Whiteout Reviewed in Poetry Northwest

I'm feeling very fortunate to have had Martha Silano review Whiteout for Poetry Northwest. Silano writes, "Goodfellow’s incorporation of etymologies and use of sound orchestration lend an exquisite beauty to these poems." She does a stellar job of explaining what Whiteout is about, in case you are wondering, so please take a moment to look at this review. 

It's such a good feeling to be understood by an insightful reader. 

Two Centos @ Sidereal Magazine

What a day! Two centos are up at Sidereal Magazine, thanks to editor Katie Mertz.

How I Know My Grief @ Superstition Review

Hey, friends. I have a new poem out (along with a recording of it) at Superstition Review. The poem is called "How I Know My Grief."   Thanks to editor Patricia Murphy for selecting it.

Poetry Singles Poem a Day

I just discovered a new daily poem podcast, Poetry Singles Poem a Day, hosted by Eric Olsen. Someone showed it to me because one of my poems "Test" (from Whiteout) was read there last week. After I listened to the pleasant voice of the host, I subscribed in iTunes. You can subscribe at a number of places, if interested.

diode 11.3 is live

Grateful to editor Patty Paine for publishing two of my poems, "All the Time in the World" and "For the Time Being," in the 11.3 Issue of diode, alongside the work of Kathleen McGookey, Ryo Yamaguchi, J P Dancing Bear, Jessy Randall, Cassidy McFadzean, and others.

Memory Foam

I was thinking about writing a poem about memory foam, but now there's this one in the world by Monty Reid at Juniper, so I don't need to. I like this one a lot.

Also, I have a broken foot. I am a prisoner of my home much of the time, and bored. I may post more often once again. Or not.

Vary the Line Poetry Collective Reviews Whiteout

I'm grateful to Vary the Line Poetry Collective for this thoughtful insightful review of Whiteout.

Here are a few excerpts:

"Goodfellow’s poems are full of text where every word carries weight, where the words used are so strong they make articles and pronouns pale next to them—until you realize there are barely any of that type of word in the poem."

"... shows off Goodfellow’s amazing ear for consonance and assonance whose presence uplifts the meaning of the lines rather than skewing them like the grammar of a sentence rearranged to provide an end word with the proper rhyme."

Thank you, Vary the Line Poetry Collective.

Fog Cento at Unlost Journal

Editor Dale Wisely at the Unlost Journal has graciously published my Fog Cento. Please enjoy.

Best American Poetry 2018 Trailer!

Hey, all. Dana Gioia and Best American Poetry 2018 have a trailer for their new volume.

Did I mention that I'm in the new volume? Here's the back cover.



Can you find my name (there among names like Mary Ruefle!!!!!!!!, Kay Ryan, Marie Howe!!!!!!!!!!!!, Kaveh Akbar, A R Ammons, Gary Snyder, Frank Bidart!!!!, Terrance Hayes, Ilya Kaminsky, Amy Nezhukumatathil, Sharon Olds, GC Waldrep, Natasha Trethewey, etc etc etc.!!!!!)?

And for those of you in New York City, there's a reading to launch the volume, at the New School on 9/20. I can't be there, and am really sorry about it. If you can go, please do!!!!

Bilingual Childhood Cento

Thanks to editor Richard Krawiec at One for publishing my poem Bilingual Childhood Cento, alongside work by David Kirby, Barbara Crooker (who, by coincidence, is the source of one of the lines in my cento!), Joan Colby, Debra Kang Dean, & Lauren K. Alleyne.

Two Poems at Posit

I'm positively thrilled to have two new poems up at Posit, thanks to editor Susan Lewis. They are "Postcards from Insomnia" and "Gabriel's Horn." If you have a moment, please check them out, and also poems in the same issue by Laurie Kolp, Matthew Cooperman, Elizabeth Robinson, Adam Day, and more!

Cento at Thrush

Friends, I have been obsessively writing (assembling perhaps is a better word) centos this summer. My first one is now at Thrush Poetry Journal, Dementia Cento. Thanks, Helen Vitoria, for believing in this form.

(And if you are not sure what a cento it, here's a discussion.)

Visit Ghost Town

Hey, all, Ghost Town Issue 10 (from CSU San Bernardino) is out, and I have work in it, alongside many super poets, including Craig Santos Perez, Kristin Bock, Judy Kronenfeld, Suzanne Lummis, Stephen Massimilla, Hedy Habra, Elizabeth Knapp, and so many more! Thanks to editor Chad Sweeney for including my work in all this gorgeousness.

My First Ghazal

My first ghazal, Ghazal for a Sea Journey, is now up at the Crab Creek Review blog.  Thanks to editor Martha Silano for giving my ghazal a home.

New Review of Whiteout at Glass

Shalida A. Dobbins has reviewed Whiteout for Glass: A Journal of Poetry. She concludes with the concise words: "Whiteout is an emotional journey and a tribute to a loved one who was tragically taken, from both life and from oral narratives in the author’s family’s mechanisms of working through grief — not just a collection of poetry, but a mausoleum filled with forgotten memories, honesty, understanding, and grief for someone who made an impact without even being present."

Please check out her review for more in-depth discussion.

Crab Creek Review

Thanks to editor Martha Silano, I have a new poem out (my first ever ghazal) in the Spring Issue of Crab Creek Review along with notables such as Erin Malone, Julie Wade, Diane Martin and more. If you have a chance to pick up a copy, please do.

New Interview

Shannon Steimel interviewed me on Bekah Steimel's website. We discuss erasure poetry and my book Whiteout. Have a look if you have the notion. Thanks.

Two at Five:2:One

The last two sets of my Eudora Welty erasures are now up at Five:2:One. Thanks so much to the staff for their support.

Erasure at Calamus

The final issue of Calamus Journal is out now, and it contains beautiful erasures by Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Sonja Johanson, Sara Adams, Michelle A Ladwig, and me (plus poems by other poets as well). So sorry that this will be their last issue. Thanks to editor Eric Cline for such a glorious ending.

Exciting News

Friends, I'm stunned to say that my poem 'Test' which first appeared in The Southern Review (thanks to editor Jessica Faust) has been selected by Dana Gioia for inclusion in Best American Poetry 2018. Grateful and amazed.

This poem is also in my book Whiteout. 

One Sentence Poems

I have a new winter poem up at One Sentence Poems. So if you've always felt guilty about not actually reading any of the poems I post, here's your chance to redeem yourself at a very low cost time-wise! (It's one sentence, really!) 

Thanks, editor Dale Wisely, for giving us all this opportunity.

Abstract

I live more in my head than my body. Consequently I write abstractly, and feel guilty about it, hearing echoes of Ezra Pound's "Go in fear of abstractions" as I write. All those writers preaching, be aware of the body, be concrete, versus me scribbling my ingrown thoughts, hunched over, ignoring my own bad posture.

Then recently I read this from K C Cole (from Sympathetic Vibrations, Reflection on Physics as a Way of Life): “Abstractions seem magical because they can exist independent of matter—and also because they can do things that matter itself cannot do.”

How much better I felt. How much less alone.

Oh, I know concrete writing has power. But abstractions are not without their own mojo, despite the bad press.

Books Read in 2017

I've seen other bloggers publish lists of books they read in the year, so this year I started keeping track. I wasn't going to comment on the list, but realized that if I didn't, there was no point to keeping a list here, as I have a Goodreads account that does the same thing. But I don't feel like commenting. So I will just make a brief sub-list of my list. I don't think I'll do this again.

Books I particularly enjoyed: Little Labors by Rivka Galchen (given to me by my dear friend Tracy Slater); Vivarium by Natasha Saje; Magdalene by Marie Howe; Four Reincarnations by Max Ritvo; Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill; Space in Chains by Laura Kasischke (re-read)

Books I was disappointed by: Karma Gone Bad by Jenny Felton (a book club selection); Slade House by David Mitchell; Sea of Poppies by Amitov Ghosh (a book club selection)


1. Usher, B. F. Fairchild, poetry
2. A Short History of the Shadow, Charles Wright, poetry
3. Whirl Away, Russell Wangersky, short stories
4. A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line, Emily Rosko, poetics
5. Upstream: Selected Essays, Mary Oliver, essays
6. Dark Places, Gillian Flynn, thriller
7. Dancing in Odessa, Ilya Kaminsky, poetry
8. Holidays on Ice, David Sedaris, humor
9. The Arkansas Testament, Derek Walcott, poetry
10. A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki, novel (reread for book club)
11. Little Labors, Rivka Galchen, personal essays
12. Angle of Yaw, Ben Lerner, poetry
13. Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End, Barbara Hernnstein Smith, poetics
14. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, novel (book club)
15. You Shall Know Our Velocity!, Dave Eggers, novel
16. Brother of the More Famous Jack, Barbara Trapido, novel
17. Amorisco, Zhaled Mattawa, poetry (reread)
18. Next Life, Rae Armantrout, poetry (reread)
19. 40 Watts, C. D. Wright, poetry
20. In the Time of the Butterflies, Julia Alvarez, novel (book club)
21. Faithful and Virtuous Night, Louise Gluck, poetry (reread)
22. Karma Gone Bad: How I Learned to Love Mangoes, Bollywood and Water Buffalo, Jenny Felton, memoir (book club)
23. Noon, Cole Swensen, poetry
24. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins, thriller
25. The Wide Net and Other Stories, Eudora Welty, short stories
26. The Beauty, Jane Hirshfield, poetry
27. Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett, memoir
28. See Under: Love, David Grossman, novel
29. The Nomenclature of Small Things, Lynn Pedersen, poetry
30. Death Tractates, Brenda Hillman, poetry
31. The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety, Alan Watts, spirituality/religion
32. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, novel (book club)
33. The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction, Dean Young, poetics
34. Multiple Choice, Alejandro Zambra, experimental short pieces
35. Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003, Jean Valentine, poetry
36. Columbarium, Susan Stewart, poetry
37. Hellgoing, Lynn Coady, short stories
38. Now You See Her, Whitney Otto, novel
39. Landscapes on a Train, Cole Swensen, poetry
40. A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit, personal essays
41. Come, Thief, Jane Hirshfield, poetry
42. Slade House, David Mitchell, novel
43. Silence, Shusaku Endo, novel (book club)
44. New Math, Cole Swensen, poetry
45. The Hope of Floating Has Carried Us This Far, Quintan Ana Wikswo, experimental short pieces
45. Emperor of the Air, Ethan Canin, short stories
46. In a Dark Time, Larry Watson, novel
47. Red Rover, Susan Stewart, poetry
48. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell, novel
49. The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Maggie Smith, poetry
50. Bone Palace Ballet, Charles Bukowski, poetry
51. Lucky Fish, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, poetry
52. Delicate Edible Birds, Lauren Groff, short stories
53. A Marker to Measure Drift, Alexander Maksik, novel
54. 20 Lines a Day, Harry Mathews, fragments
55. Figure Studies, Claudia Emerson, poetry
56. Saints at the River, Ron Rash, novel
57. Am I Alone Here?:Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live, Peter Orner, personal essays
58. Days: Stories, Mary Robison, short stories
59. Winslow in Love, Kevin Canty, novel
60. Vivarium: Poems, Natasha Saje, poetry
61. Everything in this Country Must, Colum McCann, short fiction
62. The Boat in the Evening, Tarjei Vesaas, short pieces
63. Embryos & Idiots, Larissa Szporluk, poetry
64. The Flame Throwers, Rachel Kushner, novel
65. Schopenhauer's Telescope, Gerald Donovan, novel
66. Planet News, Allen Ginsberg, poetry
67. Slowly, Slowly in the Wind, Patricia Highsmith, short stories
68. Never Look an American in the Eye, Okey Nbide, memoir
69. Don't Call It Night, Amos Oz, novel
70. The Vegetarian, Han Kang, novel (book club)
71. The God's Eye View, Barry Eisler, novel (book club)
72. Bend, Natasha Saje, poetry
73. The Underground Girls of Kabul: The Hidden Lives of Afghan Girls Disguised as Boys, Jenny Nordberg, nonfiction (book club)
74. The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, short stories
75. Sea of Poppies, Amitov Ghosh, novel (book club)
76. Magdalene, Marie Howe, poetry
77. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, nonfiction
78. Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong, poetry
79. Where the Moon Isn't, Nathan Filer, novel
80. Four Reincarnations: Poems, Max Ritvo, poetry
81. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain, nonfiction
82. Thirteen Ways of Looking, Colum McCann, novella & short stories
83. The Trip to Echo Spring, Olivia Laing, non-fiction
84. Space, in Chains, Laura Kasischke, poetry (re-read)
85. The Infinitesimals, Laura Kasischke, poetry (re-read)
86. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, Mary Roach, nonfiction
87. Strange Theater, John Amen, poetry
88. Travels: Within and Without, Ann Tashi Slater, creative nonfiction
89. On Lost Sheep, Shiro Murano, tranlated by Goro Takano, poetry
90. Float, Anne Carson, poetry
91. My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante, novel (book club)
92. Archeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems, Bruce Weigl, poetry
93. Pachinko, Min Jin Lee, novel (book club)
94. Animae, Sam Hamill, poetry
95. Ka-ching!, Denise Duhamel, poetry
96. Feeling as a Foreign Country: The Good Strangeness of Poetry, Alice Fulton, poetics
97. Americanah,  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, novel (book club)
98. The End of the Dream, Floyd Skloot, poems
99. The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison, essays
100. Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill, novel/experimental
101. Interior with Sudden Joy: Poems, Brenda Shaughnessy, poetry
102. Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn, mystery
103. The Bird Artist, Howard Norman, novel
104. Ava, Carole Maso, novel