Sunday I got to hang out with Mitchell L.H. Douglas for the day. He had a reading early in Harlem, which I had to miss, but he was really close to my place so I met him at the end of his reading and then we walked over to The Perch and hung out for a bit. We opened up some spirits and toasted our new books, and exchanged books.
It's been exciting living since my own book was released. It is even more special that I got to share the debut of my book with Mitchell, because I remember the night I sent it in I e-mailed him (or was it Myspace? ....oh how times change!) and told him about the prize I entered my manuscript in (he read an earlier version of the 'script) and mused: wouldn't it be cool if our babies were published in the same year??
And here we are!
Today I packed his book with me and read it on the way to have coffee with a new poet I met through the publication of my own book. That is probably the most exciting thing -- meeting new people. Mitchell's book is a long poem (a series of smaller, connected poems a la Kevin Young or Martha Collins) about Donny Hathaway. It's an engaging read. I'm always interested in projects and the long poem. I'm sure I'll be visiting the collection over and over.
Other than that...work and work. Sunday I leave for my spring tour!! It's so scary how quickly things approach. Look for details here later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment