The Next Big Thing is a blog-tag of writers answering a series of questions about their next book/writing project.

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Ren Powell, who I’ve known now since I first joined the WomPo Listserv and through our various collaborative editing enterprises - Poemeleon & Babel Fruit, ProtestPoems.org -- tagged me for this very cool Thing. She is so accomplished and smart that I can hardly stand it sometimes, and I am so grateful to have her as a friend and an inspiration. I am anxious to read her next book, An Elastic State of Mind, and remember it as she was exploring it through animation. And now as a novice runner, I am excited to see that she has been writing about her experiences running in Norway and I look forward to hearing more about that project as it moves toward publication.

And now, on to the Official Questions and some information about my current projects...

What is the title of your book?

The Way Things Move The Dark

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Hm. Well, in Newport Beach, at a place called The Fun Zone, there used to be a cheesy sort-of carnival, and one of the rides, which I’ve never ridden, was called The Scary Dark Ride. I’d say that this book, albeit short, is the printed equivalent of The Scary Dark Ride.

What genre does your book fall under? 

Poetry.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The Way Things Move The Dark is actually an excerpt of a longer work that is searching for a home (four semi-finalist nods and an honorable mention- always a bridesmaid, never a bride). The full collection, titled My Skies of Small Horses, was written as my MFA thesis, and is therefore heavily influenced by the writers I was obsessed with at the time. When I started the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles, I had already published a first book, Seven Floors Up, which was much more conservative in terms of themes and writing strategies - I wrote many of the poems in form, and it was very domestic; no, not just domestic but domesticated. In pursuing my MFA, one of my goals was to move away from that. During that period I gave myself permission to be wild, to not make sense, or to make a different kind of sense. I wanted to push myself. But I also still had this impulse to write about domestic subjects. This is my attempt to do so from a different direction, while also honoring my impulse to explore the more surreal aspects of domesticity.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? 

About two years, with another two going through the submission-rejection-revision process.  

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Most of what I read while pursuing my MFA fell under what has been dubbed a “Gurlesque” aesthetic. I think these poems were a direct result of reading all of those kick-ass women poets.

Who will publish your book?

dancing girl press, a kick-ass independently run feminist press based out of Chicago.

What other works would you compare this book to within your genre? 

I wouldn’t draw any direct comparisons, but I was definitely influenced by works by Lara Glenum, Matthea Harvey, Brenda Shaughnessy, and of course Sylvia Plath.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Marion Cotillard. Because I think she can pull off beautiful, scary, and complicated. And she's very lovely, and the French accent is nice.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Well, I suppose there are some interesting tropes, some used overtly, some used covertly -- the keyboard differences on Mac vs. PC as a sort of allegory, the traditions of the Persian fairy tale, and the idea that we should all tell our stories “slant”.

Also, my amazingly talented sister Amy Payne is doing the art for the cover again! I can't wait to see what she comes up with.

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Thanks again to Ren Powell for tagging me.

And... This is where I am supposed to tag five people. But: I’m not going to tag anyone new. I suspect this blog-tag has hit nearly if not everyone I know (I know, I’ve asked) but if you see this and it interests you enough to pursue, consider yourself tagged!

Instead, go read these other poets who've already participated in The Next Big Thing, women I would've tagged if someone hadn't already beat me to it:

My editor, Kristy Bowen

Sheila Squillante

Laura Madeline Wiseman

Clare Martin

Amanda Auchter

It wouldn't be National Poetry Month without some free poetry-love going around, in the form of Kelli Russell Agodon's Poetry Book Giveaway. (For a link to everyone who is participating, or for information on participating yourself, click here.)

This year, I would like to focus on the chapbook, and will be giving away a couple of chapbooks that I love as well as one of my own.

My interest in the chapbook as an art form began when a good friend in my poetry group published an abecedarian series of poems, all based on unusual or resonant words taken from the dictionary. She called this collection Dictionary Poems. Later I would be so inspired by this project that I would take on something similar of my own; it was not exactly abecedarian but arranged so, and each poem was inspired by a fruit-related word from the dictionary. This became my chapbook small fruit songs. Both of these chapbooks were published by the amazing Pudding House, which seems to be in the midst of some reorganization right now, but is a lovely and longstanding press run by Jennifer Bosveld.

The process of writing a series was fun -- sort of like a mini novel-in-verse, except more like a lyric sequence, in that the narrative arc was less about plot and more motion-by-emotion (a term I am borrowing from Jenny Factor). In fact, I found I so enjoyed writing the series that I did it again... and again... resulting in a series about desire personified as Desire, as well as my series after Modigliani's nudes.

So for this giveaway, I would like to celebrate the chapbook. I have recently become acquainted with two other women-writers who also have explored this mode and created cohesive chapbooks that tackle gender-oriented themes, and it is those chapbooks, as well as a copy of my own (al)most delicious, that I would like to offer for this year's Poetry Giveaway: Laura Madeline Wiseman's My Imaginary and Sheila Squillante's A Woman Traces The Shoreline, both of which will likely surprise and delight you. Also, all of these books are available from Dancing Girl Press for the staggeringly cheap sum of $7 each including shipping, so if you miss out on the giveaway and still want them, it shouldn't break the bank. In fact, editor Kristy Bowen has two different "bundles" wherein you get either a.) five chapbooks of your choosing -- this is the DGP Book Bundle; or b.) five chapbooks of *her* choosing -- surprise! -- which is called the DGP MixTape. Either of these options will set you back a whole $25. (Incidentally, this is how I am acquiring extra copies of the above chaps, as well as a few others that I've been wanting to read.) Or, if you're *really* decadent, you can SUBSCRIBE, for either a full- or a half- year. Very cool options.

If you would like to have your name thrown into a hat to possibly win one of these three lovely chapbooks, please leave me a comment below and at the end of the month I will randomly choose three names.

Happy poem-ing!

Hello fellow poets & poetry lovers & lovers of poetry lovers & even lovers of lovers who don't love poetry --

Welcome to the cruellest month, aka National Poetry Month, aka National Poetry Writing Month, aka the month where some of us attempt to write a poem a day, and others of us, well, um... don't. We LOVE and ADMIRE all of you that are keeping up, and hope that you can forgive those of us are not.

Like, um... me.

Yes, I have not yet written one new poem. But the month is just warming up, and I have been reveling in the poetry of others, as well as revising and reconfiguring a couple of my own manuscripts and flinging them back out into the world.

Also, I have been working hard promoting and providing feedback on the literature of others and generally making the world a better place.

Various things that I have been accomplishing lately include consultation work as Inlandia's Publications Coordinator, and leading my multi-genre Inlandia Creative Writing Workshop, which has been ridiculously fun and has introduced to me the work of some very talented women (yes, somehow we have morphed into an all-female group). I am currently preparing my syllabus for the next workshop session, which will begin on April 12. And I have also been trying to corral my administrative-oriented literary endeavors (and therefore increase my productivity by reducing, um, distractions -- like Facebook, laundry, and hungry and bored kitties and kiddos) by implementing OFFICE HOURS. Generally speaking, I am available for all things Inlandia-related on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8-12, with only the occasional emails and other urgent matters answered in-between as needed.

I'm also very excited as always by the Big Poetry Giveaway that Kelli Russell Agodon coordinates. I will be posting very soon with my offerings, and can't wait to start clicking around to see what everyone else is doing. But here is a hint: I've been thinking a lot about chapbooks lately. In fact, I was recently interviewed by Laura Madeline Wiseman about my experience publishing my electronic chapbook, what Desire makes of us. Also -- and this is not exactly timely, but no one has ever accused me of me being punctual -- a poem and illustration from what Desire makes of us was recently featured on The Nervous Breakdown, along with their signature self-interview.

In other poetry news, while I've been waiting for a press to pick up the entire My Skies of Small Horses manuscript, I have been playing around with a shorter version of it and am preparing to send it out into the world. This condensed version contains my poem "Miss Carriage", which won me a prize last year, as well as other poems that have appeared in No Tell Motel, wicked alice, and Crab Creek Review. So I hope you will all keep your fingers crossed. I love the chapbook as a form because of the way reading one can become such an ethereal experience, and am finding that this iteration of the manuscript makes the strangeness of these poems all that much more apparent. (Hopefully that's a good thing.)

And speaking of chapbooks (still, and again), in getting ready for my upcoming reading which is happening on May 20, at Beyond Baroque, as part of the Hitched reading series alongside friends Judy Kronenfeld and Lavina Blossom, I realized that I am just about out of books. So, I have just placed a fresh reorder from Dancing Girl Press for more copies of (al)most delicious so that I will have some on hand during the reading.

Nude with Coral Necklace by Amedeo Modigliani

When I submitted work to The Nervous Breakdown, I sent them a group of poems that included the centerpiece (centerfold?) from this collection, "Nude with Coral Necklace", which they *loved* but ultimately turned down because the formatting was too complex for their website's platform. This made me sad and a little bit frustrated, because in a perfect world a poem's format should never be what makes or breaks an acceptance, but the reality is that that is how the publishing world works sometimes, says she-who-has-nearly-torn-her-hair-out-tyring-to-format-poems-that-she-loves-which-she-has-accepted-for-publication-but-now-is-stymied-by-how-hard-that-formatting-has-become-now-that-it-has-to-be-recreated-in-html.

So, rather than submit it elsewhere for now, I will satisfy my urge to get it out into the air by reading it at Beyond Baroque. Unless I chicken out. (It's a long, complicated poem.) But in honor of the chap, here is one of the poems that appears nowhere else on the web, and hope to see you at Beyond Baroque.

Draped Nude by Amedeo Modigliani

Draped Nude


The spotted and striped rug
grounds me; the dark walls recede

Foregrounded flesh
softened like fruit left on the sill:
I will never spoil

This white cloth he has placed across my hips
a demure sash
that merely draws the eye

designed not to conceal
but to enhance
so that your eyes may linger
briefly
at that dark tangle

then lift
to the bent waist
ripe nipples
the shrugged slight shoulders
        leaning gently in your direction

Somewhere amid the strands of my hair
is one of his, lost
in the damp paint
as he leaned in too close

You are leaning in too close

even as you are pretending to
look away

Among the many hats that I wear, I am also the Chair of the Literary Laureate Selection Committee for the Inlandia Insitute. The Literary Laureate Program is one of their core programs, fostering creative literacy and supporting the region's authors.

Two years ago a panel of jurors selected Susan Straight as Inlandia's very first Literary Laureate. This felt inevitable and oh-so-right to me. All of her books have an emphasis on 'place', and more often than not that place is the Inland Empire, most notably the Riverside lookalike, Rio Seco. During her term she has worked with elementary students who formed a book club to read her novel for children, The Friskative Dog, and written "Notes of a Native Daughter", a series of essays on place, for KCET, which feature the photography of fellow Inlandian and V.P. of Inlandia's Board of Directors, Douglas McCulloh, among other projects. (For anyone who'd like to read something that speaks to the heart of who the people of Inlandia are, this series is a good place to start.)

Where we live, no matter the duration, influences who we become. Susan cites Faulkner, who "always worked what he called '[his] own little postage stamp of native soil', and Didion, who said, “You have to pick the places you don’t walk away from”, when summing up her own thoughts on place: "there are two kinds of people – those who leave and those who stay."

Susan Straight is clearly one of those who stay.

As her two year term as Inlandia's inaugural Literary Laureate comes to a close, we are inviting your nominations to help us select candidates to be the next Inlandia Literary Laureate. We are looking for someone whose work is intrinsic to the region; someone who loves this messy, wonderful place as much as she does, as much as we do.

Susan Straight has graciously agreed to serve on the panel that will select Inlandia's next Literary Laureate, along with Steve Heller, Director of Antioch University Los Angeles's MFA program, and Cheryl Klein, Director of Poets & Writers Magazine's California Office & Readings/Workshops program. Please help us help them by nominating your favorite regional author.

Here is how it works:

We are looking for someone who is affiliated with the region (either lives and/or works here); who has an accessible body of critically acclaimed work that has been published in last ten years; and who has a willingness to work with the community to inspire, mentor, and promote creative literacy.

To nominate, please put the following in one single Word document not to exceed five pages; you may cut and paste information from the web as necessary:

- Your full name and contact information as well as the full name and contact information of your nominee.

- An explanation on why you think this nominee for Inlandia Literary Laureate meets the criteria for appointment and why you are putting forth this nomination, not to exceed one page.

- A biography of the author, not to exceed one page.

- A listing of the author's publications over the last ten years, not to exceed one page.

- A writing sample illustrating why you think the nominee meets your definition of a regional voice vested in the people and places of this unique region, not to exceed two pages.

If you know someone who fits this profile, or if you yourself feel you are qualified and willing to take on the responsibilities, please follow this link to upload your completed nomination.

As further incentive, anyone who comments on this post to tell me they completed a nomination will be eligible to win a free copy of Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California's Inland Empire, the anthology that inspired the formation of the Inlandia Institute itself, and for which we just celebrated the five-year anniversary.

For more information visit Inlandia: A Literary Journey.

The window for nominations will close January 31, 2012.

An announcement and ceremony will take place during April at

The 25th Annual Tomas Rivera Conference at UCR.

It's that time of year again. You know, the one where most of us (myself included) pull out the plastic a little (or a lot) more than usual, the house gets decked (mostly with bags full of stuff), and sometimes the cookies get baked, sometimes they don't.

I was taking inventory of the various lovely books that I've purchased as gifts this year and thought I would share them with you all in case you're looking for last-minute gifts and might find some of these of interest.

Matthea Harvey's Of Lamb -- Graphic novel based on erasure of Charles Lamb's (auto?)biography that explores the complicated relationship between Mary & her Lamb, bought as a gift for myself

Matthea Harvey's The Little Soldier and The Giant Snowflake -- Ostensibly a children's story, bought as a gift for a small child (but kept for myself)

The Conference of The Birds -- Graphic novel exploring the Persian myth/fairytale of Simorgh, bought as a gift for my half-Persian sister (but kept for myself, because she probably doesn't even know the story, and I love it)

A Zeal of Zebras: An Alphabet of Collective Nouns -- Goes beyond the usual "murder of crows"; wrapped and given as a gift to a small child (but not-so-secretly wanted to keep it for myself)

Tablet and Pen -- An anthology of Middle Eastern literature, bought as a gift for my sister (and still in line to be wrapped and given but secretly want to keep for myself)

The Inner Kitchen, a gluten-free, holistic, organic cookbook with illustrations by my sister, Amy Payne, who has done illustrations for my own projects. These illustrations, by contrast, are far tamer, but just as lovely. (Bought two, gave one, kept one...)

I also bought a book on horses for my stepmom, a mystery/thriller for my dad, and various kids' books (Shhh!) for my own kids, plus a book of essays by Oliver Sacks that I have been wanting that I found on the clearance shelf at Barnes & Noble. This is all I can remember right now, but I may have bought even more!

So, Happy Holidays! If you are looking for a last-minute literate gift, hopefully my own choices will spur you in the right direction. Now please pardon me while I adjourn to housework now as we have company coming in two hours...

Cheerios,

Cati

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