Polishing Book 2: Gonesongs

More from me in a week or two - right now I'm concentrating on polishing Book 2, which will be my creative thesis for the MFA. It's a whole lot different than God in my Throat - more autobiographical and more personal narrative, which makes me a bit more raw when working on it. The working title for it is Gonesongs, though I'm not sure if I'm in love with that. I've got another title percolating, but the poem that includes the title line isn't actually written yet. Working on that, and if it gets written - and fits into the collection - I'll let you know.

Anyway, I've been extremely lucky. I requested poetess Jeanie Thompson as my mentor (if you've been following this blog, you know that she was actually my mentor for my first semester in the program), and happy of happies, I got her. Her first run-through of the manuscript culled a lot of extraneous junk and unnecessaries, and included some commentary that give me a much better idea of how the manuscript stands on its own. It's sort of like the book was a slab of marble with a good sculpture inside, and she managed to carve something worthy out of it. All to say, it's already far better after her first run-through of the manuscript, even though there are a few major rewrites and revisions for me to get done in short order.

Colleen is Anthologized in Against Agamemnon: War Poetry 2009

Happy news! My poem “Tysketöser” has been anthologized in Against Agamemnon: War Poetry 2009, edited by 2007 Pulitzer Prize Nominee James Adams. It's available out of Waterwood Press at Brazos Bookstore in Houston, TX (phone 713.523.0701). The focus was on poetry of witness, which is interesting, and it includes talented poets from around the globe. I am honored be included!

God in my Throat Gone to Print; Paper Proposal for Wales Conference

Hi, all! Long time no write, I know. The best of news: God in my Throat: The Lilith Poems has gone to print, so if you pre-ordered a copy when the order form and website first went active, you should be seeing it quite shortly! Thank you both for your patience, and for your support of my work and the small press willing to put it out. You warm the cockles of my heart.

In other fun news, because it coincided nicely with the topic of my MFA critical thesis (which was on the poet H.D.'s revisionist mythmaking in her book length poem Helen in Egypt), I decided to pitch something to the "Recycling Myths, Inventing Nations" 2010 conference at Aberystwyth University in Wales (call for paper and panel proposals here). I almost feel guilty for it not really being related to my librarian-type research, but not enough not to make my pitch and cross the hell out of my fingers that it gets picked up for the conference. It's my first ever paper proposal (usually I pitch presentations). See my abstract below:

Revisionist Myth-Making: Poets Reclaiming and Rewriting History

Colleen S. Harris

Abstract

After a brief study of the classical foundation for contemporizing myth and some of the treatments of it that bring us to the present, the proposed paper examines how the American poet H. D. breaks from the traditional poetic epic by developing a female heroic character. The paper explores the importance and impact of H.D. writing a female hero out of the character of Helen of Troy to conquer manifestations of male archetypes such as the warrior, the lover, and the protector. Expanding from the exploration of H.D.’s revision of the Helen myth, the examination moves into the broader impact of modern poets creating revisionist mythologies by rewriting major (and minor) historical and mythological characters to reflect modern values and contemporary concerns. Other myth and history-modifying poets discussed in the context of the paper include Louise Glück, Michael Ondaatje, Claudia Emerson, Andrew Hudgins and Frank X. Walker. The paper concludes with a discussion of the impact of this revisionist mythmaking and alternative history-writing on perspectives of history, and the opportunities – and pitfalls - of contemporizing myth by infusing old mythologies with modern voice and contemporary issues.

So, here's to hoping I'm interesting enough to get tapped for Wales. (Do I get "exotic" points for being American? Doubtful, but I can hope.) Cross your fingers (and anything else you can cross) that they contact me!

God in my Throat Available for Purchase!

Thrilling news! God in my Throat is available for online purchase! The webmaster at Bellowing Ark press has it up and ready for you to pre-order your copy (expected ship late June/early July). If you visit the website for the book I built (in the words of Debra Kang Dean's poetry, "a quality like something homemade"), there's a pdf order form if you prefer to order by mail via check or money order.

My nascent reading and appearance schedule is also at godinmythroat.com, and I'm hoping to add a few more NC sites, maybe another one in New York if I can swing it, a few in Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky, and am crossing my fingers that I might (puh-leeze!) land a spot at the Meacham Writers Workshop in Chattanooga, where I actually wrote the book. I'll keep you updated as I add dates!

Anyway, you can earn my unending gratitude and make my millenium if you decide to order a copy, and if I'm ever in the area, I promise to sign it. Or hug you. Both, or either, as you prefer *grin*

Books, Book Chapters, ISBNs...

Tons of publishing news! I've been a complete slacker about submitting to journals lately, but I do have some larger chapter and booklength publications that are ready to go, ISBN-ed and all.

I have a chapter in Teaching Generation M: A Handbook for Librarians and Educators, edited by Robert Lackie and Vibiana Bowman-Cvetkovic. In fact, mine is Chapter 1: "The Haves and Have-Nots: Class, Race, Gender, Access to Computers and Academic Success." Wooo! This chapter feeds into a lot of the work I did as a reference and instruction librarian.

I also have two chapters published in Writing and Publishing: The Librarian's Handbook, edited by Carol Smallwood and up on ALA's catalog (available this fall). My chapters are titled “MLS, MFA: The Librarian Pursuing Creative Writing” and “The Poet-Librarian: Writing and Submitting Work.” This was a really lovely opportunity to mesh my love for librarianship with my passion for creative writing, and hearty thanks to carol for letting me be a part of it.

Most exciting, the latest news from Robert Ward at Bellowing Ark Press. The latest issue of Bellowing Ark went out with the flyer advertising God in my Throat. If that wasn't thrilling enough, a local bookstore, Quail Ridge Books, has invited me to do a reading on Sunday, September 20th at 3:00 pm with a few other local writers. Even better, they inquired about ordering copies! My publisher's reply was, "As with all small presses, publication dates tend to be "flexible;" however we can assure you that Ms Harris' book "God in My Throat" (ISBN 978-0-944920-68-8) will be available for purchase no later than 15 July 2009."

That's right, people. July 15th is the go-date. I am SO EXCITED. This also means that if you work at a bookstore, at a library, in an English department, at a uni or in a city I can get to easily, I may beg you to put me in touch with someone who can help me set up a reading. Totally cashing in on my pals - I know, tacky, but if you love me you'll brush it off. *grin* As soon as it's up on the publisher's site, I'll post the link here, and I just purchased http://godinmythroat.com/ - but it's an ugly starter page, and I need to find hosting. Working on it.

More to the point, let's talk about the fact that I have my own ISBN. This thrills me both as a writer and as a librarian. I'm immortal, now. IMMORTAL. And, of course, I'll need that number tattooed somewhere. Going to have to find a good piece of real estate to put that! Woo!

Bibliography to Date

New job has me hopping, but the good news is that my extended critical essay (sort of a minor thesis) is complete and accepted. now all that's left is creative writing and putting together my creative thesis, which I'm hoping will turn into book 2. I've got good starts on two manuscripts right now, and I'm excited about both of them. More on that soon as I work on them. For now, I'd like to share my cumulative bibliography to date - it's not complete, since this semester isn't complete yet and I've one more full semester to go.

If you're interested and have the time, take a peek, let me know if I've skipped any of your favorite poets. I know there are gaps here, and I have plans to look at poets like Jane Kenyon, Maxine Kumin and Li-Young Le, among others, next semester. So, give it a run through - who would you add?

Boland, Eavan. Outside History: Selected Poems, 1980-1990. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1991.

Connor, Rachel Ann. H.D. and the Image. New York: Palgrave, 2004.

Dean, Debra Kang. Precipitates. Rochester: BOA Editions, 2003.

Doolittle, Hilda. Helen in Egypt. New York: New Directions, 1974.

Dove, Rita. Selected Poems. New York: Vintage-Random House, 1993.

Cisneros, Sandra. My Wicked Wicked Ways. New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1992.

Clifton, Lucille. Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000. Rochester: BOA Editions, 2000.

Eliot, T.S. Four Quartets. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1943.

--. The Waste Land and Other Poems. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1934.

Emerson, Claudia. Late Wife: Poems. Louisiana State University Press, 2005.

Friedman, Susan Stanford and Rachel Blau DuPlessis. Signets: Reading H. D. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.

Fritz, Angela DiPace. Thought and Vision: A Critical Reading of H. D.’s Poetry. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1988.

Gallagher, Tess. Instructions to the Double. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1994.

Gentry, Jane. Portrait of the Artist as a White Pig: Poems. Louisiana State University Press, 2006.

Giovanni, Nikki. The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1996.

Glück, Louise. The First Four Books of Poems. Hopewell: The Ecco Press, 1995.

Guest, Barbara. Herself Defined: The Poet H. D. and Her World. Garden City: Doubleday, 1984.

Hayden, Robert. Collected Poems: Robert Hayden. Ed. Frederick Glaysher. New York: Liveright Publishing, 1996.

Haggis, Paul, and Bobby Moresco. Crash. Draft with Final Revisions, 18 March 2004. Bob Yari Productions, California.

Harjo, Joy. The Woman Who Fell From The Sky: Poems. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994.

Hugo, Richard, The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir. New York: W.W. Norton, 1973.

Hugo, Richard. The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing. New
York: W.W. Norton, 1982.

Iyer, Pico. Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign. New York: Alfred K. Knopf, 2004.

King, Michael, ed. H. D.: Woman and Poet. Orono: National Poetry Foundation, 1986.

Kinnell, Galway. Imperfect Thirst. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.

Kloepfer, Deborah Kelly. The Unspeakable Mother: Forbidden Discourse in Jean Rhys and H.D. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.

Komunyakaa, Yusef. Dien Cai Dau. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1988.

Lauter, Estella. Women as Mythmakers: Poetry and Visual Art by Twentieth Century Women. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1984.

McPherson, Sandra. The Spaces Between Birds: Mother/Daughter Poems 1967-1995. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1996.

Manning, Maurice. Bucolics. Orlando: Harcourt, 2007.

Meek, Sandra, ed. Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad. Roma, GA: Ninebark Press, 2007.

Merwin, W.S. The Vixen: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1996.

Milosz, Czeslaw, ed. A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry. Harvest Books, 1998.

Morehead, Maureen. A Sense of Time Left. Monterey: Larkspur Press, 2003.

Morris, Adalaide Kirby. How to Live/ What to Do: H.D.’s Cultural Poetics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003.

Ondaatje, Michael. The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.

Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto. Fourth Estate, 2002.

Paz, Octavio. The Other Voice: Essays on Modern Poetry. Harvest Books, 1992.

Peacock, Molly. Second Blush. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008.

Quinn, Vincent Gerard. Hilda Doolittle (H. D.). New York: Twayne Publishers, 1968.

Raffo, Heather. 9 Parts of Desire. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2006.

Rich, Adrienne. Poems: Selected and New, 1950-1974. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1974.

Robinson, Janice S. H. D.: The Life and Work of an American Poet. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982.

Sexton, Anne. All My Pretty Ones. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961.

Smock, Frederick. Poetry & Compassion: Essays on Art & Craft. Nicholasville, KY: Wind Publications, 2006.

Stafford, William. The Darkness Around Us is Deep: Selected Poems of William Stafford. Ed. Robert Bly. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.

Strand, Mark. Selected Poems. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

Sword, Helen. Engendering Inspiration: Visionary Strategies in Rilke, Lawrence, and H. D. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1985.

Williams, William Carlos. Selected Poems. Ed. Charles Tomlinson. New York: New Directions, 1985.

Dear 2008

Dear 2008:

It's been real. I've learned a ton, I've gotten much done, and am leaving you wiser, better prepared for life, and healthier than I've been in a long time. While much of that might be attributed to the gym habit, I truly believe that a lot of it has to do with the writing I've gotten done and the writing that's sitting just over the horizon waiting for me. My main motivator used to be my friends, who I love and admire, but the power of that motivation fades when I live so far away from most of them and see them so seldom. I replaced them with work, and while I love what I do for a living, it's not enough to keep me going through both daylight and nighttime hours. Even writing isn't my main motivation, though it's a lovely engine and I feel like I'm doing something right.

I want to be happy. This is my new motivation. And this year I've found that what makes me happy is balance. A balance between work and play, between thought-work and physical work, between hermiting and socialization, between splurging and being frugal enough that I can address my debt, between obsession and affection. Writing happens to help me achieve this balance, and I am excited to have found a home in my pen.

So, 2008, I have a lot to thank you for. A job I've loved, and the the gumption to take the new job I'll start in 2009. A bevy of new friends on both the writerly front and the librarian front. The upcoming book and other pubs. A reminder that I do indeed have good friends who will both save my bacon and take me to task when necessary. The seeds of ideas for books I'll write next year. The chance to travel and meet some of my invisible internet pals. The eventual (and hard-earned) good health of my wunderhund Otto. My mother's recovery. My health and increasing fitness. My growing ease with the person I've become over the years. Listing all of this seems very petty, but I glow with each one. Thank you so very much, and goodbye.