November 21: An Apology and Some Good News

First, let me apologize for not blogging last night.  I literally worked from 7:30 p.m. until almost midnight on my Christmas essay.  It's done, thank God.  I felt like I was going to be writing it until Easter.  Tomorrow afternoon, I'm going to the radio station to record it.

I think the essay turned out really well, but you're all going to have to wait until my Christmas day post to be the judge.  Or, you could listen to Public Radio 90 from Marquette, Michigan, during December to hear me read it on air.  I'm so happy it's done.  I can get back to a normal existence now.

The other thing I wanted to tell you guys is that I received an e-mail from the editor of The Way North, the anthology of Upper Peninsula writers in which I was published last summer.  My editor was writing to tell me that Wayne State University Press, the publishers of the book, has nominated my poems for the Pushcart Prize.

I was stunned.  When I receive an e-mail with a subject line like "Pushcart nomination," it usually refers to some really big-name poet, like Linda Nemec Foster or Ricardo Pau-Llosa.   Somebody with a huge reputation and even huger chance of winning the actual prize.

The Pushcart Prize is sort-of like the Pulitzer Prize for small presses and journals.  It's a really big deal, and I don't stand a snowball's chance in Hades of winning.

When I phoned my wife to tell her the news, I joked, "Now I just have to figure out who I have to sleep with to actually win."

She said, "Don't you mean who we have to sleep with?"

Saint Marty has had a really good day for once.

A guy can dream, can't he?