NEA study on Women Artists, 1990 to 2005

This NEA study follows employment trends of U.S. women who work full-time as artists. There are some surprises -- for instance, the pay gap between men and women artists increases with age. Maybe that's a good sign -- are younger women on more equal footing with male peers in the art world now?

Another surprise: women artists are as likely as other women professionals to be married, but less likely to have children.

There's much in this 17-page study to think about....

Artists in a year of recession

The National Endowment for the Arts has published a study about the effect of current economic conditions on artists. While the general percentage of unemployed writers and other artists is fairly similar to the over all trend, the study notes that historically artist employment lags other professions in recovering from economic downturns.

In the last quarter of 2008, artist unemployment hit a rate of 6.0%. That doesn't sound so bad, but it was an increase of 63% from one year earlier.

Blog link: Poet with a day job

I'm adding a new blog to the links here: Poet With a Day Job. This is Melissa Fondakowski’s blog, and it's the nicely organized and updated lists of poetry contests and residencies that makes the site a stand-out. Also do check the "Published Work Awards" -- if you have published a book or chapbook, and there is an award you might qualify for (especially one worth $$$), do let your publisher know. We don't always think of such things, and appreciate the information.

Blog Tours explained

A recent discussion on the WOM-PO listserv centered on 'blog tours'-- what they are, how they work, and who does them. Blog tours seem like the ultimate win-win proposition -- a chance for an author to promote her work, a chance for the readers to get a sense of the author and her approach to poetry, and an opportunity to link together the blogger and the interviewee in a thoughtful conversation.

Especially for small press publishers and for authors trying to promote their own work, this provides a very sensible approach.

Diane Lockward, who is currently participating in a tour (as the interviewer) via her blog, Blogalicious, provides a good explanation of how blog tours work, along with some real-life lessons on the finer points:

"The poet with a new book invites a handful of bloggers whose blogs she knows to participate in an ongoing series of interviews. Her publisher posts the links to and dates of each interview. The publisher also sends a complimentary review copy to each participant. Each participant is asked to compose 3-4 questions and send them to the poet prior to the date of her scheduled posting. Right now I'm reading the book and forming some possible questions. My date is April 8. On that date I will post the questions and the poet's responses on my blog. I'm about in the middle of the tour.

One problem that I'll mention so that others might figure out a way to work around it: A few of the bloggers become over-zealous and ask more than the 3-4 questions. Yesterday's blogger had seven questions, each with multiple parts. Another blogger scheduled to go after me has already called dibs on a particular poem and form. That was on my list of possible questions and now must be eliminated. So if I were running one of these I would ask the participants not to exceed the requested number of questions and would stipulate that calling dibs is not allowed.

I see this as a very viable way of promoting a book, one which might be combined with audios and videos. This seems a sensible way of reaching a wider readership and most likely readers you might not encounter elsewhere."

Heart's Migration by Linda Rodriguez

Linda Rodriguez of Kansas City has a new poetry book out -- Heart's Migration, from Tia Chucha Press. Advance praise on the poems comes from Virgil Suarez and Diane Glancy:

Heart's Migration by Linda Rodriguez is a generous, gorgeous book of
poetry. It's the kind of beautiful book that comes along every once in a
while, to keep the reader the company. It's courageous, unflinching in its
voice and tradition. . . . This is a gifted, capable poet who takes pride in
making a lasting human connection. I praise her voice and her
passion! - Virgil Suarez

These poems are indeed a migration through the interior of the
human heart. . .Heart's Migration is a reading that is worth the
journey. - Diane Glancy

The book launch is Friday, May 29 at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania in Kansas City. For more information contact the author through her blog at http://www.lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com/.

Nan Sweet featured in Walter Bargen's column

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured Nan Sweet in a recent column by Missouri poet laureate Walter Bargen. He picked Pipeliners' Picnic, one of her poems from her Cherry Pie Press chapbook, Rotogravure, to discuss in his regular column on Missouri poets.

Women Poets Mentoring Each Other

Here's essential reading, with a growing list of thought-provoking comments -- Annie Finch's piece on Women Poets & Mentorship in Poetry Foundation's Harriet blog.

Arts in Transit 2009 awards

The St. Louis Arts in Transit contest results are in -- this year's winners include Niki Nymark, Catherine Rankovic, and Mary Ruth Donnelly. Their poems will be paraded around town on buses for a year, giving poetry to one of the broadest audiences St. Louis has to offer. Congratulations!
Read the poems here: http://www.artsintransit.org/PIM09.html.

A review in RATTLE

Niki Nymark's chapbook, A Stranger Here Myself, has been reviewed at RATTLE. Read it here: http://www.rattle.com/blog/2009/03/a-stranger-here-myself-by-niki-nymark/.

Chapbooks going to Poets House Showcase

The 2008 chapbooks from Cherry Pie Press are making their way to the annual Poets House Showcase. Work by Mary Ruth Donnelly, Niki Nymark, and Erin M. Bertram will be exhibited in the Showcase and then become part of the permanent collection.

Read more about Poets House and the Showcase exhibit here:
http://poetshouse.org/showcase.htm

Erin M. Bertram, runner-up in another chapbook contest

Erin M. Bertram, author of The Urge To Believe Is Stronger Than Belief Itself, is runner-up in Green Tower Press's chapbook contest this year. Read about the contest, Green Tower Press, and the chapbook series here: http://catpages.nwmissouri.edu/m/tlr/.

Chapbook launch March 3 - Weaving the Light

Please join us for readings by Mary Ruth Donnelly from her new and exquisitely lovely chapbook, Weaving the Light, just out from Cherry Pie Press.

When: Tuesday, March 3, 6:30pm – 8pm
Where: Soulard Coffee Garden, 910 Geyer Ave., St. Louis, MO 63104
Note, the reading is in the upstairs room, which involves a flight of stairs
What Else? There will be some light refreshments, and the company of good people.

Here is the full announcement about the chapbook, with sample poems: http://cherrypiepress.blogspot.com/2008/12/weaving-light-by-mary-ruth-donnelly.html

Hamamelis, a.k.a. Witch-hazel

February, land of dreary gray and also of opening-up things. The landscape here at Cherry Pie is the wheat-blonde of winter, that bland hay-colored absence of color that the living world takes on while it's not actively living. Everything else is gray and brown -- until this week.

Witness the arrival of Hamamelis, the first fireworks to emerge from winter -- witch-hazel. Her name is from Middle English roots of "Witch" or wiche, and that from the Old English wice, pliable or bendable. She is a wild-haired lady.

Here she is, marching around Cherry Pie land. Her accompaniment is a small and optimistic crowd of daffodil shoots.

Send me a poem about witches or witch-hazel. I'll post the most interesting ones.

Tips on blogging and pleasure

Sometimes I scout other blogs to pick up ideas and tips. Penelope Trunk is one of the best, and her nominally business-related posts relate to life in general as much as they do to business. In one of her blog's "how to blog" entries -- see entry #9 on her list, The Poetic Link -- she includes a link that, via the idea of "pleasure," sends you on a circuitous and wonderful journey to Roland Barthes and his ideas on "readerly" versus "writerly" texts. Squeezed to a too-brief essence here, the Wikipedia article cited by Trunk describes "readerly text, which does not challenge the reader's position as a subject. The writerly text provides bliss, which explodes literary codes and allows the reader to break out of his or her subject position."

Translated to poetry, what would that be? Any suggestions for a readerly poem, or a writerly poem? What it does to the reader...

777 chapbooks!

Tallying up the sales and distribution numbers for Cherry Pie, I calculate that 777 copies of the first eight chapbooks are now in readers' hands.

Each chapbook has between 25 and 50 copies distributed free -- to potential reviewers, to the author, to previous Cherry Pie authors, and to a core set of "friends" of the press who in some unforgettable way encouraged the start of all this. The rest of the 777 figure is due to sales, or a small portion of that due to store inventory (3-5 copies of each book) sitting at Left Bank Books, local independent bookstore and haven for the writer.

By whatever means these books arrived in your hands, Dear Reader, enjoy, and read, and may one book lead to another. Thank you.

From the editor

A little news from the editorial seat...

I have a review published in RATTLE -- http://www.rattle.com/blog/2009/01/alabama-steve-by-karyna-mcglynn/.

And a poem in a new online publication, Sweet, that has a very attractive website and a sweet tooth to boot. Check it out at http://www.sweetlit.com/, or to see my poem go directly here: http://www.sweetlit.com/Rebecca_Ellis.html.

Poetry at your feet

Here in the new-fallen snow on the blacktop driveway, a bird has swooped down and left the first poem of the day. The wing as scribe...

No Dodge

Even poetry can succumb to economics. The venerable Dodge Poetry festival will take a pass this year due to the same financial stresses other foundations are experiencing. Universities, arts foundations, and your 401k all depend on interest earned and stocks invested. Few have escaped the financial sector's latest troubles.

If you have a favorite arts organization, check your wallet and see if you have any extra to share. This would be a good time to do it . . . they all need your help.

Bringing Poetry to the Community

Interviewed on KDHX's Literature for the Halibut, Julia Gordon-Bramer talks about her work as director of the Writers Voice literary center, bringing poets and other writers into St. Louis. Arranging the 'tours,' she sees a different side of well-knowns such as Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey and Gloria Steinem. Julie Gordon-Bramer is articulate, frank, interesting, and brings a new perspective to the idea of doing what you love.

Listen to the podcast here (select the podcast for January 1).

KDHX only posts podcasts for about a month. This one first broadcast on January 1, so get it while you can.

Add to your reading list: The Heart's Traffic

Ching-In Chen's new book, The Heart's Traffic -- described as a novel written in poetry -- is out (or soon to be out) from Arktoi, an imprint of Red Hen Press. I have it on order from our local independent bookstore, Left Bank Books.

I was lucky enough to be in an online writing workshop with Ching-In and on the strength of what I saw there, I'm going to stand in line to get my copy hot off the press. She's an exciting writer, innovative and brave, with a gorgeously rich sense of language, and in her writing and life she weaves together many different identities and worlds. The Arktoi website has a bio of Ching-In Chen, and links to an interview and to her project Mangoes With Chili, which is an annual 'floating cabaret' of poetry performances by queer and transgender people of color. http://www.redhen.org/arktoi.asp

Left Bank Books 314.367.6731 (yes, they will order any book, unlike the big chains, and they will mail it to you if you're not local!)