It is extremely hard for me to ask favors of people. I’m not talking about the “Hey, Chris, can you please replace the toilet paper?” kind of favor. I mean the kind where I ask someone to do something for me that requires a considerable investment in his or her time or energy (even when the person is my friend and probably wouldn’t say no). Or, that has anything to do with reading my writing who isn’t the DYPS. My hang-up is that I never want to inconvenience anyone. It’s actually quite paralyzing sometimes.
All of this is by way of saying, a few weeks ago, when I was lamenting to Karen that I don’t personally know any awesome poets (who aren’t my good friends or former professors) to blurb my book, she suggested Marilyn Kallet and Julie Kane–both of whom are poets I admire, but neither of whom I know.
I was being my usual leery, bleah-y, doubting self, sure that they would be a) too busy, b) too annoyed to be asked by a stranger to do such a favor, and c) too unimpressed by what they read to blurb it. But Karen, ever patient, said she didn’t think that was the case, and she reminded me that I had worked as the editorial assistant on Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird: Critical and Creative Responses to Everette Maddox, that Julie Kane and Grace Bauer (my diss. director) had edited, so maybe Julie would be more inclined to blurb my chapbook. And I think she suggested Marilyn because she knew that Marilyn would blurb my book as a favor to Karen, since they are friends.
So, the long and short of it is, I asked both of them, and they said yes! So now I’m just awaiting their kind words… (I hope they will be kind…)
JC Reilly: Poeta Venum 