Edging back to normal

...whatever "normal" is! *grin*

Now that my mom has been home from the hospital for a few days, and I'm home from taking care of her, it's time for me to rest up a bit and then get back to business. I have two months till my workshop in Provincetown, and especially now that FAWC has given me the Ali scholarship, I feel like I have a responsibility to show up ultra-prepared, with poems to work hard on and a good sense of what I want to learn from the week. I do think I get more from a summer workshop if I prepare for it, plan for it, identify what I'm there for -- though it's also essential to be open to surprise, to learn something you didn't expect to learn.

Speaking of which, did you see this nice article in the New York Times about summer writing workshops? Of the ones they mention, FAWC is the only one I've been to, but they all sound like fun.

Also, I need to get stuff sent out -- I have hardly anything out right now, and hello, you don't get anything published if you don't send anything out. I spent April focusing on drafting new work, so it's time for a little breather to take care of some of the older stuff for a while, kick it out of the house and see if it can fend for itself yet.

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Pleased to see that Lucille Clifton got this year's Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

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The Indiana Arts Commission has made audio files of this year's Individual Artist Grant panels available for download. You can listen to people talking about me behind my back! Except it wasn't really behind my back, since I was there. Anyway, they're humongous files, so don't try it over dial-up. (Am I the only blogger in the world still using dial-up? What can I say, I get it for free, and on my budget, free is always good....)

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It's May. How did it get to be May already? The university had its commencement exercises on Saturday, and although more students enroll in summer sessions than back in my undergrad days, campus is still much much quieter than it is during the year. It's lovely.