fourth getting Adanna Issue 01. Each entrant will receive a number based on the order of their comment. During the week of May 1st, 2012 I will randomly choose four winners from the entrants in the comments section using a random number generator.

This drawing is open from now through ALL OF APRIL - which is National Poetry Month!

TO ENTER, please leave your name and email address in the comment section by midnight (Pacific time), APRIL 30th, 2012 in the comment section of this post.  It's that simple!

So excited to share these books with new readers! What are you waiting for? Go comment!

Chapbook Rookie: Interview with author Karen Lillis on Planning Your Own Book Tour

Most small presses don’t have big marketing budgets to throw at every title. At most, an editor's already stretched schedules might allow her to send some postcards or make online announcements. This means a small press writer might find herself wondering how to best promote her latest book. Most editors will say that readings sell books and they are right. But how do you plan a series of readings? Where do you get the money? How do you travel and how far? Where does a rookie begin when planning a book tour? 

Karen Lillis signing Watch the Doors as They Close for her March 8th
release at Copacetic Comics, in Pittsburgh. photo by Mark Knobil.

I decided to answer these questions by reaching out to novelist and seasoned book-tour-planner Karen Lillis. Lillis is currently in the middle of her second book tour for her fourth novel, Watch the Doors as They Close (Spuyten Duyvil Novella Series, 2012). In 2000, Lillis embarked on the cross-country "United States of Amnesia" Reading Tour via Greyhound bus for her first book, i, scorpion (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000). She's read for many a reading series in the United States and abroad, including Kilometer Zero (Paris), Experiments & Disorders, (New York), The Five Ten Readings (Baltimore), The New Yinzer Presents (Pittsburgh), among others. Also a freelance writer, small press advocate, and Pushcart Prize Nominee, she writes about indie publishing and indie bookstores at Karen the Small Press Librarian.

Lillis is raising funds for her current book tour on IndieGogo, which for a mere $15 donation gets you a signed copy of Watch the Doors. After a book release event on March 8th , she traveled to Cleveland and Baltimore and in late April she visits New York, Philadelphia, and returns to Baltimore. I caught up with Karen between tour legs to chat about her experience with planning and carrying out a successful book tour. Check out the interview followed by the promo video for her IndieGogo campaign.  

~

For your first novel, i, scorpion (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000), you traveled cross-country. Did you plan this book tour? If so, what did you learn from that first experience and how did you apply it to planning future book tours?

Yes, I booked that cross country tour. I traveled with a Greyhound 6-week pass, stayed in cities where my friends lived, and booked readings by looking at local listings and figuring out where people held literary events. Things were very different then—this was 12 years ago. I was using online newspapers to help me find reading venues, but the social web didn't exist. I was still young as a writer and most of my friends were artists or else the kind of writers (journalists, screen writers, zine writers) who didn't do readings; I didn't know many "performing writers" yet. So I made things up as I went. I was emboldened by the DIY ethos of that time (2000). 

Some things I learned for sure: When booking, pay attention to WHO is reading where, don't just go for the generically "good" venue or bookstore, but look for a good fit. Don't read alone in a far-off city—always read with a local who has a local audience. Don't assume anything—check in with your venue a few weeks and a few days before your event. Do your own publicity. If there's a blizzard, don't be afraid to reschedule the reading. Take your reading seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously. By “take your reading seriously” I mean, prepare yourself and figure out what you need to do to give a good performance—preparation for me includes picking out the right reading selection, practicing and timing it beforehand, and choosing the right clothes. By “don't take yourself too seriously” I mean, don't forget that no one except you really cares if you keep writing, keep reading, keep publishing. Do a book tour to see other places, meet other writers, see what it’s like to read to a room full of strangers, fall on your face and find out what you do after that. Do a book tour to see what you’re made of. Everything else (feedback, book sales, reviews) is icing.

Lastly, I learned that you must entertain the audience. My new book, Watch the Doors As They Close, is a very introspective book that I think lends itself best to an intense, private read. My first book tour was with a novel that had some great extroverted chapters—flamboyant characters, dialogue, diatribes. It made for obvious readings. For this book, I am combining excerpts from the book with outtakes in order to lure the audience in with something funnier, and then get to the more introspective passages once they are paying attention.

Did you set up all the readings for Watch the Doors As They Close before starting the fundraiser on IndieGogo? 

I set up several readings before the IndieGogo campaign, but it's not necessarily the end of the "tour" —I'm going to try to add more readings in 2012 if money and vacation days allow. But for IndieGogo or Kickstarter, you have to have something concrete to campaign for—so, yes, I had seven readings set up before I started the fundraiser.

What back up plans did you have if you didn't meet your fundraising goals?

I am keeping a budget and trying to raise the money one way or another to pay for the book tour above and beyond my usual life expenses. So, back-up plans include taking on some articles for extra income, selling off some signed first editions, and crossing my fingers for a good tax rebate. And of course the credit card is the ultimate back up plan that I'm trying to avoid.

Since this is your fourth novel, you've obviously done a lot of readings. I'm guessing you also have a lot of connections in the indie bookstore world. Did you have previous relationships with your reading venues or did you contact them cold? 

I don't think I ended up cold-contacting anyone for this tour so far. I did a lot of that in 2011, though, when I was setting up reading dates for a poet whose book I published. I really enjoyed doing that because working on his behalf took the ego out of it; I could just advocate for him and not have any self consciousness come into the equation. I learned a lot and made some good contacts that way with bookstores, reading series, reviewers, and some other writers. For this Watch the Doors book tour, I often started the process by contacting a writer I wanted to read with and they had a contact at a local venue. In Baltimore I got to read again at a great series where I read my last novel (the 510 Readings).

Any tips on setting up readings for newbies?

For young writers, I would advocate using your social web contacts and trying to set up readings with writers whose work you like or with whom you have some kind of personal connection. Reach out and see if they'd be interested in reading with you. Be ready and willing to do all the leg-work to set up an event, but don’t be afraid to approach other writers or to ask questions. Go to readings and pay attention—what makes readings enjoyable and what detracts? If you’re cold-contacting a venue (I suggest by email), let them know why they would want to host you. How are you going to bring them an audience? How are you going to entertain the audiences they already have? If you’re reading at a bookstore, don’t balk when they take a cut of your (chap)book sales. That’s their business—expect a 60/40 split (you get 60%).

On your fundraising page, you talk about the goal of "building an audience" for Watch the Doors. You also mention selling copies to audience members. Can you tell us about the success of these goals? How do you know if you are building an audience? Is that the same as selling your book?  

These are good questions, and not necessarily easy ones to answer. Building an audience is not the same as selling your book, no. Right now my definition of building an audience is doing my best to give readings that communicate to an audience, and being prepared to do this over and over (over space and over time). My work is also to seek out venues that might host audiences receptive to my writing in particular.

My Cleveland reading is a good example—I set up a reading there with a writer, Mike DeCapite, whose new prose chapbook blew me away. (See my review of Creamsicle Blue here.) The reading space Mike chose made me feel very comfortable. The Lit Café was a cozy neighborhood bar that caters to artists. So, I felt very free to be myself as a writer, I felt very welcomed, and I gave a very unguarded reading—it wasn’t a competition and I didn’t feel “nervous.”  The audience was incredibly receptive during my reading—they were warm and very emotionally “there,” they laughed at my most subtle jokes, their faces were enrapt—I could see their reactions as I read. But this was well set-up—I was benefiting from my co-reader’s labor. Mike has been reading at this bar for 20 years, once or twice a year when he returns to his hometown from New York. So, this was an audience he had built and perhaps for the same reasons that Mike and I really admire each other’s writing, they really liked my reading. They didn’t buy many books—sometimes bars can be bad places to sell your books because you’re competing for beer money!—but I think the work of building an audience means giving a reading that’s memorable enough to stick with exactly those audience members who don’t walk away with your book. Maybe they’ll look it up later, maybe they’ll come back for the next reading I do in Cleveland. Maybe they won’t do either but they’ll remember one image in one chapter I read. It’s still my job to do the best reading I can do.

I think the process of building an audience includes keeping your ego in check and remembering that these people are your audience whether they purchase a book or not. I sold a lot of books when I read in Pittsburgh, and that’s a nice feeling. But when I think about it, there were people who were really into the reading who didn’t buy a book—the two are not the same thing. After doing all these readings and working in bookstores myself—how, when, and why a book sells or doesn’t sell is still a total mystery to me.

The Creative Person's Guide to Misery

3/29: Update! I got this image from a friend on Google Plus. In an attempt to find it's original source, I came up empty handed. If anyone knows, I'd love to cite it.