Upcoming (or incoming, as the case may be)

I'm planning to drive up to Indianapolis for several readings in Butler University's Visiting Writers Series:

• Wednesday, Sept. 20: Gerald Stern
• Wednesday, Oct. 18: Gregory Orr
• Thursday, Oct. 26: Mary Oliver

I'll be on the Butler campus three times in eight days, as the Indigo Girls concert at Clowes Hall is on Monday, Oct. 23, right in between the Orr & Oliver readings. (Although if I start feeling a little overbooked, I may end up skipping Orr; it's over an hour and a half drive in each direction, and so far I don't have anyone interested in going with me.) I've snagged a pretty good seat for the Indigo Girls show, 4th row, and their new album comes out this Tuesday so I'll be hearing lots of songs I haven't yet heard in concert, which makes me a happy happy fangirl.

IU's MFA program will be bringing in some readings this year, I'm sure, but they haven't yet updated their calendar to reflect this academic year. They're not exactly spectacular about making sure their readings get publicized outside of the English department, which is a drag sometimes.

And of course, the Five Women Poets reading at Boxcar Books on Saturday the 30th of this month. Can't forget that one. :) (If it weren't for this reading, I might have considered driving down to St. Louis that night, as cartoonist Alison Bechdel of "Dykes To Watch Out For" and Fun Home fame is reading/speaking, and I adore her. She'll be at Left Bank Books, for you St. Louisians.)

(Still contemplating opening my eight-minute segment with a poem by someone else -- thanks to those of you who chimed in on that topic! 8 minutes is such a short set, but I think it might be fun. And our audiences usually have a large percentage of "I never read poetry but I thought I'd come and hear my friends" people, so almost anything I read will serve to introduce people to someone new to them. Which is nice.)

* * * * * * * * * *

Wrote some poems this weekend after not writing a damn thing for about a month. Thank goodness. I have complete first drafts of poems called "Dx" (an abbreviation you medical-types will recognize) and "Waiting to Meet the Rock Star," and have started scratching out notes on one called "Sleeping in Space" (I've been watching a bunch of NASA TV this weekend).

There's never enough time in the weekend, is there?