Michael Jackman, Writer

I love epigrams – as Coleridge said, epigrammatically:

What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole.
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.

Here are some of mine from the archives – feel free to comment with your own

You cannot teach the comma to those
who sit in class comma-tose

E-mail, once enacted
cannot be retracted.

The Story of All Relationships

First we sizzled,
Then we fizzled.

by Michael Jackman. First broadcast 12/13/01 WFPL, Louisville, 89.3 FM

Note: 6/11/09 – This has been a really popular radio essay, and I’m posting it here by request. I’d put it in podcasts, but I don’t think I have a recording of this one. Okay, the request is by my wife Dana, whose first date experience with me was broadcast a month later to the Louisville listening audience, though I didn’t use her name at the time. She still likes me anyway. – mj

Recently, a friend of mine was told:

“You are very stiff in your opinions.”

This unsolicited analysis didn’t come from a concerned pal, wise counselor, miffed lover, or even a self-righteous yenta. Believe it or not, it came from a fortune cookie. Read the rest of this entry »

So as you know I had decided to take a year off to work on poetry and fiction and improve my skills, but now the time has come to gain more publications. Since I’m teaching now, some credits can’t hurt either. Full time faculty lecturers like me aren’t rated on publication, but you know, it’s publication, right? Who can resist being impressed by it? Maybe I’ll even make some of the writing faculty envious. Art for art’s sake, and props for props’ sake.

As part of the quest, I sent off two more sets of poems today, mostly prompted by a poet-friend’s reminder. We’re on this committee together for a new project in Louisville, the Festival of the Word, to be held in September as part of the Idea Festival. Anyway, we were planning what kind of workshops we might offer. Maybe the tried and true and ever popular “how to get published” workshop. She said, “Poets really need to know that to get published you have to have 40 poems out there at a time.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said, “Thanks for the tip.” I was still using the old-fashioned send-wait-wait-wait-die unpublished method. It was good to have her there, because if I’m giving a fiction workshop I wouldn’t get to attend hers, and I obviously need to. I asked her what other publication tidbits she had.

As a result, my latest submission packet is in Garamond font. According to my poet friend, her poet friend swears he has better success getting published with Garamond than any other typeface. It may just be superstition, but I’ll try anything. We writers are like baseball players that way – looking for talismans and incantations to get us out of the slump. Another friend at the same meeting said she thinks Garamond is cool, but recommends Palatino for an even higher success rate. So there you go. I pass it on to you.

And here I am telling all my students to use Times New Roman 12 pt. for their professional submissions. I’m so old school.

Work on your writing craft and meet fellow authors. The WWP (Writers Workshop Project) meets monthly, 6:00 – 9:30 p.m. at The Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street, Louisville, KY 40206. (502) 896-8480. Following a mixer and presentation on writing craft, writers workshop their work, supervised by the instructor. If you don’t have a draft, bring your editor’s hat and help critique. Open to writers of all levels. More Info.

(This is a copy of my latest e-mail newsletter. Subscribe here)

This month, my newsletter waxes poetic, in honor of National Poetry Month.

April is the cruelest month, T.S. Eliot wrote, breeding/ Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/ Memory and desire, stirring/ Dull roots with spring rain. In Louisville, it’s a complex month, when winter’s chill concedes to spring’s warmth, and spring’s warmth agrees to a little more snow, and sudden storms breed tornado sirens.
Read the rest of this entry »

April is National Poetry Month

The 2002 Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Contest
Honorable Mention
Mary Oliver, Judge

This barn was newly raised, once. This patch
of ground was hallowed by its arching ribs,
aromas of the earth rose through the thatch
of sweet straw quilted over new-made cribs.
The hay-loft pulley, swaying in the sun,
was an eternal lamp, the double-doors,
an entrance to a tabernacle one
approached to worship during morning chores.
And now the roof is broken. Now the rain
pours through the holes and floods the hallowed ground.
Wind blows among wood skeletons, the stain
of rotting hay, its protest made, a sound
raised up to summon us to patch the roof.
Far from abandoned barns, we stand aloof.

My latest column is up at autochannel.com – read it here. 

Over on my Writers Workshop Project site, I’ve put up a new shopping cart. You can actually link to it from the “Shop” page here – the page will redirect you. I even have a new Manuscript Review Service for people who can’t make the workshops or live out of town. 

On the writing end of things – I meant to give a summary of the Jewish Fiction Writers Conference in New York, but things rushed with teaching when I came back – my spring break was all about grading papers! I hope to have it up soon.

I’ve also been working through draft 8 of my new short story/novella. This draft is looking to be near the final version – wish me luck!

Drafted a villanelle today. I think it’s very rough, and I think it’s my first. I enjoyed working with the form. And I feel clean and honest now, since I told my creative writing students last Thursday that form was a box in which they could pour their ideas, when I assigned them a ballad for the weekend.

As I worked on Draft 6 of “The Weisers Get Religion” a flyer came through on e-mail for the Jewish Fiction Writers Conference in NY – an all-day gig at the 92nd St. Y on March 15. So I’m off to New York to enjoy the city, my cousins’ company (thanks for putting me up, Ellen and Maria Lena), maybe an old friend or two, and some conferencing. I can’t wait. Tix are booked from Cincinnati, so Dana will drive me in and out, and if all goes well, I should be back to teach my Monday afternoon class. Looking forward to getting a niche writing boost and to visiting my old home town!

You’ll never get rich teaching writing, but thank God you can get books and travel funds!

On more literary news – I enjoyed the IUS Review release party last week. The students and faculty advisor Tom O’Neal did a great job with the format (a back-pocket sized journal – how creative!), the content (they even produced a CD!), and the celebration. A couple of weeks ago I got my academic literature fix by spending a day at the Univ. of Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900. Learned a bit about Iris Murdoch, Margaret Atwood, and Holocaust narratives, and heard some post-modern fiction. Even sighted some students. I’m happy to see IUS students coming across the river and experiencing more literature and fiction.

My congratulations to Merle Bachman and Kathleen Driskell.

Merle’s first non-chapbook collection of poems is out: Diorama with fleeing figures at Sheearman Books, UK.

Kathleen will read from her new collection, Seed Across Snow (Red Hen Press) on Mar 21, 4pm at Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville.