Katie's Blog

Hmm... I've had a glorious last few months. I know, I keep saying that, but it's true. I've let my brain become focused on poetry -- I've read poetry, thought about poetry, shared poetry, critiqued poetry, and yes, of course, wrote poetry. Last week, though, my university had a guest lecturer come by to talk to writing faculty about second language acquisition, and of course, I was there, and my brain started thinking, again, of my pedagogy. It's been a shifting of gears, so to speak, and this morning, instead being awoken by a sudden need to write, I woke up to thoughts about re-sequencing my readings to accommodate for L2 learners. Good, important and productive thoughts, yes, but as I poured myself a cup of coffee and began my "work" for the day, I couldn't help but think, ugh. And here I go again, teaching taking over my entire brainspace. I love teaching, I really, really do. I think I'm a fantastic teacher. In fact, I THINK I'm a...

Phew! What an awesome summer this is proving to be! Ok, so I'm not traveling anywhere, and no, no, I'm not doing even working, or even getting out of my pjs every day, but you know what? It's felt really, really wonderful. I've been writing, yes, writing, a boat load, I think enough to keep me revising and rewriting and editing throughout the rest of the year :-P :-P :-P I'm happy to finally breathe a sigh of relief: I've gotten my second full manuscript to a "happy place" -- and no, that doesn't mean I'm done, but it does mean that it's at least done enough. I've wrapped it up, it has a pretty bow on it, and now it's ready to start going off to publishers. This was my main goal for the summer, and it feels eerily good (while at the same time horrible) to have it, well, somewhat done. I'm going to continue working on it until I get a publisher, though, revising, adding, taking out poems, that kind of stuff. What IS my second...

Proudly Modeling My Contributor Copy There's something awesome about this here nifty calendar. So here's the story -- each year, Dos Gatos Press puts out their poetry calendar. This is my second year being a part of the awesome project. I'm honored to be 2014's July poem! :D In 2013, I'm December (the absolute LAST poem of the collection!). Anyway, why do I like this little collection? Well, first off, poets from all around the state submit, from El Paso to Orange, from Abilene to Brownsville. The poems are loosely tied to a regionalisms, so needless to say, the collections full of "flavor." My poem this time around is an ode to Shiner-drinking women, which, maybe I fall into that category more often than I'll admit. I love Texas. I love Texas poetry. It's varied and complex and beautiful, but at the same time, there's this tough spirit to it. What else do I like about the collection? So this part's a little more pie in the sky, but...

Soooo... my classes were canceled. Enrollment was bleh. Today would have been my first day back at work, but instead, I have another month and a half of vacation! Ahhhhh... what am I going to DO with myself? :D But I guess it's ok. In fact, this past week, I've hit a new vein in my writing. I'm back to writing my cowgirl Ovid poems, which I needed to work on because, well, I need to finish up this series. These poems are actually my favorite ones to write, so it's been a pretty wild week so far, writing wise. Wild, hah. I spend most of my times in my bathrobe and I'm lucky to actually get off my duff and leave the house once a day :-P Ok, not so wild after all. In other news, it looks like once I get back to work, I'm hitting the ground running. I'm planning to present at the upcoming Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers Conference in Fort Worth, in addition to serving as a guest lecturer for the Writers Live series at the University of Texas a...

This summer (so far) has been pretty laid back. I've had the house to myself, and while I'm getting work done, it's not necessarily as much as I had dreamed of. I'm learning that my poetry pace is, perhaps, a little slow, and that's ok. My work is evolving, changing, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm also learning that cats can be a serious distraction :-P And that I really haven't found the occasion to blog as much as I'd hoped. Since my last blog post, I've written 8 new pieces, though they're not exactly polished just yet. I need workshop. I've also written and found a home for a new book review (yay!) which should be out shortly. I'm working on another review, too, so my goal before the fall rolls around will be to finish that, too. I've also been doing a lot of editing. I'm working as a book screener again this summer, which is always rewarding, yet time consuming. I think it's important to see what ot...

Wondering why I have a picture of me and a tiny kitten? Ok, I'll start off by explaining that bit. The neighbors' cat had kittens on my patio. After an unfortunate accident involving their dog, the mom decided to abandon the brood. Low and behold, Bruno and I have taken them in. It's summer; I need a project, aside from finishing my second full manuscript of course. So for the next four weeks or so, I'll be raising two rambunctious and ridiculously cute kittens. Hopefully, by the time they're old enough to be adopted, I'll be able to let them go. Since, like, I already have five cats and am one Bruno away from becoming THAT crazy cat lady at the end of the street... I digress. This summer, I'll be teaching the second summer session. So I'm going to be busy from mid July to the end of August. But! I do have now until mid July off, so, aside from successfully raising (and letting go of) these kittens, my plans include: 1. Finish 2nd full poetry ...

Another whirlwind of a year comes to a close! And I'm just catching my breath from it all. I'd venture to say this was the best VIPF yet. Sure, we had our ups and downs, and sure, I'm really, really exhausted, but this year, I had the opportunity to take an active role in organizing, editing, and participating in the festival. And wow, what a rewarding experience it was! A super big thanks to all the other organizers: Brenda Riojas, Edward Vidaurre, Ileana Garcia-Spitz, and most especially, the head honcho of the whole shebang, Daniel Garcia Ordaz. I'll detail the experience day by day, Thursday - Saturday. I skipped out on Sunday's events because, well, I'm lazy. Thursday, April  25: The Kick-off Yes, that's my name on the byline! So in real VIPF tradition, Thursday is the night we celebrate the release of our anthology, Boundless. This event was really wonderful -- I felt really honored to be a part of it this year, not as a poet, but as an edi...