Poetry Chalking

The Center for Poetry, an organization I use to work for (and still tweet for) are having a poetry chalking next week on the 29th, from three to five, on the Lansing River Trail behind Shaw Hall.
Poetry chalkings are always fun. It is really satisfying to be able to write a poem down. You are welcome to bring your own poem, but poems will be provided, so do not let your uncertainty about poetry stop you from going.

The Rhizome Collective

One of the things that consistently impresses me is community organizations and how much a difference they can make. Lately, I've been doing research on various organizations, and thinking back fondly on my own time at the ones I used to work or volunteer at.
One of the ones that has caught my eye is the Rhizome Collective. The idea is that, like a rhizome, they started small but grew roots that went all over the place. They work mostly in finding more sustainable ways to live, and they've even published books on the subject.
This group is located in Austin, Texas (which I always hear so many nice things about), so sadly, I can't join them because of geography, but if I ever end up there, I'll have to think of swinging by.

Women in Literary Arts

A few weeks I stumbled upon this new organization, Vida.  Their goal is basically to "explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women." 
I wish I had known about this organization when I was writing about women writers from the 19th century.  I suspect VIDA is more into modern women writers, but they're not the first people to notice that women's writing often gets ignored.  So hats off to the organization for bringing attention to the issues.  :) 
Stumbling on their website also means that I found a whole new list of books by women to check out.  (Because, clearly, I need more things to read.)  But these poetry books include:
Cate Marvin's World's Tallest Disaster.  I don't so much judge books by their cover as by their title.  I like this one, especially for a poetry book.  Marvin also had another book of poetry out, Fragment of the Head of a Queen, and worked on an anthology called Legitimate Dangers, both of which also look good. 
Erin Belieu's Infanta.  In my poetry, I have this thing for poems that have one word titles from non-English languages or are obscure terms.  I'm kind of curious to see if Belieu is the same way.  I'm also planning on checking out her One Above and One Below and The Extraordinary Tide.
In creative nonfiction, there's is:
My Lesbian Husband.  Great title?  Or greatest title? 
Ecotone.  When I first saw this, I thought it might be a literary magazine, but I'm thinking now it's meant to be an academic tome, focusing on feminism.  As a feminist, I'm okay with that.  
The Poker Bride: The First Chinese in the Wild West.  Women's history, sadly, almost always manages to get ignored.  It's nice that someone is trying to focus on a woman's (possibly inaccurate) story as a way of talking about women. 
And no list is ever complete without a few literary magazines.  As someone who used to be on staff, I like looking at what other people do with the format and I want to be supportive.
Hotel Amerika.  I usually like to pick a few of the issues up, even at random, if I can.  The TransGenre issue looks particular intriguing.  
Seneca Review.   An older, well-respected literary magazine.  Hard to beat that. 
Page to Page.  Not an actual literary magazine in the strictest sense, but a retrospective (which seem to be in vogue at literary magazines these days) about the Seattle Review. 
And in the meantime, because I make the mistake of shopping on Amazon, I also find other books that I want to read.  Including:
Emily Dickinson's The Final Harvest.  I need to read her more obscure poems and not just the ones that they always teach in schools. 
The Best American Essays of the Century.  I'm not much of a fan of Joyce Carol Oates, to tell you the truth, but I do need to do more essay reading, and why not start with what is suppose to be the best?  For good measure, I've decided to throw in a few older editions, including 2007 and 2004.  And since we're on the subject of best essays, I decided that I could probably do with some great nature and science writing (even from 2007), African American essays, American magazine articles, Non-Required Reading, history essays and short stories. 

Book Haul

So, apparently, haul videos are really big. I'm not much for clothes, but instead, I decided to write about the book haul I got at the book sale today. So here goes, in no particular order:
1. Chinese Handcuffs by Chris Crutcher
I'm a huge fan of Young Adult Literature, even though I'm no longer a young adult. I've actually read Crutcher's Ironman, and this looks like a similar story: a young athlete with family troubles, who struggles to watch other people in his life suffer through abuse and who falls in love with a broken, but still fighting, young woman.
2. Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
I once read an essay by Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers discussing how you should buy albums every once and a while based on their covers. I've decided to adopt that same approach to books, since it has lead me to some great music. The cover looks like the kind of scribbles you'd expect to see in a teenager's notebook. It's apparently about a group of southeast Asian teenagers living in London. I'm also interested in postcolonialism, and this book looks like a teen version of that. Like other teen classics The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, it looks like different sections are narrated by different characters. Flipping through the book, I see there are mentions of Rude Boys, which bodes well. The book has a slight crease in the backcover, but basically, it looks like I bought it in a bookstore.
3. I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolf
I saw a Jon Stewart once interview Tom Wolf about this book, which is why I picked it up. It's apparently about college girls. Back when I saw the interview, I was still in high school and it sounded fascinating, especially since I was heading to college myself. The diaries and hearing Wolf saying "Wu Tang clan" were enough to make me remember the interview. The book is flawless, like I did actually buy it out of a bookstore.
4. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
I saw the Gillian Anderson movie some years ago, and I always feel bad about seeing movies based on books I haven't read. (I recently fixed this with the book Jane Eyre.) I loved the movie, especially since it seemed so quotable and witty and the ending was ironic, tragic and thought-provoking. I'm hoping this will be the same.
5. Dead Ex by Harley Jane Kozak
I love mystery novels, and since this book's cover had one of those dead body outlines, I knew I had to try to. When reading the back, I discovered it's also about soap operas and the drama behind them. This has to be one of the most delightful combination I've seen: murder and cheese. It appears that I picked up an early copy of the novel, so this is a total score from a collecting point of view.
6. A Concise History of South Africa by Robert Ross
Don't worry: this is the only textbook I picked up. My second major is in history. I'm taking an African history class, and we spent a month on South Africa, which was fascinating. I'm hoping to learn a little more about the place through this book.
7. Three by Flannery O'Connor
My friend Christine suggested O'Connor to me last year, and since this particular book was only 50 cents, I've decided to give it a whirl. This is definitely an older book, since the pages are yellow.
8. A Heinlein Trio by Robert A. Heinlein
I've always wanted to read Heinlein, since he's a science fiction master. The cover of this book is really cool is a psychedelic way. I'd actually like a poster of this original design.
So, that's it everyone. I managed to get eight books for 7.50. (For those of you not inclined mathematically, that's about 94 cents per book.) I'm excited to read these new books (if I ever find the free time to do so), and I feel good about spending my money at the book sale, since it supports the Red Cedar Review, which has been a wonderful organization. I'm so proud to be part of them.