people at the literary salon were nice to me

So good things happened yesterday at the first ever Publishing Genius Literary Salon. I got lost and drove around the streets of Baltimore for half an hour. I met lots of people. I heard some of those people read. I watched a few leg wrestling matches. And I petted two cats. 

Also, I turned 25 years old, so that was fun.

Everyone read stuff from their chapbooks, which Adam Robinson (the publishing genius?) has posted online in PDF form here. You can also order copies and he will mail them to you, or you can print them out. The chapbooks look very nice and they do not have any rose petals crushed into their pages.

People who read in no order at all (links provided when I could find them with a quick Google search; otherwise I linked to the chapbook):

Jen Michalski's chapbook takes figures and diagrams from biology texts and combines them with prose.

Joe Young read a teeny tiny story.

Michael Kimball read a story of the alphabet.

Blake Butler read about tumors but very little.

Chris Toll will be the invisible girl until the day s/he dies.

Nic Noyer read from his made-for-stage piece, Hystery of Heat. 

Stephanie Barber wants to write a poem in your lawn.

And Daniel Trask, whose chapbook will be out soon, read from his novel DMR. He's currently driving around the country to promote the book. He plans to visit 48 states. He's blogging about it here. He wears a fanny pack (though he did not have it on during the reading). Leave him encouraging comments at his blog.

That is all.

Tomorrow my wife and I fly to London for the week. We will be tourists.

*update* Nic Noyer is actually Ric Royer, as Adam pointed out. I accidentally renamed him. This explains why I could not find his website. 

Ok, so yeah. Now to the airport.

driving to baltimore

I'm off to Baltimore to visit the Publishing Genius Literary Salon to hear Michael Kimball, Blake Butler, and others read from their work.

Full details here.

moving to houston

So I just got off the phone with Dr. Wyman Herendeen, chair of the English Department at the University of Houston. He called to offer me one of five positions in their newly created Writing Fellows Program, which is "for writing instructors interested in joining a cohort of teachers and scholars committed to the theory and practice of writing pedagogy." For more info, go here.

Anyhow, I'm very happy. It's a 2 year fellowship with a 4/4 teaching load and opportunities for researching and developing theory, practice, etc.

I'll call tomorrow to accept his offer.

The job search has ended for now (and I can attend Sewanee). The rest of the summer, I'll be working in the Writing Center here at Mason and moving to Houston - classes start August 25th.

in your ear

Today I went to the In Your Ear reading series at the DC Arts Center. Wade Fletcher, who worked on Phoebe with me, read some of his poetry. Also reading were poets Shanna Compton and Kevin Thurston. I showed up late because of metro delays, so I didn't get to hear Kevin read. Anyhow, Shanna read from her latest book, For Girls (& Others) out from Bloof Books. She read funny poems and drank beer. Jennifer Knox had to cancel last minute, unfortunately.

That is a picture of Wade's chapbook, Snitch Culture, which came about as part of his involvement with the e/chap kollektiv from dusie press. I am reading it now. I am glad Wade gave it to me.

I have a video of Wade reading a poem, but it is bad quality and I am having trouble with my camera. I might try to post it later.

Luna Park Review

Issue #2 of Luna Park Review is live and has good things in it. Editor Travis Kurowski says nice things about Hobart #8, and he also types my name in a sentence with other authors from the issue. In the previous Luna Park, there was a good article about Ninth Letter, and an interview with Benjamin Percy, and a neat thing on Fence.

beetle

Tonight I will graduate from George Mason University with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

This beetle on my porch is kind of how I feel, I think?

Sonora Review

I feel very earnest right now. This will be an earnest post. It will be earnest and not sarcastic and basically written in good spirits. Also, I am very tired right now.

Okay, two weeks ago, Astrid Duffy of the Sonora Review contacted me about revising a story I had sent them in March. Since then, we've been working back and forth, trying to get the story as clear as possible, and tonight she sent me the official contract/acceptance email thing. I'll mail that out in the morning.

I am happy with what happened. Astrid took a flawed story that others would have rejected (and did reject), and suggested changes, asked me good questions about the story, questions I hadn't really even thought about, and patiently worked with me through several drafts, etc. It was the kind of close editorial work that really makes this whole publishing thing a little more human, I think.

So the story will be in their next issue out in December. I do not know who else is in the issue. She said they've only accepted two other stories so far.

That is all.

mother's day and birthday

This is a card I am sending to my Mom for Mother's Day. Her birthday is the day after Mother's Day.

The turtle is her favorite animal.

Tennessee Williams

Today I got a letter in the mail from the Sewanee Writers' Conference asking if I'd accept their offer to be a Tennessee Williams Scholar this summer. I felt happy when I read the letter. I felt like I had 'accomplished something.' Christine Schutt is leading a workshop this summer. I would like to be in her workshop, maybe? I applied because of her, because I like her stories. Anyhow, I am not sure now if I will be able to go - my wife and I are planning to move sometime this summer and I'll be looking for a job. So I don't know what will happen.

Also, I have only read one play by Tennessee Williams.

leave me alone

On my run today, I saw a man cross the road in a cross walk and someone in an enormous pickup truck honked at him for trying to cross in the cross walk. I was in a bad mood, so I yelled, "It's a fucking crosswalk!" but the driver did not hear me, because he was in his huge pickup truck, so I felt really dumb for yelling something. Then I finished the run and my heart rate was higher than what I wanted for the run: 168 beats per minute.

Also, Bradley Sands, who runs the journal Bust Down The Door And Eat All The Chickens, of which my sister is a fan, has announced a new e-anthology called Bradley Sands Is A Dick. See his blog for details. It sounds really funny; I don't know Bradley, but I will submit something anyhow at some point.

And then there is this thing I found at New Art: the leave me alone box?

I watched it for a long time and I laughed. 

more soon

Thank you for reading my blog. I still do not know what I will do with it. It seemed like May 7th at 1am was a good time to start a blog.