S as in Sam, Z as in Zebra

Dear Friends,

It's been a while since I've sent an update about my activities. Right now I am wrapping up a thirty-day Bikram Yoga challenge. For those of you who know me well, you know I am no fan of heat and humidity, but the thirty-day Bikram Yoga challenge has been great; I recommend it!

Part of why I've been able to take the time to do this thirty-day Bikram challenge is that I have a fellowship to write my dissertation next year. The University of Maryland's College of Arts and Humanities awarded me a year-long Snouffer fellowship, so I'll be blissfully writing away all day, everyday next year and hopefully graduating in the spring. The yoga practice is kicking off my year of focus and discipline for writing and thinking about lesbian print culture.

New Book: Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry

I had the great pleasure of working with Lawrence Schimel, the publisher of A Midsummer Night's Press, on the anthology Milk and Honey. With contributions from a range of Jewish lesbian poets, Milk and Honey is a beautiful and, I hope, meaningful book. In his pre-publication review, Amos Lassen wrote about Milk and Honey, "The poems are sensual, political, religious and what have you as each poet probes her inner self and allows us to have a peek at who she is. Some of the poetry is sensitive and tender while others are strong and angry so it is safe to say there is something for everyone (even for me as a gay Jewish male)."

Milk and Honey will officially publish in September 2011, but I have a few advance copies available for sale for $14.95, and you can order them directly from the publisher's website here:
http://amidsummernightspress.typepad.com/amsnp/2011/05/milk-and-honey-a-celebration-of-jewish-lesbian-poetry.html
When ordering, let me know if you would like a signed copy.

And if for some reason, you don't have my first collection of poems, Handmade Love, feel free to order the two books together!

New Poems in Beltway

The incomparable Kim Roberts invited poems from me for the spring issue of Beltway. There are two new poems, "A New Refrigerator" and "My Name is Ethyl," in the issue and two poems from my previous collections. You can read my poems in Beltway here:
http://washingtonart.com/beltway/enszer.html
and be sure to browse the full issue and sign up for the Beltway newsletter. Kim publishes great stuff in Beltway.

Review of Sisterhood

I was thrilled to have my chapbook, Sisterhood, reviewed on Lambda Literary. V. Jo Hsu reviewed three recent chapbooks including Sisterhood in a thoughtful and careful review. She says Sisterhood "riffs expertly on a single, heartfelt note" and "captures the strange and protean forms of memory and mourning." Is there any greater pleasure than having one's work read closely and attentively?
You can read the review here:
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/05/12/christina-hutchins-julie-enszer-and-stacey-waite/

If you don't have a copy of Sisterhood, there are still a (very) few left from Ron Mohring's Seven Kitchens Press. Click here to order it:
http://sevenkitchenspress.wordpress.com/our-authors/julie-r-enszer/

I have one one hand that I can inscribe for you if you wish; email me if you'd like to purchase it.

Sinister Wisdom

You may know that I am now the co-editor of Sinister Wisdom with my dear friend and comrade, Merry Gangemi. We just published our second issue of Sinister Wisdom and are working on sending the third one to print now. In case you don't know, Sinister Wisdom is one of the oldest lesbian-feminist journals still publishing in the U.S. Begun in 1976 by Harriet Desmoines and Catherine Nicholson, there have been a variety of editors of the magazine over the last thirty-five years; Sinister Wisdom has published a wide range of lesbian writers. Merry and I are proud to be stewarding this important lesbian literary tradition.

Please support us! If you are a lesbian writer, submit work to the journal. Encourage your local bookseller to carry Sinister Wisdom. Most importantly, subscribe to Sinister Wisdom. You can subscribe online with paypal using the links here:
http://www.sinisterwisdom.org/subscribe.html
Or send in an old fashioned check to the Berkeley address on that same web page. Merry and I both appreciate the community support for Sinister Wisdom and our work as editors

**

That's my early summer wrap up. More will be coming in the fall. I am planning a series of readings for Milk and Honey and working on other projects. Drop me a line and let me know how you are. Thanks for all of your support for my work! I look forward to seeing you soon.

All best,

Julie

P.S. If you would like to be added to my email list, drop me a line to Julie R Enszer (no spaces) at gmail dot com and let me know! Happy Summer!