What Kind of Writer Should You Be?

So I saw this on the word cage and had to give it a try. Turns out I should be a poet. And they even got a picture that looks just like me when I'm writing . . .

You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways. And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery... Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever. You're already naturally a poet, even if you've never written a poem.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

Poetry Books o 2006

Here are some of the books of poetry published this year, and that have been spending a lot of time in my thoughts:

Mark Strand, Man and Camel
Charles Wright, Scar Tissue
Louise Glück, Averno
Jon Woodward, Rain
Scott Minar, Palace of Reasons
Wayne Miller, Only the Senses Sleep
Sarah Manguso, Siste Viator
Joshua Marie Wilkinson, lug your careless body out of the careful dusk
Dara Wier, Remnants of Hannah
Eric Schwerer, The Saint of Withdrawal
Deborah Bernhardt, Echolalia
Jean-Paul Pequeur, The Case Against Happiness
Anthony McCann, Moon Garden
Catherine Bowman, Notarikon
Lisa Sewell, Name Withheld
Richard Meier, Shelley Gave Jane a Guitar
Frederick Seidel, OOGA BOOGA
Aaron McCollough, Little Ease
Noelle Kocot, Poem for the End of Time and Other Poems
Christina Davis, Forth a Raven
Mary Ruefle, A Little White Shadow
Brian Henry, Quarantine
Kate Geenstreet, case sensitive

and a few chapbooks:

Joy Katz, The Garden Room
Rae Armantrout, Fetch
Jennifer Militello, Anchor Chain, Open Sail
Amy Newman, The BirdGirl Handbook


OK, so what books have I missed? Suggestions?

What Famous Poet Are You

OK, so I saw that C. Dale Young took this test and ended up as e.e. cummings . . . so I thought I should see what would happen if I took the test, and here I am. I don't really think I love to party, so maybe I should take that test again. Oh well.

(So then I just took the test again and ended up as Dylan Thomas, again, with a score of 79 Demeanour, 54 Debauchery, 62 Traditionalism, and 80 Expression! So perhaps some things are just meant to be.)

Dylan Thomas! You scored 62 Demeanour, 54 Debauchery, 58 Traditionalism, and 80 Expression!

Man! Do you love to party or what! If it's not fun, you probably haven't done it in a while. But that doesn't mean you're not serious about some things. You are a person with deep passions and a respect for beauty and craft. The world is a better place for having you in it. Too bad you won't be around that long. Drink up! You're masterpiece is "Under Milkwood".

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 16% on Demeanour You scored higher than 54% on Debauchery You scored higher than 21% on Traditionalism You scored higher than 71% on Expression

Link: The Which Famous Poet Are You Test written by Torontop on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

End of the Year Thoughts (Premature)

1) Best journal in America: Field

2) Poet most deserving of a first book: Jennifer Militello

Four Way Books - Table 90 - AWP

February 28 - March 3, 2007

Table 90, the AWP home of the best press in the west, is going to have some goings-on . . .

Friday, 11-Noon

Ellen Dudley & John Gallaher

2-3:00

Deborah Bernhardt, Catherine Bowman, & Forrest Hamer

3- 4:00

Jeffrey Harrison & C. Dale Young

Lots of books. Discount Prices. Information.

A Great Idea for Poets on the Job Market!

Or at least for really impressing people at the gym . . .

http://tinyurl.com/y7appc

John Barr at AWP

This year's AWP in Atlanta Brings You Two Chances to Hear & See John Barr, Poetry Crusader

Thursday- March 1, 2007
9:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m.

R111. Taking Measures: Poetry and the Media. (Stephen Young, John Barr, Jeffrey Brown, Nancy Pearl, Anne Halsey) The Poetry Foundation has launched several initiatives in the last year designed to raise poetry’s profile in our culture. The latest of these is the Poetry Institute, a new forum for poets, scholars, publishers, and media experts to explore fresh ideas about poetry. Poetry’s audience was the Institute’s inaugural topic. This panel will report on the first Institute and consider poetry outreach from diverse perspectives, as well as some of the philosophical objections to it and its many practical frustrations.

OK, so what is The Poetry Foundation going to think is a “fresh idea”? Thinking about how reactionary, reductive, and unspoiled by facts John Barr’s recent comments on the state of the art have been, one can only cross one’s fingers and pray the earth swallows him up. Give Persephone some company.

And then, as if all those “fresh ideas” aren’t enough for you, you have another chance to hear the musings of John Barr:

Saturday- March 3, 2007
4:30 p.m.-6:15 p.m.

S180. The Importance of Being Wrong: American Poetry in the Coming Century. (John Barr ) The turn of the last two centuries has marked the emergence of a new kind of writing. Will the 21st century be so lucky? American poetry is ready for something new, not only because of the calendar, but because contemporary poets have too long been writing in the rain shadow thrown by Modernism. A new poetry will be wrong in the eyes of that which it displaces, but recognizing and championing it is paramount. The new era of poetry will spring not from further innovation of form, but from an evolution of sensibility based on lived experience.

Where does one start? This sounds like it’s going to be a rehash of this, from Poetry Magazine:

http://tinyurl.com/yahm6o

Which I talked about here:

http://tinyurl.com/yh5gqf

And which AWP’s very own D. W. Fenza responded to here:

http://tinyurl.com/yf5sal

Anyway, what else is there to say about this? "[A]n evolution of sensibility based on lived experience"? "[N]ot from further innovation of form"? Perhaps some more trite reductions of Modernism? Some more laughable generalizations of contemporary poetry (which is the same problem Dana Gioia faced after "Can Poetry Matter?", namely, if what you're saying is true, and you've nailed the problem, why is it that the poets and poetry you put forth as positive examples are not wildly popular, as you suggest they should/could be?) . . .

Anyway, this all sounds to me just like further ammunition for arguments like that of Steve Evans:

http://tinyurl.com/yg2y6m

So anyway, please come to Atlanta, and don't forget to bring tomatoes.