Amazon Vs. The Bookstores

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I came across a bit of news this week that should be of interest to anyone interested in the publishing industry and how Amazon is changing it. Recently, some of the biggest chain bookstores, including Barnes ‘n Noble, Books-a-Million, and Canada’s Indigo Books, have decided they will no longer sell Amazon books. This news, which I first read on AWP’s website/newsletter, came after Amazon announced it had begun its own publishing program, which could present yet another major challenge to bookstores and the struggling publishing industry. The article states that, “Amazon has cut out the traditional system of publishers publishing books and then working with booksellers in order to market them. Amazon, which already created a lot of stress for publishers with its decision to produce Amazon-exclusive e-book titles, now publishes and sells its own books and major publishers and retailers don’t want any part of it.”

The bookstores aren’t alone in their protest over this. The American Booksellers Association has made its subsidiary, IndieCommerce, remove all Amazon titles from its listings. IndieCommerce provides indie bookstores access to the latest titles via an online database. Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor has reported that Amazon plans to open its own bookstores based on the model of the Apple stores.

If Amazon does expand its publishing house and also opens bookstores, this certainly could drive more bookstores and publishers out of businesses.  If we eventually live in a world where Amazon is the main publisher and seller of books, what impact will that have on allowing for a variety of voices in literature? I seriously doubt Amazon would take a chance on a young, experimental writer. Furthermore, bookstores, especially indie ones, provide something Amazon does not-community. Local bookstores are where writers and poets go to do readings and sign books, and local bookstores host other events for all ages, including lectures and workshops. I simply don’t foresee Amazon bookstores being as friendly to local communities as indie bookstores or even Barnes ‘n Noble.

Rita Dove Talks 20th Century American Poetry

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Rita Dove, one of my favorite contemporary American poets, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and author of Thomas and Beulah, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, recently sat down with journalist Bill Moyers to talk 20th Century American poetry. Dove recently edited The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry. In the interview, Dove talks with Moyers about some of the selections in the book, which include some of the most well-known poems of the last 100 years, including T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Ginsberg’s “Howl,” Lucille Clifton’s “Homage to My Hips,” and some lesser known selections.

The interview is worth a watch and can be seen here. I love Dove’s readings of some of the poems in the collection, including one of her own. I also like her commentary on some of the poems, including Eliot’s “Prufrock” and all of the uncertainty and dread the poem captured about entering a new century. The interview also features archived clips of some of the anthology’s poets reading their work, including Lucille Clifton and Stanley Kunitz, both deceased now.

 

Dove was also asked what she would do if she was made director of education for the United States. She replies that she would make teachers end the day by reading one poem. Students would not have to analyze the poem, but simply listen to it. That way, poems will become a greater part of their lives and they will get accustomed to listening to poetry daily. Pretty good idea, eh?

If you aren’t familiar with 20th Century American Poetry, and its different movements, everything from Modernism to the Harlem Renaissance to Confessionalism to Neo-Formalism, then you should consider picking up Dove’s collection because it does seem like she did a good job selecting poems that accurately represent the most important poetic movements of the last 100 years. The only other anthology I can think of that did so is 20th Century American Poetry, edited by  Dana Gioia, Dave Mason, and Meg Schoerke. But Dove’s collection may be a little more diverse.

 

Osterhout Library Poetry Workshop Series

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Last year, the Osterhout Library in Wilkes Barre hosted free poetry workshops each month by a variety of different writers with publishing credits. The series has returned again this year, and tonight, my friend and fellow poet Dawn Leas will be hosting a workshop on found poetry. The event begins at 6:30 pm and is slated to run until 8 pm.

I am also going to teach a workshop in the series again. Mine will be held on Tuesday, March 20, also from 6:30-8 pm. The subject of my workshop is finding journals to place your poetry. We will look at different methods of finding journals suitable for your poetry and writing a cover letter for editors. What I will stress the most, though, is that you should NEVER send your work out to any journal if it is not ready for prime time. Revise, revise, and revise some more.

Check out the workshop series as it progresses through the spring months. The series will conclude on Tuesday, June 19 with an open reading of students and instructors. All of the workshops are free and open to writers of any level. The library is located on 71 S. Franklin St.

PSU Cuts Its M.F.A. Program, Thanks to State Budget Cuts

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A week or so ago, I blogged on here about the proposed budget Gov. Tom Corbett presented to the General Assembly in Harrisburg. Like last year’s budget, his new budget proposes deep cuts to education, including a 20 percent cut to state universities and a 28-30 percent cut to state-sponsored schools, which include Penn State, Temple, and the University of Pittsburgh. If this passes as is, this will surely lead to tuition hikes, larger class sizes, and possibly fewer faculty members. The other day, the Association of Writers and Writers Programs (AWP) put out a news blurb that Penn State is cutting its M.FA. program, due to the budget cuts.

According to the blurb, “All applicants hoping to start their MFA at Penn State in the Fall of 2012 received a notice that, since funding had been cut, there would be no acceptances mailed out. Current students will be able to finish their degree with the same funding they were promised and no faculty from the English department will be laid off.” The blurb goes on to mention that in order to keep venues open for creative writing at PSU, the English Department is considering developing a new program that combines a bachelor’s and master’s degree in creative writing. The program should take students five years to complete.

The fact PSU had to chop a whole program is evidence of the dire impact deep budget cuts have on education and on specific schools. What’s a real shame is that nationally, the economy is improving. The jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent last month. Jobless claims are at a four-year low, according to reports out this week. And yet, Pennsylvania is falling behind, cutting social programs and funding to affordable schools. Support for education is absolutely necessary for PA to compete with other states and keep students within the state after they graduate. The governor’s budget has yet to come up for a vote in the state legislature, but he does have GOP majorities in the House and Senate. Even if they tweak the budget, as they did last year to offset some of the deep cuts, some of the damage has already been done, as witnessed by PSU deciding to cut its M.F.A. program.

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Some Updates

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I’m excited to announce some recent publication news. Two of my pieces, “Summer at the Press Plant” and “Lone Protestor,” appear in the current issue of the online journal Blue Lotus Review. My friend and fellow Wilkes M.F.A. alum Andrea Janov also has a poem in the new issue. Check the work out here.  Another one of my poems, “After Work,” appears in the new print issue of Harpur Palate. That journal has rejected my work about 5 or 6 times in the past, so I’m happy to finally land a poem in its pages.  It’s a tough nut to crack.

I also want to announce that Library Express, a bookstore on the second floor of the Steamtown Mall, is going to have open mic nights for writers the fourth Thursday of each month from 6:30-8 pm. This event is free and open to writers of any level. It would be wonderful if a lot of people came out to the first one, slated to run Thursday, Feb 23. Support the only bookstore downtown Scranton has!

More Cuts to Education in PA

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A few weeks ago, I posted on here about PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s plan to slash education even more, especially to state universities and state-affiliated university. As I write this, the governor is delivering his budget speech before the General Assembly in Harrisburg. But most papers across the state have already run articles today outlining what’s in his budget, and it’s not good for education. According to an article in the Scranton Times, Corbett plans to slash funding to state universities (West Chester, Kutztown, East Stroudsburg, etc) by 20 percent, and for some state-affiliated universities, the proposed cuts are even worse. The article states he wants to slash funding to Penn State, Temple, and the University of Pittsburgh by about 30 percent. The article also points out that PSU will now have only half of the funding it had in 2010-2011, the last year of former Gov. Ed Rendell’s budget.

Some other highlights of the proposed budget include the loss of about $8 million in funding to community colleges, about a 5 percent cut in funding to public libraries, and deep cuts to the Department of Public Welfare. Corbett thought that there would be a greater budget surplus at the end of the year, but there hasn’t been. So he’s using that to justify the proposed cuts. However, there are ways to prevent these steep cuts, including raising taxes on the wealthiest who can afford to pay a little more or creating a tax on the gas companies.

The budget still has to get approval from the state House and Senate. Last year, they somewhat reduced his proposed cuts to education, though not by much. The best way to influence the outcome of the budget is to contact your local state rep. and state senator and let him or her know you oppose these cuts. Our community services across the state and funding to schools have been cut so much. How can we afford even more of this?

And It’s Off….

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Over the last two years, I’ve been working on a new full-length collection of poems. When I had some time off from teaching over Christmas, I had a chance to put the finishing touches on the collection and make more revisions. The manuscript, tentatively titled What Remains, is now sitting with the editors of a few presses and  book contests. I’m optimistic but also  realize more revisions may be made before it reaches print.  When I started the book a few years ago, I wanted to write a collection of poems that explored relationships and gender communication. Some of that is still there, and the book certainly explores relationships and what’s left after they unravel, but it also includes several blue-collar narratives and character-driven poems. Some of what I witnessed during the peak of Occupy Wall Street and visiting different cities is captured. There are poems that are a reaction to this strange time we live in and the ongoing political narrative about growing income inequality, but the political is always personal, and I tried not to preach. There’s also a few poems in the collection that are music-oriented, much like Front Man. Overall, though, I think this collection offers more depth, stronger extended metaphors, and greater reflection than my chapbook.

It feels good to conclude a project that has occupied my time for about two years or so. I look forward to hearing back from editors soon and seeing what happens. Then it will be time to start yet another manuscript.

Ploughshares Takes Up the M.F.A. Debate

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Lately, I’ve had a lot of students tell me that they want to go on and get an M.F.A. after they finish their undergraduate degree. In fact, nationally, creative writing programs are booming right now, and I think it’s too soon to tell if that’s for the best or not. The long-running fiction/poetry journal Ploughshares just published an interesting article regarding the M.F.A. degree.  I think this article gives one of the better overviews of an M.F.A. degree that I’ve read in a while because it raises both positive and negative points about the degree. First, it points out that you should never go into deep debt for any sort of art degree. I whole-heartedly agree with that point. With an M.F.A. degree, you’re not going to get rich. In fact, the only real job you can get with it is teaching undergraduates, and full-time jobs in academia are becoming scarce thanks to all of the national and state-level cuts to education (assume these cuts will only worsen if the GOP maintains control of the House after the 2012 election and somehow wins the Senate and White House, too, a real possibility). That said, if you do want an M.F.A. degree, or really any graduate degree, there are ways to lessen the debt. A lot of graduate programs offer fellowships, scholarships, and graduate assistantships. I was able to obtain my M.F.A. from Wilkes University because of a graduate assistantship, so I wasn’t loaded with a terrible debt when I finished. Some other graduate programs also offer teaching assistantships. Check into these as a way to pay the tuition bill.

The article also points out that there are ways to complete the degree without having to move across the country. A lot of M.F.A. programs are now low-residency, meaning most of the work is done online. This can be especially convenient if one has a family and career already.

Certainly, there are ways to complete an M.F.A. degree that make it affordable and convenient to one’s geography and lifestyle. But as the article also points out, if one is already part of a writing community and reading consistently, an M.F.A. is probably not be needed, especially if one has no interest in teaching. Personally, I don’t regret for a second getting an M.F.A. It certainly expanded my knowledge of contemporary poetry, made me a better writer, and introducted me to a wonderful community. I also teach, so I needed the degree.

Props to Friends

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I want to congratulate some of my friends that also went through Wilkes University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program and are about to release debut books. Taylor Polites, who was part of my class in grad school, is about to release his debut novel, The Rebel’s Wife, a story about a young widow trying to survive during the Reconstruction period on Alabama. The novel has already garnered positive reviews from Booklist and Publisher’s Weekly, which called the book, “A richly detailed portrait of Reconstruction-era Alabama.”

Another friend and fellow poet, Sandee Umbach, is about to release her debut book of poems, The Pattern Maker’s daughter, through Bottom Dog Press. I’m also happy to announce that Sandee will read at the next New Visions Writers Showcase, slated to run Saturday, March 31 at 7, New Visions Studio and Gallery in Scranton.

Taylor and Sandee’s books are available through Amazon. Kudos to both of these folks and everyone else from the Wilkes program that is having recent literary success!

The Boss is Back

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About a month ago or so, I wrote on here about the collection of essays and interviews about Springsteen I read called Racing in the Street. The collection mostly explores his early days in Asbury Park, his huge success, and his evolution as a songwriter not afraid to shy away from social and political commentary. Today, Springsteen announced dates for the first leg of his U.S. tour, and I’m going to try my best to see him at one of the Philly, NJ, or NY shows because you never know how long he’ll be doing this for.

When I wrote the blog post about the book Racing in the Street, I predicted Springsteen’s new album, which has been named Wrecking Ball and is slated to drop March 6, would certainly feature some commentary on social and economic injustice, similar to his albums the Ghost of Tom Joad, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Born in the U.S.A. This is the age of Occupy Wall Street, and even Newt Gingrich is talking about economic inequality and how much Mitt Romney pays in taxes.  Springsteen is one of the few big voices we have left to talk about such issues. Dylan pivoted away from that years ago. Jon Landau, Springsteen’s manager, made a few comments about the album to Rolling Stone. You can read them here. Two quotes intrigue me about the album. Landau said Springsteen feels this is his “angriest album yet,” and he says the music will include “unexpected textures – loops, electronic percussion… influences and rhythms from hip-hop to Irish folk rhythms.”
You can click the YouTube video below to hear one of the new tracks from the album, “We Take Care of Our Own.” You can certainly hear some of Springsteen’s commentary on the state of America in the new track. You can check out his tour dates on his website by clicking here.