Update

I have been implored by my friend (and regular reader) Sarah to update my blog, so here it is!

I tend to get so far behind in blogging that I just don't feel like doing it because I know I'll never catch up. This is one of those times.

To briefly catch you up on the past couple of months:


The reading on the Southside was a great success!


This is me, looking all hot, being the poetry goddess God made me. I normally don't say I look hot, but that night I did. This was only the third time I read to a group that was not largely fellow English majors/MFA students, but something about being a featured reader put the needed pressure on me. I walked out of there feeling amazingly confident in my performance. And, I got an A in the class! (Thanks, Jim!)




I spent two weeks in Trinidad with three of my classmates, soaking up the culture and writing about it. Can you believe it? Not only do I have classes that MAKE me write, but I have classs that makes me travel, too! I had such an unbelievable time that I didn't want to come back. We even got to meet Trinidadian writers Merle Hodge (below), who let us swim in her lagoon, and Earl Lovelace (!), who gave us rum and coconut water upon our arrival.

Us with Merle Hodge. Back: Carolyne, Sarah, me. Front: Carmen, Ms. Hodge.

My summer classes are finally (thankfully) winding down, and then I'll have two weeks to relax before they start up again. I'll also be starting AmeriCorps soon (more on that later) and spreading my love of words and books all over Pittsburgh.

And, in other news. Please check out Mark's new website: http://www.markcbradley.net/ and even consider buying his new book Writing Poems in the Rain. I'll love you forever if you do. :-)

Actually, I already love someone forever.

Pittsburgh Poems and More

So, I've started to write "Pittsburgh Poems." I suppose it's a sign that I'm becoming more comfortable with my surroundings, but I'm not so sure about that. I think I heard someone say once that every writer that lives in Pittsburgh eventually starts writing about the city. I don't find that I have a particular connection to a lot of places here, so I'm not sure why I feel the need to write about it, but I do.

In other news, I'm really enjoying my class with Jim Coppoc, even if it is mostly online. It has been more productive so far than many of the workshops I have had in grad school ever were. I don't know what that says about the quality of those workshops. (I'm thinking about one in particular.) I believe that a professor has a duty to make his or her students see and think in different ways, about their writing, themselves, and the world. When a professor fails to do that, he fails his students.

Just my two cents.