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 Every year, I write a little poem on my birthday. It's not perfect and it's never finished. This is what I wrote this year:
Tomorrow is my birthday I feel ants sharpen their teeh readying to peel back my rind. It'll be easy for the ants and the beetles to find me -- the grave, handdug is near the wasp's nest under my favorite fig tree. Three hours of pulling earth away from itself, and my fingernails clogged-- I can smell chicken manure from last year's harvest.
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 If you had sat me down six years ago, I surely wouldn’t have told you that I am a poet. I am a poet some days. I would have told you that I am passionate about nutrition, mental health and writing. Those are the things I love most. I love studies of things. God do I love statistics.
Six years ago, you would have found me knee-deep in pre-med, not pregnant and not thinking about anything but prereqs. But I found that my passion for nutrition would land me in an office talking about diabetes…no thank you. I can’t stand talking to people who don’t actually want to change their lives. So I studied nutrition and health on my own. I began studying writing and literature. I met professors who were awed that I’d never thought about writing “for real” …mostly because I believe that writers, especially poets cannot and should not live in academia. Academia kills the creative spirits because academia is a place for research and “ah-ha” moments. I was involved in academia to discover, analyze and contribute…not to write poetry. Or anything else in the creative writing field for that matter.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I can walk down the street without having to side-step a person sucked into their cellphone. Or have to tap on a stranger’s shoulder to ask a question because he is plugged into a media player.
‘Plugged In’ isn’t the right phrase; rather, ‘Plugged Out’ defines the ever-growing dependence of individuals interacting with technological gadgets, instead of taking part in social situations or being a productive tool within the community. I am in favor of technology – I wouldn’t have a job without it. Technology can make us more productive and grants individuals access to information that would be hard to find without the use of the internet. Technology allows doctors to detect and cure treatable diseases with a simple breath test. Peace officers can reduce crime in high-risk areas through analytical programs, too. Computers, smartphones and the internet allow us to store photos and communicate with friends and family that do live within a reasonable physical proximity. Technology connects us in ways that we could have never imagined. These advantages are great for the community, but let’s face it, how many people are actually using technology for non-entertainment purposes? How many people are using it instead of organically connecting with other people? The misuse of technology is hindering the very purpose of its creation—productivity. The average American citizen spends 11.5 hours per day exposed to multimedia including television, computers, cellphones, and other devices. The most common apps are YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. None of these lend to productivity. Then again, no other generation has had entertainment and work integrated into one system before. Google tracked its employees for one week and found that the average employees checks his/her email or Facebook account 37 times per hour. Mindless acts are leading to decreased work productivity and technology overload. As individuals juggle the influx of information from emails, Facebook friends, and random web surfs, thought processes become fragmented and deep creative thinking becomes stunted. Boredom develops as people crave a constant connection with technology. When the desire isn’t immediately fulfilled, it leads to feelings of anxiety and restlessness. Relying or misusing technology designed for productivity results in a “coming down” effect much like a hangover from drugs or alcohol. The brain needs time to recover before it can function at full capacity. Reducing time-wasting is important, as technology seems to be a permanent fixture in our lives’, but what about its impacts on our social interactions in the real world. Social relationships are the fundamental blocks of our community and the ‘Plugging Out’ phenomenon infringes on our abilities to communicate effectively with others outside of electronic methods. Our ability to control usage of social media is to blame. Texting, tweeting, and facebooking (did I get them all?) reduces in-person social interactions, lessens romantic spontaneity, and cripples communication skills. Being able to connect without having to go anywhere can create unnecessary social-anxiety fears. Sixty percent of social media users claim that they would rather communicate via social platforms than in-person because they are unsure of how to behave in a typical social interaction. This is alarming. Instead of having conversations with people to get to know one another, individuals use Facebook or Google to hunt down every internet tidbit about the person. Five years ago, we would have labeled this as stalking, but now it is the standard norm. I guess we can say goodbye to late night conversations while lying out on the grass. Romance? Out the door. If you are under 25 years old, you have probably never received a hand-written letter, although 70% of you would prefer one to a 140-character text. This is exactly why I don’t text and why my phone still plugs into the wall – with a cord. No text or FB message can replace the warmth you get from a person’s voice or the excitement of receiving a hand-written note. Technology damages communication skills. How we communicate is largely non-verbal, but technology eliminates this feature. People cannot read non-verbal cues and the context of the conversation can be misunderstood. It disconnects us from authenticity. Shorthanded texting hurts critical thinking and language skills making it difficult to convey ideas. The solution? We must balance our consumption to preserve organic social relationships and use technology to increase productivity without sacrificing our creativity. Treat technology like a bottle of wine; maintain a healthy limit of two glasses daily.  Twitter isn’t the only option, and for some authors, it isn’t the platform for them. If you find that Twitter isn’t the appropriate venue to build an online presence, you should look into the following options:
Pinterest is HUGE. It is quickly becoming one of the most popular search engines in the world. In 2015, Pinterest released that it had 100,000,000 monthly active members in September. That’s one-hundred MILLION, with a big ‘M’. Imagine if you only reached 1% of those users, you would still have face time with 1,000,000 users. Pinterest is still behind Facebook and Twitter in the number of users, but it is continually growing. Instead of being a straightforward social network, like Facebook and Twitter, where users access the content shared by friends, Pinterest prides itself on being both a social network and a portal to discover new ideas/products. Pinterest is ideal for super visual writers and writers who are operating a blog that offers advice, tutorials, and other great things via their websites/blogs. Users search for ideas and can “pin” them or save them to a board for later. Each board is focused on an idea, for example: food, clothes, writing, or to be read. Each pin is a picture along with a description that links to an external website. Pinterest is the second best at sending users to new websites, behind Facebook. Meaning it is an amazing platform to advertise writers as people and their books. Getting Started Create a profile on pinterest. Don’t make a profile for your books, make one using a professional picture, your name, and that reflects your interests as well. Creating one for books can make it difficult when if you write others down the road. Boards can be created for books. In the “About You” section create a background that makes you a real person to readers, describing who you are along with your interests. Links can be added that go to a website, a Facebook account, and a Twitter account. This allows users to find and follow other social media accounts. Writing an interesting “About You”, creates the potential of attracting users who are not your typical followers. Don’t forget to turn off the “search privacy” feature. To reach this feature, go to “account settings” and under “account basics” click “on” under search privacy. This allows Google to find your profile when users are searching for you or ideas related to you. Make sure that you download the Pinterest Browser Button, so that you can pin new content from your website, blog, or even amazon. This makes it easy to create links to your own website for your followers to see. Make Your Website or Blog Pinterest Friendly There are several factors that can make a blog Pinterest friendly. First, you want to include pictures for all of your blog posts. Pinterest focuses on images. Every pin has an image and the better your image, the more people that will be attracted to your posts. Create Your Boards and Start Following Others Start a few boards based off of your interests, some easy ones are: food, diy, and animals. You might even start a board dedicated to a TV show, book series, or fandom that you are obsessed with. If you are writing a fictitious book, maybe create a couple of boards dedicated to ideas or concepts in your books. These are fun for readers to stumble upon . Don’t forget to follow other pinners who have the same interests as you: writing, reading, food. This brings pins into your feed, so you don’t have to always search for them and helps you gain new followers. Pin Away Pin posts from your blog/website or from where you order your book on Amazon, along with content that you like. The more you pin, the more followers you will get. Just remember to be consistent and do not flood them with a lot of content at once. Happy pinning! Like Pinterest, this is perfect for authors who want to engage with readers in an intimate and photographic way. I believe that travel and food writers have the upper hand on Instagram, but any writer can make it work for them. For poets or fiction writers, and Instagram account can be a great way to share your ideas, your writing space, or just give readers and inside look at your life. In the same breath, it doesn’t have to be about your personal life; you can build a professional Instagram profile as a poet or fiction writer…maybe you post images of readings, or the books you’re reading at the moment, or about a topic that really fascinates you. You will definitely generate buzz and conversation this way. Widgets are available to integrate into your website, which will make it easier for your readers to follow you on Instagram. Remember, connectivity that is seamless and simple is the key. Google+ While I don’t have a ton of experience with Google+, many of our writers thrive on the platform. Google+ allows for hangouts, which are virtual conference calls…that means that you can hold a virtual reading and send out invitations. Writers can hold personal Q+As with a select group of journalists, bloggers, and fans to generate buzz. And the best part is that the hangouts can be recorded, so you can post them to your website or upload them onto YouTube. Whether or not you choose to utilize Google+, you should sign up for Google Authorship, a Google service that helps you connect all of your writing into a portfolio. How can this help you? Well, it helps readers see everything you’ve written, and I know that an old book that nobody read is more likely to get purchased by a reader who has read your newest work. Amazon Author Central Every single author needs to sign up for an Amazon Author Central account. This profile requires minimal effort and maintenance. Simply sign up and find your books on Amazon. Then your author profile on Amazon.com will show readers everything that you have written. And the best part about the service is the fact that you can generate an RSS feed from your blog to your Amazon Author account. Once you provide the link, Amazon automatically updates your account to show your latest post. You don’t have to do anything after that. Yay!  see what happens with him, see what happens with him, live with a man who does not respect you, clean up and takes his share of work. move back stay with feel it out like butter warmed on toast or do you really care I feel like you do, but you are afraid in a couple of years nobody else will want grayed split hairs and stained coffee teeth. Be a great partner. Great smile. Wants to do things. Not a drinker or a smoker. No sense of humor. Both broken toys. I wish he could be like that. balance the dishes on the silverware from room to room but oh, very selfish... NOTE: This is a poem-in-progress. I'd greatly appreciate comments and suggestions. I am still working on finishing the poem, so consider this ending, for the moment, en media res.
Contemporary Example: Dear David by Matt Burgess This morning I looked for your book online and almost bought it from the evil giant but balked. Instead I wrote a poem in bed about a faux-leopard jacket while drinking coffee from a Bette Midler mug. Marcel says when he catches himself self-censoring he knows to add it anyway. Anyway I scrambled eggs before rearranging my book shelves, extracting the ones I can live without. Those I put in a box for prisoners (who want dictionaries and classic fiction, the website says) and later the buyer in Red Hook took a towering stack for a seventeen buck credit. I skimmed the spines and there you were! Like new! On the cover in blue pants, a violet plaid shirt, surrounded by bright particulars!  I could say that I write because I have no other options, but that would be a lie. I could easily find myself in a nutritional research lab or studying maternal-fetal medicine. Or, law school…since that is what most English degree folks tend to step into because of the lack of jobs available to "English majors". I survive to write. I write poetry because there is no other way to explain my perception of the world. I write short stories about psychological disorders because there is no other way to cope with my own disorders. I write journalism for newspapers because I refuse to sit down when everybody else has given in to social and cultural follies. In every instance of my crooked life, I have avoided claiming my writerly ways, until several years ago when I decided that not writing was a far worse fate than investing in a career that made money…and made me miserable. I write because that is how I express and contribute to society. I don't write to awe people; rather, I write to connect with others. To demonstrate that we are living, breathing folks with something to share…and everybody's perception of the world is valuable to our progression as a people. Recently, I came across the idea that my writing doesn't make me happy. Most people claim their careers, or hobbies make them happy, but writing doesn't make me happy. It sets me straight. My mind is full of neuroticisms, compulsions, addictions, repressed memories, and I write to bleed my body of the toxins created from negotiating those facets. In my life, I have experienced suicides, infant deaths, sexual assaults, injustices, infertility, cancer, drug addictions, and the impact of single parenting concerning myself and those around me. Writing is my therapist. I can talk to it – see the flaws. I use my writing to heal and to address issues in my life and on a universal stage.
Considered the most powerful Spanish poet of our time, Federico García Lorca was an accomplished musician, poet, and playwright. He published very young and was a member of Generacion del 27. I didn't come across Lorca until my later years in school, but he quickly became an important man in my life...and was included in my MFA thesis reading list. Read on for his bio and poetry.
 Song of Andoumboulou: 40 Asked his name, he said, "Stra, short for Stranger." Sang it. Semisaid, semisung. "Stronjer?" I asked, semisang, half in jest. "Stronger," he whatsaid back. Knotted highness, loquat highness, rope turned inward, tugged. Told he'd someday ascend, he ascended, weather known as Whatsaid Rung... Climb was all anyone was, he went on, want rode our limbs like soul, he insisted, Nut's unremitting lift... Pocketed rock's millenarian pillow... Ideas on Mackey's Work: "Mackey writing of a ‘we’ who floated ‘boatlike, / birdlike’ (p.21), and on the third line the words ‘Semisaid, semisung’ give thematic prominence to this idea of a hybrid art." Notes on the poem: -paratactic lines (lines that are shorter without subordination) - alliteration is important -his work is in liminal space between music and poetry - sonic enjambment -manipulates lines by using homonyms… -many words seem to function as musical notes…. -motivated rhythms…Mackey chooses words and sounds to propel the poetry without necessarily considering the word itself…you could scan the work, but the prosody of his poetry is reliant on sonics—on musical beats— the words continue to trace back to other words within the poem. "Instrumental play, poetic play; consider the noun ‘Andoumboulou’, which are spirits invoked at funerals within Dogon cosmogony…"  Lyrical Story
A lyrical short story revolves around a recurring image or symbol with minimal focus on the plot. The image recurs in order to give readers an understanding of the plot; the image itself is usually static throughout the story. A plot line does exist, but in conjunction with the development of the symbol throughout the narrative, and it is not the central focus of the story. Lyrical short stories are open-ended with no definite resolution. The loose ending allows for malleable readings of the central image. Reader can reinterpret the image's meaning during and beyond the reading of the story. An example of a lyrical short story is Katherine Mansfield’s ‘‘The Fly,’’ a story about a man who tortures a fly after being reminded of his dead son. The fly is the central image of the story and the development of the narrative revolves around it. The torturing of the fly and the man’s feelings after he throws it away have multiple, open-ended readings. The image could symbolize the man’s inability to accept death, his previous relationship with his son, or his repression of grief. No one reading is correct and many interpretations lend to the complexity of the lyrical short story. Flash Fiction
Flash fiction is a short story that has less than 2,000 words (and sometimes less according to certain editors). Flash fiction is a radical distillation of plot, character, setting, and exposition. Brevity requires writers to attend to every word. Flash fiction starts in the middle of the conflict, as there is no time to set up action. During the story, a focus on one or two main images, such as a deserted building, a broken watch functions synergistically with the plot. As fast as the story begins, flash fiction stories end with a bang. Many flash fiction stories leave the reader at an emotional pivot or an open-ended resolution. Examples of flash fiction can be read in Robert Olen Butler’s collection ‘‘Severance,’’ a collection of 62 flash fiction pieces. Each piece spans the 90 seconds after a person has been decapitated. The stories come from the perspectives of famous people such as Yukio Mishima, John the Baptist, and Jayne Mansfield. The stories are an effort to examine historical and cultural atmospheres through the imagined subjectivity of each character during his or her time. Another well-known flash fiction writer is Lydia Davis. Her short story ‘‘The Mice’’ comes in around 275 words and contains all of the elements of short story. The story begins with ‘Mice live in our walls but do not trouble our kitchen’ and focuses on the image of a messy kitchen and mice that do not eat in it. Vignette
Unlike a flash fiction that has plot, character, setting, conflict, and some form of resolution, a vignette is an illustration detailing a specific moment or the mood surrounding a character, object, setting, or idea. A vignette does not have a full plot, nor does it develop a complete narrative. It may be part of a series of vignettes or stand on its own. Ernest Hemingway’s ‘‘In Our Time’’ is an example of a vignette. The vignette describes the character Maera, a bullfighter who dies after a bullfight. The vignette relies on rich sensory imagery and motion to convey the mood surrounding the death of the character.  Doha, sort of sounds like a doughnut or something, but it’s actually a form. Let’s look at it. I dare you to write one!
Origin: Hindi What’s it all about?
 On your last human day, you walked to the diner on the corner of 5th and Mulberry. It smells of fried catfish and moldy gravy, but they bake the best blueberry pie. The server prances to the booth, requesting your order. She comes back, winks, and claims, “I cut you the biggest slice,” walking away with a swing. It turns you on. You consider whacking it right here in the booth, but the smell of pie lures you away.
“How sweet,” you mutter. People in the service industry make your skin crawl. You shovel the pie down. The server returns and you beckon her for another slice. She obliges with glee. It goes down quicker than the first slice. When the server goes to the back, you walk out without paying. On the walk back, you witness two squirrels humping on a bench. “Why can’t we have sex outdoors?” you question, looking into the sky. Forty-five minutes later, you are sitting upon a smutty mattress at The Winking Lantern. The whore breathes on your neck; she caresses your thigh. She hands you a warm whiskey. “Don’t worry baby, I’ma professional,” she asserts. Happier than ever and two hundred dollars shorter, you stroll down to the park with a smirk. Children are frolicking, women are chattering, and you, you are staring at a crusty map questioning if this is the correct rendezvous point. “Take a left and the oak tree?” you mutter. “Well, shit, there are dozens of oak trees.” The sun blisters above, but you trek onward in hopes that your senses will guide you. “This Way” written on an oak tree leads you to your location across an old bridge. You are proud of your great sense of direction. The sun still blisters down. Your scalp is beginning to resemble that of a sun-dried tomato. The clock that they gave you begins to tick. “Tick”… “Tock”… “Tick”… “Tock”…You bite your lip. Blood runs through your veins as lava. The clock grows louder. ZAP!  Here is a list of review outlets. I've listed what genres they look at below each one.
American Book Review: http://americanbookreview.org/ · Fiction, poetry, literary and cultural criticism Booklist: http://www.booklistonline.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction Bookslut (online only): http://www.bookslut.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction The Barnes and Noble Review: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction The CALYX Journal: http://www.calyxpress.org/journal.html · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction · Forum for female authors Kirkus: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction Rain Taxi: http://www.raintaxi.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction Rattle: http://www.rattle.com/poetry/ · Poetry Valparaiso Poetry Review: http://www.valpo.edu/vpr/index.php · Poetry The Rumpus: http://therumpus.net/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction The Seattle Times: http://www.seattletimes.com/html/books/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction NPR Books: http://www.npr.org/books/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction Publishers Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction Goodreads (online only): http://www.goodreads.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction ForeWord Reviews: https://www.forewordreviews.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction The Compulsive Reader: http://www.compulsivereader.com/ · Fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction No BS Book Reviews (online only): http://nobsbookreviews.com/ · Fiction Also features excerpts Things Mean a Lot (online only): http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/ · Fiction, creative nonfiction decomP (online only): http://www.decompmagazine.com/ · Fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art, audio BookPage: http://bookpage.com/ · Fiction, creative nonfiction, lifestyle, audio Music & Literature: http://www.musicandliterature.org/ · Fiction, creative nonfiction, music Asymptote: http://www.asymptotejournal.com/ · Fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction, visual Omnivoracious (online only): http://www.omnivoracious.com/  If everything is interesting, then nothing is.
This is a common thought that I have in a workshop or seminar setting. Most often, this word is used in a way that divulges zero information about the poem or story in front of me. When I hear a colleague say, “This poem was really interesting to me,” all I hear is, “I read this poem and I have nothing to say about it.” Before I continue, it is vital to explain the definition of the word, that to me, has lost all of its meaning due to the construct of the MFA program. Merriam Webster says, Interesting: adjective ; attracting attention and encouraging the participant’s involvement in learning more about something…the thing being modified is not dull, nor is it boring. The word was first used, or known of its use around 1768. Over the past year-and-a-half, I have collected words such as this from conversations in workshop and seminar that have lost actual meaning because of the vague over-usage of them. To change this, I think it would be wise for writers working with writers to use other words, or hell, if you are going to say the word interesting, then at least back it up with why it is interesting…and then, when you do that, do muffle together 20 big words that skirt the point. Pinpoint something. Is it the voice? Is it the tone? Is it the diction? What the fuck makes it interesting.   I absolutely love coming up with story ideas. I have too many ideas and I will never write through them all, so I keep a running list of story starters for several genres. Recently, I put together a selection of science fiction story starters. The little book was picked up by a no-website press called Rogue Books PNW (I submitted to them after I found them on PW). They quickly formatted and put together the book. From the work that I did with during the past six months, they are busy acquiring titles to build a steady catalog before opening a website...which totally makes sense. Anyways, it was great to work with them and the book is available on Amazon if you want to pick up a copy.
But before you do, here is the first prompt from the book: A woman has been harassed by an alien species that invaded earth two years ago. They continually bring her in for questioning and come to her house and look for human paraphernalia. When an alien trooper breaks a frame that contained the only picture of her husband who was taken by the alien army, she decides that she’s had enough.  I am taking a contemporary American poetry course this quarter. It is my first class outside of the writing program, and the first class that I am mixed in with undergraduates. And while I strongly believe that many undergraduates are intelligent and capable of operating at a graduate level, it has come to my attention that both the graduate and undergraduate students many not understand the differences between “prejudice” and “racism.”
And I’ll say that sometimes, I muddle the definitions. The OED defines “prejudice” as a preconceived notion not based in reality. The negative implications of prejudice can cause anger, frustration and irritation, among other things.But most prejudices do not result in the blocking of one person and a group of people’s abilities to operate in society.Many stereotypes result from prejudice. On the other hand, racism is based in historical trends and involves a power dynamic. Racism blocks equal power from one or many groups based on race. For example, in America, Caucasian groups have used their power to unequally access resources. Racism further entails one or a group believing that a specific race (every single individual within the race) possess certain characteristics or abilities, and the race in power uses them to interfere and impede the “second class race” from achieving the same goals or accessing the same resources. That is my understanding of it. If you would like to add to this, please do so. I would also ask you to behave professionally.  Covered up. That’s what happened to the name of the original author of The Mansion. Mary Ruefle seems to care little for the previous author, shamelessly taking the book as her own by erasing the original text and everything else that once made it Henry Von Dyke’s book. That is, until you dive into Ruefle’s heavy-handed process of creating something new from something borrowed:
Everyone knows that I can afford to live/ in/a text The formation of immortality surfaces through the erasure, for both Ruefle and Von Dyke. The omission of the original text under whiteout quiets the pages and allows new meaning to come alive through what remains seen. Erasures, the poetic act of deletion, censure and hiding what once was, is an art form Ruefle has claimed as her true form. In the act of erasing, Ruefle manages to open the book up, breathe into it new energy, and give it an audience it didn’t have before Ruefle hid the contents away from our sight. Not only does Ruefle cover up the text with white out, she affixes images, “stickers” and other visual layers to the top of the pages. Through erasure, she writes: Using you as an illustration We see Ruefle surface in this line with the vague ‘you’ often seen in the bulk of her poems. She calls out to a 'you’ to serve as a piece of the erasure. The line is followed by a photo of a large, hairy spider glued over the remaining text on the page. As The Mansion progresses, Ruefle begins to use varying graphics to add a new element to the poetry. The book becomes a multidimensional art piece that relies on Von Dyke’s words, Ruefle’s poetics, and visual collage. As it seems, Ruefle isn’t erasing Von Dyke; rather she is collaborating with him.  The standard system of verse composition in England since the 14th century. The meter relies on the number of stresses and syllables in any given line. Iambic pentameter anybody?
Example: She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow’d to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. From Lord Byron’s She Walk in Beauty, a poem written in iambic tetrameter.  Because I am constantly on the verge of researching myself into a tomb, I thought that I should share my hard work. Here are some outlets that take excerpts:
The Southern Review Blue Moon Literary & Art Review Narrative Magazine The Drum Literary Journal Printers Row Journal Extract(s): Daily Dose of Lit Circa: A Journal of Historical Fiction Joyland: A Hub for Short Fiction Solstice Literary Magazine Two Hawks Quarterly Quarter After Eight American Short Fiction Alaska Quarterly Review Apple Valley Review Cold Mountain Review The Carolina Quarterly The Florida Review Gettysburg Review The Hudson Review  Last year, the editors that I work with and I set out to write a writer’s reference book that delivers poetry “writing prompts” only found at the illustrious MFA level.
Of course, many of us are or have encountered the MFA and walked away with little more than a degree and a manuscript. Yes, yes, I know those are GREAT! But what many of us also walk out with are loads of student loans and zero teaching experience. How the hell are we supposed to get a teaching job with no teaching experience? Anyways while I am grateful for the connections that I made and the book that I’ve produced, I could have done it without the degree…part of my younger self feels a little tricked into the “it’s necessary” speech given to me by other mentors., but hey, it is what it is, right? After all, I am still writing and I am still doing the same job that I was doing prior to entering the MFA program…so, life is still smiling on me. Synopsis For poets and writers who cannot afford or do not want to change their entire lives to write. The exercises were developed from real workshop writing exercises, many of which came from esteemed MFA programs. We came up with a little over 50 exercises, enough for once per week. If you are interested in supporting small presses and writers, then definitely give it a try. It can be purchased as an electronic copy or physical book.  The room was dark; one light provided its glimmer to the room. The two girls sat in front of the screen, chattering about a trip. Lena reached for Teresa’s arm. She squeezed it in excitement. Lena knew that this would be the only way to get Teresa to consider what she was about to ask her to do. They perused the Craig’s List ads for travel swap locations.
“Maybe Seattle?” Lena asked. She peered into Teresa’s eyes, beckoning a response. She knew that the rainy weather would get her feeling frisky. The truth is, they had been rusty for months. Lena thought that a little spice would bring them back to the beginning. “Maybe. I do love the rain.” Teresa responded. She smiled at Lena. Her rich, azure eyes made Lena’s heart patter quickly. “After all, that is where we’ve always talked about visiting.” The two women looked for hours. Lena thought it was the perfect timing. She scrolled to the “M4W” section without hesitating. She glanced at Teresa who was already peering at her. “What are you doing?” she asked. Teresa folded her arms tightly. Lena knew that it would be a rough struggle to convince her to go with it. “I don’t know. There is something that I think that we should try.” Lena said. Her mouth pursed a bit in anticipation for a response. She always did that when she was nervous. Her lips quivered. Teresa glanced at her knees, then back up at Lena. “Lena, do you really think this is the answer? I mean, just because I used to be with men, doesn’t mean I want to now. I love you!” she responded. “It was true,” Lena thought, but she thought, “perhaps she is longing for the feeling of a man”. Lena felt bad, but she knew this had to be the answer. “It’s okay, Ter, it is natural to want that satisfaction” she said. Teresa pulled her arm away from where it had rested at Lena’s leg. “Can we think about it? Let’s look a bit and see.” “Really…I’m not sure. It could ruin everything.” She said. Lena noticed a small grin behind her mouth forming and she knew that she could convince her. It would be sexy. It would be exciting and most of all, Teresa would be happy, again. “It won’t hurt to just look.” Lena stated. Teresa nodded her head in approval. They searched the listings for the perfect man. The one that would appease Teresa’s needs and get their relationship back on track. “Ooh, look at this one. Single male, white, light eyes. Looking for one night with a beautiful woman. You host…no girlfriend experience required….” Lena read aloud. She looked at Teresa, raising her eyebrows humorously. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I am into this. Isn’t it cheating?” Teresa said. She looked nervous. “No, it isn’t. I’m asking you to do it. I’ll be here the whole time, in the other room…come on, you’ll better, afterwards…” she said. It was exciting to think of Teresa in bed with a man. She wanted her to say yes. “What’s his email address?” Teresa asked.  This is my final book list for my upcoming oral defense. As you can see, my book list is far different from the list provided by our two faculty poets. I can tell which professor chose certain books based on previous classes (i.e. the fact that I’ve been assigned Mary Ruefle books THREE times in two years…).
Thank goodness I get to design my own reading list apart from this one because quite honestly, I expected a little bit more from the faculty in terms of breadth and diversity. Books Chosen by Faculty
Books Chosen by Me
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