I've learned a great many things, since heading to the Chi for AWP. Here are a few links to pique your interest:
- Frank X. Walker will still get down on the dance floor even with a bum knee
- The Affrilachian Poets are not to be messed with
- Patricia Smith will put your sonnets to shame, even when you aren't in competition with her. And she won't even apologize for it
- Honoree Fanonne Jeffers isn't afraid to tell anyone the truth
- Everyone is always there just to see Ms. Lucille
- Free chocolate is a great way to promote a smooth, dark, long-playing poem
- I want to know Valzhyna Mort
- Natasha Trethewey is brilliant and she can rock a killer pair of boots
- Cuteness travels...and may come with a personal tailor
- Myron Michael Hardy can almost wish dreams into fruition
- Facebook is all about business
- You can find great new books at book release parties for other great new books
- Entering contests - $300; Possible money lost over a lifetime while daydreaming about poems - $1 million; Getting a book of your selected poems translated into Arabic - Priceless!
And here's a quaint little Tate poem that reminds all of us writers a thing or two we might want to remember about ourselves...or maybe not. Nevertheless, the Post might be fond of this one, too:
Teaching the Ape to Write Poems
They didn't have much trouble
teaching the ape to write poems:
first they strapped him into the chair,
then tied the pencil around his hand
(the paper had already been nailed down).
Then Dr. Bluespire leaned over his shoulder
and whispered into his ear:
"You look like a god sitting there.
Why don't you try writing something?"
