Maine is definitely making up for a snowless December this January. My internship has been going well, except for a few days when I've had to leave early or come in late due to blizzard conditions. Today was particularly fun as when I walked outside this morning, the thermometer read -8 degrees. Due to the arctic blast, my car wouldn't start, but helpful Colby security jumped it for me. So we'll hope it starts tomorrow.
Due to the auto issues I couldn't get to Farmington until about 11, which was unfortunate as today was the day I was running the AJB office all by myself. The director and managing editor had just gotten back from a weekend in New Jersey, where the AJB board had meet to read a ton of manuscripts and start deciding on a winner for the 2011 Beatrice Hawley prize. And it was the editorial assistant's day off, so it was decided that I'd open & close the office today. I did eventually, once I got there, and it was cool to be running it...to get to sit in the desk right by the front door (not that anyone really came in) and answer the phone (which I normally do anyway...). Today I mainly worked on compiling all the reviews we've gotten for books that came out in 2010, in order to submit them for consideration for an NEA grant.
"NEA" is the National Endowment for the Arts, which is run by the federal government and supports "artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation." So we're hoping that one of the poets published by AJB in 2010 has those qualities, according to the government. AJB poets have won NEA grants before, so we'll see.
In other news, I got to read some of the manuscripts that AJB will be publishing in Fall 2011, as I was doing some research on comparable titles for them. My favorite was a book called "Nina and Me," which was a series of back-and-forth poems between the speaker and Nina Simone. I'll leave you with a video of Ms. Simone for today.
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