The poetry scene in the greater Nashville area is incredible. I'm convinced a poetry addict can find an event or two to attend almost every night of the week. But you know what else can be incredible? Nashville area traffic. For those of us who live outside Davidson County, getting to and from events in Nashville is an exercise in unpredictability. One day you can do it in 35 minutes; … [Read more...]
So Long to the Good Old Moon
April 3, 2016 By Leave a Comment
I'm delighted that my poem "So Long to the Good Old Moon" has found a home at Ascent literary magazine. (Update: This poem is also in my book Sugar Fix.) This poem takes its title from a headline in the July 4, 1969 issue of Life magazine - one of a trio I have, thanks to some creative gift-giving by my daughter, covering the Apollo 11 mission. As you'll see, the poem itself has little to do with the moon, but it has a lot to do with giving up our old ways of thinking about things - or at … [Read more...]
Speaking of Marvels, and Other News
August 12, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Jane Austen once wrote in a letter, "What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance." As I write this, we're having a heat and humidity spike in middle Tennessee that's typical for August, and I feel quite inelegant indeed. For the most part, though, it's been a remarkably lovely, oh-so-temperate summer here. Consequently I've been doing a lot more porch-sitting than blogging (and looking quite elegant in my beloved wicker porch swing, I'm sure. Uh-huh.) … [Read more...]
Old Bunch of Keys: A Documentary on Old-Time Fiddler Kelsey Wells
May 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Proud mama alert: Kelsey Wells is the subject of a new short documentary from folklorist Caitlin Coad. Old Bunch of Keys, named for an old-time tune, as well as Kelsey's latest CD and thesis project as a Buchanan Fellow at Middle Tennessee State University, is a fifteen minute film available here on Vimeo. Yes, yes, I'm her mama, so of course I've watched it more than once. But even you might enjoy at least one viewing to: Learn more about old-time music, particularly fiddling Sample a … [Read more...]
An Interview with Former Astronaut Rhea Seddon
April 8, 2013 By 1 Comment
Rhea Seddon, M.D., has a history of strapping herself into rockets and orbiting the earth in the name of medical science. As I write in She's Such a Geek and allude to in my poetry collection Heaven Was the Moon, astronauts have been my heroes since Neil Armstrong took those first small steps on the moon, so I'm thrilled to have an interview with Seddon now appearing in 2nd & Church. I've been intrigued with all the buzz surrounding Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In: Women, Work and the … [Read more...]
