Organizing your writing life

POETRY AT PORTFOLIO CENTER RETURNS: I'll be back hosting Poetry at Portfolio Center this Friday night, featuring poets from the Outside the Green Zone chapbook edited by Cleo Creech. Features will include Lisa Allender, Franklin Abbott, Theresa Davis, Cleo and myself. We'll also have open mic, with sign up starting at 7 p.m. The evening gets underway at 7:30. PC is located at 125 Bennett St. in Buckhead. If you're in Atlanta come out and join us for this special evening of poetry in response to the GLBT cleansing of Iraq.

I got a lovely note from Jean Copland, one of the editors of the Shout Them From The Mountaintops anthology that came out a few years ago, letting me know that students at Chatooga County High School here in Georgia had been studying poetry, including my piece "Resurfacing" that appeared in the anthology and Better To Travel. Each student has to put together a personal anthology of favorite poems and apparently several want to include "Resurfacing." It's gratifying to know the older work is still being read and appreciated...esp. by students.

If you happen to be in Decatur, GA over the weekend, look for me at the Poetry Atlanta/Atlanta Review table on the courthouse square as part of the Decatur Book Festival. I'll be there all afternoon on Saturday and Sunday. We'll have copies of the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology for sale, and I'll have copies of Slow To Burn and Better To Travel. Baby needs cash for his trip to London, and Poetry Atlanta needs your donations to help with future events, publications and the 2007 Slam Team. Come and buy a book! I'll be performing at Java Monkey on Saturday night as part of the festival. It's an invitational slam, and although I'm not really a slammer, Kodac was kind to ask.