Tag Archives: Poetry

Finals Week

14 May

As you’re reading this, I’m probably studying or hunched over a scantron, bubbling in various letters that represent a semester’s worth of knowledge. (Wish me luck!)

What I’m here to say, though, is a response to my post on January 25, 2013: Back to School. In case you started following me recently (or can’t remember this post) I talked about the books I’d be required to read, and I promised I’d let you all know what I thought about the texts. So, without further ado, I’ve listed the readings in order of favorite to least favorite beneath the specific reading/writing course:

Poetry Writing:

1. The Unmemntioable by Erín Moure: This was my favorite poetry collection by far. I often underline my favorite lines while I’m reading, but I started underlining everything Moure wrote! In fact, I actually posted about this reading earlier this year: April 8, 2013: Relax & Read: The Unmemntioable by Eric Moure.

2. Poetry! Poetry! Poetry!   by Peter Davis: Seemingly cute, easy, and fun read, but ultimately challenges the writer to face the truth behind the ego of the artist. I don’t want to say too much, because I’m planning on doing a post on this soon!

3. The new black by Evie Shockley: I’ve read this collection numerous times now, and I find new cultural challenges every time. Shockley is great at questioning on what makes a person within their race while using form to enhance it.

4. Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr: This collection is a study on ecopoetics. It’s very interesting, but I often got lost on some of the language, perhaps because I’m unfamiliar with Hawaiian terms. However, I’d still give it a four-star rating, because my professor allowed me to understand. Alone, I’m unsure what I’d rate it.

Poetry collections in order of like.

Poetry collections in order of like.

Nonfiction Writing: This class was my first nonfiction class, and I loved it! 

1. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present by Phillip Lopate: Great collection of personal essays, from authors I recognized and from new writers I’ve never come across. Organized by topic and year. Loved to flip through it and just let the words take me away.

2. Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction Works from 1970 to the Present by Lex Williford and Michael Marten: It was hard for me to choose between the first and second rating. I picked this one as number two only because we didn’t get a chance to talk about these essays as much, but it’s just as great of a collection!

3. Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction Judith Kitchen: I enjoyed the switch from longer essays to the shorter ones. Amazing how much can be said in so little words.

4. Crafting the Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction by Dinty Moore: Very clear about how to write nonfiction personal essays, if you’re looking into writing one for yourself and/or others.

5. How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One by Stanley Fish: On March 19, 2013: Relax & Read: How to Write a Sentence, I wrote about this thin but very informative book. Easy for the beginning and a nice reminder for everyone who might get caught up in the complexity of writing later on.

Nonfiction novels in order of like.

Nonfiction novels in order of like.

…

I apologize for the short post, but I’m really busy studying! I will return with excitement (and, hopefully, A’s!) I hope everyone’s week is going well, and, as usual, comment on this post and let me know if there is any topic (or writing advice) you’re curious about!

~SAT

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Reading Event: Ann Hamilton at the Spencer Museum of Art

19 Apr

Website Update: The Magill Review interviewed me this week, and now the interview is posted! Check it out here, and learn more information on the behind-the-scenes of Minutes Before Sunset. (There will also be the link on my next post.)

12 days until the Minutes Before Sunset release!

Last night, my Poetry Writng II class (instructed by professor and poet, Megan Kaminski) was invited to read poems.

My wonderfully supportive father escorted me to the event under one condition: I behave for a nice photo.

My wonderfully supportive father escorted me to the event under one condition: I behave for a nice photo.

We read as a response to Ann Hamilton’s exhibit “an errant line” at the Spencer Museum of Art. It was an enlightening experience that established artists and their responses to others’ art. The moments encased the ability to communicate through art, and I really enjoyed taking part in such a unique event. If you live in Kansas, I really encourage you to take an afternoon and visit the exhibit, along with such a beautifully broad collection held within the museum walls.

Below is an excerpt from the Spencer Museum of Art website:

“ Using digital technologies to explore the fundamental nature of cloth and the ways museums organize and maintain material legacies, Hamilton and Schira will consider the role of the hand and human practices that reveal and conceal. Working with current KU visual art students and Spencer Museum staff, the artists are also investigating their former relationship as student and teacher (Hamilton came to KU in 1976 to study fiber arts with Schira). Transforming multiple galleries with their immersive installations, both artists will employ images of and actual objects from the SMA’s permanent collection to create a multisensory tapestry that will feature changing interactive elements.”

The exhibit featured percepio dolls from early Italy, used to teach children during church about Nativity. The dolls are very elaborate and quite magnificient to see. Hamilton used them, scanned them onto cheese cloth, and positioned them along the walls to signify the movement through time and history. But, what I found to be one of the loveliest aspects to Hamilton’s art was her ability to adjust to the museum and use artifacts unique to the location. Instead of moving the infamous Bechstein piano, she covered it with a pink fabric and allowed pianists to play as a part of her collection.

Below are the two poems I read: the dots are not a part of the poems. It was the only way I could get the spacing to hold.

    I hear the Bechstein

a blushed blur of universal vibrancy, constructed

……….of covered caution, a colored dream—a

……….dance.

a pressed curl of waxen connections, torn

……….over a rumbled boast, teetered to time—a

……….transition.

……….Folded space, a future chase.

……….The movers and risers pull the views out of

place before anyone can                          see.

………………………………momentarily

Precipio

Beneath the cherubs of Basilica di

Santa Maria Maggiore, St. Frances of

Assisi inculcates the embroidered

    Il tuo sorriso è l’alba che ho perso questa mattina

word of God, threaded into centuries

of artwork extinction, rehabilitated

into the minds of a museum, where

we cannot touch, only to distinguish,

what is ours, what is there’s, why

we must perderò  understand the

implications of sunrises bringing

another day of God to teach.

Our loss of Nativity is

freestanding figures

brought on by time.

…

The third poem, when printed with a different text, actually looks like a face. It’s supposed to represent the dolls, but I cannot seem to get the internet to work with me, so I apologize. But I hope you enjoyed them if you didn’t have the ability to come to the event and/or visit the museum in the future.

My class

My class

~SAT

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Relax & Read: The Unmemntioable by Erin Moure

8 Apr

23 days until the Minutes Before Sunset release!

April is National Poetry Month, so I thought I’d discuss a poetry collection today. So I read The Unmemntioable by Erin Moure for my Poetry Writing II class, and it is safe to say that I am in love. 9781770890046_p0_v1_s260x420

Moure’s poetry collection defies time along with persona. It’s the repercussions of identity within a family’s timeless love. As Barnes & Noble explains, “Moure’s poems, love is bound to a duty: to comprehend what it was that the immigrants would not speak of. Now they are dead; their children and grandchildren know but an anecdotal pastiche of Ukrainian history. On Saskatoon Mountain in Alberta where they settled.”

The history, along with the reflection from present day, is brought to life in the only life left to the known, knowing that the life is ultimately unknown. (Complicated, eh? But wonderful.) I have to admit that I also feel a connection within the mother-daughter relationship of the unknown. The speaker of the poems, Moure, is spreading her mother’s ashes in the Ukraine and is forced to wonder what exactly happened to her mother in order to understand who her mother really was, since her mother never spoke about it. (Considering how awful the Polish-Ukraine conflict was, this isn’t a surprise, but the contradiction this history caused is a thoughtful journey to take.)

Here are my favorite quotes:

“There are persons who can speak no more, whose very names have vanished. Yet a name excised from the verge where it once lived still casts its sound on all who sleep there and enters their throats.” (45)

“[Take me in your arms] a way of seeing then.” (15)

“Today I refuse to be pinned down to an identity. Right away, I want to betray it.” (19)

“That there is a before-speaking, that we did not always speak” (41)

“this was passed to writing and the content of a writing burned can no longer be handed back to memory, for writing abolishes memory and as what was written can no longer be passed down, it has no Author in the old sense: no ability to act as proxy to, to verify on behalf of.” (13)

“For if thought that exceeds what has yet been thought were not possible, the infinite would not be possible, and self/ itself or subjectivity its intermediary transcendence/ incendiarry.” (39)

Check it out here: The Unmemntioable by Erin Moure

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

~SAT

April 10: My Thoughts On: Young-Adult Fiction  

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Relax & Read: Megan Kaminski

9 Mar

March 10th, 8:45 p.m. Update: Megan Kaminski’s most recent publication, Desiring Map, can be found by clicking here.  tn9781938055010

1 p.m. Update: My Facebook Author Page now has a cover photo. Check it out here. 

When I decided to attend the University of Kansas, I was really excited to meet inspiring professors and students. I knew I wanted to get my bachelor’s in English, but I was unaware I could have an emphasis on creative writing. Of course, when I learned this, I practically jumped through the ceiling with excitement (seriously—I think I hit my head), and I signed up.

Immediately, I threw myself into a fiction course, because, as many of you know, I write YA sci-fi/fantasy. But—much to my dismay at the time—the University of Kansas requires students to take two different kinds of writing. I was REALLY concerned about this, because I didn’t want to join a writing course I didn’t know anything about. I was afraid it’d affect my GPA, and, considering how much students pay at universities, this was a huge concern. But I had no choice, so I looked at what they had to offer: nonfiction, screenwriting, poetry, and playwriting.

imagesSo what did I take?

I enrolled in Poetry Writing I with Professor Megan Kaminski, and my writing life has never been the same.

She has taught me everything I know about poetry, and she has inspired me to chase knowledge beyond what classroom time allows us to explore. Through this website, I even advocate studying poetry, because the genre has taught me how to truly embrace the lyrical beauty of language in and out of fiction. For me, fiction is where I disappear into fantastical worlds I create, but poetry causes me to embrace the reality of what’s fantastical around me.

I give Kaminski all the credit for revealing this beautiful world to me.

Megan Kaminski has six chapbooks out, and through Dusie Press, you can even read directly from her chapbook, collection. This year, her most recent piece, This Place (Dusie Press, 2013), was published, and it’s available through her publisher and directly from her. She’s even on Goodreads and Directory of Poets & Writers.

Megan Kaminski's chapbook, collection.

Megan Kaminski’s chapbook, collection.

Not only has she accomplished so much, but she has given opportunity to other writers. Through the University of Kansas, Kaminski sponsors The Siren, a national online literary journal for students to share their work. She also leads the Creative Writing Exchange Program and the Undergraduate Reading Series that I got to participate in.

I have the utmost joy being taught by such a talented and inspiring woman. She’s an example of all I hope to be: accomplished while striving to create opportunities for other writers and their futures. 

I really encourage all of you to check her out and learn from her story. Any of the links above will send you to more information.

~SAT

Click here and go straight to her website.

Click here and go straight to her website.

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Writing Tips: Titling Your Novel

18 Feb

I’m so glad you all enjoyed my Events page. I’m really excited to show my timeline with you (and, to be honest, digging through my portfolio was such an encouraging adventure! I hope you are inspired to do the same. It’s a confidence booster. I hadn’t realized how much media I’d done until I spread the articles across my desk. Plus, I’d love to see what all you have done and are up to!)

Through you all, I received a few emails regarding one line in particular: December 4, 2006—Finished writing November Snow (originally titled It’s Only a Matter of Time.)

Many of you were interested in why the title changed, how it changed, or what the title reflects, and I think this is a great aspect to consider when studying your own piece of work. 

Originally, of course, my novel was titled It’s Only a Matter of Time. The reasoning for this is a funny thing: it’s the last line, and I didn’t have a title for it while I wrote it. I’m a strict believer in not deciding (for sure) on your title until the entire piece is written. I think it’s smart to have an idea, but, many times, a book changes as you write it. You may write an entire manuscript and realize your characters aren’t who you thought they would be. Maybe you have symbols you never even considered. Maybe your setting changed. Your ending may even change. Either way, writing is a journey and it changes, even if you have a plan. Think of writing like life: You may have a plan, but things happen, and your path changes.

This is what I had to consider when I realized my novel was being published. 

I knew It’s Only a Matter of Time wasn’t appropriate. It didn’t describe the tale, it didn’t relate to my characters, it didn’t describe the setting, and it didn’t summarize my overall message. So I set out to discover what DID describe all of these things.

As many of you know, November Snow ONLY takes place in November. It’s told from two perspectives, and it’s in a made-up land, Vendona, in 2089. November 2089 is ridiculous, and Vendona’s November is confusing, because the reader won’t even know what Vendona is until they pick up the book. I couldn’t use Serena’s November, because it ignores Daniel, and the same aspect happens when I looked at Daniel’s November. Plus, the novel isn’t centered around their lives, but how their lives are effected. So what about November’s Election? Doesn’t work. In my case, I’m American, and our elections are in November; readers would assume it’s a fictional tale about our government systems, and that wasn’t my audience.

So I looked at my symbols. I have plenty–but, ultimately, snow is the most powerful image. Snow hasn’t fallen in Vendona in twelve years, and the snowfall landed on a very detrimental date in the tale. However, during this particular November, the weather is cooling again, and the ostracized “bad-blooded” children realize it may fall again–and there may be another vital moment.

I don’t want to spoil my novel, so I won’t say what happens, but snow does fall again.

Through this, I realized the falling of snow, not only effects my characters, but ultimately symbolizes the effect on my reader.

November Snow was born.

I describe my process in the hopes that you all, whether you’ve already written a novel or not, can decide on the most effective and honest title for your piece. After all, you wouldn’t want to publish it and later regret what the title said. Think of it as poetry: a poem’s title is vital to understanding the symbolic meaning of the delicate words on the page. Without it, the descriptions may seem obscure or confusing. The poem, essentially, may not make sense at all.

Titles ARE important–and the right one is vital. Choose carefully and use your heart to do so. 

~SAT

Because I like sharing little bits of my life with you all: This is a picture of my older brother with his cat, Bella, and my cat, Bogart. Who knew we were so related?

Because I like sharing little bits of my life with you all: This is a picture of my older brother with his cat, Bella, and my cat, Bogart. Who knew we were so related?

 

 

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My Undergraduate Reading

11 Feb

9:00 a.m. update: I’m in the University Daily Kansan! Read this article about my experiences here.

I REALLY wanted to record a video of me reading what I read at the Undergraduate Reading Series (that way, you could experience what the audience did) but, just as I said on the 9th, my camera isn’t working.

An actual picture from the event.

An actual picture from the event.

So what do I do?

I’m uploading PDF files of what I’ve read :] If you click any of the links below, it will open, and you can read that particular piece.

At the event I read nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. I did this, because I love experimenting in genres outside my norm (so anything that isn’t sci-fi/fantasy YA fiction.) I think trying new genres is really important for learning, and, because of this, I’ve studied nonfiction, poetry, fiction, and screenwriting at the University of Kansas (and in my free time, of course.)

But, without further my rambling (because I could), I’ll introduce my nonfiction piece:

From my memoir “To become a (woe)man” I explain how being motherless since 11 years old has effected my life up until now. I’m really excited to be sharing this piece, because it’s currently competing in a publication competition, not to mention some of the most important moments of my life. This particular scene is the day after my mother died.

Read my excerpt from “To become a (woe)man” here: NonFictionExcerpt

My poetry was read next. I’d rather not explain what they are about, however, because poetry is a genre that thrives within interpretation. My three pieces are below:

You

Hom-ouses

Injuries

After poetry, I read from a fiction piece of mine. In reality, this fiction piece is from a fantasy novel, but, from the excerpt, you will not be able to tell. I did this on purpose. Readings don’t always give you enough time to explain the setting or the characters, so you have to adjust to your audience. I decided to read a small romantic scene–one where my protagonists are looking at the stars. Read it here: FictionExcerpt

I hope you enjoyed reading my pieces as much as I enjoyed sharing them!

Have a great Monday!

~SAT

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SS: Reading Event

1 Feb

On February 6, I’m delighted to announce I’ll be participating in KU’s Undergraduate Reading Series. I’ll be reading my nonfiction and poetry.

“The Undergraduate Reading Series showcases exceptional student work from the University of Kansas in a variety of genres…The KU Undergraduate Reading Series kicks off the spring semester with an evening of dazzling student work! Come join us for an evening filled with engrossing poetry, fiction, and short plays. Our February event features the following talented undergraduate writers:

Katherine Hoven
Nadia Imafidon
Shannon Thompson
Justin Wheatley
& more TBA”

If you’re in Kansas this upcoming Wednesday (Feb. 6th), I’d love to see some of you there (and meet!) but I understand many of you don’t live in Kansas or have free time. Both of these links have information: Facebook event & GoodReads event.

Special thanks to poet, Megan Kaminski, for making all of this possible. Read her interview on the Poetry Foundation here.

~SAT

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Relax & Read: Sailing Alone Around the Room

27 Jan

After Friday’s post about my poetry and nonfiction writing classes, I received a few questions regarding reading other genres. For instance, Ed Raby Sr. (blogger about one man’s quest to apply Biblical Theology to life), asked “Poetry was something I never seemed to get into. Do you have recomendation for a person who does not like poetry? Other than Dr. Seuss?”

I think this is a great question, because it represents every person who has asked me similar questions about expanding their reading palate into other genres. Personally, I’ve studied screenwriting, poetry, fiction, and (now) nonfiction. Each time I begin a new genre, I learn essential elements to writing I never considered before.9780375755194

In this case, poetry has taught me to say less but mean more. Writing poems enhances writers’ abilities of creating symbolism and delicate yet powerful prose. So, if you’re thinking about trying poetry, I wanted to recommend one of my favorite poets: Billy Collins.

Personally, horoscopes for the dead is my favorite collection of his, but I think Sailing Alone Around the Room is more eclectic while retaining a simplistic charm.

You can read some of his poems for free here:

But here are my favorite quotes from Sailing Alone Around the Room:

…

“I can hear the library humming in the night, / a choir of authors murmuring insides their books” (Books)

“But all they want to do / is tie the poem to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it” (Introduction to Poetry)

“No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted / out of a love poem that you used to know by heart” (Forgetfulness)

“it moved into the future / like the sharp tip of a pen moving across an empty page.” (The Wires of the Night)

…

I hope you take the time to read some of his words (he writes A LOT about being a writer) and enjoy his words as much as I have. If not, I hope you take the opportunity to read some free poems (because they are all over the internet) and fall in love with their structure enough to embrace their elements into your writing style.

~SAT

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Back to School

25 Jan

I’ve officially returned for my spring semester at the University of Kansas!

As many of you already know, I’m studying to get my bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing. Because of that, I’m in two writing courses this semester—Poetry and Nonfiction. I’m really excited for what this semester will bring. I’m sure I will have the wonderful opportunity to connect with other passionate readers and writers (just like the magnificent opportunity this website has brought me by introducing us!)

For fun, I thought I’d share what books we’re reading in regards to these subjects. Maybe you’ve already read them, or maybe you’ll think about picking them up. Either way, I’m sure I’ll review them as time passes, and I hope you all can gain as much as I hopefully will from them.

Poetry Writing:

Well Then There Now by Juliana Spahr

The new black by Evie Shockley (I’ve actually already read this poetry collection, and it’s fantastic representation of generational shifts within the black culture.)

The Unmemntioable by Erín Moure

Poetry! Poetry! Poetry!   by Peter Davis

Nonfiction Writing: (I’ve never taken a Nonfiction writing course, so I’m particularly anticipating this one.)

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One by Stanley Fish

Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction Judith Kitchen

The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present by Phillip Lopate

Crafting the Personal Essay: A Guide for Writing and Publishing Creative Non-Fiction by Dinty Moore

Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction Works from 1970 to the Present by Lex Williford and Michael Martone

Today I read the first 51 pages of Spahr’s “Well Then There Now” and Sarah Levine’s essay “The Essayist Is Sorry for Your Loss,” (via Touchstone Anthology) and I already love them.

What required readings did you love the most in school? Which ones were the most helpful? I’d love to hear your answers. 

Happy Friday!

On January 24, it was my father's birthday! This (with our creepy glowing eyes) is our surprise party for him.

On January 24, it was my father’s birthday! This (with our creepy glowing eyes) is our surprise party for him.

~SAT

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Happy New Year: New Poetry Page!

1 Jan

Happy New Year!

I hope 2013 is starting off right for everyone, but I thought I’d add a new page to start off mine!

If you click my “Poetry Collection” tab, you can read all of my poems that were featured in “Poems: a collection of works by twelve young Kansas poets.” Previously, I posted about this accomplishment, and you can read about it here, if you haven’t already. As always, if you’re a family member and/or a friend of Kristine Andersen, you can send me an email via my Contact Page, and I’ll distribute the link for sale since the collection was published in her memory. product_thumbnail.php

I’m really excited to be able to share this with you guys, because I can’t sell it, since  it was a private publication. However, I’ve always wanted to show another piece of myself, and this is my solution.

So enjoy the poems, and I can always post others (as I have a full portfolio.)

I’d love to hear about your poems & writings too.

Begin your New Year off right, and keep writing!

~SAT

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