Absence of major publishing houses in The National Book Critics Circle

According to The New York Observer, The National Book Critics Circle, an organization made up of about 700 active book critics, announced on Saturday the finalist pool for their end-of-year awards and the Poetry category did not include a single book published by one of the major houses this year.

The nominees in the poetry category included:

Mary Jo Bang, Elegy, Graywolf; Matthea Harvey, Modern Life, Graywolf; Michael O'Brien, Sleeping and Waking, Flood; Tom Pickard, The Ballad of Jamie Allan, Flood; Tadeusz Rozewicz, New Poems, Archipelago.

Is this a trend, or a fluke?

The matter of poetry and academia

I was interested in the results poll that just concluded on this blog concerning the influence of academia on poetry. Since the poll will be coming off the sidebar soon and likely be replaced with another issue, I will recap the results here.

Academia Influence on Poetry

• Too much ................ 36%
• Just right .............. 16%
• not enough ............ 32 %
• haven't thought about it 16%

I've not had a strong predisposition how this might have turned out. If anything, I might have thought there would be a larger number critical of the amount of influence by academia on poetry but I would not have been willing to bet on the outcome one way or the other. Perhaps the most surprising to me was the fact the the number who had not thought about it was in double digits. I probably hear more people who express dislike the influence of academia, but I'm never sure if that is because more feel that way or they are just more vocal.

The amount of interest sparked by performance or slam poetry by young people today I think contributes to an augmentative counter academia presence in the poetry culture. This seems to place a lesser emphasis on the literary aspect of poetry and make it more about story telling or rhetorical skills.

There seems to be a feeling by some that the influence of academia is tantamount to the creation of cookie-cutter educational programs that simply reproduce more and more writers that write like the poet next to them.

I myself do not come from an literary academia background, however I am perhaps more drawn to the poetry that would most often be associated with academia. I find that my own personal tastes are generally more satisfied by the literary side of poetry then the theatrical or performance.

There are people, many talented ones that can stand an talk extemporaneously at an open mic and can be both impressive and entertaining in their oratory skills. But it still bothers me that what they have just done cannot be recalled by them the next day. And further, while it may sound forceful as a message, I liken it to someone who comes to an open mic and says, what I am about to read, I wrote earlier today. It is a rare person who can write something that well without revisions. And not only is it a rare person, they usually can't do it with consistency. I guess I would fall into the 48% that are satisfied or would even like more academic influence on the art of poetry.

Barry Knows Treadmill

Barry says, " Screw the cold weather,

I'll walk inside today!"

Vacation day... yeah!

Mood: uneasy
Listening to: nothing

As of today, this is my past 12 month results report:

Pending responses: 14
Submissions sent last 12 months: 45
Submissions sent this month: 2
Acceptance ratio: 13.33 %

A few recent rejections has cut into my acceptance ratio, but not to worry. Just keep plugging away.

I looked at my biorhythms chart for the month and it looks like the 29th of January everything comes to an optimum point. Physical, emotional and intellectual. We'll see how my writing progresses between now and the end of the month.

Our local poetry society chapter meeting last night was really good. Most everyone had material of their own to share and we had a new visiting guest who blew us away with his work.

We picked up my oldest daughter at the airport this morning. She's here to visit through Saturday. She and youngest daughter will then fly back to Phoenix together, for which I am already feeling sad. It is nice to have all the kids in town over my birthday (Thursday) and I've taken vacation days today and tomorrow.

Missour Now has a first State Poet Laureate

Mood: tired
Listening to: nothing


Walter Bargen, 59, of Ashland, Missouri - a central Missouri community of about 3,000 residents, has been named the first Poet Laureate of Missouri by Governor Blunt.

Bargan may not be a household name, but he is a recipient of the William Rockhill Nelson Award for poetry and has a number of books published including "West of West" (2007) from Timberline Press; "Remedies for Vertigo" (2006) from WordTech Communications; "The Feast" (2004) from BkMk Press-UMKC. While he is not exactly an academic poet has has degrees in psychology and English education.

Here are some links to a sampling of his work:

NEWTON REVISITED

CIVILIZED SACRIFICE

HOUSE OF TURTLE

Another #$%&#@& Reality Show

Mood: lame
Listening to: nothing

Here we go again... another new reality show (barf). According to NPR the A & E network is airing a new reality show called Parking Wars in which camera crews follow the exploits of one of the most despised workers, those men and women who comprise the parking patrol. Just for the record, parking patrol people are quite a way down on my list from people who create new reality shows. To me, they are far more despicable.

Think about it... if you get a parking ticket or your car towed, these people are simply enforcing the laws hence providing some order of civility on our streets. On the other hand, producers of reality shows are putting together low budget productions to rake in advertising revenues while dumping this crap on the numbing minds of viewers.

Back to yesterday's post, I need to look into more information on biorhythms and get a chart for my own so I can explore further this notion of the possible correlation between them and writing. I have a poetry society meeting tonight, maybe I'll mention this and see what kind of laughs it gets.

I was thinking....

Mood: upbeat
Listening to: William Brooks – The Gift

Wow, I haven’t blogged in a few days. It’s lunchtime and I though I’d hammer out something on my mind.

Given the way I sort of flow into and out of spurts of creativity with my writing I have to wonder about the nature of biorhythms. I’m not particularly knowledgeable about them, but as I understand the theory of biorhythms, it is based upon claims that one's life is affected by rhythmic biological cycles, physical, emotional and intellectual. I realize that most consider the theory of biorhythms lacks conclusive evidence to support the notion, but just out of curiosity, I am wondering if any other poets out there have followed their biorhythms closely enough and tried to correlate these to better writing days to match these cycles. Just a thought- don’t laugh.