In like a lion, out like a Lammy

I hope everyone who's had to face ferocious weather today is OK. I guess it's officially spring ... I was awakened last night about 3:30 AM by window-rattling, bone-rattling thunder. I was in a tornado (as in, it mashed up the house we lived in) when I was five, in Kansas, so I've always been acutely aware of severe weather whenever it rolls through. Weather also shows up in my poems a lot, and it's usually not a metaphor -- weather is just that important to us tornado-alley residents.

Anyway, I see there is still a tornado watch out for most of Georgia, until 5 am. Stay safe, all you crazy AWP-ers.

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Tomorrow night Quincy Troupe is reading here in town, along with jazz violinist Billy Bang. A bit odd that the MFA program is bringing in a major reading during AWP, but no matter -- I'm looking forward to it.

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Breaking news! This literally landed in my inbox this very moment as I was typing up this post. Here are this year's Lambda Literary Award finalists in poetry:

Nominees for LESBIAN POETRY

Domain of Perfect Affection by Robin Becker (University of Pittsburgh)
Days of Good Looks by Cheryl Clarke (Carroll & Graf)
The Truant Lover by Juliet Patterson (Nightboat Books)
Lemon Hound by Sina Queyras (Coach House Books)
Touch to Affliction by Nathalie Stephens (Coach House Books)

Nominees for GAY POETRY

Gutted by Justin Chin (Manic D Press)
The Album That Changed My Life by Jeffrey Conway (Cold Calm Press)
A History of My Tattoo by Jim Elledge (Stonewall)
Other Fugitives & Other Strangers by Rigoberto Gonzalez (Tupelo Press)
When the Eye Forms by Dwaine Rieves (Tupelo)

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Yes, I am overly pleased with myself for the terrible, terrible pun in the title of this blog post. Stop snickering. Honestly, the post was already titled "In like a lion" before the Lammy finalists hit my inbox, so how could I resist??? But I agree, I should be shot for that one.