Rappahannock, Waccamaw, and Pushcart

Rappahanock, Waccamaw, and Pushcart. Go ahead. Say it as fast as you can, again and again. 

A lucky trio. Unlike December's rain, sleet, and snow. More like ribbons in your hair, buttons and bows down your shirt front, and bells on your boots. Go ahead and dance!

And here's why:

“Gorilla” was nominated for a 2016  Pushcart Prize by the editors at Animal Literary Magazine. Many thanks to Sarah Cedeño, Fiction Editor, and Danita Berg, Founder and Co-Editor!

“Something for Nothing” was published in Waccamaw Journal, Issue 13. All my best to Cara Blue Adams, Fiction Editor, for her gorgeous edits and wonderful guidance!

“Waking” was published in  Rappahannock, Issue 2.1. Many thanks to Robert Kingsley, Fiction Editor!

Buttons, bows, and bells! Join me for a spin around the floor!

The 2012 Waasmode Short Fiction Prize & Why I'm Even More in Love with Caitlin Horrocks

2012 Waasmode Short Fiction Prize

Caitlin Horrocks' stories have always punched me in just the right way. So that after reading "The Sleep" or "Sun City" or even "Zolaria" and especially "This Is Not Your City," I feel amazed and exhausted and alive and also a little bit in love with Caitlin Horrocks and her words. And so, when I entered a story - in the usual titled-with-no-author identification format given to most contests - in the Passages North short fiction contest, which announced CH as judge, I hoped she might find something in my words, too - if my story even made it passed the first readers.

This week I had my first phone call ever from a literary magazine. Yes, that's right. From Tim Johnston, the managing editor at Passages North. He was quite calm, and meanwhile I tried to stay calm, as he told me that my story, "We Are Here Because of a Horse," had been chosen by Caitlin Horrocks as the winner of the 2012 Waasmode Short Fiction Prize. I'm still surprised and ecstatic and occasionally mumble, "nah, that wasn't me," even though I know I should shout, "yes, that's me and that's my story!" That's my story about a girl and a boy and a horse, about drums and Tulsa and dreams. And then I can't help myself and I celebrate by jumping up and down and scaring the dog, because my stories are finally getting a chance to be read.

And that's why I'm even more in love with Caitlin Horrocks and this thing that she and I both do.  This thing called writing.

"We Are Here Because of a Horse" was published in Passages North, Issue 34, Winter 2013.

(Photo Credit: sheeshoo at Flickr - the chrome horse at the Natural History Museum in Fair Park in Dallas).

The 2nd Half of December - Reverie 2011

Swallowed alive by the holidays, and so in a nutshell, here are the rest of my Reverie 2011 musings.  For each day’s topic, a few words of response or less.

Choice – writing

Protest – against SB5 - Ohio Workers' Rights - & for environmental awareness along the Gulf Coast

Solstice – so dark, so bright

Technology – iEverything!

Service – the Gulf Coast: wetland restoration awareness 

Bizarro – miscommunications

History I – Japan and the tsunami, Gulf Coast restoration, the deaths of Liz Taylor and Amy Winehouse and Steve Jobs, violence in Arizona, revolution in Egypt, tragedy in Norway, the Brits and their Royal wedding, the end of bin Laden, U.S. troops returning home

History II – reading, writing, places to workshop and write from San Francisco to Acadia

History III – short story publications, editing work, blog posts, nearly finishing the novel, traveling on West and East coasts, children's milestone birthdays and daughter's college graduation

Dreams – teaching, traveling, finally going back home to New Orleans, writing words that others want to read and that will hopefully make a difference

Table of Contents – Chapter title for 2011 – “The Year of Seven Stories”

A Day to Delete – the day the bizarro miscommunications began

New Year’s Eve 2010 – I could’ve been home – in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl and bringing in 2011 – but I stayed alone at my desk in Columbus, writing and writing.  It took an entire year for me to regret this.  Serious delayed reaction.  Sometimes getting-things-done at the expense of not-visiting-your-mama is just-not-worth-it.  So 2012’s theme might just be, Make-Sure-There-Ain’t-No-Room-for-Regrets!

Best of 2011/The List – Reverie 2011 – Day 9

Snow-encrusted walks

Reading

Plane ride over the Sierra Nevadas

Bittersweet goodbyes to The White Stripes

Sun over Alcatraz

Writing

Wintertime workers’ rights demonstrations before the Ohio Statehouse

Revision, revision, revision

Hannah's 21st!

Paul Simon’s “Rewrite”

Nancy Zafris on Flannery O’Connor

Kentucky Derby

Roses

Heat

Stop ‘n’ Go

Friends

Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont

Writing alone and together and at dusk when the hummingbirds are searching the wide-open flowers for some answers

Secrets

Wide-plank floors

Sex with a one-armed man

Surprises

Concessions

Patience

Live Fast, Die Young

Hunkering

Lighting candles

Giving thanks

Jeni's ice cream

Walks with Atticus

Wrapping

Hannah - all grown up and saving China!

Zak's 18th!

Thinking

Considering

Congratulating

Sleeping

Nikky Finney – 2011 National Book Award Winner for Poetry – Head Off & Split

Last night Nikky Finney was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for her collection, Head Off & Split.  Inside the crisp white cover is the first of three sections: The Hard-Headed.  And this morning my fingers found their way through the first pages, past fish scales and seamstress pins and truth, to the poem, “Left.”  I read and felt as though I'd been punched in the stomach.  The kind of punch that brings you out of your chair to stand, still and breathless.  To pause and then to realize that you're still alive while they're not.  The three on that New Orleans rooftop.  Another three for the 1,836.  The kind of punch that leaves you winded and brought, once more, to your senses.

Pleas Help Pleas

Three words for the three stranded, the e already gone in the high waters. 

Nikky Finney’s power rises and slaps.  The shore I tumbled on as a child, strolled along as a young woman, the low levee of Lake Pontchartrain, has a different meaning.  All changed by the uncompromising cameras, the way the nearly two thousand were left to their own.  The poetry calls it up again, and the water lines are clear again.

Awarded the National Book Award for Poetry, for the book that gives voice to the many who have been silenced.  Strong stuff.  This poet has words in her pockets and her pockets are deep.  We are not done hearing from Nikky Finney.  It is a sure thing that she has plenty more to say and I for one am waiting for her next exclamation, her next whisper.

Her acceptance speech, a poem unto itself, a slew of incredible gratitude and veritas, is a hint of what is to come.  What a woman of words.  Again, I am reeling.  

Video of 2011 NBA acceptance speeches:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/11/national-book-awards-2011-video.html