Here’s a new audio recording of a Ghost Girlpoem. I actually recording it awhile back for Quiddity. The poem is a response to Sarah Water‘s Fingersmith, the first novel of hers that I read and my favorite, with Tipping the Velvet as a close second. Both of her novels were made into films.
Ghost Girl Dreams Again of a Con, a Murder, and another Life
I’ve been busily working on getting everything ready for Branding Girls (Finishing Line Press, 2011). I’ve contacted two of my favorite poets who will be writing blurbs for the chapbook. I’ve got the bios written, the author photos taken, and the acknowledgments updated. I’ve compiled the mailing addresses for the postcard promotion during pre-sale of the chapbook, which isn’t as easy as one might think. For example, I wanted to make sure and send my high school AP English teacher a postcard. She supported my writing and always encouraged me. She entered a poem I wrote to the Des Moines National Poetry Festival the year I was in her class. It was there I gave my first poetry reading, ever, at the Des Moines Art Center. And she gave me a copy of Emily Dickinson as a graduation gift. (You are the greatest, Mrs. K!) She retired the year I graduated and thus, finding her mailing address was a bit tricky. Also, I found the perfect art for the cover. A few years back, I attended an art festival and purchased an adorable piece from pincurl girls. I contacted Pincurl Girls and asked about having the art on my cover. I recieved a yes! Yeah! Here’s a teaser of the cover:
My second chapbook, GHOST GIRL (PUDDING HOUSE, 2010), explores memory loss and recovery after relocation. While many of the poems are traditional in form (villanelle, ekphrasis, prose, found), GHOST GIRL reclaims the heroic journey as a female one. “Break taboos,” GHOST GIRL states, because “there will always be those who wanted to have killed you.”
For most of June, I’ve been working on organizing my book manuscript and dissertation SPEECH MAKING: FROM THE AMERICAN PLATFORM OF MATILDA FLETCHER. I put all the poems in the book, then took some out, then added a few back in, then took others out. I think, though, it’s finally perfect (for now). I’ve been researching Matilda for a little over a year and a half (wow!). I’m thrilled Matilda poems have been accepted by the editors of The Broad River Review, West Branch Times, The Queen City Review, and Naugatuck River Review. There will also be Matilda poems in the forthcoming anthologies Knocking at the Door (edited by Lisa Sisler and Lea C. Deschenes), A Face to Meet the Faces (edited by Stacey Lynn Brown and Oliver de la Paz), and Multi Culti Mixerations (edited by Richard H. McNab).
In other news, there’s a mini-review of my poem “Dead Girl Brand II” in Big Muddy. The forthcoming anthology of poems on violence that I’m co-editing (with Christine Stewart-Nunez), WOMEN WRITE RESISTANCE: POETS FIGHT GENDER VIOLENCE, was awarded a grant from the South Dakota Humanities Council to cover some of the costs of permissions. I’m super excited about our anthology! It’s something Christine and I have been putting together since the fall of 2007. Finally, my chapbook GHOST GIRL just came out from Pudding House…more on that soon.
In May, I was an artist in residence at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The residency at KHN was wonderful! The environment at KHN was warm and welcoming among the artists and writers, but also quiet, serious, and hardworking. I wrote twelve poems in twelve days and wrote out the first ten pages of an essay I’ve been writing in my head for over a year. I loved meeting the other artists and seeing the evolution of their art during their residency. The people in Nebraska City were friendly and nice. The place of Nebraska City was comfortingly Midwest.
I want to thank those of you who attended the no name reading series last Friday. It was a good turn out and super fun! I was able to read from my new chapbook My Imaginaryand from a series I’ve been working on which examines the life of Matilda Fletcher.
An essay “Hunger” appears in Arts & Letters.It was the honorable mention in the 2009 Creative Arts & Letters/Susan Atefat Prize in Creative Nonfiction.
The chapbook My Imaginaryis now available from Dancing Girl Press.
This weekend I returned the proofs of My Imaginary to Dancing Girl Press. Yipee! To celebrate, I’d thought a little John Stewart on caulk would be fitting.
I’ve just sent Arts & Lettersthe proof of my essay “Hunger.” I’m so excited to have my essay in their spring issue!
One of my advisers, Joy Castro, wrote about my capstone oral for my comprehensive exams, which took place at the end of October.
I’m officially ABD! Or, as Joy called it in her post, All but done. Yippee!!
As part of my residency this past summer is: My poem “Maternal Lineage” is up on the National Park Service’s Herbert Hoover Historic Site website (a residency which was mentioned in USA Today. Wow). There’s an audio file of it too:
Maternal Lineage
Split This Rock accepted the panel proposal I and two other fantastic poets submitted. We’re doing a panel on writing the activist body. It’s going to be super fun!
My wonderful adviser Carole Levin has motivated me to look into fellowships. Thanks Carole!
The amazing editors at Pudding House and Dancing Girl Press are publishing my chapbooks Ghost Girl and My Imaginary, respectfully.
A short story I wrote has been accepted for the Fall 2009 Relief Anthology, edited by J. K. Richard. Yeah!
Laura Madeline Wiseman is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she teaches English. She is the author of three chapbooks, most recently GHOST GIRL (PUDDING HOUSE, 2010). She is co-editor (with Christine Stewart-Nunez) of the forthcoming anthology WOMEN WRITE RESISTANCE: POETS FIGHT GENDER VIOLENCE. She has received an Academy of American Poets Award and five Pushcart Prize nominations. Her poetry and prose has appeared or is forthcoming in MARGIE, FEMINIST STUDIES, PRAIRIE SCHOONER, and ARTS & LETTERS.
