I'm reading Robert Walser right now for my Poetics of the Short Short Narrative class I'm taking with Deb Olin Unferth. We're reading specific short shorts, and not this one, but I couldn't help but read its two and half pages when I happened upon it.
From "Poets":
"If, again, it is asked: How and where, i.e. in what sorts of dwelling, do writers mostly live?, the answer is very simply this: It is a fact that they prefer to live, often, in attics, high up, with views all around, because from there they enjoy the broadest and freest outlook upon the world. They also like, as is well known, to be independent and unconstrained. Let us hope that they pay the rent, sometimes, as punctually as possible."
When I read this I nearly cried with joy: That's me! That's me! Does this mean I'm a writer?
If you know me, you know that's me. Have you read my essay "Within the Frame?" Didn't I say that? Isn't that me? I do pay my rent, too, and always punctually and always within the three day grace period.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
in books
Nameless LeTTer.
I find ephemera all the time in the books I go through at The Dusty Bookshelf. We keep the cool things, the interesting things. I leave original receipts in the books for the new owner to delightfully (or annoyingly?) find. We've found, probably, thousands of bookmarks over the years. In Manhattan, there is a large shoebox full of these bookmarks. So now there's this site where you create a particular bookmark for a particular book and put it out there for someone to find. It's akin to the project where people put whole books in public places with notes for people to find and read and then put in another public place for someone else to find and read. It's sharing literary love.
Then there's another site: FOUND Magazine. Ephemera. Life left in books, in records, in life.
I find ephemera all the time in the books I go through at The Dusty Bookshelf. We keep the cool things, the interesting things. I leave original receipts in the books for the new owner to delightfully (or annoyingly?) find. We've found, probably, thousands of bookmarks over the years. In Manhattan, there is a large shoebox full of these bookmarks. So now there's this site where you create a particular bookmark for a particular book and put it out there for someone to find. It's akin to the project where people put whole books in public places with notes for people to find and read and then put in another public place for someone else to find and read. It's sharing literary love.
Then there's another site: FOUND Magazine. Ephemera. Life left in books, in records, in life.
AWP
I'm heading to Chicago here in about a week and a half to join hundreds, maybe a thousand, writers at the 2009 AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference. It's going to be wild. The going, the being there, the coming back, the sleeping with four others in a hotel room, the driving all night to get there, the trying to see everything. I will be there and back before I know it.
If you'll be there, too, look for the KU table at the bookfair. Meet the Bathtub Collective. At least 13 of us will be there.
If you'll be there, too, look for the KU table at the bookfair. Meet the Bathtub Collective. At least 13 of us will be there.
soon to be
I have four poems that will be published in Kansas State University's journal Touchstone: "Assessing the Damage," "Trying Patience," "Elizabeth," and "Counterfeit."
When I was an undergrad at KSU and still a very fledgling writer of poetry, I submitted to the journal and was rejected. Funny thing is, three of those four poems had their birth at KSU, and one of them originated in my intro to poetry writing class with Jonathan Holden. Funny thing. Good thing. I like it. Thank you, K-State.
When I was an undergrad at KSU and still a very fledgling writer of poetry, I submitted to the journal and was rejected. Funny thing is, three of those four poems had their birth at KSU, and one of them originated in my intro to poetry writing class with Jonathan Holden. Funny thing. Good thing. I like it. Thank you, K-State.
twenty-five
So there's this thing going around on Facebook: 25 Random Things. And you fill up 25 blank spaces with things about you or anything at all, really. I thought I'd share it with you, you my anonymous friends out there. I could probably keep going to fifty because I love lists. I love lists and I love learning about myself as I make lists. This is my list:
1. There is a cat in my lap. Her name is Snickers. Her head is six inches from the space heater, as usual.
2. I watch way too much tv. Yesterday, I finally unhooked the tv in my bedroom and put it in my closet. No more late-night-trying-to-go-to-sleep-watching-Conan O'Brien. I'm in withdrawal.
3. I bought an exercise bike after Christmas. It's in my living room facing the tv so I can watch while I ride. I love it!
4. I live in an apartment that I hate. It's tiny and dark and makes me depressed. I'm in the process of getting a new apartment almost twice this size with a "study"--but that won't be until July.
5. I'm so obsessed with getting a new, big, sunny apartment that I already have my furniture laid out in room planner software set to the exact dimensions of the new apartment. It's even filled with furniture the exact size of the new furniture I plan on buying when I move.
6. I'm obsessed with furniture and decorating, but that's nothing new. I've been drawing plans and picking paint samples since I was 10. I need a real house.
7. I want to move to Chicago. I hope I can find a job there when I graduate in 2010.
8. H&M is my favorite clothing store. There's a three-story one in Chicago, and I spent 2.5 hours there last summer. The closest one to Kansas is in Chesterfield, Missouri, just outside St. Louis. Jedsen and I spent 2 hours there a few Saturdays ago.
9. Jedsen and I have been together for four years and one month, exactly. We've never lived in the same city.
10. If you invite me to events on the weekend and I don't come, it's most likely because I'm with Jedsen in Lenexa on the weekends.
11. If you invite me to events, like parties, and I don't come, it's not you. It's just that I don't drink, and I feel awkward.
12. I don't know how to be social. It's hard for me to have fun and be myself around people. But I'm working on it.
13. I was in band from sixth grade until I graduated from high school and loved it. I played flute.
14. I have one brother who is ten inches taller than me and four and a half years younger. We used to play basketball and football together all the time. And then he outgrew me.
15. I have too many books that I've never read. I feel like a bad writer.
16. I have had ten poems published (or soon to be published). All in Kansas journals.
17. Jedsen talked me into writing more poems four years ago. Then I decided to major in creative writing. And then I thought, what the heck, I'll try to get into an MFA program. Now I'm in my second year of the MFA program in creative writing at KU. What's next?
18. Teaching is amazing. I strive to inspire my students to love writing and be empowered by language.
19. While shopping on Michigan Avenue in Chicago this summer, I became a member of Greenpeace. I wish I could do more than donate $15 a month.
20. I adopted Snickers when she was two years old. She was on clearance because she was so old. But she's more of a kitten with so much love and drool than any of the kittens I watched my parents raise. Adopting her was amazing because who knows what would have happened to her. Someday I'll adopt a dog, and they can curl up together.
21. I am consumed by school. I need to find a balance between school and having a life of my own outside of school. I need to have genuine fun.
22. I want to go places--anywhere. I want money so that I can travel and then come home to my own house and write during and in between.
23. Buying a laptop has changed my life. I love mobility.
24. I want to go to a KU basketball game at some point while I'm here. I mean, I have to. And I want to take my brother.
25. I hate talking on the phone and always have. I feel much more comfortable with a pen or keyboard. I like to see my words before they're spoken. Writing them makes me own them and it feels more real.
1. There is a cat in my lap. Her name is Snickers. Her head is six inches from the space heater, as usual.
2. I watch way too much tv. Yesterday, I finally unhooked the tv in my bedroom and put it in my closet. No more late-night-trying-to-go-to-sleep-watching-Conan O'Brien. I'm in withdrawal.
3. I bought an exercise bike after Christmas. It's in my living room facing the tv so I can watch while I ride. I love it!
4. I live in an apartment that I hate. It's tiny and dark and makes me depressed. I'm in the process of getting a new apartment almost twice this size with a "study"--but that won't be until July.
5. I'm so obsessed with getting a new, big, sunny apartment that I already have my furniture laid out in room planner software set to the exact dimensions of the new apartment. It's even filled with furniture the exact size of the new furniture I plan on buying when I move.
6. I'm obsessed with furniture and decorating, but that's nothing new. I've been drawing plans and picking paint samples since I was 10. I need a real house.
7. I want to move to Chicago. I hope I can find a job there when I graduate in 2010.
8. H&M is my favorite clothing store. There's a three-story one in Chicago, and I spent 2.5 hours there last summer. The closest one to Kansas is in Chesterfield, Missouri, just outside St. Louis. Jedsen and I spent 2 hours there a few Saturdays ago.
9. Jedsen and I have been together for four years and one month, exactly. We've never lived in the same city.
10. If you invite me to events on the weekend and I don't come, it's most likely because I'm with Jedsen in Lenexa on the weekends.
11. If you invite me to events, like parties, and I don't come, it's not you. It's just that I don't drink, and I feel awkward.
12. I don't know how to be social. It's hard for me to have fun and be myself around people. But I'm working on it.
13. I was in band from sixth grade until I graduated from high school and loved it. I played flute.
14. I have one brother who is ten inches taller than me and four and a half years younger. We used to play basketball and football together all the time. And then he outgrew me.
15. I have too many books that I've never read. I feel like a bad writer.
16. I have had ten poems published (or soon to be published). All in Kansas journals.
17. Jedsen talked me into writing more poems four years ago. Then I decided to major in creative writing. And then I thought, what the heck, I'll try to get into an MFA program. Now I'm in my second year of the MFA program in creative writing at KU. What's next?
18. Teaching is amazing. I strive to inspire my students to love writing and be empowered by language.
19. While shopping on Michigan Avenue in Chicago this summer, I became a member of Greenpeace. I wish I could do more than donate $15 a month.
20. I adopted Snickers when she was two years old. She was on clearance because she was so old. But she's more of a kitten with so much love and drool than any of the kittens I watched my parents raise. Adopting her was amazing because who knows what would have happened to her. Someday I'll adopt a dog, and they can curl up together.
21. I am consumed by school. I need to find a balance between school and having a life of my own outside of school. I need to have genuine fun.
22. I want to go places--anywhere. I want money so that I can travel and then come home to my own house and write during and in between.
23. Buying a laptop has changed my life. I love mobility.
24. I want to go to a KU basketball game at some point while I'm here. I mean, I have to. And I want to take my brother.
25. I hate talking on the phone and always have. I feel much more comfortable with a pen or keyboard. I like to see my words before they're spoken. Writing them makes me own them and it feels more real.
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