4 poems in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

I'm making more of an effort, from now on, of letting people know where they can read my poetry.  Four of my poems are in last month's issue of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature:

http://www.deadmule.com/poetry/2010/04/keith-wilson-–-four-poems/

Cave Canem, and the Kaffir Lilly book release party.

So much to say.  First, I've been accepted into Cave Canem.  I'm ecstatic.  I tried not to think about it back when I applied, but some of my favorite poets are involved; on the faculty, or on board in some way.  Claudia Rankine comes to mind, especially.  And Walter Mosely.  You know what, I'm going to stop myself before I start rambling.  I'm this close to being a graduated fellow.  Well.  You know.  Minimum of three years, quite a bit of work, and some traveling and random expenses.  That close.

Tuesday was the Bianca Spriggs Kaffir Lily book release party, and it was tight.  Elizabeth Beck did the event planning, and it was held at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY.  Elizabeth did a great job.  It screamed of Bianca.  There were mermaids, and bling, and henna, and chocolate, and damn good poetry.  More on the poetry in a later post, but let me just say that if you have the money, stop wasting your time and just buy Kaffir Lilly.  Seriously.

Lastly, anyone who has a good memory or actively visits my blog or website will notice the changes.  I've made both easier on the eyes.  This blog now supports much bigger videos and pictures, which is good for everyone, and encourages me to post those things.  And finally, my website has an updated bio and list of some of my publication credits, which makes it really the only place you can currently go to see where I've been published.

Even more to come.  I'm always on some kinda grind.

Covington City Lights Poetry Slam and INKY Series in Louisville

I've had a busy week. And on top of it all, I'll be making a lot of changes to this blog. I'll be changing the physical layout a bit to make it easier to read, begin changing the format for similar reasons, and most importantly, I'll be updating, from now on, twice a week. On a regular schedule.

The beginning of this week, I attended the second Covington City Lights Poetry Slam event that my friend Samuel Phillips (BOK) runs. This year it was at Molly Malones, in Covington. Speaking of which, my old poetry stomping grounds, The BeanHaus in Covington, has been shut down. Damn this economy.

Anyway, the whole thing was pretty fun. I got knocked out the first round, but there were some good poets in the house. Black Falcon won the event, and the trophy, but there were some poets from the Greenwich who represented Cincinnati. Truth Be Told, I'm looking at you.  And let me just say how great it is to watch everyone grow.  Lisa Carbert, last year's winner, performed earlier last year at the Gypsy Poetry Slam in Lexington and her performances just keep getting better, and Sam's events are growing every day.

Afterwards, Lisa performed. And I got to see a performance which Lisa and my brother have been talking about since last year's CCL performance; Listener.  Which is one of my new favorite bands.  And the lead (singer?  rapper?  talker?) is hilarious, and an all around awesome guy.

On Thursday, I drove down to Louisville to read at the INKY series. Erin Keane hosted and really sort of complimented me by reading a bio she had researched herself. I don't know, bragging about myself always makes me feel awkward and self conscious, but having someone else do it, especially when you're not expecting it... It sort of made my day. Also, Erin is hilarious; I wish I lived closer to Louisville so I could come down all the time.

Steven D. Schroeder, editor of one of my favorite online journals ever (Anti-) read as well. I was excited as hell when I first found this out, and bought a copy of his book first chance I got.  And my badass sister-poet Bianca Spriggs came, and my editor and friend Katerina Stoykova-Klemer came, and Lynnell Edwards (I read with her at the Holler Poetry Series in Lexington) came. The house was full of some poets.

I had a blast, but I won't lie. I'm a little glad it's over. I can stop stressing.  I stress less than I used to.  But I still stress.

Oh, one last thing now that the long name drop session is over (I'm grateful, is all!). I ordered a Flip Camera with the money I made at INKY. So expect for some poetry in the near future.