New Poem in Lilliput Review

The first good news I've had in a while, my poem "How To Make A Poem" has been accepted over at Lilliput Review. Not sure when the exact release date is, stay tuned...

Rhysling update, Rhysling Anthology out now...

Here's a much needed update on a couple of award nominations I received this past year, The James Award and the Rhysling Award. I lost 'em both.

Seriously though, once I thought about it, I had that old Hollywood cliche running through my head about how much of an honor it is just to be nominated. And I found that it is true. For me anyway. For the James Award, Scott Virtes won the Best Article category, in which I was also nominated. It was nice to be included on a short list along with writers like Scott and Bruce Boston.

Now to the Rhysling Awards, which were announced at Readercon a couple of weeks ago. The list of nominees is far too long to reproduce here, including a slew of nominations for my good friend Kendall Evans (a more deserving fellow there ain't), but suffice to say I was in the best company in the field.

In both cases it was great just to be nominated. Spec House of Poetry received four nominations this year, and I got one. It was a good year.

The best moment for a bibliophile like me was getting my copies of The 2008 Rhysling Anthology in the mail. The book is beautifully produced, and best of all, I'm in it. It is available for sale now at sfpoetry.com. Do all the nominees and winners a favor and get a copy.

Three Poems up at The Dead Mule

Starting tomorrow (Sunday, April 13th) I will have three new poems up for viewing at The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature (http://www.deadmule.com)

The poems are:
"Burnt Fields"
"Night Fishing"
"This is the song that I sing…"

This is part of a whole list of poets featured on the site every two days. Lots of good stuff here so read it all. --J

Rhysling Award Nomination

My poem "28 Blackbirds at the End of the World" has been nominated for a Rhysling Award in the long poem category. This is my first nomination. Many thanks to whomever nominated me.

Update: Babies, Grad School, etc.

Since this is my personal blog, I think I'll get personal for a post or two...

Things have been busy for me recently with the holidays, school and of course my ever growing family. My wife gave birth to our second child, a boy, about two weeks ago. All is well. We had him in the first week of school so my brain is now completely shot. I have been behind on a lot of writing stuff, especially my editing duties at The Shantytown Anomaly and Spec House of Poetry. If you are waiting on something from me, please be patient, I honestly have not stepped foot in my home office for three weeks now.

In other, yet related news, a few of you expressed interest on my pursuit of a graduate school writing program. I have decided on an MFA program and I will be attending McNeese State University's Program in Poetry, starting this fall. I will be able to teach and write and I can't wait to get down there.

More later. (possibly)
--J

James Award Nomination

My article "Rhyme In Haiku", from the May 2007 issue of Scifaikuest, has been nominated for a James Award. The James Awards are named after Pro Mart Publishing's (now Sam's Dot Publishing) James Baker. The James Awards honor the best poem, fiction, article, and art published by Sam's Dot in the previous calendar year. I am very grateful for the nomination, and will report back here when I find out about the results.