[Jeff Holt]

I know I only pop in here once every few months or so, but at least I don't feel so badly about that now as I talk to a number of you on Facebook. FB is much simpler to keep up with for a full time case manager/full time father/part time poet!

I have a couple of publications to share, the first of which is quite bizarre to me, and therefore merits a story. In early 2011, I received a request from a Dr. McDermott in Jamaica to reprint "The Stalker's Villanelle" in a textbook for secondary school children. At first I thought it might be a scam, but as there was no money or even personal information involved, I just agreed. About 2 months ago I received an email from the professor asking for my address so that he could Fed Ex my copy of the textbook, "CAPE Literatures in English Poetry Module." I gave him the address, received the book, and was a little overwhelmed to find a chapter devoted exclusively to villanelles, with Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" compared with "The Stalker's Villanelle!" I looked up CAPE, and it turns out that it is the official "achievement" test students must pass in the West Caribbean in order to move on to higher education; I suppose our parallel would be the SAT. Anyway, sorry for going on about this--the experience was simply the most unusual one I have had in publishing.

The other news is that I have just sent the corrected proofs back for my chapbook, "The Harvest," which will be coming out from White Violet Press in April or May--definitely before the West Chester conference. The cover and the layout are very attractive--Karen Kelsay-Davies always does great work!

Jeff