A local reading & January news

Earlier this month, I submitted poems to the UNL Amensty’s Demand Dignity poetry and lyrics contest. I was among the top five finalist! Yay! They’ve invited me to read at their benefit concert this Saturday.

Reading (poetry) in UNL Amnesty’s Demand Dignity benefit concert
8:00 p.m., Saturday, January 28, 2012
Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso, 1624 South St., Lincoln, NE 68502

I hope to see you there!

In other contest and award news, forthcoming in my chapbook THE PUPPET WIFE, my piece “Pantomime: A Tragedy” was selected for the 2011 “Best of Spittoon” award, which includes an actual spittoon. I get a spittoon. They’re going to send me a spittoon. How cool is that? My father had a few spittoons around the house when I was a kid and I always thought they were kind of neat and a little bit sinister. I’m very excited to get my own.

In other news, I’m up in UNL’s January newsletter. I have poems in the current issues of Miller’s Pond, in the anthology Sunrise from Blue Thunder, the anthology Flashlight Memories (now available in ebook), and forthcoming in ABZ and The Adroit Journal.

Bloggers over in The Modcloth Blog discussed their love of chapbooks and posted this lovely picture of recent chaps they’ve been reading.

I’m delighted to see my little chapbook MY IMAGINARY in the bottom left hand corner.

Finally, late last year I created a BRANDING GIRLS giveaway on Goodreads.

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Branding Girls by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Branding Girls

by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win


What is the coolest, craziest, and most unbelievable thing is the number of people who have entered to win. As of right now as I’m typing this blog post, there are 203 people requesting a copy of BRANDING GIRLS. 203! My press run was only 250. I’m very sure I’ve sold 47+ copies. I don’t think there are 203 copies available. The contest ends in March, but it’s 203 and counting. Amazing.

November News

I have a poem forthcoming in Penwood Review, a Martian poem forthcoming in Issue 12 of Silver Blade, three poems on Matilda Fletcher forthcoming in Miller’s Pond, one poem on Matilda Fletcher and two poems on a new series I started during the Master Poetry class with Alicia Ostriker on Lucile Wiseman forthcoming in the brand new Sole Lit Journal. Finally, a friend suggested I submit to The Reprint, a online publication that publishes previously published work that appeared in print only. They accepted the poem “First Kisses,” also forthcoming in SHE WHO LOVES HER FATHER from Dancing Girl Press next year.

I just sent back the proofs for my poems “Toxic Drift” and “Photographs of a Scrapbook” to the anthology of poems in response to Japan by Pirene’s Fountain. Other contributors include J.P. Dancing Bear, Jane Hirshfield, Dorianne Laux, and Lyn Lifshin. This is going to be a great book!

Dispatches from the Classroom: Graduate Students on Creative Writing Pedagogy, an anthology that includes an essay I originally wrote for my comps, will be released December 5. At MMLA, I presented with Karen Gentry, Joe Rein, Michael Clark, and Anthony Sams. Smart, smart teachers. I can’t wait to read all the essays and then try out their teaching methods in my own classes.

In other news, I’ve been accepted as a writer in residence at the Prairie Center of the Arts for May 14 -July 4, 2012. My interview for Lit Undressed was listed on tumblr and Omahype lists the event in its news and events. Finally, I’m listed in Poets & Writers directory of writers that includes 9,000+ contemporary authors. Talk about great company.

Branding St. Louis

I’m reading from BRANDING GIRLS in the panel “Creative Writing: Poetry” this Friday at MMLA. Sunday, I join fellow DISPATCHES FROM THE CLASSROOM anthology contributors in the panel “Writers at Play: Exercises and Suggestions for the Creative Writing Classroom.” If you won’t be able to attend and still want a copy of the activity “Playing with Their Senses: The Feel of Things in the Creative Writing Classroom,” send me a note and I’ll send it your way.

Reading (poetry) at MMLA
12-1:30, Friday, November 4, 2011
St. Louis, Missouri

Reading (prose) at MMLA
8:30-10, Sunday, November 6, 2011
St. Louis, Missouri

I’m super excited for the reading and panel! I promise video clips when I return. In other news, I’m in UNL’s recent newsletter. The current issue of Cream City Review features two of poems on Matilda Fletcher from my dissertation. I’ve been working on getting stuff ready for my forthcoming chapbook SHE WHO LOVES HER FATHER from Dancing Girl Press. More on that soon.

Tuesdays with Writers

Tuesday, I drove south to the South Mill to read in the Tuesdays with Writers series organized by Deborah. Being a fan of the wonderful coffee shop, The Mill, in the Haymarket area in Lincoln, I felt right at home with the exposed ceiling beams, brick and mortar, the gurgle and whirl of the espresso machine, and the aroma of coffee, mochas, and lattes.  I read from two recent anthologies from Unhook Press and from Branding Girls (did I mention, that Branding Girls is now available from Amazon? How cool is that).

I thought I’d add a little clip from the reading. (Given this is my first attempt, I couldn’t find a tripod; next time, I promise. It’s only the first 10 seconds that are shaky.) Thanks, K., for suggesting I do this!

Unhook Press reading – South Mill 5/3

On May 3rd at 7 p.m I will be reading in the Tuesdays with Writers series at the South Mill (48th & Prescott). I’ll read from two recent anthologies from Unhook Press and from Branding Girls.



 

I’m very excited to join another writer from the area. I hope to see you there!

Yesterday, was the exciting awards reading from the English Department at UNL where I was awarded the Susan Atefact Peckham Fellowship in poetry. I feel so honored and thankful for the time and energy the judges and coordinator put into selection of winners and the organizing of the event. I heard such wonderful winners read vignettes of their prose or a tittle of their poems, both undergraduate and graduate students, reminding me again what a stellar place UNL is to bring in such amazing writers and poets who continue to produce fresh and exciting work.

readings and news

I have two up and coming readings where I hope to see you. On May 3rd at 7 p.m I will be reading in the Tuesdays with Writers series at the South Mill (48th & Prescott). I’ll read from two recent anthologies from Unhook Press and from Branding Girls. I’m very excited to join other contributors in this reading Unhook Press set up. I’m also reading at Poetry on the Moon at Crescent Moon, 7 p.m., May 9, 2011 (140 N 8th St #10). I’ll read from Branding Girls.

In other news, I have a poems in the current issue of Blue Unicorn and in the anthology Flashlight Memories.

A little earlier this month, I made a poster for the UNL Research Fair for Branding Girls. The fair was super fun. I got to speak to friends and colleagues, as well as talk about my new collection of poetry from Finishing Line Press. Dr. Ruth Brown, who teaches a wonderful course this term (that I would love to take if I was an undergrad) called Mad Men Revisited, even stopped by to take my picture.

What else? Well, if you happen to be at the Devaney Center at 3pm May 6th, I’m getting my PhD that day. I’ve got my outfit picked out and everything.

news

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.