It's been a quiet few months and I wanted to write about why.
Here's a few items of note:
- 3 poems available in Issue 11 of SAND Journal, available now.
- 2 poems accepted by Tinderbox Poetry Journal, a beautiful online magazine you should get to know.
- I'm reading at a Maeve's Session in August.
- I've written a handful of reviews: Marie NDiaye, Kate Tempest, Chika Sagawa, and Sarah Jean Alexander.
- The Mentor Series is winding down. I'm going to miss regularly scheduled meetings with this group, but I can't begin to express how much I love the people I met and the program itself.
What my manuscript looks like as of today. Also winding down is my time with Hazel & Wren. I will be stepping down as Senior Editorial Associate at Hazel & Wren after 4 years of updating the Calendar of (Un)Deadlines and writing monthly reviews for the What We're Reading column. After my 50th review is posted on July 16th, 2015 I will no longer be an active member of the team.
This wasn't an easy decision to make, but I believe it's time for me to focus more fully on other projects and opportunities. With the Mentor Series over, the 50-review milestone approaching, and another draft of FEATHERMUCKER nearly complete, I've been thinking about my desire to focus on my own writing and reading.
I can say without reservation that I would not be the writer and reader—which is to say the person—that I am today without four years with Hazel & Wren. I'm a better reader and a better critic, which means I'm a better poet. I've learned how to find submission opportunities and how to send out poems. Saying that I wrote for Hazel & Wren bought me an extra five minutes to talk with other people about ideas and books. I've made some brilliant friends by opening with the line, "Hi, I'm Timothy— I work with Hazel & Wren."
Melissa and Amanda, Hazel & Wren's founders, are wonderful people, terrific editor, and fantastic friends. They created an excellent hub of literary opportunities and it's been an honor to help that hub grow. I want to thank them for giving me a chance when I emailed them out of the blue to say, "Hey, I love what you're doing and I want to be part of it, if you'll let me." I can't wait to resume my original role of Hazel & Wren reader, cheerleader, and member of the community.
So what comes next? My poems will be my main focus: writing and revising new ones, sending them out (and being more diligent about doing this), and trying to get this manuscript into the world. But I only write good poems when I'm reading a lot, and I do love to talk about books. As such, I have this dumb idea to blog my way through the books on my shelf that I've never read.
I'm also looking forward to following a bit of a meandering path with my reading, tumbling down the rabbit hole of influence and climbing back out. What if I spent a month reading only Elizabeth Bishop's work? Or John Ashbery? What if I only read sonnets (Shakespeare, Bernadette Mayer, Nick Demske, etc.). What if I read only books mentioned in essays or letters by my favorite poets? What if, what if...?
And maybe more! I still have a lot of learning to do.
This wasn't an easy decision to make, but I believe it's time for me to focus more fully on other projects and opportunities. With the Mentor Series over, the 50-review milestone approaching, and another draft of FEATHERMUCKER nearly complete, I've been thinking about my desire to focus on my own writing and reading.
I can say without reservation that I would not be the writer and reader—which is to say the person—that I am today without four years with Hazel & Wren. I'm a better reader and a better critic, which means I'm a better poet. I've learned how to find submission opportunities and how to send out poems. Saying that I wrote for Hazel & Wren bought me an extra five minutes to talk with other people about ideas and books. I've made some brilliant friends by opening with the line, "Hi, I'm Timothy— I work with Hazel & Wren."
Melissa and Amanda, Hazel & Wren's founders, are wonderful people, terrific editor, and fantastic friends. They created an excellent hub of literary opportunities and it's been an honor to help that hub grow. I want to thank them for giving me a chance when I emailed them out of the blue to say, "Hey, I love what you're doing and I want to be part of it, if you'll let me." I can't wait to resume my original role of Hazel & Wren reader, cheerleader, and member of the community.
So what comes next? My poems will be my main focus: writing and revising new ones, sending them out (and being more diligent about doing this), and trying to get this manuscript into the world. But I only write good poems when I'm reading a lot, and I do love to talk about books. As such, I have this dumb idea to blog my way through the books on my shelf that I've never read.
I'm also looking forward to following a bit of a meandering path with my reading, tumbling down the rabbit hole of influence and climbing back out. What if I spent a month reading only Elizabeth Bishop's work? Or John Ashbery? What if I only read sonnets (Shakespeare, Bernadette Mayer, Nick Demske, etc.). What if I read only books mentioned in essays or letters by my favorite poets? What if, what if...?
And maybe more! I still have a lot of learning to do.
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