Author: mtmason@gmail.com

Mousetalgia

October Update: 3 Manuscripts in the Works

So what am I working on? A lot. After a few years falling behind (but still writing a poem every week), I’ve been editing and getting books of my poems together. Mainly, that’s 3 manuscripts:

  1. A Story About Disneyland (and Midlife (and Churros))
  2. Nebraska
  3. Rock Stars [largely, this one is poems about eighties rock]

Right now, most of the work is going into the Disneyland manuscript as, well, it’s been a blast to work on. So watch for a new book, umm, at some point…

In fact, my Disneyland poems have recently appeared in Defenestration, Lowestoft Chronicle, appearing soon in Sugar House Review, and a recording of one poem on the Mousetalgia podcast, Episode 521.

Hawai'i Pacific Review

New Poem in Hawai`i Pacific Review

I am grateful to Hawai`i Pacific Review for publishing a poem of mine which was a blast to work on. I know, it looks lighthearted, but every weird phrase in it took a lot of work to get just right (and every one refers specifically to something, it’s not just random).

I got the acceptance note for the poem on Father’s Day, which was something special to me as my dad was born in Hilo, so anything Hawai`i reminds me of him, gone 27 years now. I know, it’s an odd poem to carry a message from the afterlife, but I’ll take it. So check it out and enjoy!

https://hawaiipacificreview.org/2017/06/29/mistranslated-valentines/

Recent Publications in 2 Magazines

On a 2-week residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, I hit the reset button and got a TON of work done editing poems, collecting them into several manuscript piles, and sending the best poems out to magazines. In just the past couple weeks, 2 places each took a pair of poems. So check out my work at:

Two Big Publications

I’m honored to have poems in a pair of great anthologies released this spring. One celebrates 20 years of The Backwaters Press and the other celebrates 150 years of Nebraska Poetry so, yeah, it’s kind of cool.

Nebraska Poetry: A Sesquicentennial Anthology, 1867-2017

The first anthology of its scope, Nebraska Poetry encompasses 150 years of the state’s literary history, featuring 80-plus poets and more than 180 poems. This landmark collection includes poems by authors best known for their prose—like Willa Cather, Loren Eiseley, and Tillie Olsen—as well as some remarkable but relatively forgotten writers from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Among the contemporary writers, it includes poets of Nebraska’s renowned “second renaissance” along with a rich array of younger writers who are redefining what poetry from and about the state might represent. A broadly inclusive as well as diverse anthology, Nebraska Poetry celebrates the state’s brilliant contribution not only to Great Plains literature but to the broader traditions of American letters.

Watching the Perseids: The Backwaters Press Twentieth Anniversary Anthology

Watching the Perseids

Watching the Perseids: The Backwaters Press Twentieth Anniversary Anthology features poems from BWP’s authors from the past 20 years. This anthology commemorates The Backwaters Press’s 20 years as a nonprofit literary publisher located in Omaha, Nebraska. Virtually every poet published by the press in its first two decades is represented here with two new, previously unpublished poems selected specifically for this volume.

Available at Amazon.com

Shows this week in Boston (Cambridge, really) and Reykjavik

Cantab Lounge in Cambridge

We hit the road this week, featuring at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, one of the famed homes of poetry slam on June 1st. The show starts at 8pm and I’m up about 10. More details are at: http://bostonpoetryslam.com/?p=6735

Kaffislippur Café in Reykjavik

Then on June 4th, I feature along with my wife Sarah and Icelandic poets Kristian Guttersen and Sigurbjörg Sæmundsdóttir in Reykjavik at Kaffislippur Café (Hotel Marina – Mýrargata 2 Reykjavik) at 4:30pm. The reading’s title is Poetry and Parenthood as the reading has 2 married couples, parents, all with books published. See full details at:
http://bokmenntaborgin.is/en/events/poetry-parenthood-us-iceland/