Hey, y'all. As a founding member and the first coordinator of the GWA, I just wanted to wish you luck with the changes and let you know I'll be happy to help out as I can. The re-structuring idea sounds good, and it appears that you remain committed to the original raison detre, to both professionalize and socialize creative writing at VCU and keep alive the rich tradition of which we're all proud. Carry on.
John Hoppenthaler
Hey all. Check out my compilation of the most infamous "Big Hair" poets. (We've been joking about it for so long--especially after reading Brock-Broido's latest book--that I decided to gather them together for our amusement. (And yes, I did have too much time on my hands today.) We should rank them--who should make the top, say three? I vote for Pound, B.B. and Ai...Download file
Anna
Here are some pictures from last year, mostly from Wojahn's workshop:
Here are some more from a potluck and from the Blackbird table at AWP in Vancouver:
Peter and Greg look especially intellectual.
Diane Gilliam Fisher's Kettle Bottom--which I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend--has been selected as the book all first-year students at Smith College must read this summer. I've attached a pdf of an article from the Aug. 12 Chronicle of Higher Education describing Kettle Bottom and how unusual it is for a volume of poetry to be selected as a first-year must-read.
Catherine MacDonald
Great Blog! Thanks to all of you for your time & energy in creating this.
Mary Jean
Hey, folks, this is the first entry in the new blog. I thought about making it a long explanation of what you could do with this thing, but I figured we already had enough of that on the site as it is. I also thought about manufacturing some really controversial statement that would get all of you involved. Something like "All MFA programs would be better off if they were under the direction of Republicans," but a) I don't really believe that and b) I think I would fear for my life after a post like that.
However to give you a feel for what kinds of things you can do here, I'm just going to post a news story from the Salt Lake Tribune I read this morning about the National Poetry Slam: Competitive Poets. Check out the article.
I don't know if that's just amateur, mainstream poets or if literary people go as well, but either way, it was nice to see poetry on the front page of a major newspaper for once. Do any of you poets out there recognize any of the names mentioned? Feel free to comment below. You don't even have to login to do that.
Enjoy the blog! Jen, post some of those pictures when you get them. --Steve