No Help for That | Jackie Clark

So, I’ve been a bit negligent about updating here, which is crazy because I got some BIG news about two weeks ago.  I am the proud recipient of a 2012 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.  Pretty amazing, right?  Even more amazing is that I encouraged my friend and photographer Doug Ensel to apply as well and wouldn’t you know he received a fellowship too!  The fellowships are a very generous amount of money and I am quite honored to have been selected.  Really.  Below is the dorky picture proof of me and the other recipients.  There were 22 of us total, awarded over five disciplines.

Okay, so some other updates.  An awesome collaborative Poets off Poetry essay by Cynthia Arrieu-King, Sommer Browning, and Ana Božičević about their serendipitous love of the same Cocteu Twins song is up now.

Speaking of Poets off Poetry, POP will be at AWP again this year and will have chapbooks featuring all the poems that POP published in 2011, so that means poems by Ben Fama, Ish Klein, Marshall Lee, Mart Hart, Lisa Wells, Ed Skoog, James Belfower, Matt Rohrer, Travis Nichols, and Paul Killebrew.  Stop by the Coldfront table to pick one up.

Also, more Songs of the Week, featuring pieces by Lynn Melnick, Bruce Covey, Zachary Pace, P.J. Gallo,  and Nicole Steinberg.

Oh, and a new Rumpus Sound Takes piece went live today about Angel Olsen.  Check it out here.

And lastly, it’s Valentine’s Day.  Last night in yoga the teacher said something about breath being nothing more than love and gratitude.  I am happy to be at a place in my life where I can appreciate that.