While I am still certain of uncertainty, I've managed to say "yes" to something. After a long bike ride the last week of September, Jesse asked me to marry him. Apparently, my mother, father, and sister were all in the know and keeping secrets. When it was a rainy weekend and it looked like our 75 mile ride would be cancelled, everyone was much more worried than usual.
We went. It was overcast, but it made the trails look that much greener and it kept us cool. We ate a ton of apples on the way.
In fact, it started with food. Jesse and I went to Jam for breakfast and then started our bike ride out to the lagoons and the botanical gardens. I'm not entirely sure what happened besides riding and laughing and almost running over a chipmunk, but I do know there were silver trees and orange leaves we couldn't identify and then there was a small waterfall and a boy who had a $24 ring in his hand (Jesse). And after a yes we had soup and sanwhiches on the terrace over the gardens. It was very much in keeping with our general simplicity.
Jesse did admit to telling Flynn the day before--apparently bursting and Flynn later joked about how happy and nervous Jesse sounded.
We didn't tell anyone until the next day--and there was something in that privacy--some extended day.
I am trying to connect the dots to when the sun was up and Jesse's face was looking at me. I am trying to connect the dots to remember how it felt. But the leaves were falling and we were mittened, so there's not a real sense of clarity.
So, October of next year. But Jesse has refused to change his last name to mine or create a combination of the two: I thought Crouser would be a great combination name.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
yo, reading tonight!
ELBOWING OFF THE STAGE
a c o mm u n i t yr e a din g se r i e s
presents:
Hafizah Geter, Kristen Orser,
& Jacob Knabb
Monday, September 21
7:00p.m.
Manhattan's Bar
415 South Dearborn
312.957.0460
Paces away from the Jackson/Library-State/Van Buren
BlueRedPurpleOrangePink&BrownLines
Tell yer friends.
<>
After losing the flat so graciously offered by MattDunning for most of last year--thanks for everything Matt!--Elbowing Off the Stage is returning to Manhattan's (it's hard to beat the "private" attic and cheap drink specials), and we hope you'll decide to join us.
<>
H aFi Zah GEt e R is from Columbia, South Carolina and received her undergraduate degree in English and Economics from Clemson University. She is in her fourth semester at Columbia College where she also teaches Writing and Rhetoric I. She is an avid reader of Susan Sontag and enjoys libraries and bookstores. This one time, she ran a marathon.
K rI st En OR ser is the author of Winter, Another Wall (blossombones); Fall Awake (Taiga Press); Squint (Dancing Girl Press); Wilted Things (Scantily Clad Press); Folded into your Midwestern Thunderstorm (Greying Ghost Press); and E AT I, illustrated by James Thomas Stevens (Wyrd Tree Press, 2009). She is certain about being uncertain and she might forget to return your phone calls.
J ac o BK nA bb's double-life as Editor of Another Chicago Magazine and lecturer of composition at UIC has led him to cast his demons into a herd of swine he saw by a ravine. He is still waiting to hear them hit bottom.
<> If you're interested in reading, have questions or suggestions, or would like to be removed from the list, please contact NicoleWilson: starnkw[at]hotmail[dot]com. Thx. <>
a c o mm u n i t yr e a din g se r i e s
presents:
Hafizah Geter, Kristen Orser,
& Jacob Knabb
Monday, September 21
7:00p.m.
Manhattan's Bar
415 South Dearborn
312.957.0460
Paces away from the Jackson/Library-State/Van Buren
BlueRedPurpleOrangePink&BrownLines
Tell yer friends.
<>
After losing the flat so graciously offered by MattDunning for most of last year--thanks for everything Matt!--Elbowing Off the Stage is returning to Manhattan's (it's hard to beat the "private" attic and cheap drink specials), and we hope you'll decide to join us.
<>
H aFi Zah GEt e R is from Columbia, South Carolina and received her undergraduate degree in English and Economics from Clemson University. She is in her fourth semester at Columbia College where she also teaches Writing and Rhetoric I. She is an avid reader of Susan Sontag and enjoys libraries and bookstores. This one time, she ran a marathon.
K rI st En OR ser is the author of Winter, Another Wall (blossombones); Fall Awake (Taiga Press); Squint (Dancing Girl Press); Wilted Things (Scantily Clad Press); Folded into your Midwestern Thunderstorm (Greying Ghost Press); and E AT I, illustrated by James Thomas Stevens (Wyrd Tree Press, 2009). She is certain about being uncertain and she might forget to return your phone calls.
J ac o BK nA bb's double-life as Editor of Another Chicago Magazine and lecturer of composition at UIC has led him to cast his demons into a herd of swine he saw by a ravine. He is still waiting to hear them hit bottom.
<> If you're interested in reading, have questions or suggestions, or would like to be removed from the list, please contact NicoleWilson: starnkw[at]hotmail[dot]com. Thx. <>
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Bauhaus 90/90
Just posted some work for the Bauhaus 90/90 project (today was my day!).
To be honest, I didn't even know what Bauhaus was when Dan Godston first asked me to contribute some work. After some research--well, lots of research because that's how I roll (as a pale, dusty, library nerd)--I was really moved by the ideas and how easily they could adapt from architecture to any art--or art education.
So the work spurred a whole .mss (at least, it helped an existing .mss that was in war with another piece of work I was working on). I wanted to focus on the absence of ornamentation, the conflict between utility and futility, and still express my sometimes pleasure and sometimes displeasure of the world of machines, radios, and crowds.
This work, the work of Bauhaus, and Paris Spleen would be an interesting match--I am straddling the space between those works (at least in the sense of ideas, not in the sense of talent).
Check out the project and explore the web page...if you're in Chicago, there are lots of events associated with it.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Reading This Week
I just love the image! and if you can't read the text on this picture, here's the link. Hope to see you tomorrow!* Also, add an 'o' at the end of Susan's name.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Reading Next Week
The Danny’s Reading Series (8th Anniversary Reading with Chicago Indie Presses!)
Wednesday, August 26th
7:30 PM
The writers: Adam Clay, Kathleen Rooney, Steve Halle, Mary Hamilton, Kristen Orser, and Patrick Durgin with Hannah Weiner
The presses: Cinematheque Press, Switchback Books, Cracked Slab Books, Featherproof Books, Dancing Girl Press, and Kenning Editions
Eight years in. It’s hard to believe. While we spend a lot of our time hosting poets and writers from elsewhere, as we venture into our ninth season, we thought it appropriate to turn our eye on our hometown. We’d like to celebrate the work of a selection (there are so many more!) of Chicago indie presses and their authors. Diverse in publishing vision, ideals, and execution—all committed to defining quality for themselves, the imagination, to the vast work on the part of the author to bring it to life, and to the vastly detailed work of bringing it to our hands and eyes—we salute and celebrate the necessary parts all of them play in bringing Chicago to life and the world to light. And, as always, celebrating the audience that gives us life and is our light.
Joel Craig & Chris Glomski
Adam Clay is the author of The Wash (Parlor Press, 2006) and A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World (Milkweed Editions, forthcoming). A new chapbook, In a World of Ideas, I Feel No Particular Loyalty, is now available from Cinematheque Press. He co-edits Typo Magazine and lives in Michigan. Recent poems appear in Ploughshares, The Laurel Review, The Tusculum Review, and elsewhere. (cinemathequepress.com)
Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, and the author, most recently, of the memoir Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object and the poetry collection Oneiromance (an epithalamion), winner of the Gatewood Prize from Switchback Books. Founded in 2006, Switchback is a nonprofit feminist press publishing poetry by women. (switchbackbooks.com)
Steve Halle's first collection of poems, Map of the Hydrogen World was published by Cracked Slab Books in 2008. Halle edits the online journal Seven Corners, which publishes Chicago and Midwestern poets, and he is a staff poetry reviewer for Oranges & Sardines (O&S). He holds an MFA from New England College and is currently a PhD candidate at Illinois State University. (crackedslabbooks.com)
Mary Hamilton has had stories in SmokeLong Quarterly, Wigleaf, Storyglossia, Thieves Jargon and others, and is the author of Flash Flicker Fire, available from Featherproof Books. She lives in Chicago where she's the co-founder and co-host of the QUICKIES! reading series. Featherproof Books is a young indie publisher based in Chicago, dedicated to the small-press ideals of finding fresh, urban voices. (featherproof.com)
Kristen Orser is the author of Squint, published by Dancing Girl Press. Kristen Orser is anxious. She is probably behind on work and her students are probably wondering what their grades are. She is hoping all clocks will bend backwards and take her somewhere less fast. The Dancing Girl Press Chapbook Series was founded in 2004 to publish and promote the work of women poets and artists through chapbooks, journals, book arts projects, and anthologies. (dancinggirlpress.com)
Patrick Durgin is a poet, critic, editor, publisher, and educator. His latest book is a collaboration with poet and translator Jen Hofer, The Route (Atelos, 2008). He edited the selected works of Hannah Weiner, Hannah Weiner's Open House, for Kenning Editions, of which he is the founder and publisher. Weiner (1928-1997) was an influential poet whose work bridged conceptual, intermedia, New York School, and Language school poetics. Her books include The Fast, We Speak Silent, and PAGE. (kenningeditions.com)
Danny’s Tavern is located at 1951 W. Dickens (near the intersection of Armitage and Damen). 21+ (please have ID) 773-489-6457
Wednesday, August 26th
7:30 PM
The writers: Adam Clay, Kathleen Rooney, Steve Halle, Mary Hamilton, Kristen Orser, and Patrick Durgin with Hannah Weiner
The presses: Cinematheque Press, Switchback Books, Cracked Slab Books, Featherproof Books, Dancing Girl Press, and Kenning Editions
Eight years in. It’s hard to believe. While we spend a lot of our time hosting poets and writers from elsewhere, as we venture into our ninth season, we thought it appropriate to turn our eye on our hometown. We’d like to celebrate the work of a selection (there are so many more!) of Chicago indie presses and their authors. Diverse in publishing vision, ideals, and execution—all committed to defining quality for themselves, the imagination, to the vast work on the part of the author to bring it to life, and to the vastly detailed work of bringing it to our hands and eyes—we salute and celebrate the necessary parts all of them play in bringing Chicago to life and the world to light. And, as always, celebrating the audience that gives us life and is our light.
Joel Craig & Chris Glomski
Adam Clay is the author of The Wash (Parlor Press, 2006) and A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World (Milkweed Editions, forthcoming). A new chapbook, In a World of Ideas, I Feel No Particular Loyalty, is now available from Cinematheque Press. He co-edits Typo Magazine and lives in Michigan. Recent poems appear in Ploughshares, The Laurel Review, The Tusculum Review, and elsewhere. (cinemathequepress.com)
Kathleen Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press, and the author, most recently, of the memoir Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object and the poetry collection Oneiromance (an epithalamion), winner of the Gatewood Prize from Switchback Books. Founded in 2006, Switchback is a nonprofit feminist press publishing poetry by women. (switchbackbooks.com)
Steve Halle's first collection of poems, Map of the Hydrogen World was published by Cracked Slab Books in 2008. Halle edits the online journal Seven Corners, which publishes Chicago and Midwestern poets, and he is a staff poetry reviewer for Oranges & Sardines (O&S). He holds an MFA from New England College and is currently a PhD candidate at Illinois State University. (crackedslabbooks.com)
Mary Hamilton has had stories in SmokeLong Quarterly, Wigleaf, Storyglossia, Thieves Jargon and others, and is the author of Flash Flicker Fire, available from Featherproof Books. She lives in Chicago where she's the co-founder and co-host of the QUICKIES! reading series. Featherproof Books is a young indie publisher based in Chicago, dedicated to the small-press ideals of finding fresh, urban voices. (featherproof.com)
Kristen Orser is the author of Squint, published by Dancing Girl Press. Kristen Orser is anxious. She is probably behind on work and her students are probably wondering what their grades are. She is hoping all clocks will bend backwards and take her somewhere less fast. The Dancing Girl Press Chapbook Series was founded in 2004 to publish and promote the work of women poets and artists through chapbooks, journals, book arts projects, and anthologies. (dancinggirlpress.com)
Patrick Durgin is a poet, critic, editor, publisher, and educator. His latest book is a collaboration with poet and translator Jen Hofer, The Route (Atelos, 2008). He edited the selected works of Hannah Weiner, Hannah Weiner's Open House, for Kenning Editions, of which he is the founder and publisher. Weiner (1928-1997) was an influential poet whose work bridged conceptual, intermedia, New York School, and Language school poetics. Her books include The Fast, We Speak Silent, and PAGE. (kenningeditions.com)
Danny’s Tavern is located at 1951 W. Dickens (near the intersection of Armitage and Damen). 21+ (please have ID) 773-489-6457
Thursday, July 2, 2009
oh my goodness!
it's almost official: Squint has a cover design and seems to be coming together smoothly. i have bad dreams about the margins and even more bad dreams about what to do after it's done. maybe i should just stop sleeping.
the turnips came up yesterday and we ate them in their own greens...fantastic! i'm only reading books about food and farming. i'm only thinking of moving to el salvador and opening a bakery on a coffee farm.
summer school is starting and that'll give me a reason to be more blog friendly since i'm a lead teacher this summer! and i'm getting ready for my poetry workshop next semester and all the crazy running around four classes and two schools will entail.
yesterday i remembered telling M to stay in fredonia and how porcupine-ish i felt to ask someone to stay and to think that my asking would be enough. i'm sure he stayed for some other reason now, but for a little bit i thought it was for me.
Monday, April 27, 2009
there are these things
and every song is something i hear, even in my ulna. it's the angles,
the jutting way you signed her letter love and it took months with me. i am not even
close to parallel and the radius moves outside the elbow, even the window. the window is unlocked, i am waiting for someone to rob us,
which means i don't even realize that it's already happened. it happened in atlanta
when she became a hinge joint--not only a girl who cannot dress for a tournament; not only a girl with a hook-like strucutre that made you laugh, point a finger, call the whole industry sour; not only
the syndrome of the notches, the lies you started telling. i am certain
our compact tissue is coming undone and, since the tumor was removed, there is a new person looking at my ovaries
and he is saying something unclear, but something that is certainly terminal.
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