Wednesday, May 28, 2014

News, Etc.

* Tomorrow afternoon I drive down to Portland for the 2014 Maine Literary Awards ceremony. A Poet's Sourcebook is one of three finalists in the anthology category. The ceremony is open to the public, and there will be snacks and a bar, and you could come too. My competition includes a collation of Portland-area poets, collected by the city's current poet laureate, and a medley of E. B. White's writings about dogs, compiled by his granddaughter. It seems likely that E. B., though dead, would be the judges' favorite for almost any award, but I shall attend nonetheless. I am fond of his writings about dogs, and I like the Portland-area poets too.

* The weather is cold and wet and cold and wet. Yes, it's May 28, and, yes, I started a fire in the woodstove this morning. Blah. On the bright side, the four loads of laundry hanging on the line just got a second rinse.

* Applications for the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching close on May 31. So apply, apply, apply! Please feel free to email me at ironduke at tdstelme dot net if you have any questions.

* Rhubarb grows very well in weather that is cold and wet and cold and wet. Thus far, my family is not sick of rhubarb desserts, but I am beginning to worry.

* On June 12 at 12:45 p.m., I'll be reading at Bryant Park in NYC with two other CavanKerry Press poets: January Gill O'Neil and Teresa Carson. This will be my first visit to the metropolis in years. I'm turning it into a holiday jaunt with my sixteen-year-old, and we are very excited. So come to our reading and meet my darling beanpole.

* The beanpole tells me that he would rather visit the Cloisters than Coney Island.

* My husband Tom is one of the featured photographers in a show at the Kingman Gallery in Deer Isle. If you're wandering up and down the Maine coast wondering what to do with yourself, you could go look at his pictures.

* Here is one of Tom's photographs. It is not in the Kingman show but was part of a photo slideshow/poetry reading that we concocted together a few years back.


3 comments:

Ruth said...

Rhubarb being a vegetable is rather a good relish with onions, garlic and hot peppers. The Cloisters is one of my favorite places and I haven't been there in way too long. Best of luck in Portland. Hello to Teresa

Carlene said...

Rhubarb is an herb, I thought; first cousin to celery, it is described as a "crisp, edible petiole." And yes, it is good with just about everything!!
And I love the photo.
And I am super excited you are a finalist in just about everything this year.
And I am antsy waiting for Poetry Camp.
And I love anaphora.

(Two more weeks of school...can you tell?)

Dawn Potter said...

I can't wait to see both of you. But it sure better be warmer than it is today!