by Lily Brown
Since I’ve been doing a lot of readings lately, I’ve been thinking about the Poetry Reading as an antidote to the Internet. I’ve always felt ambivalent about the way that social networking sites and the Internet are used to publicize the private and to promote the self. I realize I’m in a tight spot here, as this blog entry itself is on the Internet, and may be seen by some as a means of self-promotion. I’d like to think of it, however, as an excuse to look critically at how we conduct ourselves in the world as writers and as human beings, and what role the Poetry Reading plays in all of this messiness about the public and the private.
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by Lily Brown
Beck has a slow-jam my sister and I used to love when we were growing up. It’s called “Debra,” and it goes like this: “I wanna get with you / And your sister / I think her name’s Debra / I pick you up late at night after work / I said lady, step inside my Hyundai / I’m gonna take you up to Glendale.” “Debra” is important to this tour blog entry for two reasons: 1) Three ladies—Cynthia Arrieu-King, Claire Becker, and I—just spent four days in a royal blue Hyundai Accent and 2) We spent the tour driving the California freeways, including the 210, which we took through Glendale on our way from Pomona College to UC Merced on November 18th. This tour blog entry will consist of photos that provide a blow-by-blow of our travels in California, alongside some reflections on the tour experience.
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by Lily Brown
Next week, I’m embarking on one of two little first-book tours, and I’ll be blogging about those tours here. The first tour is in California, and I’ll be doing readings at Pomona College, at University of California Merced, in San Francisco, and in Santa Cruz. The second tour will include stops in Richmond, Raleigh, Philadelphia, New York City, Providence, and Northampton. More on that tour in a future post. I’ve never blogged before, and I’m nervous because I have this idea that blogs have to be funny, and I don’t think of myself as being funny, at least not on purpose. I told this to my friend Claire Becker—who I’ll be on tour with in California—and she told me she would trade me funniness for beer on tour. I took her up on her offer.
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Lily Brown was born and raised in Massachusetts and currently lives in Athens, where she is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.F.A. from Saint Mary's College of California. Her poems have appeared recently in Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, and American Letters and Commentary. Rust or Go Missing, her first book, is forthcoming very soon from Cleveland State University Poetry Center.
