Wednesday, January 3, 2018

2018 acknowledges that last year wasn't skipped

Apparently, I went all of 2017 without posting on this blog, but Kelli Russell Agodon and Donna Vorreyer have organized a blogger revival for 2018, so a lot of us intend to post regularly again. Hopefully once a week. You can find a list of participating bloggers here:
http://ofkells.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-2018-poet-bloggers-revival-tour.html

So what would have been worth blogging from last year? I hardly sent out any poetry submissions, so I only got like 2 or 3 things published.  However, I did go to my first ever AWP conference in DC (thanks to a grant from the Arizona Arts Commission).

Since I'm not affiliated with any writing program and never even went to college, I always feel like such an outsider at those types of things. But it was very cool that I got to be involved in a great offsite reading by Five Oaks Press and Sundress Publications (because my recent chapbook Faithful as the Ground was published by Lynn Houston at Five Oaks).



I loved meeting the other Five Oaks poets like K.T. Landing and Peter Murphy  and all the Sundress Publications poets like Donna Vorreyer, Sarah A. Chavez, Krista Cox and Luci Brown. They truly felt like a sibling press. After all the outsiderness of wandering through all those conference room corridors, I felt at home in this back alley art gallery with these people.
I was also very excited to get to meet up and read with Charles Jensen who did the wonderful emoji blurb for my chapbook, since his new collection Breakup/Breakdown was also just published by Five Oaks.


I'll write more about my current projects soon.
Thanks for reading if you're reading.
And remember to check out all the other writers who are committed to posting more blog posts in 2018.



9 comments:

  1. Wow, that year zipped by (except when it slogged)! Good to see (read) you back in the blogosphere.

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    1. I feel like such a slacker, knowing that you kept your blog going the entire time, Drew. I'm glad you left a light on for us.

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  2. Hello there! I'm trying to follow all poets participating to meet new people. (Even though I'm not participating because 2018 is my year of not-setting-specific-goals-and-just-working-harder. lol)

    Happy to meet someone else like me in the poetry world, even if I'm more of a baby in the world still compared to you. No fancy degrees in writing here. I totally respect those who have them, but it seems so common in poetry that not being one of those can make you feel a little... out of place. (Okay, a lot.)

    Here's to a wonderful year of great work, new friends, and finding our place!

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    1. Great to meet you, Lissa. I have a lot of appreciation for your pragmatic and likely productive goals. That's cool that you're involved in a real world writing group (even if it is mostly populated by novelists!). That's probably the role these blogs helped fill for me over the years.

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  3. That reading was amazing! So glad I got to meet you IRL there!

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    1. It truly was! I was so proud to be part of that gathering. And I was happy to finally be able to thank you in person for how much you've done for me and my poems.

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  4. Glad you enjoyed the AWP. I have not attended one yet - some day.

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    1. It was an interesting experience. I won't be there this year, but I'm aiming to go to the Portland AWP next year.

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