Marie Gauthier

Many thanks to Karen for the Memetastic Award (which I keep reading as the Metatastic Award, but nevermind) and the sweet and generous things she said about me and my blog. This is just the sort of thing I’m terrible at — I never met a chain letter I didn’t break, never confronted a set of rules I didn’t feel compelled to vary — but nominating 5 more bloggers is the easy part, though it’s not exactly easy to limit myself to 5. In no particular order:

1. Emma Bolden: She writes really long posts on topics as divergent as poetry & pedagogy & play-doh, and includes such awesome visual aids as stick-figure chalkboard drawings and “pirate vs. ninja” — go, now.
2. Carolee Sherwood: Her struggles for balance between art & family, rough drafts of poems, book reviews — Carolee is open about it all, a bright light showing the way.
3. Jeannine Hall Gailey: Health challenges, various moves initiated by forementioned health challenges, employment travails, all while maintaining an active (& fruitful! new book due this summer!) creative life. Pluck, thy name is Jeannine. Where else can you go to get a shot of Buffy with your poetry?
4. January Gill O’Neil: Poet mom of two, MassPoetry committee member, January took the question of how to market yourself as a poet from taboo to front & center. Her packed schedule shows she knows what she’s talking about!
5. Amy Dryansky: Her blog’s title says it all: “Pokey  Mama — Poet. Mother. Worker. Member of the slow-parenting movement.” The out-of-order chronicles of how one poet birthed a book and babies, and what happened next. Among other things.

Some of my other favorite blogs have already been nominated elsewhere. Thanks to all of you for expanding my universe and providing endless hours of reading pleasure.

The next part of the requirements is for me to tell you 5 things about myself, only 1 of which is true. Instead I’ll tell you 4 truths and 1 lie. Which is the falsehood?:

1. My tenth grade teacher called me the Emily Dickinson of our class. When I showed him my next poem, he took a friend aside to inquire about my mental health. I laughed. “Poetic license, dude!”
2. While working during the Thanksgiving weekend as the manager of a mall store in my early 20’s, I gave directions to one of my favorite soap opera stars. I didn’t act weirdly or ask for his autograph, just smiled big so he’d know I knew, see how cool I am?
3. I have a heart-shaped uterus. Is that TMI?
4. My twin brother was born 4 minutes before me. My mother didn’t know she was having twins until after he was born. “Whoops! Guess what…!”
5. I haven’t written a new poem since December.

I’ll tell you the One False Thing in a few days. To add even more fun: The first person who guesses which is the LIE in the comments gets a free somethingorother. So have at it. AMENDMENT: only one guess per reader, but every reader who guesses correctly will get a treat. Why be unnecessarily limiting?

For those I’ve nominated, in hopes you’ll have fun with this: The rules: 1. link back to the blogger who awarded you. 2. Display the graphic from the award creator. 3. Post five facts, four of which must be lies and 4. Pass the award to five other bloggers who should follow these rules.