News & Updates: The Birds Dismissed

 55 deg ~ April sun rises over my left shoulder, some leaves lit fresh green, others still in dawn’s shadow

While I was recovering from AWP on Monday, I received an email from Roger Humes, editor of The Other Voices International Project, an online anthology of poetry from all over the world, letting me know that the poems he had accepted last month were now published.  I hadn’t known about this wonderful anthology until Roger contacted me through Facebook, so the online world helped me connect and expand my poetry world once again.  Roger titled my selection “The Bones Dismissed” and added this beautiful image as the cover.  Both the title and the image are perfect.  Please check out this site and read the Mission Statement if you get the chance.  Many, many thanks to Roger for seeking me out and then supporting my work.

Me, Joey Cole, Robert Bruno,  Suzi Garcia, John Willis, Antoinette Brim, and Ralph Burns

Last night, I felt like I was back in Denver at AWP.  I attended a joint poetry reading presented by Pulaski Tech (my school) and the University of Arkansas Little Rock.  Former PTC students, now current UALR students, Suzi Garcia and Robert Bruno read from their work and were joined by current PTC student John Willis.  They were all awesome!  The only thing missing was the nametag-gazing.  Faculty memebers, Joey Cole, Antoinette brim, Ralph Burns, and myself were the proud mamas and papas.  Sadly, our second reader from PTC was unable to attend due to a family tragedy.  Sending healing thoughts JW’s way this morning.

Without having time to link to each title, here’s a list of books I brought back from AWP (in no particular order).

They Speak of Fruit     Gary L. McDowell
the brother swimming beneath me    Brent Goodman
The Wondefull Yeare    Nate Pritts
sum of every lost ship   Allison Titus
Self-Portrait with Crayon    Allison Benis White
At Once   Jenny Browne
The Second Reason    Jenny Browne
lug your carelss body out of the careful dusk    joshua marie wilkinson
History of Hurricanes    Teresa Cader
Ink for an Odd Cartography    Michele Battiste
Orange Crush     Simone Muench
The Alchemist’s Kitchen     Susan Rich
Blue Collar Fathers    Jason Lee Brown
girl on a bridge       Suzanne Frischkorn
From the Fishouse    Ed. Camille T. Dungy, Matt O’Donnell, and Jeffrey Thomson
on the cusp of a dangerous year     Lee Ann Roripaugh
Biogeography   Sandra Meek
Tongue   Rachel Contreni Flynn
Requiem for the Orchard    Oliver de la Paz
0 deg, 0 deg    Amit Majmudar   (with apologies…Blogger won’t let me use the degree sign properly these days)

Whew!  Hurry up summer so I can read, read, read!  Watch for my “What I’m Reading” posts to return sometime in May.

I’m still trying to process the AWP experience and have pages of notes to go through.  Yesterday at about 4:30 p.m., I hit the wall and collapsed, but rallied in time for the reading.  Much sleep is in the forecast for the weekend…sleep and grading.