Interested in Reading in the Desert?

So I occasionally get emails and phone calls from folks who would like to read in the Desert City. I appreciate these calls, but honestly I usually am walking around with a fairly lengthy wish list of potential readers already.

If anyone is interested in reading in the series, the best thing to do is email me (addy to the right) and ask for my address. I'll give you my address so that the interested party can send me a copy of their book for me to check out.

Unless I know the poet, I'm likely not to express much initial interest. I don't mean to be blunt or close-minded -- I just have a lot of people I'd like to bring already, and I only have 7 or 8 slots per season. It doesn't amount to a whole lot.

If one were to send me their book though, I would check the book out and might decide to pursue a reading. No promises at all though -- no promise of a response even. I will at least thumb through the book, ask my friends about the poet, give it a thought.

It's unfortunate that I can't program more folks or give people I don't already know more time, but as anyone in the po' biz these days knows, there are a lot of books being published and a lot of good books (I think.)

All this said, I am very invested in searching out new poets, so the news isn't all bad. It's just not very good either.

So I hope this isn't too discouraging; it's intended to just be honest.

So email me, shoot me your book, I'll be happy to take a look, and I might decide to schedule you. The odds, unfortunately, are against it though.

On another note though, Chapel Hill/Carrboro is a great poetry area. While the Desert City is often booked as much as a year in advance, there are many (myself included) in the area that are interested/willing to host more informal house readings or set up stuff in venues other than the Internationalist.

So it may be that while I can't program someone for the DC, I can find somebody a place somewhere around town. The drawback in this scenario is that there isn't any money for these readings -- it'd be a hat-passer at best. Though, honestly, I think the audience here is good enough to make a trip to our fair 'burb worth whatever it might take.

I think that's about it -- I'll be a sporadic (more so even) poster for a little while I assume, but heck, you never know do you?

Happy holidays......