You probably remember Chris Anderson's breakthrough notion of the long tail, the idea that the future of retail lies in selling unique items in small quantities. Well, one week ago today, when the snow was thick and the sky was gray (again), I received the loveliest surprise: an email from a woman who'd been on the editorial staff at Quarterly West 15 years ago, when QW published my little flash piece, "In Theory."
Currently teaching college workshops in creative writing, she wrote: "I have managed to always keep a copy of that issue close-by so as to teach it, but somewhere in one of my moves, I misplaced my copy." She wondered if I had a spare I could send.
Who knew? You see, you might think your work falls into a pool and just lies at the dark bottom of the pond like littering leaves, rotting away, but somebody somewhere might have been teaching it for 15 years! You just gotta keep the faith.
Well, I made Sophia a pdf file of "In Theory" for her classes, and it's also now here on this website, available to all and sundry.
Thank you, Sophia, and hurray for the long tail!
Currently teaching college workshops in creative writing, she wrote: "I have managed to always keep a copy of that issue close-by so as to teach it, but somewhere in one of my moves, I misplaced my copy." She wondered if I had a spare I could send.
Who knew? You see, you might think your work falls into a pool and just lies at the dark bottom of the pond like littering leaves, rotting away, but somebody somewhere might have been teaching it for 15 years! You just gotta keep the faith.
Well, I made Sophia a pdf file of "In Theory" for her classes, and it's also now here on this website, available to all and sundry.
Thank you, Sophia, and hurray for the long tail!
An excerpt from Camille Dungy's 2006 collection What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison:
Thursday, February 4
3:30-5:00 p.m.
"Editing Black Nature"
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL
and later that evening,
7:00 p.m.--Camille's reading from her new collection, Suck on the Marrow
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL.
Four days ago, the dogwood was a fistCome out and hear her for yourself.
in protest. Now look. Even she unfurls
to the pleasure of the season. Don't be
ashamed of yourself. Don't be. This happens
to us all. We have thrown back the blanket.
We're naked and we've grown to love ourselves.
I tell you, do not be ashamed.
Thursday, February 4
3:30-5:00 p.m.
"Editing Black Nature"
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL
and later that evening,
7:00 p.m.--Camille's reading from her new collection, Suck on the Marrow
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL.
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Seriously: Camille T. Dungy's book Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry is a major, major intervention in nature writing, and I cannot wait to hear her talk about it next week. The introduction alone is brilliant, and the poems and essays are a treasure-house. Honorée Fanonne Jeffers interviews Camille about the book.
(FYI, those who plan to join us for wining and dining: Camille assures me that tippling around her is no issue.)
But on a less joyful topic: Academia's endless judging is working my last (raw) nerve, and it has to do with judging. "There is no reason, no need, to make a contest out of anything," writes Zen Buddhist Cheri Huber. Sufi mystic Rumi wrote something like, Out beyond good and bad, there is a field. I'll meet you there. "I cannot count one. I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born. The intellect is a cleaver," writes Thoreau. Judge not, lest ye be judged.
Yes, the soul replies.
But academia, required to fetishize the cleaver of intellect, makes a contest out of everything. Right now, we're furiously judging all kinds of folks: a multitude of job candidates, a record-breaking number of graduate application files in English (due, sadly, to the recession), et cetera . . . The mind can do that. Yes. But the mind needs rest. The mind needs to loaf and invite its soul.
I'm craving downtime, nature, and peace. And my pace of blogging on here has dropped; sorry. I should just declare a January hiatus. The pace of work is always ridiculous in January.
And judgments, I'm guessing, will only get more stringent. UNL's chancellor today announced that he'll be looking for ways to cut an additional $5.2 million from the budget this spring. Cue mirthless laughter.
Obama's address this week was kick-ass, though. That was a cheery 70 minutes of telling it like it is.
Uh-oh. The heat shut off in my office building--it does that automatically for the weekend--and I can feel it getting colder in here. I'd better bundle up and head home. Stay warm, sweet people. Keep writing.
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Dear and gentle readers, we (here in Lincoln) will soon be graced by a visit from the lovely and amazing poet Camille Dungy, author of two books and editor of two more. Mark your calendar, Star City Sceners:
Thursday, February 4
3:30-5:00 p.m.
"Editing Black Nature"
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL
and later that evening,
7:00 p.m.--Camille's inaugural reading from her brand-new collection, Suck on the Marrow
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL.
Her edited anthology Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, is especially exciting for anyone who's noticed that nature-writing anthologies tend to be not only green but white. (Seriously. Scan your collections' TOCs now.) At the 3:30 presentation, she'll talk about the process of gathering the poems and shepherding the book through the editing process at University of Georgia Press.
At 7:00 p.m., she'll read from her own work--particularly her new book Suck on the Marrow, a collection rooted in 19th-century history, which Natasha Trethewey calls "[p]lainspoken and unflinching," marked by "restraint and wry wit." She'll then be happy to chat and sign books, which will be available for purchase after the reading.
I first heard Camille read in 2004 at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She was a Bread Loaf Scholar, and of course all the Scholars are solid, but when Camille began to read, the air in the Little Theater hushed. Folks didn't even cough. The poems--and her riveting delivery--were knockout. I can't wait to hear her read from her new book. (And I can't believe she's gotten 4 books into print since then! Makes me feel laaazy.)
It's going to be an honor and a pleasure to have her here. And readers, I happen to know happy news: she's pregnant! So there'll be no wining with our dining, but we do intend to have fun.
On the home front, James and I are now cosily ensconced in our new place--which feels, after two and a half years in a smaller apartment, practically palatial. Its sweeping vistas of 1082 square feet and its blank white walls seem all Dr. Zhivagoesque to me--you know, those wide snowy plains with the tiny troika gliding along?
Now, as I've mentioned, the floors are bare, unfinished concrete, so it has roughly the ambience of a parking garage, and the appliances are from the 1970s. (The refrigerator shelves proudly proclaim "Spacemaker Door," as if it's a radical new invention, and the scary microwave has more knobs and dials than a cockpit.) Since we haven't been able to paint yet, the plaster from the refinished (popcorn-be-gone) ceiling sifts down in a fine white dust, coating everything.
But it's home, and it's ours, and we're happy.
Many thanks to Sandra and Cindy for their recent notes of encouragement and congratulations; to Ingrid and Douglas for the bread and salt, which is an old German custom of housewarming; and to Susan and Linck for the wine. We hope to be having some of y'all over soon.
Thursday, February 4
3:30-5:00 p.m.
"Editing Black Nature"
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL
and later that evening,
7:00 p.m.--Camille's inaugural reading from her brand-new collection, Suck on the Marrow
Bailey Library, Andrews Hall, UNL.
Her edited anthology Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry, is especially exciting for anyone who's noticed that nature-writing anthologies tend to be not only green but white. (Seriously. Scan your collections' TOCs now.) At the 3:30 presentation, she'll talk about the process of gathering the poems and shepherding the book through the editing process at University of Georgia Press.
At 7:00 p.m., she'll read from her own work--particularly her new book Suck on the Marrow, a collection rooted in 19th-century history, which Natasha Trethewey calls "[p]lainspoken and unflinching," marked by "restraint and wry wit." She'll then be happy to chat and sign books, which will be available for purchase after the reading.I first heard Camille read in 2004 at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She was a Bread Loaf Scholar, and of course all the Scholars are solid, but when Camille began to read, the air in the Little Theater hushed. Folks didn't even cough. The poems--and her riveting delivery--were knockout. I can't wait to hear her read from her new book. (And I can't believe she's gotten 4 books into print since then! Makes me feel laaazy.)
It's going to be an honor and a pleasure to have her here. And readers, I happen to know happy news: she's pregnant! So there'll be no wining with our dining, but we do intend to have fun.
On the home front, James and I are now cosily ensconced in our new place--which feels, after two and a half years in a smaller apartment, practically palatial. Its sweeping vistas of 1082 square feet and its blank white walls seem all Dr. Zhivagoesque to me--you know, those wide snowy plains with the tiny troika gliding along?
Now, as I've mentioned, the floors are bare, unfinished concrete, so it has roughly the ambience of a parking garage, and the appliances are from the 1970s. (The refrigerator shelves proudly proclaim "Spacemaker Door," as if it's a radical new invention, and the scary microwave has more knobs and dials than a cockpit.) Since we haven't been able to paint yet, the plaster from the refinished (popcorn-be-gone) ceiling sifts down in a fine white dust, coating everything.
But it's home, and it's ours, and we're happy.
Many thanks to Sandra and Cindy for their recent notes of encouragement and congratulations; to Ingrid and Douglas for the bread and salt, which is an old German custom of housewarming; and to Susan and Linck for the wine. We hope to be having some of y'all over soon.
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If you have only five minutes for a quick overview, Tracy Kidder offers this rundown of the centuries of political and economic injustices against Haiti that have placed the nation in this extremely tenuous position. As Kidder writes, "while earthquakes are acts of nature, extreme vulnerability to earthquakes is manmade."
Avaaz, a terrific worldwide peace-and-justice organization, offers a secure and reliable way to donate. President Obama's take on the situation and call for donations are here. For a way to donate $5--immediately, from your phone--Tayari can hook you up.
Love going out to Irma, Enek, Luke, and Jennifer in Texas.
Avaaz, a terrific worldwide peace-and-justice organization, offers a secure and reliable way to donate. President Obama's take on the situation and call for donations are here. For a way to donate $5--immediately, from your phone--Tayari can hook you up.
Love going out to Irma, Enek, Luke, and Jennifer in Texas.
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