tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48511239228548571732024-03-13T11:36:43.487-04:00NewsUpdates about Keith S. Wilson's poetry, writing, and game design.Keith S. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673376328284491777noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-52751710875200184652016-08-20T00:20:00.003-04:002016-08-20T00:20:54.661-04:00New published poemsI've had two of my poems published at <a href="http://www.theblueshiftjournal.com/">Blue Shift Journal</a>! The first poem, "<a href="http://www.theblueshiftjournal.com/#!fieldnotes/hdrc9">fieldnotes</a>," was a runner up in their Brutal Nation Special Edition and got Editor's Choice. It's a poem I finished up by cutting apart a fairly different poem that I began thinking about at my first Cave Canem retreat years ago. It was essentially a lot of fragmented ideas about the nature of blackness. But I began to see intersections of a number of racist events in my life that took place in fields.<br />
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Here's a shot of the poem, cut into pieces and posted in different configurations on the wall of my studio:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdGcVUbs-4kO9PuZyK9N8r9G-d3rgIB1a0EFqso8ihs49tqdEuWGYsh6bUDajo771k1wDf5jwgeM8q3DfQRylPGzAde6mpvoq4O3i9xnuh6VodzCoOy3jsaqKg616Uxz6wycRwxTVaGA/s1600/20160422_202831.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdGcVUbs-4kO9PuZyK9N8r9G-d3rgIB1a0EFqso8ihs49tqdEuWGYsh6bUDajo771k1wDf5jwgeM8q3DfQRylPGzAde6mpvoq4O3i9xnuh6VodzCoOy3jsaqKg616Uxz6wycRwxTVaGA/s320/20160422_202831.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
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The second poem, called <a href="http://www.theblueshiftjournal.com/#!prayer-to-the-small-god-of-misnomers/twa2t">"Prayer to the Small God of Misnomers,"</a> is something I wrote at a different residency, VCCA, last year.<br />
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And it's unlikely anyone will notice, but I did a lot of work over the last few days to make this website more compatible with small displays (that is, it looks way better on cell phones now). Whew.Keith S. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673376328284491777noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-21198360611372755822016-04-11T00:36:00.000-04:002016-04-11T00:37:25.153-04:00Processing Your Writing: Organizing Free Writing<div class="MsoNormal">
Is there a way to automate (!) or organize free writing into
system that allows the writer to focus entirely on writing instead of
organization itself? I'm currently at the Millay Colony Residency, and given
that I spent the last 4 days addressing this problem, I figured I'd share the
system I designed. Two of the programs, PoemTag and ShortcutFixer, I programmed
myself. The last program, <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_2137118314"></span>Robobasket 3, is available online<span id="goog_2137118315"></span></a>. If there's any
interest, I'll release my programs, but I feel as though I may be uniquely obsessed
with process in this way.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So on to it: I free write every day. Some of those
"poems" are destined only to be exercises, and some I am taken by and
want to pursue later. So after I free write a poem and save it into my big
"Poem" folder, I click the start menu and run PoemTag, which
automatically detects which file was just saved:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5kfyNaz1NNjnksjNZB_2XCEQuKyCf-O-xUlaUpE-tFWncXKopp9O002cB0BKdt6sVwhY7dE8UW3PLPXws9ornTdIWKZr_DYS1mHMQ90F-wU1pfVvfieiTmC85CtmVxhefgbhb2AiTx3o/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5kfyNaz1NNjnksjNZB_2XCEQuKyCf-O-xUlaUpE-tFWncXKopp9O002cB0BKdt6sVwhY7dE8UW3PLPXws9ornTdIWKZr_DYS1mHMQ90F-wU1pfVvfieiTmC85CtmVxhefgbhb2AiTx3o/s320/2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I rate the poem in how confident I am with its worth from 0
(the default) to 20. By clicking okay, PoemTag creates a shortcut to this file
in my edit folder, and appends exclamations to the filename to reflect its
importance. So if I think asterism is a 3, it will save a shortcut called
!!!Asterism - Shortcut.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJb3uGetvis_-jochifz90_xqndeZv5VgQvoaK26I7-chtCItWwdQuC13ylOr5N5onFDPc2-mXyadW2PkVomeRZHokzWNhk_oRYoBvzzNHIoqXdl4IOP0SXuKQws8XDiUefBFHMflTvRk/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJb3uGetvis_-jochifz90_xqndeZv5VgQvoaK26I7-chtCItWwdQuC13ylOr5N5onFDPc2-mXyadW2PkVomeRZHokzWNhk_oRYoBvzzNHIoqXdl4IOP0SXuKQws8XDiUefBFHMflTvRk/s320/5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>This way, I have a folder that only has shortcuts to the
poems I think I want to edit later.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Where Robobasket 3 comes in: I have this program set up to
run in the background. When these shortcuts reach a certain ripeness (1 month?
3 months? I can change it at will), they will automatically be moved to
wherever I want. Say, the desktop. Now I can't avoid seeing those files.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic71sT34oiE9riELLodT_g6VBmSrdQuepoz6UGi1FMT4e0vIyEmPnk8BNElWMNsLbnuFHQiesqCuQ3fNuek0wiY8iEOnr7z4dj7181Rl_C4WqFeeTk1UUlDBkS4mLZZRYQjyMZvG2AjTA/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic71sT34oiE9riELLodT_g6VBmSrdQuepoz6UGi1FMT4e0vIyEmPnk8BNElWMNsLbnuFHQiesqCuQ3fNuek0wiY8iEOnr7z4dj7181Rl_C4WqFeeTk1UUlDBkS4mLZZRYQjyMZvG2AjTA/s320/3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>This way, I can forget about all the poems I've written
until enough time has passed that I can give them fresh eyes.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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This system does not involve any of the actual poetry files.
Those are safely wherever they were saved.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Finally, if I ever decide to move the original files that my
shortcut system links to, I have designed Shortcut Fixer. This program takes
shortcuts that can no longer figure out where a file is located and locates the
file, thus fixing the broken link.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65Qt1ClgXq2HoxSZWUECxzw8e8Apyls9I5_U1G-nKRQs1ztBF7YdCy0y2glMfXFOmpmX_zc27W1IR5pI6KMmyjGObcDI-1lJ8WoRi5PDfM3kLKtAkTe46D3gsCZHG_yi5_CXFVAWI_a0/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65Qt1ClgXq2HoxSZWUECxzw8e8Apyls9I5_U1G-nKRQs1ztBF7YdCy0y2glMfXFOmpmX_zc27W1IR5pI6KMmyjGObcDI-1lJ8WoRi5PDfM3kLKtAkTe46D3gsCZHG_yi5_CXFVAWI_a0/s320/4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>This way, I can move the actual poem files anywhere I
want--for instance, if I want to move all the free writing I've been doing to a
2016 folder.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That all sounds more complicated than it is. Essentially,
after I free write and save, PoemTag pops up, I tell it a number, and everything
is handled automatically.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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For those of us who write so wildly that we cannot be
trusted to organize anything on our own...<o:p></o:p></div>
Keith S. Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04673376328284491777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-31037595306306752442015-10-07T06:53:00.000-04:002016-04-11T00:37:01.566-04:00Site Update, Blog RevampThis marks a radical update of both http://www.keithswilson.com and http://keithswilson.blogspot.com/<br />
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This blog/news feed will be used periodically to update readers on my publications, schedule updates, conference panels, teaching and editing news, and game design updates.<br />
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To new things!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-33811170569667022562011-01-11T02:11:00.000-05:002011-01-11T02:11:44.186-05:004 of my poems published at Small Doggies<a href="http://www.smalldoggiesmagazine.com/poetry/new-work/keith-s-wilson-kentucky/">Four of my poems (listed below) have been published at Small Doggies.</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.smalldoggiesmagazine.com/poetry/new-work/keith-s-wilson-kentucky/"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TSwA_2DrO5I/AAAAAAAAAT8/jlbffEGrDkA/s320/Image2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
There's sort of a story to this collection of poems, which I'll paste and change a little around from an email sent to the Affrilachian Poets:<br />
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When I was in Washington D.C. for Split This Rock I began this writing project.<br />
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I was thinking back to my first and only poetry professor, Frank X himself--specifically when he told us to come up with descriptions of objects in the classroom. The room was pretty damn bare, so you ended up getting lots of people describing the same pencil sharpener. What was interesting to me is that regardless of the quality, these were very different descriptions.<br />
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So it only made sense to me that no matter how mundane the object, a poet should be able to write a classroom's worth of poems about it. I don't have 30 different minds, but I can inhabit that many. Or many more.<br />
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I decided to write what I thought "13 ways of looking at a blackbird" was going to be about before I read it, that first time. That is, I wrote 13 poems about the most boring object I could find: a single set of nail clippers, which sit here beside me even now. As you'd probably guess, this became increasingly difficult, and by the end, it sort of taught me about how I think, because none of these poems were about the nail clippers, or at least, none of them were <i>just</i> about nail clippers.<br />
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Anyway, the poems are "<a href="http://www.smalldoggiesmagazine.com/poetry/new-work/keith-s-wilson-kentucky/">Chapel Carter is the Inventor of the Nail Clipper," ""Clippers, as Tends to Happen, Lost in Modernism," "What Does a Nail Clipper do in Meeting a Mole?," and "Mortality and Nail Clippers."</a><br />
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Now I gotta find a home for the other 9. hahaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-72147974555135284722011-01-10T17:59:00.000-05:002011-01-10T17:59:30.164-05:00On the liberation of Lawn JockiesI'm a little late at linking to this but my Affrilachian-sister Bianca Spriggs has <a href="http://bestdailyinvention.blogspot.com/2010/12/rocko.html">one of my favorite blog posts of 2010 about her 're-purposing' of a lawn jockey</a> (rechristened Rocko) in Lexington, KY.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://bestdailyinvention.blogspot.com/2010/12/rocko.html"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TSuPGE_o9QI/AAAAAAAAAT4/j3-hSfErpxY/s320/Image1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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A poem I wrote about lawn jockies appears on the blog as well, but honestly, check out the story and the photos first.<br />
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And spread the word! Seriously, I love this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-74830321368918546662011-01-09T19:30:00.000-05:002011-01-09T19:30:20.000-05:00I've been published in Tidal Basin ReviewMy poem, <a href="http://tidalbasinpress.org/index.html#/fall-winter-2010/">The Lost Quatrain of the Ballad of a Red Field has been published in the 2010 Fall-Winter issue of Tidal Basin Review</a>.<br />
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And in a related note; probably the most beautiful cover of anything I've ever been published in. Check it out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-71301943179724963992010-12-12T19:29:00.000-05:002010-12-12T19:29:27.829-05:00I have a poem in the newest Anti-This is a special poem for me because it's that rare poem that not only got published, but which I regularly read. Plus, it's the poem which I named this blog for (I seriously just noticed that). Check out <a href="http://anti-poetry.com/wilsonke1/">the Robotto-Mulatto's own</a>, at <a href="http://anti-poetry.com/">Anti-</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-16106582461333290652010-11-20T20:45:00.000-05:002010-11-20T20:45:39.576-05:00I've been nominated for a Pushcart Prize!Muzzle Magazine has <a href="http://www.muzzlemagazine.com/1/post/2010/11/pushcart-prize-nominations.html">nominated me for a Pushcart Prize</a> for my recent poem <a href="http://www.muzzlemagazine.com/keith-s-wilson.html">Blackberry Harvest</a>. It pretty much has made my entire month.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-41468976744188286382010-11-13T22:08:00.000-05:002010-11-13T22:08:45.445-05:00Anymore, fall just feels like unemployment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TN9Sparuy-I/AAAAAAAAAS4/Q1BoW9rhqZA/s1600/leaf_litter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TN9Sparuy-I/AAAAAAAAAS4/Q1BoW9rhqZA/s320/leaf_litter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I've been reading some of the letters sent between poets, as well as between them and their family. Besides the schadenfreude associated with hearing dirt on what are, essentially, celebrities (Robert Frost calls Ezra Pound his "sometimes friend." Ice cold.) there's a certain humanizing element to it as well. A solidarity in reading that T.S. Elliott struggled greatly with his finances when he moved to England. Especially now, that I am once again looking for work.<br />
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Really, at this point, it's more of the same. Just frustrating that so much of time time is spent just looking for work. Also, somewhat of a set back when a potential employer found this blog and rescinded a job interview. Now, I can see their post on Craigslist. Maybe that's something like seeing an ex at the grocery store, soon after the break up.<br />
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In any case, if there's writing that needs to be done, and you're not offended by my blog (which I personally find fairly tame), then give me a shout out. I write everything.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-71825249861221911132010-11-11T23:05:00.000-05:002010-11-11T23:05:53.123-05:00My new favorite thing - Underwater art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TNy9Cdp8Y6I/AAAAAAAAAS0/fY_JPNkwJJ4/s1600/The-Lost-Correspondent16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TNy9Cdp8Y6I/AAAAAAAAAS0/fY_JPNkwJJ4/s1600/The-Lost-Correspondent16.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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There's not a whole lot that I can say about this that <a href="http://24flinching.com/word/gold-seal/inspiring-artists/drowning-beautiful/">Two Four Flinching hasn't already said</a> or which<a href="http://www.underwatersculpture.com/index.asp"> Jason de Caires Taylor, the artist behind these underwater sculptures</a>, doesn't express in his own website. But his life-size pieces astound and thrill me like nothing I've seen in quite some time. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TNy8vnyOZpI/AAAAAAAAASw/_ekv6gE7VVw/s1600/Man_0n_Fire24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TNy8vnyOZpI/AAAAAAAAASw/_ekv6gE7VVw/s1600/Man_0n_Fire24.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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I think a part of me has always been tangled in seaweed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-89173253079754098962010-11-07T00:26:00.003-04:002010-11-07T00:35:32.926-04:00Because there's not enough good, Kentucky rapCunninLynguists member Deacon the Villain and Kentucky rapper and honorary Affrilachian Poet (he's married to Bianca!) Sheisty Khrist are bringing it November 30th.<br />
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In Sheisty Khrist's words:<br />
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<blockquote>"if you are easily offended and don't understand off-hand humor and political commentary please do not watch. parental advisory. other than that be prepared to buy this album when it comes out this month. it is an amazing piece of work."</blockquote><br />
Couldn't agree more:<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Etk978JSu1c?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Etk978JSu1c?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></div><br />
Also, if you're not already in the know, <a href="http://qn5.com/">check out QN5 music</a>, post-haste.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-23612711435066584982010-10-23T22:33:00.000-04:002010-10-23T22:33:36.244-04:00A photo of yours trulyI'll just share one for now, but my friend Ashley Ross has taken some photos of me. Isn't she great?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TMOarmYoZpI/AAAAAAAAASE/wtmcn64LpaI/s1600/keith-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TMOarmYoZpI/AAAAAAAAASE/wtmcn64LpaI/s640/keith-9.jpg" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keith S. Wilson in Eden Park, Cincinnati. Photo by Ashley Ross</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-18845749895804299272010-10-18T23:48:00.000-04:002010-10-18T23:48:28.460-04:00For Colored Girls book discussion at Evelyn N. Alfred's blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TL0UX0aHW7I/AAAAAAAAASA/4e6foDG5MS0/s1600/coloredgirls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="304" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TL0UX0aHW7I/AAAAAAAAASA/4e6foDG5MS0/s320/coloredgirls.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I won't lie; I love book discussions. I would participate in them all the time if I could find one that read things other than best sellers or summer (that is, easy) reads. So I jumped at the chance to participate in the <a href="http://evelynnalfred.blogspot.com/">book discussion Evelyn N. Alfred is leading at her blog</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/EvelynNAlfred">Twitter account</a>. <br />
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Okay, jump is the wrong word, since I ended up 10 days behind. But I went out and bought the book for the discussion (tip: it's not in the poetry section, it's in the theatre section). Anyway, now I'm caught up, loving the book, and loving that someone's tackling poetry in book discussion.<br />
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Keep an eye on Evelyn's blog; she does stuff like this all the time. I think I've linked to her before, but this merits a second mention. Please join the discussion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-72372017906247601332010-10-14T15:41:00.000-04:002010-10-14T15:41:43.243-04:00My poem "How Like a Potato" has been published in the Fall 2010 issue of Poetrybay.My poem <a href="http://www.poetrybay.com/fall10/KeithWilson.html">"How Like a Potato"</a> has been published in the Fall 2010 issue of <a href="http://www.poetrybay.com/">Poetrybay</a>.<br />
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I've been trying to make an effort of announcing my publications here. I hate doing it almost as much as I hate writing or sharing my bio, but Bianca has been on me about it, and she's kind of right.<br />
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Also, I'm not entirely sure when it became available, but one of my poems, "Punch Line" has been printed in the AIDS anthology <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Spaces-Between-Us-Poetry-Prose/dp/0883783207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287085252&sr=8-1">Spaces Between Us</a>. This was a particularly proud moment in my poetry career; the poem means a lot to me, as does the intent of the collection itself. Check it out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-80378340329425250232010-10-09T19:01:00.001-04:002010-10-09T19:02:39.780-04:00The ever-elusive poet in the workforce<a href="http://www.mythologymarketing.com/blog/2010/4/14/poetic-marketing.html">I suggest you read the full post, entitled "Poetic Marketing":</a><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Fellow Affrilachian Poet <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttN_gyrMuE">Crystal Good</a> wrote this particular blog post a while back talking about the role of a poet in a business environment:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><blockquote>Today’s marketing world is built on two-way conversations and third-party endorsements. There is no room for pomp and cliché. If you are stumbling on how to tell your brand story think about the honesty of a poet and then ask yourself if you honestly understand your brand and your customer?</blockquote><br />
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It's interesting that there is such a stigma between business and art. I understand the philosophy behind it. But ignoring businesses entirely is no more helpful of a poet than writing nothing but poetry that never makes it out of your notebook. If there is wrong, do something.<br />
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In any case, I love what Crystal is doing not only as it pertains to legitimizing poetic force in the workplace, but also for <a href="http://www.register-herald.com/todaysfrontpage/x54242991/The-Soul-of-Coal-event-to-celebrate-diverse-mining-culture">what she does for the community in general</a>, especially in West Virginia. Let's recognize that poets exist outside the coffee houses and classrooms.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-11765837796261745312010-10-07T00:29:00.004-04:002010-10-07T00:50:25.784-04:00The Affrilachian Poets hit Frostburg State University Part III of IIISorry for the huge delay between this and the last Frostburg video set. I essentially lost, for a week, the ability to get the videos off my computer. But here are the final two videos. Affrilachian Poets Crystal Good and Ricardo Nazario-Colón.<br />
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Be sure to check out <a href="http://keithswilson.blogspot.com/2010/09/affrilachian-poets-hit-frostburg-state.html">Part I</a> and <a href="http://keithswilson.blogspot.com/2010/09/affrilachian-poets-hit-frostburg-state_22.html">Part II</a> for a selection of the whole Affrilachian performance, which included the poets Bianca Spriggs, Norman Jordan, Ricardo Nizaro-Colon, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Ricardo Nazario-Colón, Crystal Good, and Keith S. Wilson.<br />
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Ricardo Nazario-Colón performing "Witness."<br />
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Crystal Good (wearing headgear bought at the festival) performing "Mountain Dulcimer."<br />
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And so many of these schools require online submissions, which seems easier than paper applications, but it isn't. Not if you have 13 schools you want to apply to, and have to tell each of your recommenders to go to 13 different websites. <br />
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And finally, the application fee itself is pretty upsetting. And knowing that in addition to that, I have to pay to take the GRE, then pay for copies of that, and then potentially pay my school to send copies of my transcript (not sure if I can even send as many as I need to yet. Sigh). It will cost me 610 dollars in application fees alone, in a field that gaurentees little financial security. I'm honestly considering taking a second job to pay for these application fees. Which could actually be my only job soon as I lose my current one. More information on that later, I guess.<br />
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At the same time, this cost is paltry in comparison to what I stand to save by having multiple options of schools to attend. You know. Assuming I get in to any of them. A little bleak, maybe, but it's a little difficult to get excited about a 600+ dollar hole in my pocket.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-54546069764863702122010-09-22T22:40:00.001-04:002010-09-22T22:42:38.367-04:00The Affrilachian Poets hit Frostburg State University Part II of IIIPart two of a three part video series of the Affrilachian Poets' performance at Frostburg State University, in Maryland, for their Appalachian Festival last Saturday. Readers included Bianca Spriggs, Norman Jordan, Ricardo Nizaro-Colon, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Ricardo Nazario-Colón, Crystal Good, and Keith S. Wilson.<br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Mitchell L. H. Douglas performing "What Stars are For."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
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I'll refrain from speaking about it, and instead give you some of our performances. Without ado:<br />
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Norman Jordan performing "Hometown Boy."<br />
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Keith S. Wilson performing "Those First Last Days in Kentucky."<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">I haven't read that poem in quite some time. Not, I think, since during the tour that really started this blog. Anyway, more videos upcoming.</div></div></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-28081867423032084462010-09-14T17:49:00.002-04:002010-09-14T17:50:20.924-04:00Gypsy Poetry Slam and the Kentucky Women Writers Conference Part III had intended on posting this the day of, or perhaps the day after the last day of Gypsy Slam, but everything was such a whirlwind for me that I ended up getting 10 minutes of sleep in two days and sort of running through Monday in a haze. Which says something about <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/12/1430258/review-gypsy-poetry-slam-cements.html">Gypsy Slam</a> and the KWWC, doesn't it?<br />
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I'd never actually been to the KWWC, but after spending a late night out for Gypsy Slam, I woke up very late, finished some of my work, and drove the hour and a half drive back to Lexington to see Diane Ackerman's reading/dialog. From conversations before the event, it sounded like most of the people there were had read (or had come to see her because of) her book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Zookeepers-Wife-War-Story/dp/039333306X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284499945&sr=1-1">The Zookeeper's Wife</a>, but she read one of her essays. It was on writing and nature (and many other things), and at one point she read "School Prayer," the first poem from her collection of poetry <a href="http://www.amazon.com/I-Praise-My-Destroyer-Poems/dp/0679771344/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1284499904&sr=8-1">I Praise my Destroyer</a>:<br />
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After the reading and dialogue, Laura Yes Yes asked Patricia Smith if I could come to the second workshop. Who would have thought that just asking, I could sit in on a workshop lead by the estimable Patricia Smith. The catch, though, was that I had missed the first workshop and had to write two poems before the following day. So I went home, ate, worked, and then wrote, and wrote and wrote and drove back for the workshop the next day. Maybe you missed it, but I didn't: there was no sleep between those two events.<br />
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The workshop, though, was interesting. "Confronting the Poem That Strikes You Silent" was a lot of opening up to one another, which of course involved trust and respect, and if I do say so myself, some amazing writing. Patricia Smith is observant and if not shrewd, astute, workshop leader, and I think everyone left with more than they came in with.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-42900603953353050502010-09-12T05:01:00.003-04:002015-10-06T08:31:23.242-04:00Gypsy Poetry Slam and the Kentucky Women Writers Conference Part I<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the Affrilachian Poets hang out after Gypsy Slam.</td></tr>
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I have attended only a small portion of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference these last two days, but even so, it's all sort of a whirlwind of creative energy and feminine-power. For anyone who doesn't know, <a href="http://www.uky.edu/WWK/">the Kentucky Women Writers Conference</a> is the longest running event of its kind in America, and this year features Diane Ackerman and (one of my personal heroes) Patricia Smith. Plus, my Affrilachian Poet sister Bianca Spriggs runs the Gypsy Slam (an all female slam poetry event).<br />
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Yes, you can attend most the events if you're a guy, and yes, if you're within driving distance or in any way able to come to next year's event, you probably should. It's been amazing so far.<br />
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I'm going to be completely honest though. This is more a two part blog entry out of necessity than convenience; I need sleep.<br />
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The Gypsy Slam actually happened last night, but I want to talk about it real quick while it's fresh on my mind. Before sleep. Fellow NKY poet Lisa Marie Carbert did her thing. She's really getting awesome, and it's great to see some of us represent from time to time. Northern Kentucky rarely gets any love. And I got to see a lot of the Lexingtonians I've come to know and love too, it was an all-around amazing event.<br />
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Afterwards, though, I got to sit down for a little while tonight with Lauren Zuniga, who won the competition (I won't even begin to talk about how breathless her second poem left me), and Laura Yes Yes, who all around rocks as a person and a poet (Cave Canem Group A what!) and we talked a little bit about how slam poetry is perceived. That is, as something lesser than poetry. Patrica Smith hasn't done slam in some years, but Lauren noted that a reviewer explained that Patricia Smith had transcended her slam roots. As if slam is the first step to writing real poetry. Poetry-as-training-bra.<br />
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Semi-random aside. Here's Laura Yes Yes on her first set, tearing it up, and captured with a camera that has strangely rendered her as some sort of poetic spirit-warrior:<br />
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Hell, it was only earlier this week I was telling my friend and fellow poet Megan Scharff, that I believe that there are academic poets who purposely read poorly because the only people who they care about impressing are poets, publishers, and professors who are used to that kind of reading, or who are already enamored with their previously published work. Perhaps it's the cynic in me, but I have been to too many horrendous academic readings to believe that all those poets happen to be naturally terrible readers who have never gotten any better. There's an idea in academic poetry that alienating the audience is fine, because it weeds out those who are not serious about the blessed miracle that is the written word.<br />
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I've never believed that poetry is dying, but if it was, it would be because of academic poetry, and those who support the idea that letting the audience in is a crime. That's not to say that all poetry need be 'easy' to understand: narrative, straight-forward, and simply-worded, though some of my favorite poetry is. It means that when a human being is standing on stage, they can at least give the other human beings in the room the common courtesy of caring.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-78255549679476355182010-09-09T23:50:00.001-04:002010-09-09T23:53:03.896-04:00Should I take that online class?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TImrcXHu73I/AAAAAAAAARY/4zGlqbOrrv4/s1600/Image1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oLulQvrE55E/TImrcXHu73I/AAAAAAAAARY/4zGlqbOrrv4/s320/Image1.jpg" /></a></div>I recently completed an online grant writing class, but since the initial sign-up, I've read some people's opinions on online learning in general. I've seen abject disgust at the entire idea of a digital classroom. The enterprise, they say, cheapens higher education by introducing lower standard learning as if it is college-worthy. They are usually educators themselves.<br />
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I don't know that I agree with that. Not entirely. I went to college. And I'm proud of the education I received. But there are problems in higher education that run deep, and an overwhelming number of students in it for the paper instead of the education itself. The point of taking a class is to learn, isn't it? If you manage to do that without throwing money at a university, the only person who doesn't benefit is the university.<br />
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I realized, though, that I went into this whole thing pretty blind. So I've put together some questions I probably should have asked.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">What do you want out of it?</span><br />
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The main thing you should be considering before you take an online course is what, exactly, you want out of the program. If it's accreditation toward something, you definitely need to do your homework beforehand. Just because a course says that you'll get a certificate, or that you'll be trained to perform a certain job doesn't mean that anybody will count the course as real training. <br />
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You wouldn't go to a law school that couldn't lead you to a law degree, no matter how nice the teachers were. That is, unless you weren't going to become a lawyer, but to learn a little about law. <br />
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The same goes for online courses. In my case, I wanted to learn to write grants. And I did. Mission accomplished, for a fraction of the cost of taking a class at the University of Cincinnati itself. <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Are you prepared for online learning?</span><br />
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Taking a class online is a different sort of animal than going to a classroom. Technically, I could have probably learned everything I learned from my class by reading a grant writing book.<br />
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But I didn't. I wouldn't. Grant writing is not so joyous an experience that I ever felt like cracking open a book and reading it for hours on end. And more than that, if something doesn't make sense on my own, I'm screwed. There's no professor to ask for clarification. So taking an online course, for me, accomplished three things that studying by myself did not:<br />
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<ol><li>I had an instructor who I could (and did) ask questions of.</li>
<li>I had a time frame I needed to get work done within, which meant I actually did it.</li>
<li>Strange as it may sound, paying money for the course made me take it seriously.</li>
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There are things, of course, that I missed: Having a portion of the day specifically set aside for class. The atmosphere itself (my living room is not conducive to learning). The ability to listen to a lesson instead of only having the option to read. And mostly, the interaction (between students, the professor, and the lesson itself) that you get in a classroom is just not available in an online course.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Would I do it again?</span><br />
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Probably. The price is right, and if I'm finding myself for some reason unmotivated toward something I'd like to learn, it seems an agreeable enough solution.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-6255247260248033882010-09-05T20:53:00.000-04:002015-10-06T08:32:58.550-04:00My writing process<a href="http://evelynnalfred.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-is-your-writing-process-like.html?spref=tw">Evelyn N. Alfred wonders</a>:<br />
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I'm very curious about how writers - especially published ones - write. I'd like to know their whole writing process, from the brainstorm, first draft, second draft, seventy-elevnth draft, all the way up to publishing. It would be nice to know these things, to see if their advice could help me with my own writing.</blockquote>
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I write every day. I don't have a set amount of words, or time, that I need to write, just so long as I write one poem. That's anything from an epic (well, for me) 3-pager to a haiku, though I almost never write anything so short, since I consider it cheating. Cheating, that is, myself. From time spent writing. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a good haiku.<br />
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The process can take anywhere from half an hour to probably around an two hours, depending on my mood and the poem, though the poem depends so heavily on my mood that these qualifiers might be one in the same.<br />
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With that in mind, I tell myself I won't go to bed until the poem is done. This means that most nights, it's the last thing I do before I go to bed. Possibly not the best state of mind for a lot of people to write, but I've always been a night person, and poetry is exciting to me and keeps me active enough that I rarely feel tired until the poem is written. Writing has always been exciting to me. Reading can be. Depends on the artist.<br />
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So it's 2 in the morning, and I've decided I need to write my poem for the day. What do I write about? I have three methods for topics. The first, and most common approach I take is that I basically free write. I start writing about whatever pops in my head, or something that I see in the room, or something that happened that day. Method two has me write a poem specifically in response to a contest. If there's a contest that's looking for poems for an AIDS anthology (and there was) I write to that. And the last method is that I read a poem, and write a 'response' to it. Either a direct answer to some question the poem asked, or what I think about when I read that poem. Pretty much anything.<br />
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From there, it's all instinct for the greater part of it, if there is such a thing. If I like what I've written, I'll try to do more of it, whatever it is. Alliteration, or in-rhyme, or a theme, or whatever. But I basically try to keep writing until I feel an end coming on, and end it when it feels right.<br />
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That's how I write the majority of the time. I edit heavily that first night, and put it away until some undetermined time in the future, when I look through a lot of my poems at once and edit them again. Throughout the week, I read the last three or four poems I wrote to see how I feel about them, and a lot of times, I edit those as well.<br />
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Form poems are a little different, but I still mostly do this free-write approach. I almost never plan everything that I'm going to write before I write it. I maybe have never done it. I don't know that I believe that poetry can't be organic when it's planned, or can't seem it anyway. All I know is that when a trained singer goes out on stage, the one thing that nobody can teach them is to be in that right state of mind to really hit every note the way it needs to be hit. After a while, they just learn the place they need to be, and for me, the place that I've needed to be for as long as I can remember is fluid, and unplanned and free as I can.<br />
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Frank X Walker said, in the first writing class that I ever took, that there's no such thing as writer's block. And I believe in that. Writer's block isn't a literal inability to pen a word to paper, it's a fear or feeling that anything you have to say isn't worth saying. Or else, you don't feel as if you know what to say. But if you sit down and just write, you'll have something. If you learned how to spell, and you can speak, you can write.<br />
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Every single time I sit down to write, I'm not crafting something spectacular. I'm just crafting, and that's enough.<br />
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Most nights.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-36259973229300867842010-08-28T21:03:00.000-04:002010-08-28T21:03:02.295-04:00Final Friday with the InkTank and CincyVoices.comYesterday, I read some of my poetry at InkTank, an organization in Cincinnati I've been getting more involved with lately. InkTank is concerned with matters of the community and the arts, and in celebration of Final Friday, Lisa Howe, the new director, set up a reading of work by the participants of the InkTank writer's salon which happens there every other week. I had a blast. Plus, there was good food, and lots of talk with writers of prose, poetry, and other kinds of writing.<br />
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I actually brought my camera, but forgot to use it. I'm a miserable blogger sometimes.<br />
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One of my favorite moments of the night, though, involved Julie Stockman reading a moving <a href="http://cincyvoices.com/2010/08/10/losing-it-twice-1-of-2/">blog entry</a> from a blog she contributes to called <a href="http://cincyvoices.com/">CincyVoices</a>. Well, it was technically a blog entry, but I'd probably call it a memoir if she had not stated it as such. Julie walked me around the Final Friday event and shared an impressive knowledge (and love) of Over-The-Rhine and Cincinnati in general. Check out the site, especially if you live in or around Cincinnati; it's absolutely fantastic.<br />
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I'd also like to commend Julie's involvement in Price Hill's Cultural Heritage Festival. I'm pretty damn upset I wasn't able to make it today. <br />
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And speaking of that... This is a formal announcement of thus-far-failure of Vizionheiry's <a href="http://keithswilson.blogspot.com/2010/08/guest-blog-8-tips-for-working-from-home.html">tips for working from home</a>. They are excellent tips; I plan on trying them again next week. But it's good to face the facts, sometimes, and the facts are, I didn't do too well at managing my time this week. Which leaves me with a very narrow amount of time to do this blog, and then the rest of the day spent working. More updates as they come as to whether I am able to balance all this mess.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4851123922854857173.post-16555493827245895782010-08-26T04:04:00.000-04:002010-08-26T04:04:58.943-04:00Press Release: Welcome the three newest members of the Affrilachian Poets!Welcome family! You all look out for these three:<br />
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<blockquote>For Immediate Release August 25, 2010 Images & Information:info@affrilachianpoets.com</blockquote><blockquote> </blockquote><blockquote><b>The Affrilachian Poets Welcome Three New Members</b></blockquote><blockquote><b>Lexington, KY—</b> Randall Horton, Kamilah Aisha Moon, and Jeremy Paden comprise the fifth induction of members to the Affrilachian Poets. This marks the opening event celebrating the group’s twentieth anniversary which includes the the first Affrilachian conference and writing retreat in 2011.</blockquote><blockquote>The Affrilachian Poets have been writing and thriving in Appalachia and beyond since 1991. The term, “Affrilachia,” was coined by Walker as testament to the cultural and physical connection to the Appalachian Region from writers of color. A group of friends and colleagues who eventually called themselves the Affrilachian Poets initially met in the Martin King, Jr. Cultural Center at the University of Kentucky. Ten years later, the AP’s were the subject of “Coal Black Voices” broadcast on PBS, and the word “Affrilachia” is now an entry in the Oxford American Dictionary. </blockquote><blockquote>Known for work that pays homage to family, social struggle and relationships to rural and urban landscapes, among the Affrilachian Poets are award-winning authors, academics, and activists. Group members have edited the anthologies America! What’s My Name?, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, founded the literary journalsTorch: poetry, prose, and short stories by African-American women, Pluck!: the Affrilachian Journal of Arts and Culture, and the independent publishing houses,Mythium and Blacoetry Press. Collectively the AP’s have published a total of twenty-five titles, with six collections set to be released between 2010-2011.To learn more about the history of the Affrilachian Poets and individual members, please log on to <a href="http://www.affrilachianpoets.com/" rel="nofollow" style="cursor: pointer;" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">www.affrilachianpoets.com</span></a>.</blockquote><blockquote><b>Upcoming Dates for the Affrilachian Poets:</b></blockquote><blockquote>Frostburg State University; Frostburg, MD (Sept. 18, 2010) “Born and Bred”; Lexington, KY (Sept. 28, 2010) Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference; Washington, D.C. (Feb. 4-5, 2011)</blockquote>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0