Organizing your writing life

LAST NIGHT AT JAVA MONKEY...was fabulous! We had a big crowd (standing room only inside, and watching from the sidewalk) and sold a bunch of books. A couple people bought 10 copies of the new Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol. 2 at once! We were lucky to have 16 of the poets from the book on hand to read, including the naughty and fabulous Deborah Bailey (that's her reading in the photo), Karen Wurl, Travis Denton, Colarum, Theresa Davis and Lady Hardin. I read my new poem from the book and also read Patricia Smith's contribution. Vol. 2 will soon be available at www.poetryatlanta.com, Amazon and at some of the indie bookstores here in Atlanta. That's all in the works now. Kodac and I are also going to select poems for Pushcart Prize nominations this year. We'll post our nominees at the Poetry Atlanta site in the near future.

In other Poetry Atlanta-related news, we will have Voices Carry 3 on Sunday, Sept. 10, at the Carter Presidential Center. I can reveal a partial line-up: Delisa Mulkey, Chelsea Rathburn, Robin Kemp, Rupert Fike, Karen Head, Stephen Bluestone and Cecilia Woloch. Kodac Harrison will once again host, and I'll also read a few. We plan to add one or two more poets later in the summer. The other two Voices Carry events have been amazing readings, and this is shaping up to be another one.

I'll be heading back to the UK in the fall to meet up with friends and, hopefully, to do a reading or two in support of Slow To Burn in London. I'll be traveling with friends to northen England to visit Haworth, home to the Brontes. We'll climb Top Withens, the supposed location of Wuthering Heights. We're staying overnight in the Bronte Cottages and having a party at a local pub. These are a bunch of my Kate Bush pals. We've all become quite close and people will be travelling from all over the world for the "Wuthering Hike" (as it's called) and for another meet-up in London the next weekend. It's going to be a very exciting week!