I got home on Sunday night. It seemed that half the plane was L.A. poets. All in all the experience in Atlanta was a success–both informationally and inspirationally. The focus of the conference is to support teachers of literature, so I have to admit some of the panel discussions did waft over my head a bit, but I found something of value in everything I attended. I especially enjoyed the readings and on Saturday went to the University of Tampa one, where my mentor, Sarah Maclay, was one of six readers representing the UT Press and Tampa Review. There were also panels on "How Poems Begin" and "More Than One Way to Tell a Story."  The latter included Stephen Dunn as one of the speakers, a poet who’s work I very much enjoy. He has a great book out about poetry called, Walking Light: Essays and Memoirs, that is funny, poignant and inspiring writings about his life and his life with poetry.

Hilda and I finished up around 4:30 then headed out for an early dinner with a short walk around downtown Atlanta before the reading at eight with CD Wright and Coleman Barks. Barks read mostly his own poems, with a couple of Rumi’s in the mix. CD Wright read from her soon to be released book of poems, One Big Self: An Investigation. The poems are taken from a previous published art book where her poems accompanied photos by Deborah Luster taken in  three prisons in Louisiana. It was riveting stuff–powerful in the use of language and the woven emotional textures of the sorrow, resilency and brutality of the inmates, wardens and the reflections  of the writer herself.

I’m happy to be home now and happy I went. I met some great people and connected with some folks in the bookfair, publishers of journals I wasn’t familiar with and came home with a folder full of flyers, postcards and pamphlets to pour over. Not to mention the half-dozen books I picked up that I had to stuff in my already bulging suitcase. With all the stimulation I’m ready to pull out a stack of poems and match them up with some journals and send out those submissions. I got a good start today just printing out the poems, doing some quick revisions here and there and making a preliminary list of the journals. I plan on having ten submissions in the mail by the end of next week. Wish me luck. Below are the last photos from the conference and a couple of what I saw of Atlanta–not much, I’m afraid.

Coleman Barks & CD Wright before the reading. That’s Hilda right behind them and my empty chair. 

Sarah & Holaday hanging out before the reading. 

Stephen Dunn