AWP-Minneapolis
Forty-something hours in Minneapolis. So much to say. I want to tell you about the panels I attended. I want to tell you about the friends I caught up with and the amazing projects they have in the works. I want to tell you about the people I met “in real life” for the first time. I want to tell you about the Bookfair and my purchases and the (tote-)bagful of items I hauled home.
A Passover Poem (and Its Postscript)
Above, you’ll see a poem that was published for the first time three years ago. The current Passover holiday has inspired me to add a postscript, which you can read over on my other blog.
Poetry Month Prompts & Poems
A New Month, A New Newsletter, and New Hopes for My Poetry Practice
In case you haven’t yet seen it, the April issue of The Practicing Writer is now available.
Along with the usual hefty serving of no-fee contest listings and calls from paying publishers/litmags, you’ll find within the issue a brief item in which I describe my hopes for giving my poetry practice a kick-start this month and a few links to resources I’m counting on to help in that endeavor: the 2015 Poetic Asides PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge; the Poetry Super Highway Prompt-A-Day for National Poetry Month; and NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). (more…)
Oh, what a busy time it has been!
A Book is Born
It’s a BIG week for all of us at Fig Tree Books. Yesterday was the official publication date for our first title, a novel by Alan Cheuse titled Prayers for the Living. (Let’s just say that I spent a lot more of my weekend time working for the “day job” this past Saturday/Sunday than I normally do! But I certainly wasn’t alone in putting forth some extra pre-publication efforts.)
If you’re in Brooklyn or Washington, you can attend readings that Alan will be giving this week at BookCourt and Politics and Prose, respectively. Details on the Fig Tree Books website. Oh, and there’s a new issue of the Fig Tree Books newsletter available, too. (more…)
A Lovely Lunch Chez Lilith
One of this past week’s highlights was my lunch last Thursday at the Lilith magazine offices. At the invitation of Editor-in-Chief Susan Weidman Schneider, I stopped by the book-filled space and, over some delicious food (including super-yummy mini-hamantaschen pastries for the Purim holiday), chatted with Susan and Managing Editor Naomi Danis.
Part of our discussion focused on Fig Tree Books (I’d brought along a galley of Jessamyn Hope’s Safekeeping), and some exciting possibilities for collaboration between Fig Tree and Lilith. Susan and Naomi also expressed a great deal of interest in my own writing, which I appreciated. Lilith occupies a fond place in my heart, since it was one of the first venues to publish a short story of mine—and the most recent to publish, on its blog, one of my poems.
Plus, I left lunch with a gift! Check out my nifty new tote bag! (more…)