Yesterday, while sending out announcements about the new issue of Blackbird, I was overcome by a spate of self-doubt about the line between promoting my work and bragging. The digital world is amazing for sharing news quickly, but I am unsure of how much is too much. A kind and good friend pointed out the fact that if I didn’t make such announcements, very few people would know where to find my work. She asked something along the lines of this: How is getting the word out about a new poem bragging?
Here is my reply:
Bragging? Remember, I’m a puritan/protestant/Midwestern closed-mouth. We keep these things to ourselves, darn it, lest we alert the universe to our success and the universe sends a tornado, a drought, or a plague of locusts to wipe us out!
So, I go about my life always watchful for the dreaded “fall.”
Today, little danger of too-much pride, since I’m about to tackle the tower of final papers waiting in the corner for their grades.
Man, you're on to something, Sandy. You're right about this whole "puritan/protestant/Midwestern closed-mouth" mentality and how "[w]e keep these things to ourselves, darn it, lest we alert the universe to our success and the universe sends a tornado, a drought, or a plague of locusts to wipe us out!"
I grapple with the same feelings when i get something published.
Michael Martone's collection of essays, The Flatness and Other Landscapes, explores that Midwestern frame of vision with some depth and pluck. I highly recommend it.
Hey there, Q. Glad to know it isn't just me. I love Martone's work, too. Please let me know when you get an acceptance so I can help pry open the jaws of celebration.
Oh, it might be a while. Once my basic writing textbook gets written and then published (it's a process), I may inform people of my success and then worry about locusts.
Q. Good luck with the textbook! I'll be watching for news of a plague.