Allyson Whipple

Category: texas

  • The Best of It: Songs About Moving Edition

    I kinda like it in my brand new place
    1. Jewel, “You Were Meant for Me“
    2. The theme song to The Jeffersons
    3. The Chicks, “Wide Open Spaces“
    4. The Mountain Goats, “Genesis 3:23“
    5. The Muppets, “Movin’ Right Along“

  • Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review is Expanding Our Leadership Team

    Cover art from issue 52: Los dias oscuros 99 by Octavio Quintanilla

    One of my (many) passion projects is serving on the board of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. It’s been an honor to help keep an independent print journal going during increasingly challenging times.

    Borderlands is currently going through a leadership transition. This fall, the board realized that we needed to split our volunteer Administrative Director position into three roles. The work was just too much for one person, especially with their work considered an in-kind donation to the organization. To that end, we split the role into three: Administrative Director, Development Director, and Production Director.

    We are looking for people interested in serving Borderlands in a volunteer capacity to help us continue to thrive. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and we have been going strong since 1992 largely with the help of committed community members.

    You can find descriptions of all three positions here. Submissions are open until February 15th, 2021. To apply, please send a resume to allyson@allysonwhipple.com (you can address your email to the Board as a whole.)

    Please also feel free to pass this information on to anyone you think would be interested! Even if these roles aren’t right for you, spreading the word is a huge help. One of the best things you can do is help the right people for the job find us!

    (And of course, if you’re looking for other ways to help, you can always make a tax-deductible donation through our website. It’s never too soon to work on that 2021 tax deduction.)

  • The Best of It: Back Home Edition

    Dog is my co-pilot
    1. Not having to make the drive back to Texas by myself.
    2. No tire pressure issues the entire trip!
    3. Waking up to a thunderstorm this morning.
    4. Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mixtape
    5. Cherry sours from Buc-ee’s

  • The Best of It: It’s Hot in Texas Edition

    Currently reading
    1. Revisiting Adrienne Rich for the first time since… high school, I think. Wow. I can’t believe it’s been that long!
    2. Being caught up on grading.
    3. Astrid is so good about taking her incontinence medication.
    4. That there are many recipes for DIY pill pockets. (They’re so expensive!)
    5. Air conditioning

  • The Best of It: Quick List Before Teaching Edition

    My mystery bag from BookWoman!
    1. My mystery bag from BookWoman was filled with some great poetry and poetry-inspired treasures.
    2. I managed to wax my legs at home without too much trouble.
    3. Fiona Apple’s new album is amazing.
    4. Spotify showing me that two of my other friends are listening to Fiona Apple’s new album at the same time that I am. (Okay, that’s also maybe a little creepy. But in quarantine, also comforting.)
    5. I managed to get everything I needed at just one grocery store this week.

  • Birdathon: American Coot

    American Coots

    Not everything that floats
    is a duck. Or contains
    the mythic beauty
    of a swan. Or honks
    a song all the way
    across a continent.
    Or inspires philosophy
    and odes. We squeak
    and clack, white beaks
    stark against the black.
    Not everything that flies
    does so with grace.
    We can race
    into the sky, but our wings
    strain against the air.
    Not everything made
    of meat is edible.
    Not every game
    is worth the chase.
    We thrive on indifference.
    Not every water bird
    waddles. Watch us dig
    our toes deep into the sand,
    watch us root
    ourselves to the world.

    From April 1st until May 15th I’m taking part in Birdathon, a challenge I’m undertaking as as member of Travis County Audubon to raise money in support of local birds and their habitat. My goal is to raise $500, and I’m 35% of the way there! If you’d like to contribute to my campaign, visit my donation page.

  • A Spider Summer, Continued

    About two weeks ago, I woke up to find an egg sac attached to my bedroom window. I was amazed. I’d never seen one up close before, and now here it was. I’m happy that the spider finds my house safe enough. The abundance of wasps, bees, mosquitoes, and chiggers probably helps.

    img_2196

    But wait! There’s more!

    Yesterday as Simon and I were coming back from our walk, I saw another egg sac attached to the side of the house. I hadn’t realized that spiders would create multiple sacs in a season. The thought occurred to me that it might be from another spider, but this second sac is close to her web. And Arigope are pretty noticeable. I think I’d have seen a second spider.

    I’m just amazed she’s thriving enough to lay a second set of eggs.

    Apparently Arigope aurantia is also known as the Writing Spider, because of the zippers they weave into their webs. I’m quite happy to have a writing spider hanging out with me.

    img_2445Yesterday there was also an amazing double zipper on the web. I didn’t know that happened, either!

     

  • A Spider Summer

    A black-and-yellow garden spider set up shop outside my bedroom window last month. While she might look scary, she’s in fact harmless to humans. I’ve enjoyed watching her weave her web in the morning. It’s also quite a show to see her kill and wrap up a bee or cricket when it flies into her nest. And the process of watching her eat her prey is fascinating.

    I’ve taken quite a few videos of her this summer. If you’re not arachnophobic, check them out! And even if you are, just watch. You might discover there’s nothing to be afraid of.

     

  • AFPF On Hiatus for 2015

    I mentioned this over at the official Austin Feminist Poetry Festival blog a few weeks ago, but I’ve decided to take a hiatus from the festival this year. The past two years were incredible! However, I’ve just finished a two-year term on the Austin Poetry Society board and I’ve spent the first few months of the year giving a lot of attention to the Texas Poetry Calendar. I’m at the point where I need a break. Plus, since I’m starting my MFA in the fall, I need to focus on my studies–and running a fall festival is not entirely conducive to that!

    I also want to restructure the festival, and get it more in line with my larger vision. That requires time. So I’m going to take this year to figure out how I want things to develop.

    I do have some smaller events in the works for later this year, so stay tuned…

  • A Year in Readings

    Being bawdy at Austin Writers Roulette in February 2015
    Being bawdy at Austin Writers Roulette in February 2015

    At last year’s Poetry at Round Top festival, which was also the weekend of my 30th birthday, I gave myself a challenge: to do at least one reading a month before I turned 31. I was going to read in public at least once a month, either at an open mic or as a feature. It didn’t matter if it was one poem or several. I was just going to get up and get out there. That meant 12 performances of one kind or another in my 30th year.

    At the Georgetown Poetry Festival
    At the Georgetown Poetry Festival

    As it turns out, doing one reading every single month was quite challenging, and some months I didn’t read at all… But I not only met my goal, I surpassed it! In November, for example, I was too busy training for my black belt test to schedule anything. And while there are poetry readings and open mics just about every week in Austin, some months, I couldn’t get anything that meshed with my work schedule. But there were other months full of abundance. December was particularly active; I read four times!

    I ended up reading 16 times. 13 of those times were in Austin, one was in Georgetown, one was in Fort Worth, and one in Waco. This year my schedule was just too heavy for me to get to San Antonio or Houston again. I can’t believe I haven’t read in either of those cities in over a year!

    Now that this challenge has been met, I plan to keep it up. Reading 12 times in a year was tough at times, but overall doable. Now I’m just trying to figure out what the literary challenge will be for Year 31!