Reading tonight!

Juliet Patterson and I will be joining William Stobb for a reading at Magers and Quinn Booksellers in celebration of Bill's brand new book, Nervous Systems!

Here's a little taste of what I think the evening might be like:



(See sidebar for all sorts of details)

I slipped....

...and smoked an entire pack of cigarettes all by myself yesterday. I started early and really put some effort into it. It was revolting. And glorious.

And today I am hoping that one of these cups of green tea will indeed help me feel less like an ashtray on legs.

Best verbal exchange of the week

Me (to class): Do you all know what "pedagogy" means?
Student: Is it a kind of cheese?


It sounds exactly like a kind of cheese. I would like some pedagogy, crusty bread, and a full bodied red, please.

(And, yes, the student was making a joke.)

My Addiction to Withdrawal

Do you know what are stupid?
Cigarettes.
Do you know what's more stupid?
Me three days off cigarettes.


There are five ways to fix a run-on sentence:

RUN-ON EXAMPLE: Cigarettes are expensive and unhealthy they seem worth it right now.

1. Make it two sentences:
Cigarettes are expensive and unhealthy. They seem worth it right now.

2. Use a semicolon:
Cigarettes are expensive and unhealthy; they seem worth it right now.

3. Use a semicolon, a conjunctive adverb or transitional phrase, and a comma:
Cigarettes are expensive and unhealthy; however, they seem worth it right now.

4. Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction:
Cigarettes are expensive and unhealthy, but they seem worth it right now.

5. Use a subordinating conjunction:
Although cigarettes are expensive and unhealthy, they seem worth it right now.


I don't even smoke that much, people. I just obsess when feel denied, or when I can feel myself "healing" and "getting healthy". It's totally distracting.

I took a friend up on a MySpace invitation. Another friend suggested yoga.

So I'm all manic back and forth between MySpace and countless sun salutations. These are my current substitutions. It's ridiculous.

Benefit Tonight!!

Hosts of the
Story Stage Open Mic Series
Invite you to

A Bridge Relief Reading
Sunday, August 5, 2007
At the 331 Club
331 NE 13th Avenue, Mpls
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Sign up starts at 5:30

$10 Suggested Donation
All proceeds will go to the American Red Cross
Featured Reader: Jen March

The Lit 6 Story Stage, an open mic on the first and third Sunday of each month at the 331 Club in Northeast Minneapolis will be using this week's stage time to raise money for the victims and victims' families of the I35 bridge collapse this past week. We invite you to come and share a story or a poem, or just relax in the friendly, literary ambiance of the 331. The stage will be open to artists of all mediums – please come share your work for this good cause!

Hope to see you there!

Contact Heidi Rivers at 763-458-1431 for more information

Here is some more good news:

I am so very close to spilling the beans about the Imaginary Press Reading Series fall lineup!!! Please check back in the next couple days.

Here's some good news:

Hellooo, Mr. new Poet Laureate!

(I got the news from the ploughshares blog, which is awesome.)

The Bridge Collapse

I want to thank my friends who have called or emailed to check on us today. A and I are fine. I have heard the voice of everyone I am close to who I'm sure travels the Highway 35 bridge on a daily basis. But I have not heard from everyone I know yet. Please be okay.

It's horrible. At least six people are confirmed dead.

It took a couple hours to get through to one of my closest friends, who would have been on the bridge had she left work five minutes earlier. She saw the whole thing, the fires and all, and is shaken, very shaken, but alive.

Many of the news helicopters filming the collapse were right over my house. It was loud, frightening -- even at this distance -- we live about a mile from there.

Now it's dark and raining. And lightning. And more lightning. I hope it will hold off. I hope they can save some more people.

Curse You, Celtics!!!!

First you take Szczerbiak


And now KG?????




I am NEVER going to get to like a sport.

(disclaimer: except I'm SURE I will love the Lynx if you are reading this, Stephen Burt!)