Poem of the Week: “Premiere” by Michelle Bitting

The VPR Poem of the Week is Michelle Bitting’s “Premiere,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2008-2009 issue (Volume X, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. This poem also has been published in Poetry from Paradise Valley, an anthology of poems from the first decade of VPR, recently released by Pecan Grove Press.

Michelle Bitting has published work in numerous journals, including Cortland Review, Crab Orchard Review, Nimrod, Passages North, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, River Styx, Sou’wester, and Verse Daily. Her full-length collection of poems, Good Friday Kiss, won the DeNovo First Book Award, and C & R Press published it in 2008. Bitting is also the author of a chapbook, Blue Laws. She teaches in the U.C.L.A. Extension Writers’ Program as well as for California Poets in the Schools.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it.

Poem of the Week: "Nostalgia" by Charles Wright

The VPR Poem of the Week is Charles Wright’s “Nostalgia,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2001 issue (Volume II, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. This poem also has been published in Poetry from Paradise Valley, an anthology of poems from the first decade of VPR, recently released by Pecan Grove Press.

Charles Wright is the author of many books of poems and essays. He is a recipient of numerous awards for his poetry, including the National Book Award for Country Music and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for Black Zodiac, which also won the Los Angeles Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Prize, and the Ambassador Book Award. Chickamauga won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and Hard Freight was nominated for the National Book Award. In addition, he received the Griffin International Poetry Prize for Scar Tissue. His many other honors include an Ingram Merrill Fellowship in Poetry, an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Grant, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, the Lenore Marshall Prize, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the Academy of American Poets’ Edgar Allan Poe Award. He has translated the work of Dino Campana and received the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of Eugenio Montale’s The Storm and Other Poems (Oberlin, 1978).

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it.

Poetry, Gender, and VPR: An Update

Much has been discussed in blogs and other online venues during the past week or two about a recent report by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, which highlighted a perceived discrepancy between the numbers of female writers to male writers appearing in various high profile literary journals (Atlantic, Boston Review, Granta, Harpers, London Review of Books, New Republic, New York Review of Books, New York Times Book Review, New Yorker, etc.) during 2010. This issue concerning possible gender bias against women writers by prominent publications has been raised in the past, and as I remarked when addressing the situation in November of 2007 (“Figuring the Numbers: Poetry, Gender, and VPR”), an ongoing conversation is merited and valuable.

As I noted in 2007 when studying products of the editorial process at Valparaiso Poetry Review:

The conversation already has been beneficial, causing me to look at the numbers for Valparaiso Poetry Review and to figure the breakdown of contributors by gender, something I’d never done before. In the nine years of VPR, no work has ever been accepted because of a poet’s gender, nor has rejection of any piece been influenced by the author’s gender. The same could be said for other categories, such as race, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, or geographical location.

Indeed, usually these characteristics could not be known during the consideration of submissions for publication in VPR. Nevertheless, a tally of the poetry selected for Valparaiso Poetry Review during its nine-year history reveals the following surprisingly precise result. I have figured out that the nine volumes of VPR include 368 poems, 184 written by males and 184 written by females—oddly enough, exactly 50% each.

A few observers have put forward a difference in the numbers of submissions to some literary journals by male and female poets as one possible explanation for the lower percentage of women poets represented in their pages. I don’t know if this could be verified to any great extent because journals normally do not keep such statistics for their submissions. Certainly, VPR has never divided its tens of thousands of submissions over the years into any categories at all.

However, for the sake of this research, through examination of the nearly 500 pending submissions received in the last month or so and currently on hand for consideration, the figures again display an almost equal balance: male 49.8%, female 50.2%. (The gender of a few poets submitting work could not be determined because first names were ambiguous or were replaced by initials.) These numbers might suggest that the gender representation in VPR accurately reflects the gender percentages evidenced in overall submissions to the journal.

Because more than three years have passed since that post near the end of 2007—and considering today is Valentine’s Day, a traditional time for regarding male-female relationships—I revisited my editor’s statistics for VPR over the weekend to determine what the updated numbers might reveal. I can report that there have now been nearly 600 poems published in Valparaiso Poetry Review during its tenure, and very little has changed in statistical relationship between publication of male poets and female poets in the pages of VPR: the percentages now stand at 51% female, 49% male. Upon further examination, I found that among the poets reviewed in the pages of VPR, the figures are 59% female, 41% male. In addition, I checked the “featured poets” selected for all the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, and I discovered a split of 46% female, 54% male. The ratio of female to male in the hundreds of submissions currently on hand for VPR was again about evenly divided: 52% female, 48% male.

I do not draw any wide-reaching conclusions from these findings. I offer the numbers merely as a source of information for readers of VPR who might be curious. Once again, as I advised in the 2007 article, the only figures that will matter when poems are chosen for publication in Valparaiso Poetry Review will be the figures of speech within the poetry and other significant, iconic, or symbolic figures used by the poets in the language of their works.

Poem of the Week: "Desire" by Pamela Gemin

The VPR Poem of the Week is Pamela Gemin’s “Desire,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2010 issue (Volume XI, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. This poem also has been published in Poetry from Paradise Valley, an anthology of poems from the first decade of VPR, recently published by Pecan Grove Press.

Pamela Gemin is the author of two poetry books, including Another Creature, a finalist for the Miller Williams Prize. In addition, she has served as an editor of three poetry anthologies. Her poems and anthologies have been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Writer’s Almanac. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers visit it.

Celebrating Elizabeth Bishop

Tomorrow, February 8, will mark the 100th anniversary of Elizabeth Bishop’s birth. In honor of the poet, I invite visitors to celebrate by reading some of the past articles that have appeared in One Poet’s Notes and Valparaiso Poetry Review concerning Bishop: “‘Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetic Voice: Reconciling Influences’ by Laura Ebberson,” “Elizabeth Bishop on Meeting Marianne Moore,” “Jennifer Yaros: ‘Nature and the Self: Dickinson, Bishop, Plath, and Oliver,’” “Elizabeth Bishop: The Poet’s Voice,” “Fat Tuesday: Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Pink Dog,’” and “Listening to Elizabeth Bishop.”

“November Stillness” from Autism: A Poem

As I have mentioned previously, I have created a separate blog site as an open experiment of poetry composition, perhaps a glimpse at an emerging manuscript as it matures. The contents represent portions of an ongoing personal project with a particularly narrow focus intended to eventually develop toward a book-length poem tentatively and simply titled Autism.

The poem will grow as sections are added. The individual pieces are designed so that they may be viewed as independent items; however, I have consciously carried themes, images, and language through the extended sequence with the hope that connectivity and continuity will be preserved among numerous sections of the long poem.

I have now posted a new section, “November Stillness.”

Readers are asked to regard Autism as a work in progress, a partial draft rather than a finished product (even if a few selected segments previously may have appeared in print), and I request everyone realize various revisions—edits, emendations, or expansion—may be made to the posts at any time in the future.

AWP Conference, Basketball in Indiana: Metaphors and Made Shots

Over the years, I have frequently written about basketball in this blog for Valparaiso Poetry Review and offered connections to various aspects of poetry. In fact, late each winter I regularly seem to post an article about the arrival of the annual AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) conference with links to the current basketball season coming to a close and ending in March Madness.

This afternoon, as the 2011 AWP conference gets underway in Washington DC, I once again return to this pairing. While thousands of writers prepare to attend panels and readings, stroll through the aisles of the publishers’ book fair, meet with one another for dinner at local restaurants or late night drinks at the hotel bar, and discuss with old friends those recent developments in their writings or personal lives, I am snowbound in Northwest Indiana. Indeed, although I have enjoyed my trips to the AWP conference a number of times in the last twenty years—including once before in Washington when the cherry blossoms were blooming—one of the reasons I chose not to attend the conference this year related to my concern that the first week in February would not be an ideal time for travel so far from Valparaiso.

Consequently, as I was clearing snow from my long and steep driveway this morning—having measured nearly thirty inches of depth with a yardstick, and with the snow still falling heavily from lake effect bands surging onshore from Lake Michigan—I thought of all those poets or prose writers circulating through the hotel corridors and meeting rooms, engaged in conversations about literature, writing, teaching, and whatever else might be on their minds. I felt disappointment for not sharing in the dialogue, as well as for missing the opportunity to renew friendships and acquaintances developed during the past decades. In addition, I regret that I was unable to attend the book fair, where a new book of mine would be on display. Moreover, I missed the chance to lend my support to the publisher.

Nevertheless, the blizzard conditions during the past 48 hours confirmed my decision to forego the AWP conference this year. Instead, I will look forward to seeing everyone at the 2012 conference in nearby Chicago, just a short drive away and scheduled a month later in the season, where I hope to participate in readings or other activities.

As I have mentioned in previous articles, for many in Indiana the winter months are more closely associated with basketball than any literary conference. With its location in Indiana, Valparaiso University’s identity in sports naturally focuses on basketball. After all, throughout the state, communities have long regarded winter as the season when news of high school basketball games dominates not only the sports sections of local papers, but sometimes also front page headlines. Although most often attached to high school basketball, especially before the state made its misguided shift to class categories, Hoosier Hysteria and the legend of the underdog team additionally extends to Indiana college basketball, particularly those smaller programs in Division I that are called the “mid-majors.”

Valparaiso University and Butler University might be two such university programs that have best reflected an attitude identified with Hoosier basketball. Valparaiso’s magical run to the Sweet Sixteen in 1998, punctuated by the magnificent shot by Bryce Drew that is replayed during coverage of the NCAA tournament each March, certainly drew numerous comparisons to scenes in Hoosiers, the movie version depicting devotion to basketball underdogs in Indiana. I have written in this blog about watching the final rounds of that tournament in a bar at the AWP conference in Portland, surrounded by writers who repeatedly began conversations with comments about the Valparaiso University affiliation on my name tag and referenced the basketball team.

More recently, Butler’s inspiring and admirable 2010 season, ending only with the near miss of a final winning shot against Duke in the national championship game, resurrected further comparisons to the legendary team fictionalized in Hoosiers. Despite their position as determined rivals in Indiana, during their stellar seasons the Valparaiso and Butler basketball teams were able to bring together fans across the state proudly rooting for their success.

This week, Butler and Valparaiso marked a milestone by playing their hundredth basketball game against one another. Even though neither team this year has had a record to quite match the two seasons highlighted above, the level of basketball on display still remains very high, and the rivalry seems as heated as ever. Therefore, for a couple of hours that wintry weather outside melted away, as I watched from my seat, a dozen rows directly behind where the visitors’ coach sits on the bench, for which I have had season tickets nearly twenty-five years, and fans for both teams were treated to another round of classic Indiana basketball. Indeed, during a post-game meeting with the press, Valparaiso head coach Homer Drew described the tense contest that went into overtime as “Hoosier basketball at its finest.”

Today, as I spent a couple of frigid hours (about the duration of a basketball game) clearing the snow from my Indiana driveway, I thought of those gathering in the warmth of hotel lobbies and lounges at the AWP conference, but I also recalled fondly once more the following poem that first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2001-2002 issue (Volume III, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review, which concisely connects poetry and basketball in Indiana:

JUMPSHOTS IN THE DARK

Winter nights in Indiana
we played with gloves
in my driveway cleared of snow,
high school games
on the radio.
Tonight, breathing hard,
an empty gym in late March,
I gauge each shot
by cracks in that driveway
sold years ago;
I clang all of them,
spin the turnaround
off the base of the rim,
run down the ball
to keep it
from crossing black lines.

There are sweeping metaphors
to be drawn here;
talk about continuity,
about loss and the chase
of a ball—I could say I make
most long set shots
after whispering lines of poetry;
it would be true and irrelevant,
true and useless.

I feel too old now for metaphors;
there is, always, a soft bounce
back into my hands, and when
I am distracted by love
or Stafford or Merwin,
the long sweet
snap/swish/bounce
somewhere off in the darkness.

—Daniel Henry

Poem of the Week: "The Bookstore on Broadway, in Albany: AWP Conference 1999" by Janet McCann

The VPR Poem of the Week is “The Bookstore on Broadway, in Albany: AWP Conference 1999” by Janet McCann, which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2000-2001 issue (Volume II, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Janet McCann’s collections of poetry include Looking for Buddha in the Barbed Wire Garden (Avisson Press, 1996) and Emily’s Dress (Pecan Grove Press, 2005). She also has edited a number of anthologies of poetry. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines, including Kansas Quarterly, McCall’s, New Letters, New York Quarterly, Nimrod, Parnassus, and Southern Poetry Review. In addition, she has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. Janet McCann is a professor in the English Department at Texas A & M University.

Tuesday of each week One Poet’s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the archives of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it.