Got my book contract from Palimpsest Press today.
Last week I performed fifteen minutes' worth of the manuscript in support of Rob McLennan's appearance in Winnipeg.
It had been a few months since I'd dipped into the material and a few weeks since I'd stopped writing poems on the theme that informed the ms.
Of course, I saw all sorts of things I'd now change - line breaks, word choices, extra words - but I was still pleased with what made it to the page.
Except I couldn't say "dip and dunk tank" to save my life...
Though I'm grateful for both the book contract and the chance to read, I couldn't help feeling...funny...after the event.
This may have been because there were only about ten people at the reading and only one person I didn't know.
I'm all for compelling friends and family members to come out to readings and I GREATLY appreciate the support of colleagues from the writing and publishing community, but...
What does it mean that only ten people chose to attend the reading? When is a reading considered a failure?
Because I don't write for my mother and my sister or even the usual suspects in the writing and publishing community...
Hopefully my poetry will come to mean something to people outside of the dense thicket of my friends and acquaintances - because otherwise it's only just a (heavily subsidized) vanity project.
Because I can't really afford it, if it's just vanity...
5 comments:
Are you calling me dense? :)
"Because I don't write for my mother and my sister or even the usual suspects in the writing and publishing community..."
Eeek! You had an audience. You have a dense thicket of friends and acquaintances, a community, with whom to share your art. These people matter most. Rejoice.
Congratulations on the contract.
You know, I haven't gotten an eeek out of you in a good long while. I must be doing SOMEthing right...
Funny.
Maybe you should take a look at ""Yes, Honey, I can see you": On Poems and Occasions" by Amanda Jernigan in The New Quarterly, the issue I mentioned earlier.
Ariel, it's not your failure, my friend. Think about it. A lot of people probably stayed away DESPITE the fact that you were reading.
G
Is this the Palimpsest chapbook? That's great news, from what I can tell they make gorgeous books.
I just had some good chapbook news myself, Bookthug wants to publish a short series called "WOLVES (lone.ly)" and i've still got another one called MONSTERS forthcoming from Cubicle Press. If you like, I'd be happy to trade you both of my forthcoming chapbooks for your forthcoming chapbook.
Hooray for chapbooks!! It's really too bad more people don't do them. I just put out a chapbook by Kimmy Beach you might like. But even I think I will have to stop making them, due to time/money constraints. I've stopped accepting things for the time being.
I feel kind of about chapbooks like you do about the reading... though I definitely appreciate any and all readers, it seems like there are so few... but perhaps that's the life toiling in the "poetry ghetto" of the writing & publishing industry, and there's nothing to be done about it.
still, it's nice to have even a few people. at least they are interested, and even though they are family/friends, it doesn't mean that the writing doesn't "matter" to them... they can be coming both because they want to support you AND because your writing matters to them.
the worst attendance i ever had for something was when i was in a band... we agreed to play a show at the last minute (like, two days before) and had NO time to promote it, and the club was normally closed on that day... so anyway, we show up to play this show.... and there was 1 person in the audience. ONE paying customer in the ENTIRE BAR. still, we played a full 40-minute set. he seemed to enjoy the show. he better have!
Post a Comment