An argument against staples November 30, 2007

It’s the slow time of year at my job right now. I work in the music business, and hardly anybody releases new music this time of year. So when it reaches about 2:00 every day, I’m twiddling my thumbs and staring at the ceiling. After working in the news business for a couple years, it’s hard to get used to this idea of not being busy. (The news never stops.)

So today I started the purging of my desk materials, most of them left behind by the two women who had my job before me. They were a bit on the traditional side, I assume, because they kept hard copies of everything, even though all our files for the music magazine/catalog come over in pdfs and are archived on our website and elsewhere in our shared computer folders.

So, I just spent an hour or more removing said old papers from the cabinet in my cubical and dishing them into the communal paper recycling bin. It would not have taken that long to dump paper into a bin, except that the lady who saved said paper decided to attack every couple pages or so with about 3-4 staples. Being the retro environmentalist that I am (retro meaning I’ve always cared a little bit about the environment – so much so that I would write litter notices in my neighborhood newspaper, The Clubhouse Times, self-distributed to the col-de-sac for $0.10/year subscription when I was ages 6-12 - but I’m not progressive enough to start wearing hemp and live in a solar-powered house,) I removed each staple by hand. Ok, by hand with a staple-remover. I only managed one cut on my index finger through the whole process.

But it made me think, why use staples anyway? Writers especially – tree killers that we are - should recycle their papers regularly and in doing so, make it easier by switching over from the staple to the handy-dandy paperclip. Many print journals already request that materials be sent NOT STAPLED, and I can only guess that this is because they throw so many lovely poems and stories away into the recycling bin. (Oh, the hard life of the editorial assistant.) 

Down Meme Lane November 29, 2007

I think receiving a Meme qualifies that my blog exists. Or that I exist here. Or that I’m popular with my best friend. Whatever it is, I’m OK with doing it.

Here’s the deal: I write seven facts about myself and then tag seven people to write seven things about themselves. (Too bad it’s not 07/07/07.)

1. I know I started this blog to write about writing, but I’m beginning to get bored with that and feeling that I might just start writing about whatever here. Because I’m really more interesting than this (I think) and there’s more to life.
2. Part of the reason I resist writing about whatever here and don’t write here as often as I’d like to is because I’m also paid to write in another blog for a national newspaper, and that entire experience has left me drained for time, paranoid by association, and usually dry for fresh material.
3. I wish everything was a fresh introduction, sometimes.
4. I ate sushi for lunch. Sushi buffet, in fact. On average, I eat sushi once a week.
5. When I was younger, I think I cared more about what people whom I knew thought of me rather than strangers. (Which is why I had no problem wearing pink fishnets over bright blue tights when I went on vacations.) Now I care more about what strangers think of me, and really don’t give a rat’s ass what acquaintances, family or even some friends think of me anymore.
6. [Deleted out of remorse and paranoia]
7. That may be one of the most mean things I have ever put in print, and I probably have no place saying it because I usually don’t reveal much about my personal life in the workplace, either. And I do like them snacks.

(I think technically I provided 14 things about myself.) 

I tag 7 people who probably won’t even read or do this as I’m pretty new here and most don’t know who I am!: Jen, Deborah, Jilly, Rebecca, Maria, Katey, & Jeannine.

Recapps November 29, 2007

The Ashley Capps reading last night was pretty cool, but I totally woke up saying “I hate myself” for all the blabbering I said to her when I got her autograph in my book.

I’m trying to remember if I even complimented her on her book, or said how much I liked it. I think instead I came across as some sort of Queens snob desperately trying to make comparisons between us that didn’t quite work out. Ashley Capps, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry I’m such a dope! What I was trying to say is that:

1. Your book is amazing. I love your poems.

2. I feel honored to have met you, and I think it’s great that we were both Cathy’s student.

3. When I said I wasn’t thinking of applying to Iowa until Cathy suggested it, that wasn’t a jab at Iowa so much as a jab at myself thinking I could ever be a good enough poet to get in there and/or follow in your footsteps.

4. Thanks for signing my copy of your book.

BLAAAH.

I really need to stop comparing famous poets to rock stars in my mind because I end up just saying stupid things. I’ve always thought that if I ran into Michael Stipe in an airport or something, I’d be better off asking him where the restroom is rather than telling him how much I’m crushed by his eyeliner.

Either way, though, it was neat to hear Ashley read. She’s funny in person, and also much softer sounding/looking than you’d think she’d be for writing such badass poems. Her mother sat behind me and was just beaming. Afterward, I told her that her daughter was great, and she said “I know! I’m so proud of her. She almost didn’t let me come hear her read, but I’m so glad to be here.” That was really sweet. I’d be nervous of my mom coming, too.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering, Ashley got the title for her book, “Mistaking The Sea For Green Fields,” from a footnote in “Gulliver’s Travels.” That was revealed during the reading, when Dr. McGavern pointed to the reference (Ashley wasn’t sure where she read it first, but she knew it was in a class at Queens.) Cathy also said that Ashley told her, back when she was her 19-year-old student, that ”This will be the title of my first book.” I’m glad she stuck to her guns!

I had a chance to talk to Cathy before the whole thing started. I bumped into on the sidewalk and we walked in together. She said she had already finished my letter, which is pretty awesome and also a real kick-in-the-rear for me to get my applications done. Jonathan also mailed his letters this week. All my schools are going to be getting these letters and asking, Emily who? HANG GUYS, THE REST IS COMING!

I have let the holidays get me behind on things. I haven’t worked on my applications in 3 weeks. Eek! But tonight, Scott and I will decorate the Christmas tree, and then I can buckle down on Friday and Saturday to get things done. Fa la la.

Ashley Capps reading at Queens November 20, 2007

Charlotte people, mark your calendars!

The English Department of Queens University of Charlotte will host a poetry reading by Ashley Capps on Wednesday, November 28, at 8:00 p.m. in Sykes Auditorium on the Queens University of Charlotte campus. The reading is free and open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.

Capps, an alumna of Queens University of Charlotte, received Bachelor of Arts degrees in both English and French in 1998. While a student, Capps was a Mecklenburg Scholar and co-editor of Signet, the student literary magazine.

Her first book of poetry, Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields, was selected by Gerald Stern for the Akron Poetry Prize and published in 2006 by The University of Akron Press. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she has poems appearing or forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Post Road, Margie, Columbia Poetry Review, and the 100^th anniversary edition of Granta. She has held fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and the Iowa Arts Council, and has taught at Ohio University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Iowa, and the North Carolina Governor’s School.

Of her book, Cathy Smith Bowers, her former professor at Queens, writes: “Again and again these stunning poems give testament to Thomas Moore’s famous dictum that the beast at the center of the labyrinth is also an angel. This book breaks my heart, even as it mends it.”

Capps currently lives in Exeter, New Hampshire. She was born and raised in Charlotte, where her parents still reside.

The event is sponsored by this year’s recipient of the Hunter-Hamilton Love of Teaching Award, Dr. Emily Seelbinder. This award is given each year at Queens University of Charlotte.

Saturday November 19, 2007

Sometimes you just need a Saturday away from it all.

quick update November 15, 2007

I am SO thrilled with my choices for letters of recommendations. I mailed my packets out this week and last to my 3 people of admired aquaintance:

1. Cathy Smith Bowers, poet and my former writing professor

2. Jonathan Rice, poet and publisher of Iodine Poetry Journal

3. Alix Felsing, newsroom editor and my former boss at The Charlotte Observer.

All three of them have confirmed receiving my packets and expressed their enthusiasm in writing letters for me. My most joy comes from flipped negatives: none of them has complained and/or mentioned disdain at sending out materials to 10 schools, and none of them has said that getting the materials mailed by the end of December is a problem!

Jonathan is even so concerned about writing the right letter for me that he wants to meet over coffee tomorrow to talk about my goals and to read more of my portfolio. Sheesh!

Man, I wish I had asked one of these guys to write my Hub-Bub application letters last year. Although, my bad experience with who I did ask for that recommendation ended up saving me a poo-poo letter in my MFA batch. I still regret not getting that awesome fellowship, but I think it’s all for the best. I would have given up my cat for a year to do it! It’s hard for me to grasp how I almost talked myself into letting Gandalf go for a year. Oh, and I might be getting a new cat over Thanksgiving…ha…more on this later.

Free rice November 12, 2007

 I found this cool website through Jilly @ Poetry Hut.

Free Rice 

Test your vocabulary and donate rice to hungry people.

journalism and poetry November 8, 2007

I started this blog mainly as a way for me to vent my daily frustrations, joys and struggles with the writing life, but I still find myself dropping these things elsewhere in conversations. Which is OK, because my friends are lovely listeners. But I really would rather keep most of this stuff here, when I can.

Example – email I just sent to April about how I missed the Sarah Silverman Show last night. NERD ALERT:

HAHA Oh man – I had to miss the show last night to re-type my 15 page senior thesis as an “expository writing sample”. Some of these apps are ridiculous. On top of 3 letters written in my behalf, my full portfolio of poetry, a CV stating all my publications, and an essay stating my goals, I have to include YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE that I can string words together into a cohesive thought process. So I re-used my research paper (it took me 4 months to research/write before, so I figured why not get another run out of it) Except that I didn’t have a digital copy of it, so I had to retype it all. It’s really weird to retype/reread something that you wrote 4 years ago. I kept thinking, Did I really write this? I seemed so much smarter back then – haha. Newspapers made me stupid.

But yeah, seriously, this is how I spend my evenings sometimes. My shining moment last night was allowing myself to watch ANTM.

Back to that paper I was retyping… I wrote this senior thesis back when I was all obsessed with journalism. It’s actually a very good paper, although the title sounds horrible: Gender Studies Among American Opinion Columnists. A quick synopses: I used the Genderlect Theory, Muted Group Theory and the many theories of Deborah Tannen to prove that women and men communicate differently in print as they do in conversation.  (Gender communication is one of my favorite nerd topics, although I go back and forth on my beliefs therein.) When I completed the paper and presentation a month before my graduation, one of my professors who graded it pulled me aside after class (we shared a cigarette on a bench together) and told me that if I ever wanted to get my doctorate degree in Communication that this paper would land me the ticket. She even told me it was “cutting edge.” Thinking about that conversation, it’s still one of those “wow” moments for me, as she had 20+ years in the business, from working in all media fields before getting her PhD.

Since then, I’ve redirected my interests so much, from Gung-ho journalist woman to desparate poet seeking freedom from the media-filled life. That’s not to say that I don’t still love journalism – I do, I do. But no longer do I care so much about putting my voice out into that forum. I certainly know now how much I love writing more than reporting. However, when reading and retyping this paper – and when speaking to the feature writing class at UNCC 2 months ago – I still see that passion in me to share media knowledge with others. I would even be happy, perhaps even more comfortable, teaching journalism or newswriting in a TA setting rather than a literature or poetry course. (That’s assuming I even get a TA position; whole nother topic there.)

Anyway, the two worlds of journalism and poetry have been heavy on my mind this week. And in a funny coincidence, the Poetry Foundation is also discussing these topics in anticipation of the Symposium on Poetry & Journalism in Chicago. I think they are taking it in a totally different direction than I would have, but it’s neat to think about these topics on the flip side from the chronology of my life. How has poetry benefited by journalism, and is journalism a good thing to find in poetry? I can’t say that I’m even there yet when it comes to my own poems, but I guess in the coming months and years I’ll find out how much my previous life is affecting my writing.

Earlier this year, I did write my first poem relating to my life in a newsroom. I haven’t received any feedback on it yet, but I’ll let you know if it ends up going anywhere. I sent it to Ecotone last month; still waiting a response. I will share a couple lines from it I was proud of:

“…she did not call the police

but my number, the one she looked up

as if a headline can save

in six words or less…”

Currently reading November 7, 2007

I’m getting in the festive spirit on my lunch breaks with Holidays On Ice. I think this leaves me with only one Sedaris book I haven’t read yet…

 And I’m also re-reading Ariel.

Blackbird V.6 No. 2 November 6, 2007

The new issue of Blackbird is up – happy reading!