MIDWEEK NOTES & NOTIONS: A big thank you to all those who have pre-ordered Slow To Burn from MetroMania Press. You've made me, not to mention my publisher, very happy campers indeed. A special note to international readers: please keep checking the Order page at the MetroMania site for an international link to purchase via PayPal. It should be up in the next day or so. We've already had requests for books from the UK and the Netherlands!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of performing with Word Diversity Collective at 7 Stages theater in Atlanta. This program was called Karaoke Poetry and it was definitely a hit. Host and producer Theresa Davis created "song books" with poems by both local and national poets. I had the pleasure of reading Alice Lovelace's This One's For You and Alice Walker's I Said To Poetry, but what was really strange was hearing Karen G. reinterpret my own Why I Want To Be Pam Grier as a slinky, sexual come-on and Alice Lovelace turn Sex In My Parents' House into an even more explicit piece of work than it already is. You go, girls! The next show is Workers of the Word Unite on April 15. You definitely don't want to miss this! And this weekend is the Art Amok slam finals to decide who will make the team to go to the national slam in Austin this summer.

I've been asked by the Georgia Council for the Arts to host the state finals of the Poetry Out Loud recitation project on Friday, April 14. The event will be taped for broadcast at the Atlanta PBS studio. Baby needs a new pair of shoes for my big TV debut! This sounds like a blast and I can't wait to see which students advance for the finals in Washington DC.

The Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol. II is getting ready to head to the printer, and I finished my Forward to the book today. This anthology will feature poetry by Thomas Lux, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Richard Garcia, Patricia Smith, Cecilia Woloch, Sholeh Wolpe and many more nationally known and local favorites who have featured at Java Monkey Speaks over the last three years. Co-editing an anthology is hard work, but being able to work with Kodac Harrison and all these poets has been a rewarding experience. The book will be available this summer from Poetry Atlanta Press.

Finally, Laurel Snyder's blog has been down for a few days because her traffic level has been off the scale! Her new chapbook Daphne & Jim is available from the Burnside Review, as well as the Half-Life anthology from Soft Skull Press, featuring essays by a slew of writers on growing up in half-Jewish homes. She's a great poet and writer so show her some love and order her books!

Comments

Unknown said…
I'm putting your book on my "to buy in May" list. I'm not allowed to buy any books in April because of this month's indulgence. But I'm very excited to get it!

ps

just ate nachos!

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