Loud (a): making a powerful impression on the sense of hearing. Fire (n): The active principle operative in combustion; popularly conceived as a substance visible in the form of flame or of ruddy glow or incandescence.

Well, there goes blogging Fall For the Book… I kind of made it happen.

Saturday’s Fellows reading, featuring the thesis and completion fellowship honorees and  hosted by So To Speak, was a lovely event in Old Town Fairfax. It was supposed to be outside in the courtyard, but it was raining so it was moved to the gallery space currently exhibiting lots of paintings of animals looking creepy. I don’t think that was the intended theme, just the theme that emerged organically. It was otherwise a lovely space… oh, except that we were competing with an industrial air conditioner. I couldn’t internalize the words I was saying, but people said it was OK. I read from The Elements and two poems recounting the trajectory of my mfa… one from first year forms, “Shiver” and one from second year “Catching the Bones.” Both are still out with a few publications that are so far hesitating to reject me… please publish me!!!

I read alongside fellow Fellows Rebecca McGill, Hannah Vanderhart, Priyanka Champaneri, and Allyson Armistead. Everyone read such amazing work and I felt truly honored to be reading alongside such talented people. A very humbling experience. Thanks to all who made it out to hear us, despite the weather!

After that was the Breakthrough Poets reading at the Firehouse Grille (now Miller’s Tavern?), including Cathy Eisenhower, Reb Livingston, Chris Nealon, and Mel Nichols. It was an incredible line up and a great time… but I think we were all a little exhausted at that point… but I wanted to make sure to get out and hear Reb in thanks for her contribution to the panel discussion, and was also pleased to hear Cathy read ASS which we published in Phoebe last year.  Mel is always so entertaining and I’d never heard Chris Nealon before but he was pretty incredible – a real wit there that I think is tough to acheive though he did so brilliantly.

Now… coming up… LOUD FIRE!!!

The reading series formerly known as the Candid Yak, which was run by myself and Rebecca McGill for two years, has now been passed on to the capable hands of Aubrey Lenahan, Walt Seale, and Nicole Lee (and other helping friends)… The first Loud Fire is tomorrow, October 2nd, in THE SPACE in Old Town Fairfax. Here are the deets:

Attend a captivating reading by several Masters of the Fine Arts of Poetry, Fiction, and Non-Fiction.

On Friday, Oct 2, we will feature:

Alison Strub – poetry
Paul Zaic – fiction
Ben Wilkins – non-fiction
and an Open Mic for all!

at no other than:

the SPACE at Old Town Village
3955 Chainbridge Rd. Fairfax, VA
above the Metro Diner & across from Panera

from 7-10pm.

Bring your favorite beverage to this smoke-free venue and support your writerly classmates!

Although I, sadly, will be heading up to Allentown for my college reunion (eek), I encourage people to go and support my friends… and would someone please take some video so I can be there vicariously after the fact?

flux (n): A continuous succession of changes of condition, composition or substance.

Oh hi, blog.

I write this first entry on the cusp of a lot of things… there are countless horizons I seem to be reaching toward, and many are shrouded in fog and very unclear and my depth perception is likely way off… but I like it. Stasis and stability and clarity are… well… boring. Things have to be in flux for me to feel as though I’m really getting anywhere good, and there is A LOT of flux in my life at the moment.

I plan to use this blog, in part, to navigate through this state of flux I’m in… and while there might be brilliant moments of clarity, I’ll warn you I might subject you to a lot of wandering considerations as well. I do, however, hope to point you in lots of directions to increase (in good ways, I hope) your sense of flux… for example, had I started this blog yesterday I would have informed you all about the American Hybrid reading at Bridge Street Books, which featured Cole Swensen, John Taggart, Rod Smith, and Mark McMorris. Hybrids are born in the midst (or are a certain presence of) flux… and this anthology disrupts more than it settles the state of things, which is, in part, why I enjoy it so much. I might also subject you to some things you don’t want or need or are entirely uninterested in, and for that I apologize in advance… if you spend a bit of time to comment or let me know what you DO like, I’ll try to take that into consideration.