Submissions and Et Cetera

I hope the long silence doesn't prevent you all from submitting. I'm back on the stick now and looking for material, and all previous submissions have been cleared (thank you very much for sending).

I'm off now to catch up at the Night Train.

Appalachia's Agony

Gakked from Jim Tomlinson on Facebook. Let's hope President Obama notices.

The longstanding disgrace of mountaintop mining is now squarely in President Obama’s hands.

A recent court decision has given the green light to as many as 90 mountaintop mining projects in Appalachia’s coal-rich hills, which in turn could destroy more than 200 miles of valleys and streams on top of the 1,200 miles that have already been obliterated. The right course for the administration is clear: stop the projects until the underlying regulations are revised so as to end the practice altogether.

And buy Jim's new collection of stories, Nothing Like an Ocean. You won't be disappointed.

Get On the Bus

The Affrilachian poets are off on another bus tour of Central and Southern Appalachia, bringing poems everywhere they go. Too bad they're not making the trip farther into Yankee territory.

The Affrilachian Poets: A History of the Word

What’s In a Name?

In 1991, Frank X Walker learned he did not exist.

That year, a reading in Lexington, Kentucky, featured four authors from the bluegrass state and poet Nikky Finney. Dubbed “The Best of Southern Writing,” the reading changed the course of Walker’s life. The original title of the event, “The Best of Appalachian Writing,” had been altered to accommodate Finney, a South Carolina native. Finney, who is African-American, was the sole voice of color in the lineup.

There are so many good poets out there; I despair of ever catching up. I know and enjoy the work of Frank X. Walker, Nikki Finney and Crystal Wilkinson, and am looking forward to reading more of these poets when my stacks get less intimidating.

I should mention I learned of this through Travis Nichols' post on Harriet, which is a lovely place to find discourse on all kinds of poems and poets. It seems strange to me that his post has exactly no comments, when most anything on any obscure or tired subject gets a few experts in line to quibble or augment. This post has been up for a few days, and no one's showed. Make of that what you will.