So this is the end...

...and now it's time to say, "Goodbye."

It's over, my friends. The work is finally finished and the readings are now all over.

We made it.

We're done.

Well, I am at least. Handing in these final portfolios is my last endeavor as a student of The College of New Jersey. It's been  a fun ride and I am more than glad to have ended it with the classes that I did.

I would also like to thank Karen Russell for kindly coming to read on my birthday, which was also my last day of classes. Couldn't have been better.

And actually, I was the one who purchased the wolf figures for Karen Russell. She's my kind of lady, and her reading was a delight. She also took questions with poise, even when we got down to business with her. I take pride in my questioning, as well as the follow-up I was able to squeak in.

I do hope that, in my writing future, she and I may meet again...

and that you and I will, too.

Bye now.

This is the part I played.

Within our Writing Communities Public Relations Group, I was the "Coordinator."

COORDINATOR

Preface:
The origin of the Coordinator position arose from the initial thought that Administrator position needed to be split, as there was an excess of responsibility placed on that one person. Following that plan, the Coordinator will take on the more menial work; organizing the archive, keeping the minutes, group checklists, etc.

As time progressed and the responsibilities of the other group members took on minds of their own, the tasks of the Coordinator Position grew as well.

The Archive

The archive is an organized portfolio presenting all of the projects (teasers, excerpts, posters, etc.) that the P.R. Group has put together over the course of the semester. The Coordinator will need to collect and keep track of all the paperwork as it is put out (according to the calendar) to ensure a complete archive.

The Minutes

Keeping the minutes may seem tedious, but whether you like it or not, the weeks do fly by and it is easy to let some of the details fall through the cracks if there is not a record of what is supposed to be happening and when. Meeting times and lengths may vary, but as long as the Coordinator can keep a basic Task List or Group Member Updates under control, everything will be peachy.

Calendars

A new facet added along with the new position, providing a tangible calendar for the entire group that can be used at the first meeting for each writer was quite a success. Sitting down with everyone, physically marking the completion dates of each task became a necessary reality check as to how much prep time was actually available for each event.
So:

Blank Calendars + Group Members Discussing and Marking = Good Time Management

Ordering the Books

This step seems self explanatory, but it’s important. Order the books, and double, NO, triple check that the bookstore has them on time.

The “Lackey” Effect

Being available whenever possible to all of the group members is probably the most important task of the Coordinator. This position is suited well for someone who lives off campus (thus, is not as available for as many on-campus duties), as many of the tasks are more organizational or errand-based. Offering help, especially to the design group with their overabundance of responsibilities, is the MAJOR DUTY of the Coordinator. Which means:
 * Always help with distributing teasers, excerpts, posters, etc.
 * Help with assembling the mementos.
 * Help to “beef” up the blogs, event invites, and Facebook pages.
 * Offer to run errands and/or pick up necessities for the events.
 * Be prepared to assist with all set up and clean up at the events.
 * Bake, Bake, Bake, Bake, Bake, Bake, Bake!

When I don't write like myself...

Who am I writing like?

Sunday School Agnostic
by Rachel Pinkstone


Her star shines like an emblem of certainty against her neck.
It rests in the hollow, six points of direction, not the five I place on top of the tree.

And that is the only place I put it. There’s no place in me for that.

Her star comes with a purpose and a plan; not just a religion, but a life.
While I was pulled from the womb and immersed- cold, wet, clean of my sins,
she was born into a warm cocoon of faith, family and tradition;
a chrysalis that will house her until the day she dies.
Her unmarked body will be buried in the family plot.

I had planned to be spread against the wind--blown far away.

 I pass the synagogue on my afternoon run; the song and the prayers rise out against the murmur of traffic. It hurts to hear the passion and the practice of their tune, 
but I can’t help myself from listening—there’s no song I hear for me.
They say the covenant was made between God and Abraham, that Moses had given them books; that each life has a place and a part in the song.

I can barely recall the last time I even bowed my head to pray.

I wisecrack about the opiate of the masses,
but I’m still just waiting for the drug.

Oh, Lorin, you shouldn't have!

Hey Afternoon New York City Trippers:

Here's what Lorin had to say:

"Dear Rachel, Jess & Co.,

The pleasure was all mine. I'm sorry to been so disorganized, and to have blathered on, and to have so little to offer in the way of practical encouragement. On such a happy day, too! In any case, feel free to get in touch. I'd be happy to meet with any or all again.

Lorin"

This lady seems quite swell!

RACHEL ZUCKER

Rachel Zucker was born in New York City in 1971 and raised in the landscape of Greenwich Village when not traveling around the world with her parents on Wolkstein's folktale-collecting trips (her mother was a folk-story teller and her father, a novelist). After graduating from Yale with a B.A. in Psychology, Zucker attended the University of Iowa where she received her M.F.A in poetry. Zucker has taught at Yale, NYU and Makor. From 2005-2007 she was the poet-in-residence at Fordham University where she taught writing and literature classes to undergraduate and graduate students.

Her works include four books:
Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections, (with Arielle Greenberg). 2008
The Bad Wife Handbook, 2007
The Last Clear Narrative, 2004
Eating in the Underworld, 2003
A Chapbook:
Annunciation, 2002
Contributions to several anthologies of both poetry and prose:
Not for Mothers Only, 2007
Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns, 2007
Legitimate Dangers, 2006
Poetry 30: Thirty-Something Thirty-Something American Poets, 2005
Isn’t It Romantic, 2004
The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries, 2004
Best American Poetry 2001
About What Was Lost: Twenty Writers on Miscarriage, Healing and Hope, 2006
(Not to mention a laundry list of journals to which she has contributed.)
She is currently working on her fourth collection of poems, Museum of Accidents, which will be published by Wave Books in 2009, and a novel for which she provides little information.
_______________________________________________________________________
REVIEWS
"Zucker has the confessionalist's knack for turning personal and difficult into universal and transcendent, and the experimentalist's gift for fearless, associative play. The combination is unsettling and groundbreaking: a vitally necessary book for our age." 
-Arielle Greenberg, author of My Kafka Century
"The poems in The Last Clear Narrative find a path to the unspeakable. By way of a fractured narrative, Rachel Zucker painstakingly documents death and birth, taking us deep into the experiences of that 'stubborn body.' The Last Clear Narrative seeks, and finds, a remarkable language the body can speak." -Elisabeth Frost, author of The Feminist Avant-Garde in American Poetry 
THE MOON HAS A REPUTATION
FOR BEING FICKLE by Rachel Zucker

I read the instructions twice and pee on my hand by mistake.
I wait.
I try again and then, in the 2 minutes 15 seconds it takes to get the first response
I watch Ponch deliver a baby in a trailer the CHiPs pulled over for speeding.
The woman's screaming.
Ponch pours water from a canteen over his hands and kneels between her legs.
Thirty-five seconds later he emerges from the trailer, pulls on black leather
riding gloves, there's no blood, and
one pink bar
on the plastic view screen.

I think I may have been Channeling Stewey Griffin.

Carpet
by Rachel Pinkstone

I can see it in front of me: yellow and mocking. I don’t remember leaving it there.
But it’s there.
The carpet itches my palms, however, it’s much better than the kitchen: cold and tiled. 
Where is that duck?

Yes, there it is in front of me. Maybe if I rock to the left—no—right. Where is she now?
This time I truly need her.

I don’t remember if she prefers mother or mommy. Mama, get off the phone with Sue.
That duck, further still, in front of me.
No matter where I lurch I only move backwards, just a wiggle with my pampered tush.
Now what it I was looking for?

There he is: orange bill and yellow plumage. Why must you tease from across the room?
Don’t mock me, Duck! 
Mama! MAMA! Can’t you see the 
duck and I belong together?

Thank you very much, Lorin Stein.

So after our wayward trip to New York on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, it was my job to thank the dear editor, Lorin Stein, from Farrar, Straus & Giroux:

"Dear Lorin Stein, 

Thank you for taking the time to discuss the “ins and outs” of the publishing business with our eager group of upstarts this past Wednesday. When recalling the experience with the other members of the assemblage, it was noted that we all took away a great deal of information and a stronger sense of the reality of both the publishing and writing world.

I, personally, appreciated that you took so much time to acquaint us with your newest project, Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, as well as the effort and pride that you take in all of your endeavors. I can guarantee you that each of us thoroughly enjoyed your company as well and your expertise in the area of writing communities. 

We hope to see such integrity in our own work and possibly another chance in the future to take up a little more of your time. Again, thank you for your consideration. 

Sincerely, 


Rachel Pinkstone and Jess Row’s Writing Communities members."