Category Archives: writing

PCA Broadside Collaboration: Part 2

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Now for part 2 of the PCA broadside collaboration: Kate Johnson and I have been collaborating on a series of broadsides that combine poetry and graphic art printed at the Prairie Center of the Art‘s digital lab. Once we had the pieces created, revised, designed, and proofed, we had to do the following:

Write and submit a proposal to use PCA’s digital lab.

Select a printer. Our choice: the Epson Stylus Pro 4800 large format printer.

Read the printer manual and internet to consult for best paper for our project. Order paper. Our choice: Epson’s Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte, 11.7″ x 16.5″, 50 sheets.

Wait 2 days shipping (actually it took 6 days, because it was the weekend).

Meet at The Facility in the digital lab.

That’s where we were yesterday at 3pm, where we spent a couple of hours getting the printer up and going. We did four test prints to get the color, orientation, and sizing the way we wanted it.

At 6pm we began officially printing. There are five broadsides in our project. To print one run of the five took about an hour, assuming there were no mishaps, printer errors, paper outages, or other miscellany that might delay the process.

Thereafter, with the occasional troubleshooting, we had pizza, drank coffee, and printed the first half of the press run.

We stayed until 1am printing.

autumn, an interview, and an award

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Autumn is finally here. Tomatoes are still in the garden, alongside many pumpkins and butternut squash. As I type this morning, I’ve even donned a wool sweater.

In news, Mary Crockett Hill interviews me in “The Circle of Light with Laura Madeline Wiseman” about a poem of mine she published in Roanoke Review and the writing process. Mary is an amazing poet. Check out her individual poems on Night Train and her books, If You Return Home with Food and A Theory of Everything. The latter book was selected for Autumn House by the wonderful poet Naomi Shihab Nye, who I had the opportunity to learn from when Nye was the visiting writer here.  I’ve just ordered A Theory of Everything. I can hardly wait to read it! I love her “Alien Wedding” poem on Night Train. You can never go wrong with a poet who adores extra-terrestrial contemplations.

In more news, I’m still in shock. I was awarded the Louise VanSickle Fellowship in Creative Writing from my English department. There’s even a story on the homepage. All I can say is “Thank you,” and “I’m honored” and in the words of my four-year-old nephew, “You guys are the best!” If you scroll down the page, there’s a fantastic poem by Ted: “So This is Nebraska” by Ted Kooser.

News for a new semester

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I’m super excited because The Sow’s Ear Review and Illya’s Honey have accepted poems of mine for their forthcoming issue. I love it when my poems find homes.

Second, I received my contributor’s copy of the current issue of Eclipse, which includes a great piece by Judith Slater, also a member of the UNL community. My piece, “Hypotheses (or In the Lake of the Woods) is a poem I wrote in response to the Tim O’Brien novel, a book I taught in one of my composition and rhetoric classes. The poem also appears in my poetry collection Ghost Girl. In 2008, Tim O’Brien was the writer-in-residence here. I was lucky enough to take his master workshop. It was an unforgettable experience.

Third, my contributor’s copy of the anthology hell strung and crooked from Unhook Press has also just arrived. Yeah! It includes  a great interview with Mark Doty. Speaking of the poet, I’ve read a few of his books, but my current favorite is his memoir Dog Years. It’s a wonderful book. One of the best memoirs I read last winter.

And finally, today is the first day of a new semester. I’m teaching a composition class and a poetry class. The latter is my favorite class to teach because it combines women’s studies, women’s literature, and creative writing into a class called English 253A: poetry writing: Women’s Poetry. Along with a few short essays, this term I’m teaching Anne Sexton’s Transformations, Louise Gluck’s Averno, Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia, Carole Oles’ Waking Stone, Denise Duhamel’s Kinky and Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux’s edited text The Poet’s Companion. It’s going to be an amazing class. I’m so excited!

news

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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.

residency

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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.

KHN has framed photos of previous residents in the hallways. I loved seeing shots of awesome writers like Denise Duhamel (Kinky), Kim Roberts (The Kimnama), Nancy Krygowski (Velocity), and local  Backwater Press editor Greg Kosmicki (Nebraska Presence). What an amazing experience to write in the same environment!

Here’s me in my writing studio:

residency

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prairie flowers in west branch, iowa

prairie flowers in west branch, iowa

After a brief hiatus in Iowa, I’m back in my snug corner of the Midwest. For three weeks, I was the artist-in-residence at the Herbert Hoover Historic Site in West Branch Iowa, a growing artist-in-residence program directed by Adam Prato and one in which I was one of two artists for 2009.

(one of the beautiful trees in the park)

Prior to my three weeks in West Branch, I’d never done a residency, but I’m glad I did. I wrote oodles in the mornings when I worked in the Wright House. In the afternoons, I found an inspiring spot in the park and wrote there–the birth place, the prairie, the presidential museum, the friend’s meeting house, etc. The park itself is breathtakingly lovely, with enormous trees and abundant wildlife such as catbirds, groundhogs, goldfinches, and swallows. The people, from the park rangers to the visitors to the folk who dress up in living history garb to the multitudes who visited during their annual festival, Hooverfest, were friendly, nice, reminding me again how great Iowans are.

birthplace

birthplace

And if all that wasn’t enough, I did a poetry reading in their theater attended by locals and the requisite family members.  I had a booth at their festival where many stopped by and asked about my work (How great is that?). My 3 and 1/2 year old nephew became a junior park ranger after doing various activities in the park. (The pledge alone is adorable. I watched several kids, after completing their activity book, take the pledge to take care of national parks while adults beamed with cameras). Finally, the local paper even interviewed me about my work as an artist-in-residence and took some photos of me writing in the one-room-schoolhouse. The writer posted the article, and a brand new poem I wrote while there, on their online newspaper. In the print version of West Branch Times, the story takes up an entire page (!).

sign

sign

With the gift of time to write and research, it was  a lovely and productive way to spend three weeks of the summer.

summer residency

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If anyone is in the area in late July, it’d be great to see you…

Artists Selected for 2009 Residency Program at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

WEST BRANCH, IOWA— Writer Laura Madeline Wiseman and painter Patricia Rottino Cummins will be this year’s Artists-in-Residence at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site.  During their residencies Ms. Wiseman and Ms. Cummins will be available to interact with park visitors while they work. Each will also present a public program.

Laura Madeline Wiseman is a PhD student in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ms. Wiseman’s great-great-great-grandmother, an Iowa native who lectured across the Midwest in the 19th century, inspires her current research and writing project. “These poems capture not only her life and work,” said Ms. Wiseman, “but also the natural landscape of the American West, where she was born and where she lived most of her life.” Ms. Wiseman will be the Artist-in-Residence from July 14 through August 2.

Patricia Rottino Cummins of Miami, Florida, has been an art educator for over thirty years in the Miami Dade Public Schools. Her works of art are inspired by local landscapes, as well as by the vistas she has seen and photographed during her many travels and National Park residencies. “Lately I find myself closely concentrating on each landscape,” said Ms. Cummins, “and discovering that unique element that interprets the moment, feeling, and importance of the subject.” Ms. Cummins will be the Artist-in-Residence during the week of October 19.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum are in West Branch, Iowa at exit 254 off I-80. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Parking is limited so please allow extra time to find a parking space.