Katie's Blog

Yay! So as I had hinted at before, I'm working on my second chapbook. My publisher requested I send her a new manuscript ASAP (ahh!) and well one certainly cannot pass up such an opportunity. So yesterday I was sifting through my latest poems, trying to see what grains I could expand into a decently sized manuscript - and I decided on using my nature poems. So this will be my next work, nature/feminist poems that address identity. Tenetive title is The Garden of Dresses , named after my personal favorite poem, about a modern day Eve putting on a little black dress. I'm excited! For the next month or so I will be continuing to write additional poems, adding to the collection AND I will also be working on finding more of the selected poems first publications, like in journals, anthologies, ect. My goal is to have 25% of the poems already appearing in some sort of publication. Admittably, I have a long way to go on that end. Not only this, but I'm also working with ire'ne ...

Ok so I have a lot coming up. Why is it that things always happen, all at the same time? I spent almost the entire month of December in my new snuggie... there were entire days that I didn't leave the house. And now... NOW...now... EvErYtHiNg is happening again. I have so much to get ready for, its driving me completely insane (in a good way, because being idle drives me insane too but in a bad way... i think...). I got the NACCS program today, (check 'er out here: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1KnHLZ1u8XeeOBeSuRjZbaFrNfIoU52wfOGkmFFHLaFjWiKDGukRgK2_DUOwu&hl=en&authkey=CIu5jecE and I'm doing two presentations PLUS a book signing. I'm inviting the other MFP authors, and will be organizing readings for them, too. Aye. There's so much to do, so much to do. And before that even happens I have EGADS - my trial run of my thesis presentation which is in just a few weeks. And then I have my new form and theory class,...

Just sayin' Be on the lookout for my next chapbook ;) More details, certainly, will come soon.

No more no more no more! For realsies, this time, I'm back to my former self. So today I'm in good spirits, looking over my thesis manuscript - taking a step back and feeling just a little bit proud of myself. I find out today that I will be doing a book signing at South Texas College. Yay! I'm excited. I will post more details as they become available. Should be in late February, though. Anything else? No, not really. Just... was having a bit of an identity crisis the other day, wondering what the heck I'm doing and why. And now I'm realizing that it is ok to wonder, to be in a state of limbo. Today - I'm content with (somewhat) playing 'it' by ear. Oh! and today's the first day of my last semester at UTPA (tear!). But no classes for me until Thursday. It feels good to be back! I'm thinking I'm not good at being on vacay ;)

Yay! So about a week ago I made a last minute decision to go ahead and submit to the EGADS! conference at the University of Texas at Brownsville. What the heck, I thought, it'll be a good opportunity to add something to the CV without having to pay any travel expenses. The downside was that it happens to be on a Saturday, which means that I'll need a day off from job #2. Last night I get notification that my proposal's been accepted. Hooray! Basically what I'm going to do is kind of run through my thesis defense - a portion of it anyway. It will be good practice, and a good way to bounce ideas off of anyone who attends. Hmmm.. likely it will be dismal. I'll invite my parents X-P So it feels nice to have something on the horizon again. I've just been twiddling my thumbs in my own little world these past few weeks. You know, I haven't had a reading or presentation since November. But I felt like I needed a break, and I had one. In other words, I'M BAAAAAAA...

Self-doubt, laziness, feign business... you already know the drill :-)

So today I'm happy dancin' cuz I finished my draft 1 of my critical intro. An exerpt, you ask. Fine. You always get your way, and you know it~ However, in The Ripening of Mangos , I do create a speaker and meaning. While the speaker from poem to poem is not necessarily the same, for the most part, I do work within conventions of language, sentence structure, and syntax. In this sense, I am a very bad feminist who accepts the confines and limitations placed on me in using language. Hehehe... I like that part... ok ok ok another...! The Ripening of Mangos is divided up into four different sections. Each section’s speaker is placed into an identity, an identity centered around sexuality, culture, and place. What proceed are poems, many with erotic undertones and many which utilize the natural vocabulary of the wild world outside the neatly swept home. Many of my poems concern sexuality precisely because, as Foucault states, in our modern society nothing is so closely related to ou...

So it took me awhile... but I think I'm finally ready to get this new year going. Hello 2011! I'm doing a lot of reflecting lately, trying to step back and just think about who I am - at the core of my being. Aside from all the other 'stuff' that goes on in my life, who am I and where the hell am I going? So, I was reading book of Kells , one of my personal favorite poetry blogs because she's always so honest and inspiring at the same time, and she had a few little writing prompts that helped me. I'll start with that. What creative projects to work on this year? Absolutely 100% focus must be directed towards finishing my thesis. All other noise must perish. I've actually been chisiling away at it, little by little. I'm on page 14 of my critical intro and have about 6 pages to finish there. As for the creative part, it actually keeps shrinking but it's becoming more polished - something I'm more proud of. It's at 51 pages. So that's a gran...

Ok so I haven't been writing lately, much of anything. No blogposts, no poems, barely any scholarly writing either. What's wrong with me? Well - I've been sick again. It started on Christmas Eve. My tummy troubles are back, and it's completely all my fault for not taking better care of myself. This has me worried, worried because it has kept me from doing my three all time favorite things: running, baking, and most of all - writing. So my Christmas sucked. Big time. And my new years too. I rung in the new year sipping champagne, that preceeded to make me want to barf all over everyone. Am I pregnant? everyone asks. ::SNEER!!!:: But it feels good to be back at the office, even if I am holding back more barf as I type. Sometimes I think it's all in my head, and that if I get up, get dressed, get out of the house, I will be ok. Let's see if this theory pans out for me.... So it's a new year, right? Will this mean a new Katie? Hmm... no. I wish I was more positi...