On the mend

Sure, I still cough like an 80 year old toothless geezer, but I actually feel like a human being again. I've managed to essentially finish out my paper on Hilda Doolittle, and I'm only 2 papers away from finishing up on the grading. That leaves all day tomorrow to work on my memoir section and do laundry! Who says that one can't get things done over Spring Break! I'd actually hoped to do more, but hell, 20 papers graded, one paper written, two memoirs critiqued, 2 records reviewed, 5 loads of laundry washed and folded, dishes washed, and groceries gotten, all while surviving the gutbucket flu seems, on the whole, a relatively productive week. And I've done quite well on the eating front, too, for the most part: only one trip to a bad Chinese buffet, and only one Cadbury's Fruit and Nut chocolate bar. The rest has been chicken soup and guaifenesin syrup.

For extra viewing enjoyment, here is the lovely table for Sycamore Review that we had down in Atlanta for AWP. Brian and Eric and Daryll-Lynne are holding down the fort. With such a tall sign, we were visible throughout most of the area and got quite a lot of good exposure. Various folks including Michael Martone and Walter Mosley visited and talked a while. I also found out that the husband of Nadine Sabra Meyer (the author of the book I reviewed) came by specifically to buy the issue that had my review in it! I missed him by perhaps only 15 minutes. My big favorite writer at the moment is Alice Notley and I managed to run into her at the University of California Press table, whereupon I rushed over to the Sycamore Review table to grab my copy of Grave of Light for her to sign. She kinda looked at me like I was a freak, but I'll admit I was at that particular moment. I got a chance to talk to her a bit about the availability of her wonderful book The Descent of Alette which is a great feminist text. Beyond that, it's wonderful poetry. At any rate, she signed two of her books for me and then she was on her way no doubt to yell at Penguin publishing for not having her book available for purchase.

Among other things with AWP I found wonderful was the work of the various smaller presses. Ugly Duckling Presse has some downright wonderful books available, one of my favorites is Nets by Jen Bervin, which uses Shapespeare's Sonnets as the basis for a found poetry that is quite striking, and quite strikingly presented. I might actually have this as a required text for the creative writing class I'll eventually be teaching. So for those of you out there--don't forget to support your independent presses!