On Listening to Virgil Suarez and Watching AWP Squirm

Last night I went to hear Virgil Suarez read on a panel with two other poets at #AWP18. The other two poets were good and all, but not ones I knew well. They first poet was Ishion Hutchinson a Jamaican poet who combined surreal meditations with literary allusions to Wordsworth and Keats. Then came Maggie Smith who read very nice poems about raising a young daughter (and one about her son) in the suburban Midwest. Then came Suarez, who read highly political and angry poems about Trump, guns, and Marco Rubio.

Now, let me say that Suarez reminded me a lot of David Hernandez who I used to work with in Chicago or Marc Kelly Smith for that matter. His cadences were familiar, and his politics were comfortable for me, and I felt the crowd was with him, laughing at his jokes and responding to the message. There were only two rough moments: One was the end of a long poem about teachers bringing guns to school when he wanted the crowd to say the last line, but everyone was either uncomfortable with that role or like me had forgotten how the line was supposed to go. There was a pause, while Suarez held a middle finger in the air (that was supposed to be our cue), and then he helped us out by saying the line — about half the crowd joined in. The other awkward moment was in the last poem, when Suarez couldn’t find the last page for a second. But he recovered, and the applause was great.

I want to note that everyone applauded because of the way things went in Q&A with the moderator, another apparently well-known poet whose name is not listed in the program. Oh well. He started out by asking the panel what they are thankful for. When it came to Suarez, he said he was thankful for children, but then went into a longer answer about Trump and the politics of today. He might have avoided the question, but then again, the question was clearly trying to avoid his politics. Thus began the sparring between Suarez and the moderator, who at one point seemed to lecture Suarez about the need to be positive or find the sublime even in our dark times. The poor other poets were sandwiched in the middle and didn’t seem to have a political bone in their bodies. It got uncomfortable.

Probably the problem stemmed from the selection of who to put on one panel together and who to moderate. It was an odd mix, and any of the four would have come across better with more like-minded poets. My sympathies were with Suarez, so the other poets, but mostly the moderator, came across as pretentious and even a little vapid. I wouldn’t have thought that, had the Q&A not devolved into the young moderator lecturing the old guard on his politics. Throughout, Suarez never backed down. I respect him for that, but it made me sad that AWP or at least its representative moderator has become so averse to conflict that he had to squirm in the presence of a Cuban revolutionary poet. Especially in 2018. Especially in Florida.

So thank you Virgil for Making America Strange Again, as I think your T-shirt read. And thank you for making AWP uncomfortable. We need to squirm a little or maybe a lot in 2018.

In Praise of Old Tech

One bad habit I have (or maybe a good habit) is that I don’t get rid of all of old computers. That’s a problem when there are old machines that don’t work kicking around (maybe waiting to salvage a drive or something), but I have a few that will still boot up and can be useful now and then. Tonight was one of those times.

We’ve been working on college applications, and realized we needed to make a correction on one. The college sent a form that they require you to fax back for security reasons because it has sensitive information. I get that, but who has a fax machine anymore?? Sure, I could perhaps have used an online fax service, but that would be a pain and no more secure than emailing the form. I could take it to a print shop and pay someone to fax it for me, or I could have even gone to the office and used the fax machine there (but this is purely for personal use, so that seemed wrong).

Fortunately, my eye landed on an old laptop I had gotten out when trying to hook up a scanner (I eventually got the scanner to work on my new computer, thankfully, but hadn’t stowed the old G4 Powerbook. Glancing at the ports reminded me that one was a phone port, so I  thought I might see if I could get it to fax for me.

I cranked it up, logged into my network, set the date on the clock to 2018 (why not?), and then transferred my pdf file from my MacBook Pro to the desktop of my Powerbook. Then I had to figure out how to fax again — it’s probably been close to a decade since I’ve done it. Help told me to install the Internal Modem in Printers and Faxes, then I printed the document, chose Internal Modem as my printer, entered the number (after connecting the computer to the phone wall jack, of course), hit print and listened to the good old-fashioned sounds of the modem dialing and connecting to the fax machine on the other end. After what seemed like forever, the fax was done and the print job went away.

That saved me a fair amount of time and possibly money, and while I was at it, I looked at a few photos on my old desktop for nostalgia’s sake. Sure, I could recycle the Powerbook, but now and then it still comes in handy!

Heading to #AWP18

This week, I’ll be going to Tampa for the 2018 Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference. As always, it will be a very busy few days—inspiring and exhausting.

This year, it will be a little different, since I’ll get to hang out with some of my students who are taking a Short Residency class centered around the conference. They will attend panels, help at our book fair table (T1411 if you want to find us!), and explore the book fair in their free time. They’re required to go to some professional panels on writing or the business of writing, as well as some panels that feature readings. They’ve already learned a lot just from scouring the schedule to see what they most want to attend.

I’ll go to the directors panels, both the general one and one for the Southeast region, and I’ll try to catch the Low-Residency Caucus panel, too, so I can hear about the latest developments that affect our program. But much of my time will be spent in the book fair, where in addition to our program and our literary magazines Ponder Review and Poetry South, I’ll also be giving out copies of A Writer’s Craft, my multi-genre intro to creative writing textbook.

And to top it all off, as if seeing old friends, working with students, and connecting with other writers and directors isn’t enough, this year I’ll be moderating and participating in a panel to celebrate the 30th Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium, which will be held Oct. 18-20, 2018!

It should be a lot of fun! See you in Tampa, if you’re going to #AWP18!

Simple Work-Around for old iPhone and 2-Step Authentication

I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a luddite when it comes to cell phones. I’d rather not be that connected all the time, so it took me awhile to even get a smart phone. I inherited my old iPhone 4 from my wife when she upgraded (to a 4S — we’re still behind the times, but we can get a much cheaper pay-as-you go plan with PagePlus Cellular if we’re not 4G).

The problem comes when I have to change my AppleID password, which happens now and then with a software update. The first time I tried to use my old iPhone 4 with iCloud, I realized its iOS won’t work with Apple’s 2-step authentication. I would try to enter a password, but couldn’t enter the code Apple sent me. Eventually, I figured out a work-around.

What I do is turn off 2-step Authentication temporarily on my account. Then I can enter the password into the iPhone and connect to iCloud. Then I can turn 2-step back on and enable it on my other devices. The iPhone stays logged in.

Did I mention that I pay $10 every 120 days for my phone service? I’m on wifi most of the time, so I don’t need a lot of data. There are things I can’t do on this not-so-smart-anymore phone, but it more than meets my needs. A few hassles like this one are worth it for the savings.

Writer’s Resolution: Start or Update Your CV

This post is primarily for my MFA students, though it is a good new year’s resolution for any writer: start or update your CV. Curriculum Vitae is a fancy term for resumé, though the difference is that the focus of your CV is broader, and you will use it for applying for academic jobs, grants, awards, residencies, etc. A CV allows you to give a fuller representation of your life’s work, not just your employment and job skills.

As with a resumé, format it as a series of lists with headings. Start with your basic contact info: name, address, phone number, email. Follow this with Education, listing your college and grad school degrees and including any thesis or dissertation titles and directors. Include a degree program you a currently enrolled in before you get your degree, and list your expected graduation date.

For all your lists, start with the most recent accomplishments first, then you can add to the top of each list as you update it with new entries.

Next list your relevant Employment. You don’t have to list every job, though it’s good to list your recent jobs going back to college. What you want to avoid is he appearance of a long gap without employment or education, so if you worked at a temp agency to support yourself in grad school, you could leave that out and rely on your education listing as the most important activity in those years. On the other hand, if you waited tables for a couple of years after college while you wrote your first novel, you may want to include that job to account for those years.

After those two mandatory sections, you have some choice about the order of sections and what you want to label them. Writers will always list their Publications, though many of us break this into subcategories by genre: scholarly articles, poetry, fiction, etc. It is also common to have separate categories for Books and Anthologies. Readings or Presentations are good categories to include, as are Writers’ Residencies, Workshops or other professional activities you have attended or led. A section on Grants and Awards is also good to include, once you have one or more.

There is a good article on writing an Artist’s CV on The Practical Art World and another on CVs in general at The Interview Guys. These sites give examples that will give you ideas on how to format, and you’ll see that the typical CV is for academic jobs, so it highlights scholarly publications and achievements, while the artist’s CV highlights creative achievements. A writer’s CV is often a combination of these two approaches and can be rearranged and revised for the situation you want to use it in. You might highlight scholarship when applying to academic jobs and publications when applying for a grant, for example.

Once you have your CV started, add new accomplishments as you learn about them. List work accepted for publication as “forthcoming” and update with the full publication information once the it appears. Starting a CV may be the hardest part, so do it now when there isn’t a rush and when your lists aren’t too long. Then add to it periodically and take advantage of the new year to review it and make sure you haven’t missed anything from the past year (or more).

2 New Favorite Poetry Journals

This year, I’ve been happy to discover two new poetry journals. One is a journal that has accepted some of my poems, and the other is one I doubt I’ll submit to, but adds diversity to my reading.

Postcard Poems and Prose

This is a magazine that recently published three of my poems. Each week they publish one poem with an image. Usually, the image is created specifically for the poem from a photograph or art that the editors then modify. Sometimes the writer provides the image. The poem is printed on the image or if it’s too long, as is the case with short prose pieces, then the title may be on the image and the poem or prose printed on the website, alongside the image or images. Especially when printed together, the text and image form a new work of art.

I’ve enjoyed seeing what images the editors chose for the three short poems I sent them, and I’ve been pleased with the way they manipulated the image to combine it with my text. Adding color to the text sometimes helps to tie the two together. Author bios and pictures — headshot and personal photographs — complete the experience.

Poetry Journal In Print. – Bao Giay

This is a journal in Vietnamese and English. The Vietnamese poems are all translated, and though the translations are sometimes a little stiff, they provide a glimpse into another poetry tradition: Vietnamese New Formalism. Each issue also includes an essay on Vietnamese poetry, followed by some English-language poetry translated into Vietnamese. Naturally, I can’t speak to the quality of the Vietnamese original poetry or translations.

Poetry Journal in Print is available as a PDF file by email. This journal magically appeared in my inbox, and I almost deleted it as spam. But I was glad when I opened the attached file to find a legitimate journal with quality poems by poets I never would have heard of otherwise. The journal is published every 3 months, and now it is also available in Issuu.

RIP Vintage Macbook

This is a follow-up to a series of posts about my 2011 MacBook Pro 15″ that went through the video card replacement program back in June 2015. At the time, I was very happy with Apple for (finally) stepping up to the plate and fixing the issue for free. They replaced my logic board when my computer died due to a known issue.

So yesterday, when the same computer (that my wife is now using when she wants to be away from her desktop) started to have the same issues, I didn’t want to believe it had the same problem. The issue — the computer goes through the full startup routine, then ends with a blank (gray or white) screen. So I went through a few rounds of trouble-shooting, repaired the hard drive, and tried to start in every mode I could think of: Safe Mode (no good),  Repair Mode (same), starting from external drives (same issue after startup). I even tried resetting NVRAM and the SMC. Nothing worked, though in Target Disk mode, I was able to get some recent files off the drive and run Disk First Aid. I had also been able to do this in Single user Mode. And I could start in Verbose mode, but it still wouldn’t ever get to my desktop.

So after exhausting all other possibilities that I could find (so far), I determined it was not the hard drive and was probably the video card on the logic board — especially since sometimes it would start up, get to the blank screen, and then cycle through a few restarts before ending with the blank screen. This was all the behavior associated with the video card issue, which I confirmed when those old posts and comments appeared in my searches about the issue we’re having.

That led to this morning’s chat with Apple Support. The agent read my description and looked up the repair/replacement options. Regina told me that my computer was not eligible for any replacement programs, and that it is now considered a vintage model, since it’s been over 5 years since any parts were made for it.

Frankly, I wasn’t too surprised. The computer is over 6 years old, and though I’d like it to last longer (I have older Apple laptops that still start up on the rare occasion I decide to use one for a task). But since it had been repaired for free once already, it was a long shot to expect Apple to do that again. There are a couple more options I might try before giving up on this laptop. Fortunately, it’s not my main computer anymore, so I have the luxury of doing that.

So what’s the upshot of this experience? Well, if you’re running an old 2011 MacBook Pro that was repaired under the video card program, you might be running on borrowed time. And if you get a free repair, I guess it means you might have gotten a repaired part that has the same issue as your previous part. In my case, I got another 2.5 years out of the computer, which was long enough for me to grow out of it and replace it as my main computer. But nothing lasts for ever. Now my “vintage” computer is a vintage piece of metal that won’t do much. I’ll keep it around long enough to make sure I have everything I need off the hard drive, then either trade it in for parts or salvage a few parts off it and then recycle it (after wiping the hard drive, which I may remove before recycling).

This Christmas, Buy Poetry

I usually don’t like to hawk my own books, but with the Christmas shopping season in full swing, it seems like a good time to promote books in general (for mine, see below). And what better kind of book to buy than a good book of poetry?

They say good things come in small packages: you get a lot of good things in a collection of poems. And because each poem is usually a page or two long, readers can digest a book of poems a few at a time. A poetry book is perfect for commuters or travelers or anyone with a busy schedule or who needs something to read after they put their phone, tablet, or computer away before they go to sleep (more and more studies say you should do this, so you need good books to make the transition). Poetry books generally aren’t as expensive as novels or short story collections, so you can give two or three — or you can add a book of poems to make an ordinary gift like a  scarf or sweater seem extraordinary.

Now, I know some people’s reaction will be that no one reads poetry or no one understands it, but that doesn’t have to be the case. First, if everyone bought a book of poetry for Christmas, then much more poetry would be read! (Okay, I know, that’s wishful thinking…) But not all poetry is opaque and impossible to understand. Some is, and some people love that, but many poets also write perfectly accessible poems that engage with current events or universal issues anyone can relate to. You just have to look around and find the book that will speak to the person on your gift list (or put some poetry on your own wish list, so someone might get it for you).

How to find good poetry?

Over at Poetry South, we’ve started a book list of new and notable books, mostly by Southern poets. You can also read many of our issues online to find poets who might be of interest, or you could order a gift subscription for Issue 9, which will be out in time for Christmas. You can also click on the title to go to our LibraryThing bookshelf of poetry. Goodreads recently released their reader’s poll of top poetry in 2017. Small Press Distribution listed their best-selling poetry titles in November, and Entropy Magazine came out with their list. And browsing in a good bookstore can give you ideas.

If you’re still looking for suggestions, here is what I have available:

9781680030655 For the art lover, the environmentalist, or anyone interested in the Mississippi Gulf Coast or mental illness, Barrier Island Suite, chronicles the life of painter and potter Walter Inglis Anderson of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. As a young man, he studied art, then suffered mental breakdowns (possibly as a result of malaria or undulant fever) and was institutionalized. Later he would become a successful yet reclusive artist, working at the family pottery and sailing out to the barrier island for weeks at a time to draw and paint. The poems in this collection are inspired by his Horn Island Logs as well as the biographies Fortune’s Favorite Child and Approaching the Magic Hour.

dunkelberg front cover smThe poems in Time Capsules are more autobiographical, though some poems or details are invented. Poems set in the present deal with marriage, family, setting down roots, and growing accustomed to Mississippi. Poems of the past deal with growing up in small-town Iowa in the 60s and 70s. Themes of travel and nature run through all of my poetry and are prevalent in Time Capsules as well. Trees, birds, and wildflowers are recurring symbols. The book’s four sections are loosely organized around the cycle of the seasons, beginning in winter with “The Land of the Dead” and ending in late fall with “Requiem.”

L&Acover

My first collection, Landscapes and Architectures is out of print, but I do have some copies available. Contact me if you’d like one or if you’d like a complete set of my three books! Landscapes and Architectures deals with the displacement of youth, modern culture (including some technology that now feels dated), love, nature, and finding one’s way in the world. The landscapes and cityscapes of the midwest, where I grew up, feature prominently in early poems set in Osage, Iowa, and Galesburg and Chicago, Illinois. Later poems take place in the wide open spaces and exotic landscape around Austin, Texas.

HRNcoverFor those who are interested in translation, surrealism, or mystical poetry, my translations of the Belgian poet, Paul Snoek, in Hercules, Richelieu, and Nostradamus may make a good stocking stuffer. This collection of three of his books from the 1960s is a small format pocket book. One of Belgium’s most prominent post-war poets writing in Flemish, Paul Snoek was active from the 1950s until his tragic death in in a single-car accident in 1981. Recently, I’ve been reworking some of my translations of his last two books and am thinking again about finding a publisher for more of his poems.

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Last but not least, for the writer on your list, you might choose to buy a book about writing poetry (and fiction, nonfiction, and drama). My textbook, A Writer’s Craft, was published this year. Though it’s geared towards an introductory creative writing class, it was also written to be accessible for individual writers who want instruction and inspiration on the basics of the four main genres of creative writing. Each chapter ends with writing exercises to provide inspiration and more are available on the companion website and on its GoodReads community.

Why Rank MFA Programs? Or Why Not…

News appeared recently on the Creative Writing Pedagogy Facebook Group about a new ranking of MFA programs based on publishing history in annual prize anthologies. Naturally, a discussion ensued about the value of rankings (which is dubious, and to credit this one, they even begin their post with a disclaimer about why you shouldn’t care about their ranking, but then they go on to rank programs) and the methodology of basing rankings on placement in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, O. Henry Prize Stories, Pushcart Prize anthologies. As you might guess, quite a few programs get left out of that list, since only a very few writers (even well-published ones) end up in these anthologies each year.

The selection criteria for these anthologies might be called into question (though their goal is not to serve as a tool to rank MFA programs, so their editorial policies may well meet their market and their own goals). Furthermore, we might ask what other awards or anthologies are out there that are overlooked, thereby privileging certain kinds of writing: the Best New Poets series comes to mind, for instance, as well as AWP’s Intro Journals Project, which is specifically focused on current MFA students.

Annual prize anthologies have been criticized for their lack of inclusivity, so they may not be the best to use (exclusively) when ranking. In recent years, I’ve noticed attempts by the editors of these anthologies to be more inclusive in terms of race, gender, and identity, yet they still may not by as inclusive in terms of region, genre, and literary style. So why not include publication in “best of” genre anthologies, too? Many of our students have no desire to write the kind of stories, poems, or essays that would land them in the annual prize anthologies, yet they receive other forms of recognition in their chosen genres.

Rankings of MFA programs will always be controversial, yet the debate about what criteria to use can be constructive. If a prospective MFA student’s goal is to get into one of these anthologies, this ranking might be worthwhile, though a causal relationship isn’t guaranteed: as any investment portfolio is required to tell you — past performance is not a guarantee of future success.

If your goal is to be a professionally active writer, however, then this list may not help so much. How successful are the top-ranked programs at getting books by their students/alumni published? Probably pretty good, but what kind of books, and what kind of book does the prospective student want to write? What programs are overlooked in a ranking that focuses on annual anthologies? Which programs best serve students who want to teach, work in publishing, find alternate writing-related career paths, etc.?

Which programs best serve writers who aren’t already very sophisticated writers at the time they apply? Is the success of the top-ranked programs due to the instruction they provide or the quality of writers they’re able to attract and how selective they can be? What does the prospective student really need — excellent teaching that can help them improve or powerful writers who can help them network and get their already polished work noticed in the literary marketplace? Does a prospective student want mentoring or does she/he want to be anointed by a literary gatekeeper. And what happens if you don’t get anointed? Not everyone at these programs goes on to an illustrious literary career, after all.

These are all questions a prospective student ought to consider: what kind of program best meets your needs and what kind of culture will you fit into as a writer. Most of the advice I read urges prospective MFA students to avoid rankings and to really research the programs they are interested in. And yet, humans love rankings, and rankings tend to reduce the choice to a number — who performs best in terms of certain criteria.

My program has been ranked number 1 in a list of online programs in English and Creative Writing at Nonprofit Colleges Online (low-res programs were included). The next year, we fell to number 2, though we were still the top creative writing program on the list. That was gratifying, though I’m pretty sure the main criterion for this ranking was that our tuition is very low, which was confirmed by the slight change in ranking the second year. Don’t get me wrong, I love the exposure, and if you’re looking for low tuition, then this ranking is helpful. But I don’t let my ego swell too much because of it.

Rankings may be useful when considering graduate schools, but a ranking should only be one source of information you use. Carefully consider the criteria used in making the ranking, and compare it to other sources of information. AWP’s Guide to Writing Programs is a good place to learn about MFA, MA, and PhD programs, as is New Pages,  while Poet’s & Writers focuses on the MFA, and Publisher’s Weekly claims to list MFA, MA, and PhD programs, but I’ve primarily found MFA programs in their listing. Each database provides different information and might index different programs, so it’s worth checking and comparing them all. And it’s probably worth comparing different rankings for the information they might provide, but don’t just apply to the top-ranked programs. And don’t discount the programs that are overlooked in those rankings. Look for the program that will be the best fit for you!

Rediscovering Lists on Twitter

Recently, I’ve gotten back into Twitter lists: making them and finding them.

Lists is one of those features on Twitter that often goes overlooked. They hide on a user’s profile. At least when using the app, you have to click on the gear icon on their profile page to View Lists.

I was reminded of them when searching for authors to follow. I knew the authors, but couldn’t always guess their handle. One of my searches on names and book titles sent me to the Mississippi Library Commission’s list of Mississippi Authors: Missssippi Writes @MSlibrarycomm. This list has 114 members (MS writers on Twitter) and only 5 subscribers, including me with 2 of my accounts. I’d like to see this triple n the next week!

@MSlibrarycomm also has lists for: Mississippi Indie Books, News, Schools, Libraries, as well as Library Associations, Author Geeks, etc.

Following a list is a great way to organize your Twitter feed because you only see tweets from those accounts when you view the list, so you’ll focus on the list subject rather than seeing those posts mixed in your usual feed. It is also a good way to see tweets by people you don’t follow and to discover new people to follow.

You can create your own lists, too. I have lists of literary magazines, writers, literary magazine resources, and bookstores. These help me find the people on Twitter that I want to follow. You can even add someone to a list without following them, if you only want to see their tweets when you view your list.

Lists help me tame the wild Twitterverse (a little) and get more out of its content. So I’m glad I was reminded of this somewhat hidden feature.