Is National Poetry Month fun? For me, it’s torture I look back upon fondly, like soccer camp. This year, I’ve tried somewhat successfully to have a saner month than last. Rather than the traditional poem-a-day, I’ve been doing a poem-a-week exchange (since February!) with a group of talented female poets. Poem-in-my-inbox Mondays have made Mondays less Monday.
The Weather Channel says it will be 70 degrees in Madison this Saturday, which means it will be perfect weather for the Lightning Strikes Twice Reading, hosted by Trent Miller, for which I’ll be reading 5 minutes of poems at the Hawthorne Library (5 pm) with this great lineup of poets from near and far: Matt Hart, Adam Fell, Laurel Bastian, Angela Voras-Hills, Steel Wagstaff, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Mark Kliewer, Katrin Talbot, and Rita Mae Reese.
Next week, there’s a creative writing extravaganza at UW-Platteville, which begins with a reading by six of my brilliant manuscript workshop students: Tony Bouxa, Kaela Mellen, Nichole Harkness, Mark Whaley, Priscilla Breininger, and Jacob Reecher and ends with the annual Creative Writing Festival. Somewhere in the middle (actually immediately after the Creative Writing student reading), I’ll be reading some poems for the annual liberal arts symposium. Thank you, Victor, for making the best posters ever (see below), which happen to feature images of two of his sculptures. If you’re in Southwest Wisconsin on Monday, come check us out.
Finally, Justin Lightfoot Bigos and I finished the most epic and fun interview ever yesterday. It’s just gone live at American Literary Review. Look for Lynda Hull love and references to masturbation.
Happy National Poetry Month, y’all! It’s almost over.
)
)
