It's here!!

After months and months of anticipation, my first publication is finally out!

Yesterday before class, I ventured over to Barnes & Noble and inquired about Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25, and after a bit of a wild goose chase, I held the sleek, bright book in my hands for the first time.

It was so exciting to see my name in print for the first time, and to finally read the other poetry that Naomi Shihab Nye chose to include in the anthology. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks that Nye put together an awesome book, because the anthology received a starred review in the School Library Journal, shown below.

Pick up your own copy at Barnes & Noble, or on amazon.com or through Harper Collins' website!

L. Stacks

Bummer Tuesday & Thesis Work

My apologies to my faithful readers who have been waiting patiently for a new blogpost (that's you, Kristina!), but Monday and Tuesday were a bit hectic for some reason. Yesterday I was planning on blogging about the anthology release, but I just ended up really bummed out because neither Barnes & Noble or Border's had the book in yet, and mine hadn't arrived in the mail. (At one point, I looked outside and a brown box was sticking out of the top of our mailbox. Giddy, I ran outside in my slippers, but it was an Anthropologie box for one of my roomates... needless to say I was pretty let down, but at least it was a package from my favorite store.)

Anway, I did get quite a bit of my thesis writtten over the weekend, and then I also got an extension, which I really hate to do, but I want the chapters I turn in to be pretty decently revised so that my thesis readers don't just reiterate what I've already heard in workshop.

Writing takes a lot of time for me. I'm sure I've shared this before, but I'll go ahead and do it again... I always, always write by hand. If I don't write by hand, the quality diminished and people can actually tell the difference! (I had a professor in undergrad who picked out the 4 people in the class that had written an assignment by hand, and on the second day of class, even!) I write on lined paper, in all capital letters, very slowly. This is so that I don't get ahead of myself--in fact, I try to only think about the sentence that I am writing that very second.

Then, a couple of days later I take my computer out and type up everything that I've written, and do a very small first revision. I try not to make huge changes, but just tweak some things or add some minute description. This is the part that I dislike the most, the point that feel so time-consuming. But after 4 years of writing this way, I am 100% convinced that it is actually the fastest way to write. (Slow and steady wins the race, anyone?)

So this week I'm just taking it slow and working on the scenes that need some help in my thesis. I think I'll have about 12 more pages to write by Monday, but I'm not too worried--actually, I'm pretty excited because 12 more pages would put my total word count over 100 pages!

Happy (slow) writing,

L. Stacks

The Countdown Begins!

So it's been almost a year since this post, and finally it's almost time for my poems to come out in Naomi Shihab Nye's anthology Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25. The book will be released later this month: on Tuesday, February 23rd!

Each of the 25 poets represented in this anthology is represented by 4 poems, a short bio and a picture. My poems include "Rain, Snow, and Other Weather," "Macaroni Love," "Evolution of a Writer," and "Please Stop Sending."

The back of the anthology reads:

They are inspiring talented stunning remarkable wise

They are also fearless depressed hilarious impatient in love out of love pissed off

And they want you to let them in.

To support me and 24 other young poets, pre-order it here!

L. Stacks