(no subject)

[aslant]

i won $10,000 today. from poetry.com. i'm kind of in shock.

the editor called me a few minutes ago and oh. it's real. this is the third time this has happened to me.

.

Comments

[citricbaba.livejournal.com]

holy mother of.
congratulations isn't sufficient but it's all i can think to say at this time.
that and DUDE.
wow.

[autumnsweater.livejournal.com]

oh my gosh!
that is very exciting indeed.
!!!

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

heh. thanks!
i've got a smile a million miles wide today, that's for sure.

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

:) yes. buckets of !!!!! all over.

[stark.livejournal.com]

lucky! what was the winning poem?

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

if you follow the link and click on my name (jesse castaldi) it has the poem there :)

[nevers.livejournal.com]

wow jesse! that's fantastic. have you gotten the money from the first two times?

anyway, congrats :)

In passing...

[licoricelaces.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, three times.

[mordicai.livejournal.com]

okay, first: rock.

second.
i am signing the fuck up.

[lonelypainter.livejournal.com]

wow!

congratulations to you. :)

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i was handed a $5000 check at the awards ceremony at smith graduation (ivy day) for the rosemary-something-or-other graduate prize scholarship.

i was mailed a $1000 check over a month after the editor called me last spring when i won.


thanks :)

Re: In passing...

[aslant.livejournal.com]

thanks :)

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

yo, you better. the other assholes on that site can't write for shit. these people are asking to be exploited.

thanks

[aslant.livejournal.com]

:)

Re:

[nevers.livejournal.com]

wow. $10,000 now! i'm so happy for you!

[ex-uniformgr301.livejournal.com]

ah i'd kill for that. it'd solve so much.

congratulations, jesse. i knew you could do it.

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

thanks :)

& i know. part of me hates telling anyone, because i see on their faces that 'this is unfair' expression, or the 'why not me' expression, or the 'what would i do with that much money' look.

Re:

[ex-uniformgr301.livejournal.com]

i don't think it's unfair. how can it be unfair when i didn't enter? :P

but it makes me think, MAYBE I SHOULD!! :)

but again, many congratulations. any idea of what you'll do with the money?

[thistle.livejournal.com]

i saved one of your poems once, i printed it out.

that one up there is fucking good.
congrats.

[paperhouse.livejournal.com]

whee. good for you. :)
i was suspicious of those people. but its nice to know that its actually paying off, especially to someone with good talent. i hope this gives you the confidence to write more.


(also, sigh- about your brother's car accident.
i'm glad it wasn't worse. i know how these things can get one pretty shaken up.
xo.)

!!!

[glimmerkirk.livejournal.com]

OMG!

(i'm calling you when you get back from lunch(

how wonderful!!! (you're brilliant, love!(

xxoo

hmm...

[aslant.livejournal.com]

undecided about where i'll spend it, mostly. although current options:

1. import a certain texan to boston.
2. pay off old imac loan.
3. a trip to italy?
4. a spring wardrobe.
5. a writing desk.
6. invest $1000 in an IRA.
7. put $3000-$4000 in a money market account.
8. a laptop?
9. a cellphone?

i dunno. what i really really really want to do is pay off our backlog of utilities bills, which come to around $500. that's my immediate concern.

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

i am totally suspicious. poetry.com is 100% scam. but hey, they really do have money to give away. i say let the exploitation continue!



(and thanks - i'm so unsure about the accident. is it a bad scary thing? is it a fabulous thing that he didn't get hurt? it's too many things at once right now to even go beyond the initial images of it in my brain...)

Re: hmm...

[ex-uniformgr301.livejournal.com]

i like your options. hell, if it were me, i'd book a ticket to australia toute suite, throw the rest of it in the bank, and head over and double my money.

it's strange what missing will make you do.

! but hey. you'll have to let me know how everything goes.

how are you, by the way? i miss talking to you.

Re: hmm...

[aslant.livejournal.com]

dude i went looking around & a business-class (not even first-class) ticket to australia from the east coast is approximately $10,000. no joke. australia is on my mind, too; i could save up & go visit the divine miss heidi & go to v's wedding. & you're right. my money would be worth a lot more down yonder. i guess it is mainly the 2.5 days in an airplane to get there that kind of throw me off.

italy, on the other hand, is a totally real prospect. i could go now while there's no tourists, and bask in a dark & rainy deserted florence piazza...ahhh....

i am well, otherwise. lots of upsanddowns these last 48 hours. brain chemicals somewhat awry. doing good, though, pretty good.

Re: !!!

[aslant.livejournal.com]

!

i'm back from lunch! but i called yr cell & it's not going through! argh!

xox.

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

oh, wow. thank you, i'm honored.
i'm glad you like the winning one. i'm pretty fond of it, too :)

Re: hmm...

[ex-uniformgr301.livejournal.com]

that's ridiculous? hah. cheaptickets.com you can get one for 1,500. i've never heard of anything so preposterous. and i probably spelled that wrong, but i haven't even gone to sleep from last night yet, so. right.

i just got deja vu.

heh. visiting miss heidi would be nice. but i think if you went to australia? you should wait until at least december, so we could all meet up in australia and it would be so weird! hah.

you deserve a trip, jess. do it.

p.s. it's not 2.5 days, really. the flight is about 30 hours in all. you just lose 2 days because of time change. the flight over is a cinch, i hear. this is what catherine tells me, she just got back.

[verloren.livejournal.com]

congratulations...though you write beautifully and i'm not surprised...
though i am surprised that they really do pay (whoa)...

Re: hmm...

[aslant.livejournal.com]

it was business class, not economy class. hmm. i put in dates that were less than a month from now, that's probably why it was even more spendy. but anyway. & pssh, i know it's not really 2.5 days long. i'm a veteran time-zoner, yo :)

Re: hmm...

[ex-uniformgr301.livejournal.com]

heee. yesyes, i'd forgotten!!!

in any case, i do think you should do it. yep. i sure do.

[ricecricket.livejournal.com]

holy sweet mother of jesu!

[translucent.livejournal.com]

! yes.

[souvenant.livejournal.com]

[ bloody hell, i am utterly speechless. i'm sitting in one of the libraries at uni as i write this, and when i read that i gasped and several people looked at me very strangely! ha.

that is beyond amazing, j, and moreover, it is absolutely deserved. you are a truly wonderful writer whose work i sit in awe of, sincerely.

i love you, and congratulations. oh my. ]

xo.

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

thank you :)

although part of me still feels guilty winning so much money when so many writers struggle for so long with zero reward. it is a loophole, a scam, something i managed to exploit. but then i also have no guilt. why not me? struggle is so relative, so subjective.

whether or not my actual talent merits money is a separate issue from the main one i worry about - whether i will be smart enough to manage such a large prize without squandering it. i do not want to look back later & ask myself why i did not do something smarter with it. luckily i have over a month to plan...

xo.

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

:)

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

it is so, so crazy. i wish i could bottle this feeling & sell it.

[souvenant.livejournal.com]

[ it is neither a loophole nor a scam, let alone something you "exploited" -- you are a talented writer. you entered a poem of your own, and you won. (as you bloody well deserved to!) if you had ripped off somebody else's work then, yes, you might be able to claim having exploited them, but in no way have you done any such thing. you are right that struggle is relative, subjective, but that does not make your abilities, your success, any less justified. (and i know, i do, that you have struggled).

i believe you will put your money to good, sensible use. but, as i said earlier, you deserve to squander some -- you deserve to treat yourself. ]

xo.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

hey jesse-
i'm taking (well, probably dropping) a class on italian autobiogrpahy, and dolores prato is on the syllabus and my prof said, there in one copy in all the libraries in america, and that is at smith college, because a student there studied it. and i thought, jesse! yay!!
it made me happy :)

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

!!!!!
holy crap. that is so cool. oh dolores. i love her so so so much. i bet he is referring to her shorter autobiographical work ('le ore'?). i wonder if your professor has actually seen my thesis in the catalogue? i would be interested to get in contact with the professor...research & criticism of dolores prato's work has exploded in the last few years, and i fear the field is not nearly as unexplored as it was when i was researching. but all the same. yay :)

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[nevers.livejournal.com]

the book is giu la piazza non c'e' nessuno.

she is working on something scholarly right now with prato and some other female author and told us not to share her thoughts or publish papers about them or anything, which i thought was amusing :). she's a really great professor but i don't think i can deal with the course because 20% of the grade is a presentation and 20% is participation and i simply cannot speak italian. but i like her a lot, and she is always interested in other students, it seems ... one girl was talking about her doctoral thesis and my prof was like, ooh, come talk to me about it after class, that sounds interesting.

i could give your her email if you want? i don't know if that would be weird

Re:

[aslant.livejournal.com]

oh!!
they bought my book? when i was there i had to borrow it on inter-library loan from wisconsin or something! wow. (ha ha, 'my' book. well, i feel like it should be mine. i'm probably the only person at smith college who has read it the whole way through. twice. that fucker is like 700 pages long.)

hot

[mcfnord.livejournal.com]

your poem and picture are hot stuff.

Re: hot

[aslant.livejournal.com]

thanks :)