As an award-winning poet, I never feel I know enough about poetry. I’m always trying to learn more, get a better purchase, push myself to new territory, try forms I’ve never tried before, or return to poetic forms to try again when success in that form has eluded me. I turn to other poets for their insights on poetry as well as the excellent modeling in their poems. Here are just three poets (in alphabetical order) whose commentary on poetry has directed my learning, spurred my deeper engagement with this genre, and urged me to consider poetry’s place in my work and in contemporary culture. Continue Reading »

My song writer crush, Marshall Chapman, wrote an essay called “Crush.” I think that’s the title, and I’d link to it, but I can’t find it. In it, though, she writes about how we walk around having crushes on people and things all the time. These crushes are about chemistry, affinity, cellular recognition; these crushes don’t have to be sexual. Of course I don’t want to rule that element out, since I have about 30 kinds of crushes on my husband.

As for a poetry crush, you never know when or where a poetry crush will strike. So keep your eyes and ears open; be ready at all times. Maybe you suddenly have a crush on a street corner, say 5th and Charlotte in Nashville, for instance, and it becomes a poem. Maybe you spot a thin volume on the bookstore shelf and your hand is drawn to it, as if by magic spell. Sometimes you just hear someone read a poem they’ve written, and wham. It can happen with fiction too, any kind of writing really. But poetry is so compressed, so intense, that a poetry crush just slaps you upside the head. Continue Reading »

For several days I have been listening to and singing theKyrieas performed by Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin, arranged by Father Guido Haazen. You may remember it from the end of the movie The Singing Nunstaring Sally Field. I’ve posted it on Facebook and Twitter. Kyrie eleison, a pre-Christian plea, is part of the Catholic Mass. Continue Reading »

I’m ushering in National Poetry Month by sharing a list sent to me by my good friend and the former North Carolina Poet Laureate, Kathryn Stripling Byer.  Kay grew up in North Georgia. She received her MFA from University of North Carolina at Greensboro. For years she’s lived in Cullowhee, NC. Her books include: Catching Light (LSU Press, 2002); Black Shawl (1998); Wildwood Flower (1992), which was the 1992 Lamont Poetry Selection of The Academy of American Poets; and The Girl in the Midst of the Harvest (1986), which was published in the Associated Writing Programs award series.

 Kay’s other claim to fame is that she’s my husband’s favorite poet. Now let’s think about that a minute, shall we.

When I asked Kay if she wanted to say anything about National Poetry Month, since I was osting her list at the beginning of April, her response went like this: “Poetry shouldn’t be enjoyed for only one lousy month, even if it is April, the cruelist month–why poets like T.S. Eliot like it, I reckon. Every month should be poetry month.”  Continue Reading »

Last night I watched Coco Chanel, the movie starring Barbora Bobulova and Shirley MacLaine, and tonight I’m watching Amelia, the movie starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. These women were unconventional. They challenged the status quo.

Exercise: Write about a character who makes an unconventional choice, bucks the status quo.

There is a strong and  textured women’s  tradition in contemporary Southern Appalachian literature. One of the best-known women authors from the region is Lee Smith, whose new book Mrs. Darcy Meets the Blue-Eyed Stranger (Algonquin, 2010) hits bookstore shelves this month. Some other contemporary Appalachian writers are Pamela Duncan, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Crystal Wilkerson, Marilou Awiacta, Doris Davenport, Isabel Zuber, George Ella Lyon, Continue Reading »

March is Women’s History Month, or, as my good friend and poet Jaki Shelton Green would say, Herstory Month. I can’t think of a better book to recommend to you for Women’s History Month than Never Seen the Moon: The Trials of Edith Maxwell by Sharon Hatfield, University of Illinois Press, 2005. Edith Maxwell was a pretty young teacher in Wise County, Virginia, accused of killing her abusive father with a high heel shoe. Her trial, and her story, became a watershed for issues of family abuse, women’s rights, and the flaws in the legal system, as well as the power of the media for good and ill. Novelist and short story writer Lee Smith says, “Sharon Hatfield’s Never Seen the Moon is a real page-turner of a book—I literally couldn’t put it down. Yet this whodunit of the first order also features impeccable research as well as clear and colorful writing. I believe it is the best book ever to come out of our corner of southwest Virginia—the most readable, the most comprehensive. Serious issues are dealt with here (women’s right, or the lack of them; the stereotypical images of Appalachia which appeared in the press; social, religious, and economic conditions in the coalfields; the legal system) but the human drama and mystery of the Edith Maxwell case makes this book read like a novel.”

Sharon Hatfield, a native of Wise County herself, like so many other recommenders to Five and Ten had a tough time deciding on just five titles, so she shares her list of six books she’d love other folks to read. Number 5 on the list, Blood Done Sign My Name, by Tim Tyson, is now a major motion picture, released last month. Here’s Sharon’s list:

1) Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer                             

2) Grace: A Memoir, Mary Jo Cartledgehayes

3) Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, John Phillip Santos

4) The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The Conflict between Word and Image, Leonard Shlain

5) Blood Done Sign My Name, Timothy Tyson

6) Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, Terry Tempest Williams

I first met JT Ellison at a writers’ lunch in downtown Nashville. This tall blonde came striding in a few minutes late, and all heads turned her way. I knew from the get-go she was someone to pay attention to, and not just because she was tall and blonde. I have since discovered JT is a wise and generous writer, meaning her success as a now best-selling “thriller chick” (her Twitter handle) hasn’t diminished her willingness to help other writers. For example, check Continue Reading »

It’s hump day and I’m recovering. Recovering from a crazy week last week including two trips with William to the hospital (all is well) and a trip with William to the Fearrington Folk Art Festival this weekend.  (See yesterday’s post for more info on the Masking Tape Guy. I love his work!) We got back yesterday evening in time to unload our stuff, pick up the dogs, and then sit down until bedtime. Continue Reading »

I’m reading Writing Alone and with Others by Pat Schneider, a wonderful book about writing. It is a particularly appropriate read here at the Folk School were education is noncompetitive and anyone can try on any art or craft to see how it fits their creative genius.  Continue Reading »