awp and more

Getting excited about AWP. Our friend Sharon Dolin (a poet Steve and I have been close friends with since grad school at Cornell) is coming today to spend the night before we all leave for Portland. I've got some plans, some meetings lined up, what I'll read figured out (both readings require excerpting longer essays).

Haven't heard from F(R)ICTION about the latest revision of "The Lunatics' Ball," which I think is probably bad news, but we'll see. I'm excited by Gabe Blackwell's response to the two Lunatics flash he accepted for THE COLLAGIST. He praised them as "fantastic" and said he loved them when he accepted them. When we went through edits, he said, "every time I read ["Dermagraphism"], I like it more. It reminds me of John Berger, and I love to be reminded of John Berger." I'm still over the moon about my acceptance there. The next issue will be out in a month.

I love John Berger too. I've been so uneasy about my writing group steering me toward prosier, more accessible accounts of my nonfiction lunatics with memoir blended in. And their bias against "academic" writing. Can I do something lyric and academic, save the memoir bits for separate flash?

BEST OF THE NET came out today, with a number of friends included. I'm really happy for them, but in true neurotic writer fashion, was also disappointed not to be invited to the party. I got several Pushcart nominations and Best Small Fictions nominations this year, but had to check to see what Best of the Net nominations I got. Turns out I didn't get any, so of course I couldn't get into the anthology. So I can be depressed about not getting any nominations instead of about not getting into the book.

​Looking forward to reading the BEST OF THE NET selections, and Amy Hempel's new book, and to buying a bunch of indie press books at AWP and to meeting friends there. And to the readings. Steve and I are in both of them (CATAMARAN LITERARY READER and BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS), a first, and actually reading our collaborative essay together in the THEY SAID reading.

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