I remember seeing a cartoon once in a literary journal. A young writer was standing before the Eiffel Tower with a sign that said, “I thought it was publish or Paris.” I laughed, of course. But it made me think more seriously about where the humorless dictum “publish or perish” originated. Academia, no doubt, where …
Welcome and thank you to poet Susanna Mishler, our July featured writer and a long-time volunteer for the 49 Alaska Writing Center.One of my favorite writing exercises is called “negative inversion.” It goes like this: 1) Find a one-page poem or a paragraph of writing that you want to take apart in some way. You …
(Un)civil Disobedience: Guest-post by Susanna Mishler Read More »
You catch a whiff of something on the border of consciousness. A phrase floats into your head and you recognize the voice. A fly buzzes at the windowsill; you wonder what it thinks it’s doing. Usually we dismiss such occurrences. They seem to have no practical use. But the suspicion lingers that these events may …
National Poetry Month Begins Friday: A Guest Post by John Morgan Read More »
Thanks to January featured author Marybeth Holleman for this final guest-post. Lately I’ve been puppy-sitting Ivy, a three-month old Siberian Husky-Labrador mix. God, is she cute, and God, is she crazy-wild. The only way to keep her from tearing up my houseplants and irritating my two older dogs is for my husband to walk all …
In response to some reader requests, we are doing something a little different with our next online book club: we are reading Alaska poetry In line with our ongoing aim to introduce Alaska writers to our readership, we have asked local poet Sandra Kleven to be moderator (with Andromeda assisting — and plenty of you, …
Like most writers, I read a lot. OK, that’s an understatement. I depend on reading like other people depend on exercise or therapy or friendships: it centers me, guides me, defines me. Books are as necessary as food. I came late to poetry. I rarely read it until my first marriage disintegrated in the widening …
This is why I love the increasingly collaborative nature of this blog. Nancy Lord just sent a link to this NYT 12/24 story about Elizabeth Alexander, the poet who has been chosen to write a poem that she will read at Barack Obama’s Jan. 20 Inauguration. She is only the fourth poet to be included …
