Hoping to Publish Your Manuscript of Poetry?

If you have a manuscript of poetry you are hoping to publish, please join me for a poetry master class at the Taos Summer Writers Conference in July. For more information, go to: http://www.unm.edu/~taosconf/

Here's a description of the week-long workshop:

Poetry – Valerie Martínez . This weeklong master class is an intensive workshop for advanced poets with a book-length manuscript. During the week, we’ll undertake the exciting and challenging process of readying the manuscript for possible publication. To do this, the class (limited to six poets) will focus on holistic issues: the overall concerns of the collections, the general quality of the work, the arrangement and progression of poems, beginnings and endings, etc. As a group, we’ll also address the strongest and weakest poems in the collection, providing guidance for major and minor changes. And, if necessary, we’ll undertake creative exercises that allow each poet to see her/his manuscript with a fresh perspective. The class will include workshop sessions and individual conferences. Manuscripts must be no more than 60 pages, single-spaced. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring five additional poems that can serve as additions or replacements. Hard copies of manuscripts must be mailed to Valerie and other participants ahead of time, postmarked on or before June 12, 2009.

Recent Readings, Events, and Appearances

I've been keeping a fairly busy schedule, so far, this late winter/early spring, especially in support of high school poets and poetry programs, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, and promoting further dialogue about important movements in contemporary American poetry.

• 4/18/09 : Arts Alliance Bravos Award Dinner in support of the NHCC’s Voces Youth Program, serving New Mexico high school students, 6 p.m., Albuquerque.
• 4/16/09: Poetry Jam 2009, celebrating New Mexico CultureNet's Poets in the Schools (PITS) program
• 4/4/09: Spoken Word National High School Qualifying Competition (Judge). Santa Fe Indian School. 7 p.m.
• 3/27/09: Ekphrastic Performance (with Maureen Seaton, Valerie Martinez, and Jasmine Cuffee) in response to sheri crider’s installation: Capitalism: Fueled by Envy and Greed. SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, 7 p.m. Women & Creativity Month, 2009.
• 3/22/09: Meeting of the Lines and Circles Project Families. 2 p.m. O’Shaughnessy Performing Space, College of Santa Fe
• 3/15/09: SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—Spoken Word & Music performance based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women and Creativity Month, 2009. Littleglobe. New Mexico Veterans War Memorial, Albuquerque, 2 p.m.
• 3/14/09: SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—Spoken Word & Music performance based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, 2009. Littleglobe. O’Shaughnessy Performance Space, College of Santa Fe.
• 3/3/09: Dear Eve, Lilith, and Emily… Reading with Dana Levin, Valerie Martínez and Robin Romm in celebration of Women & Creativity Month. 12:30 p.m., College of Santa Fe.
• 2/14/09: Panel--Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, Chicago: “Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections”'
• 2/14/09: Panel Moderator: Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, Chicago: “Sibling Rivalries: Spoken & Written Word Poetry and the Literary Tug-of-War,” with Jon Davis, Danny Solis, Jill Battson, and Michelle Holland
• 2/8/09: Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest—New Mexico State High School Competition Finals, 2009 (judge), 1 p.m., St. Francis Auditorium

Please Join Us for Poetry Jam 2009

This Thursday, please join us a for celebration of youth poetry and New Mexico poetry sponsored by New Mexico CultureNet, which promotes poetry in the schools (PITS), one of the rare non-profit sponsored school poetry programs in New Mexico. Many young poets and New Mexico poets, music, and entertainment. It's great fun and a way to show support for poetry programs in our public schools.

Event: New Mexico CultureNet presents Poetry Jam ’09: "a celebration of poetry and culture"
What: Readings and Performances
Host: New Mexico Culturenet
Day/Time: Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Lensic Performing Arts Center - Santa Fe
$5 for Teachers and Students, $10 for other adults

Quartocentenario Celebration of Santa Fe

The end of March 2009 marks the beginning of a two-year commemoration of 400 years of the city of Santa Fe, originally established by the Spanish as the "villa" of Santa Fe. Of course, as we now know, with the discovery of indigenous artifacts beneath the old Sweeney Center and in the renovation of the Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe was home to indigenous peoples before it was declared a villa by the Spanish. So, commemorations and anniversaries are complicated. How do we now celebrate "400 years"? As 400 years of Spanish and then U.S. occupancy/residency/occupation IN ADDITION to occupancy by native peoples? With my own Hispanic and native ancestry, I discover, in this discussion, the inadequacy of language to keep from overvaluing or undervaluing one or the other of "Santa Fe's" peoples. Tomorrow morning, I'll meetwith Stephen Lentz from the New Mexico Office of Archaelogical Studies to learn the latest about those indigenous artifacts, "under" the contemporary city of Santa Fe and will report back here. For now, I want to acknowledge our 400th celebration (the city has invited President Obama to quartocentenario event in September) while engaging us in a dialogue about the complicated history of our beautiful city. Nothing good is ever simple; Santa Fe and its history is rich and messy. Most things worth something are.