Hospital Days

Hello everyone--

If you haven't seen me around much lately, it's because I've made the UW hospital my second home. At the beginning of July, I had an attack of pancreatitis which turned out to be caused by over 50 (!) gallstones, so out went my gallbladder. I had some phantom abdominal pain after that, so I went back for some more dilaudid. (I was happy to be on a painkiller that shares a name with a Mountain Goats song.)

Then, last week, I was en route to the hospital for my surgery follow-up when I stopped to move some garbage cans out of my driveway. There was a hole in the pavement, and I fell, spraining my ankle, which instantly swelled to the size of a tennis ball. Good thing I was already en route to the hospital.

I do have to say that if you have to use a hospital, UW Health is the way to go. They took care of me through and through, and there's wifi there, and I had great friends who brought me my laptop to take advantage of it and books so I could work on a book review I had due.

That review was of Josh Ritter's first novel, Bright's Passage, and it can be read here.

Speaking of my stay in hospitals, I wrote about it for The Rumpus' "Where I Write" column: here.

And, speaking of the Rumpus, yesterday my interview with Marissa Nadler (whose great show I recently saw) just went live: here

And on my own website, I have recently posted all kinds of good stuff, like an interview with Blake Sennett (The Elected, Rilo Kiley), Gold-Bears, and a two-part interview with Her Space Holiday.

Hope everybody out there in the ether is doing great. No surgeries or sprained ankles for y'all, ya hear?

Deadline for Buffy Anthology Extended

Hi all--

I haven't been getting as many submissions for the Buffy anthology as I'd hoped, so the August 1 deadline isn't going to be happening. I'll be accepting poems until further notice. Scroll down for more info about the Buffy poetry anthology and please email your poems to me at erinlyndalmartin at gmail dot com. Thanks! :)

New!

Hello, everyone!

How are you?

I hope this finds your late spring going well. It's feeling like summer already in Madison, up in the 90s so far.

I've been doing a lot of work lately on various writing assignments. I don't have all that much to show for it, but here's what I got:

Bee poems in The Offending Adam.

Review of my recent insomnia in 300 Reviews.

A review I wrote about Matthew Henriksen's wonderful Ordinary Sun for Tarpaulin Sky.

My interview for the Rumpus with Lady Lamb the Beekeeper.

And a whole boatload of interviews up at my new music site, Euterpe's Notebook. You'll find interviews with Hauschka, Psychedelic Horseshit, The Feelies, Milk Maid, Rasputina, Mia Doi Todd, the Lonely Forest, and many more. Johann Johannsson, Clem Snide, One AM Radio, and more to come soon.

...and in some more dour-but-hopeful news, I'm still involved in helping out those affected by the April tornado in Tuscaloosa, AL, where I lived for three years during graduate school. The Red Cross and many other organizations are still accepting donations for the cause. The Offending Adam put together a week's worth of Tuscaloosa writers for an early May issue. My work is on Monday's post, but there is fine writing from throughout the week. In a similar vein, my classmate Brian Oliu assembled Tuscaloosa Runs This, a free e-book comprised of writers with Tuscaloosa connections, myself included. You can read the book free, but you can also make a donation to go to tornado relief. The book is an incredibly moving read, especially for the pieces by those who were there during the storm. Check it out and give as you are able.

As always, thanks for reading, and take care!

Forgot!

I forgot to share my other exciting news. I have now joined the fantastic Nate Pritts and Matt Dube, among others, on the team of http://www.h-ngm-n.com, as associate fiction editor. Send in your stories and Matt and I would love to read them!

It's alive!

Hi all--

I've been working for a while on generating content for my own music journalism site, and I'm thrilled about this project. It's nice to be able to interview musicians without worrying about a publication's genre constraints and such. While I have wonderful editors at the other sites for which I write (and will continue to write for), it's nice to be my own editor, even though we all need outside eyes at some point.

My first interview is live now, and it is with the amazing Mia Doi Todd, whose music I have loved for a long time. The look of the site might change soon, but here is the link:

http://www.euterpesnotebook.com

I hope you enjoy it and share it with your friends. I have a lot of exciting treats coming up soon to share with you there! :)

Looking for S.P. Campanella

This is an odd post, but I'm looking for my old friend S.P. Campanella, as his email address doesn't seem to be working. If you ever read this, please message me at erinlyndalmartin @ gmail.com . I would love to hear from you!

Call for Submissions: Buffy Verse Anthology

Hello, dears!

I'm thrilled to be editing Buffy Verse, an anthology devoted to poetry inspired by one of my favorite shows.

Here are the submission details:

I am seeking submissions for Buffy Verse, an anthology of quality poetry inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I am looking for lively verse that engages with the Buffy mythos. For example, you may choose to revisit a certain episode, examine the intersection of some aspect of Buffy and real life, or simply write a poem with a relevant Buffy epigraph.

Submissions should be sent either as a Word document or pasted in the body of an email to me at erinlyndalmartin@gmail.com. No cover letter or bio is necessary at this time. Send as many poems as you like. Please put "submission" somewhere in your subject line.

In response to a few questions I've been asked:

-I will consider "Angel" poems, but not other shows from the Whedonverse.

-I don't yet know if contributors will be able to be paid

-I'm not interested in "fan fiction" type of poetry

I will be reading submissions until August 1, 2011.

I have already sent a proposal for this book to several agents and presses, but if any of you are involved in publishing and would like to discuss this project, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for reading this, and please do circulate this call for submissions around your friends, colleagues, students, etc.

I'm looking forward to reading your work!