Me with daughter Ava in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (Camera's wrong on the date, it's 2009)
After graduating from the University of Washington I bumbled around in various construction jobs, lived on Whidbey Island, then took an all-too-short trip to Australia and Western Samoa. On return I settled in Seattle, and played bass in a band for a year and a half. We did originals, had a sound between Lou Reed and The Violent Femmes, scored a couple good gigs (OK Hotel, The Tractor, The Crocodile Cafe…), a full-page writeup in The Stranger (We knew somebody), and airplay on KCMU-now KEXP (At least twice, we also knew somebody). Dozens of people came to our shows, some we didn’t even know, and eventually we worked our way up to beer tickets and $. Nevertheless, this trivial cash infusion mitigated but did not eliminate alcohol expenditures. But we had reason to believe in “someday.” The future looked great…
Band members: Matt Setter, now with Gravy and the Biscuit Rollers, Doug Siepp, now with Screwcap, Tom Crowley, now in Colorado married with children, Layne Maheu, now Writing About Crows… (Visit Layne at The Crow Zone and find out more about his novel, Song of the Crow, published by Unbridled Books)…and, after Tom went to Guam, Matt’s brother Chris, of Tilted Blue and also Screwcap fame.
…Unfortunately, certain girlfriends had hissy fits. Mine said ‘The-band-or-me.’ I chose…THE BAND! Alas, Layne chose…the girl. So we had a temporary hiatus that ended up being forever. Layne married; I joined Tom and bought a ticket to Guam. On a layover in South Korea I found a job teaching English, got kicked out for not having the correct paperwork, and ended up in Guam anyway while I waited for a work visa. This led to travel to over forty countries, and work in Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Taiwan, Thailand, and The United Arab Emirates. See my book: The World Is a Class.
September, 2009. Coupeville, WA.
Supermom!
While home for a couple months, though, I met my lovely wife, Terry. We fell in love, and now I’m a domesticated parent mainly caring for the kids, and writing when I can squeeze in the time.
Along with the guide for would-be ESL teachers, I write for ESL Focus. Yellow Cat Publishing published Chinoku, my Chinese puzzle book based on Sudoku. Literary work of mine is forthcoming or in various places, including 322 Review, The Ampersand Review, The Baltimore Review, The Blue Lake Review, The Chiron Review, The Collagist, Conceit Magazine, Dark Sky Magazine, decomP, descant, Drunken Boat, elimae, The Evergreen Review, flashquake, Fourth Genre, Gulf Coast, Hayden’s Ferry Review, LITnIMAGE, The Los Angeles Review, Meridian, Mobius: A Journal of Social Change, The Monarch Review, Monkeybicycle, Owen Wister Review, The Pedestal Magazine, Post Road, Prick of the Spindle, Reed Magazine, The Rio Grande Review, Rose and Thorn Journal, Sein und Werden, Sloth Jockey, SNReview, The Southeast Review, The Texas Review, Umbrella Journal, Word Riot, Yankee Pot Roast, and Zyzzyva. I also have written reviews, essays, and interviews at Bookslut, dooneyscafe.com, HTML Giant, The Millions, The Nervous Breakdown, The Quarterly Conversation, The Rumpus, and humor at the parent zine errant parent and fathermucker: the blog. For more info visit Caleb Powell’s Page.
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