Friday, April 27, 2012
Chicana writer credits immigrant women with crucial leadership
Raised in a barrio of Phoenix, author Christina López learned about racial bigotry when strangers would tell at her to go back to Mexico -- despite the fact her family has roots in the Southwest that predate U.S. borders. Her mother encouraged her to stand up, be proud of her heritage and always fight for what's right.
Taking these words to heart, López began a lifetime of community organizing. As part of MEChA, a Chicana/o student group, she campaigned against the passage of a racist English-only law in Arizona. In 2005, López became the president of Seattle Radical Women, a socialist feminist organization, where she helped lead the chapter in defense of immigrant rights, union campaigns, and reproductive justice, and in opposition to police brutality, U.S. wars, and budget cuts targeting the most vulnerable. López is currently the U.S. vice-presidential candidate on the Freedom Socialist Party slate. She is also the author of a newly published work on the struggles of immigrant women.
Pairing careful research with personal passion, Estamos en la Lucha: Immigrant Women Light the Fires of Resistance examines the fighting spirit that immigrant women bring to social movements despite formidable barriers.
The 40-page, highly readable pamphlet offers a poignant look at the specific conditions faced by both documented and undocumented immigrant women. It explores the role of xenophobia, economic reliance on immigrants, the military-industrial-prison-border complex, and how female militancy impacts the labor movement.
Estamos en la Lucha also addresses roadblocks to an effective defense of immigrant rights, including what López calls a "go slow, aim low…recipe for limited gains," "dead-end" reliance on the Democratic or Republican parties, and sexism.
López offers concrete examples of women "actively creating dynamic strategies of resistance and solidarity" between Latina/o immigrants, newcomers from other regions of the world, and U.S. residents of all races. According to López, "Immigrant women have the power and need to form a united multi-issue movement to confront xenophobia, violence, labor abuses and free trade."
"Ultimately," says the author, "the issue of immigrant rights is a problem of ethnic, racial and gender justice for the world's most oppressed workers. Foreign-born and native-born workers share a common class interest."
Estamos en la Lucha: Immigrant Women Light the Fires of Resistance can be purchased from RadicalWomen.org or from Amazon.com.
# # #
Estamos en la Lucha: Immigrant Women Light the Fires of Resistance
By Christina López
Publication date: March 30, 2012 * Radical Women Publications * www.RadicalWomen.org
$5.00 * 40 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9725403-9-1
For a review copy or to arrange an interview with Christina López call 206-722-6057 or email RadicalWomenUS@gmail.com.
From: Radical Women, 5018 Rainier Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98118
206-722-6057 * RadicalWomenUS@gmail.com * www.RadicalWomen.org
THE EIGHTH ANNUAL GOLDEN CROWN LITERARY CONFERENCE
JUNE 13-17, 2012 MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA
www.goldencrown.org
Register now to prepare for the upcoming Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) Conference
Lambda Award winning author Jewelle Gomez will be the keynote speaker for the 2012 Eighth Annual GCLS Literary Conference. Gomez is a writer and activist who is also the recipient of a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, two California Arts Council fellowships and an Individual Artist Commission from the San Francisco Arts Commission.
She is the author of the award-winning novel, The Gilda Stories, which has been in print since its publication in 1991 and is taught in classrooms across the country. Her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals, among them: The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, The Village Voice; Ms Magazine, ESSENCE Magazine, The Advocate, and Black Scholar. Anthologies have included Home Girls, Reading Black, Reading Feminist, Swords of the Rainbow, The Best Lesbian Erotica of 1997 and Dark Matter. Her other publications include three collections of poetry-- The Lipstick Papers, Flamingoes and Bears and Oral Tradition. She is also the author of a book of essays called Forty-Three Septembers and a collection of short fiction, Don’t Explain.
Gomez was born and raised in Boston. Her background is Native American, African American and Cape Verdean and her writing has always meaningfully explored ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality.
This year’s conference will offer author panels, seminars/workshops for readers and writers and social events such as pool parties, karaoke night and special activities for new attendees. The final night of the event will be presentation of the Goldies, the annual Golden Crown Literary Awards. Since the first Goldies were awarded in 2005, the categories have expanded from three to twelve. This year, more than three dozen book awards will be given, along with the Trailblazer Award, the Directors’ Award and the Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award.
The Golden Crown Literary Conference is the best opportunity for readers, authors, editors, publishers, aspiring writers, and media to learn about and meet colleagues as they explore lesbian literature. Membership in the GCLS is not required to attend.
For more about the conference, as well as a schedule, please visit the GCLS website at www.goldencrown.org.
Registration is currently underway.
The Mission of the Golden Crown Literary Society
The Golden Crown Literary Society (GCLS) is a literary and educational organization for the enjoyment, discussion, and enhancement of lesbian literature. Our goals are to support and strengthen quality lesbian literature by providing places for readers and writers to interact, to encourage and assist new writers and established authors, and to recognize and promote lesbian work
###
Monday, March 12, 2012
Robin Becker Chapbook Prize Submissions Open
Announcing the Robin Becker Chapbook Prize, awarded annually to two LGBTQ poets. The submission period is currently open until April 16 (since the 15th falls on a Sunday this year). This series began in 2008 with Judith Barrington's Lost Lands; the most recent titles, selected last year by Barrington, are slated for release in March and April: Ellen Goldberg's Each Perfect One and D. Gilson's Catch & Release.
Complete details and guidelines about the Robin Becker Chapbook Series, and all Seven Kitchens Press titles, can be found at the Seven Kitchens Press site: http://sevenkitchenspress.com/series-guidelines/guidelines-the-robin-becker-chapbook-prize/
Ron Mohring does amazing work as a publisher at Seven Kitchens Press. Check out his books (including my chapbook, Sisterhood!) and submit to the contest to support his important work.
Announcing the Robin Becker Chapbook Prize, awarded annually to two LGBTQ poets. The submission period is currently open until April 16 (since the 15th falls on a Sunday this year). This series began in 2008 with Judith Barrington's Lost Lands; the most recent titles, selected last year by Barrington, are slated for release in March and April: Ellen Goldberg's Each Perfect One and D. Gilson's Catch & Release.
Complete details and guidelines about the Robin Becker Chapbook Series, and all Seven Kitchens Press titles, can be found at the Seven Kitchens Press site: http://sevenkitchenspress.com/series-guidelines/guidelines-the-robin-becker-chapbook-prize/
Ron Mohring does amazing work as a publisher at Seven Kitchens Press. Check out his books (including my chapbook, Sisterhood!) and submit to the contest to support his important work.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2012
Just two more days for the advance registration rate for the Split This Rock Poetry Festival!
From the Split This Rock website:
Poetry by and for the 99%!
March 22-25, 2012
Washington, DC
Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness invites poets, writers, activists, and dreamers to Washington, DC for four days of poetry, community building, and creative transformation. The festival features readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, parties, activism—opportunities to speak out for justice, build connection and community, and celebrate the many ways poetry can act as an agent for social change.
As people’s movements ignite here at home and throughout the world in response to economic inequality, political repression, and environmental degradation, the festival will consider the relationship of poets and poetry to power and to the challenges to power. We will also celebrate the life and work of poet-essayist-teacher-activist June Jordan on the 10th anniversary of her death.
Split This Rock calls poets to a greater role in public life and fosters a national network of socially engaged poets. Building the audience for poetry of provocation & witness from our home in the nation’s capital, we celebrate poetic diversity and the transformative power of the imagination. Please join us in March!
I'll be presenting with Eryca Kasse and Bonnie Morris on the collection, Milk & Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, 22 March 2012. You can see the schedule for that day here.
Easily register online here.
Please join us for this panel and all of the great happenings at the festival!
Just two more days for the advance registration rate for the Split This Rock Poetry Festival!
From the Split This Rock website:
Poetry by and for the 99%!
March 22-25, 2012
Washington, DC
Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness invites poets, writers, activists, and dreamers to Washington, DC for four days of poetry, community building, and creative transformation. The festival features readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, parties, activism—opportunities to speak out for justice, build connection and community, and celebrate the many ways poetry can act as an agent for social change.
As people’s movements ignite here at home and throughout the world in response to economic inequality, political repression, and environmental degradation, the festival will consider the relationship of poets and poetry to power and to the challenges to power. We will also celebrate the life and work of poet-essayist-teacher-activist June Jordan on the 10th anniversary of her death.
Split This Rock calls poets to a greater role in public life and fosters a national network of socially engaged poets. Building the audience for poetry of provocation & witness from our home in the nation’s capital, we celebrate poetic diversity and the transformative power of the imagination. Please join us in March!
I'll be presenting with Eryca Kasse and Bonnie Morris on the collection, Milk & Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, 22 March 2012. You can see the schedule for that day here.
Easily register online here.
Please join us for this panel and all of the great happenings at the festival!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Call for Poems for Anthology edited by Megan Volpert and published by Sibling Rivalry Press
Sibling Rivalry Press is seeking submissions for an anthology scheduled for publication in August 2013. This assignment is so gay: LGBTIQ Poets on the Art of Teaching, edited by Megan Volpert, will be the first-ever anthology to feature an international roster of LGBTIQ poets writing about and from the teacher's perspective. Whether elementary or collegiate, public or private, the school is an institutional battleground for representations of queer culture. This book will examine the joyous burden that is the experience of LGBTIQ teachers, an inherently valuable and until now relatively invisible piece of the educational puzzle.
Submit up to five previously unpublished poems.
Poems must engage some aspect of teaching, but need not be explicitly queer-themed.
Author must identify as LGBTIQ.
Submission period is open January 1 through June 1, 2012.
Authors can expect reply by July 1, 2012.
http://www.thisassignmentissogay.com/
Sibling Rivalry Press is seeking submissions for an anthology scheduled for publication in August 2013. This assignment is so gay: LGBTIQ Poets on the Art of Teaching, edited by Megan Volpert, will be the first-ever anthology to feature an international roster of LGBTIQ poets writing about and from the teacher's perspective. Whether elementary or collegiate, public or private, the school is an institutional battleground for representations of queer culture. This book will examine the joyous burden that is the experience of LGBTIQ teachers, an inherently valuable and until now relatively invisible piece of the educational puzzle.
Submit up to five previously unpublished poems.
Poems must engage some aspect of teaching, but need not be explicitly queer-themed.
Author must identify as LGBTIQ.
Submission period is open January 1 through June 1, 2012.
Authors can expect reply by July 1, 2012.
http://www.thisassignmentissogay.com/
Monday, November 14, 2011
Barbara Grier, A Life Of Lesbians and Books
1933-2011
I was at NWSA when I saw an email about Barbara Grier dying. I was in shock for most of the conference and now today it is just slowly sinking in that she has left us. I am deeply saddened.
There is an excellent piece by Victoria Brownworth over at Lambda Literary:
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/rem/11/11/in-remembrance-barbara-grier/
Victoria gives a good overview of Barbara's life and work. Here are some other tidbits:
Jeannette Howard Foster wrote and published Sex-Variant Women in Literature in 1956 which is really the first book that defines a canon of lesbian literature. Foster was a librarian and read three other languages so she included all of those in her review of literature with lesbian themes. (For a delightful biography of Foster, see Joann Passet's book Sex Variant Woman). Grier searched out Foster and the two became good friends. Grier advocated for the republication of Sex-Variant Women in Literature by Diana Press and when Diana Press ceased publishing it, Grier republished it at Naiad Press.
Grier kept all of her notes about books on note cards. There are about 30 linear feet of note cards on lesbian literature at the SFPL. It is mind-blowing to me how organized she was with cataloging lesbian literature.
Grier was also a regular reviewer of books with lesbian themes in them. Many of these reviews were published in The Ladder and she collected them in a book called Lesbiana published in the early 1970s.
Grier could sniff out a lesbian from a book anywhere. Grier wrote about Mary Oliver's first book in 1967 (I think) that it would be sensuous and interesting to lesbians. Oliver didn't formally come out until 2002.
Grier was a prodigious letter writer. She estimated that she wrote 300 letters a week. At a typewriter or by hand. Astonishing.
Grier worked in a variety of jobs - generally so that she could have access to a free long distance telephone line. (Some remember that in the old days, we paid by the minute for long distance phone calls; barbaric, I know). The job that she was especially good at was bill collection. She could whip through her calls, collect the money (she apparently had extraordinarily high collection rates - this is by her account and she does have a bit of braggadocio, so take that for what it is worth), and then make her calls to organize lesbians.
She was a voracious reader and her literary tastes ran the gamut. I don't think it is an understatement to say that Gertrude Stein has popularity among lesbians in part because of Barbara Grier. She published a stand alone edition of Tender Buttons which before that was by and large unavailable to common readers. She also brought out an edition of Renee Vivien's work which sparked the scholarship on lesbians in France between the wars. Literary poetry though in Grier's mind and life was on the same shelf as mystery and romance. In the end, I think Grier's tastes were both profoundly ecumenical and strategically profitable.
She was savagely attacked for selling a serialization of Lesbian Nuns to Penthouse Forum in 1985. Yet, she insisted that she wanted to reach lesbian readers wherever they were, including readers of Penthouse and in fact there are a number of letters to her condemning her for including the serialization in Penthouse from women who said they saw it there because they were subscribers and find it erotically satisfying (my words at the end there, not theirs!)
She was an extraordinarily savvy business woman. She sold books profitably. She recognized by the mid-1980s that lesbians were going to buy movies on VHS and sold those profitably.
In addition to being a savvy business woman, she was extraordinarily principled. Many disagreed with her principles, but they really shine through in all of her work. Lesbians first. Real images of lesbians. Real images of lesbian sexuality. Debate and engagement as a part of community.
I am extraordinarily sad about her death. She was a literary giant. No one quite fills her shoes in the lesbian community right now and I hope that we won't look back and write that Grier was the end of an era because there still is more work to do. I hope that wherever Barbara Grier is tonight she is finding it a place filled with good lesbian books and plenty of time to read them.
1933-2011
I was at NWSA when I saw an email about Barbara Grier dying. I was in shock for most of the conference and now today it is just slowly sinking in that she has left us. I am deeply saddened.
There is an excellent piece by Victoria Brownworth over at Lambda Literary:
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/rem/11/11/in-remembrance-barbara-grier/
Victoria gives a good overview of Barbara's life and work. Here are some other tidbits:
Jeannette Howard Foster wrote and published Sex-Variant Women in Literature in 1956 which is really the first book that defines a canon of lesbian literature. Foster was a librarian and read three other languages so she included all of those in her review of literature with lesbian themes. (For a delightful biography of Foster, see Joann Passet's book Sex Variant Woman). Grier searched out Foster and the two became good friends. Grier advocated for the republication of Sex-Variant Women in Literature by Diana Press and when Diana Press ceased publishing it, Grier republished it at Naiad Press.
Grier kept all of her notes about books on note cards. There are about 30 linear feet of note cards on lesbian literature at the SFPL. It is mind-blowing to me how organized she was with cataloging lesbian literature.
Grier was also a regular reviewer of books with lesbian themes in them. Many of these reviews were published in The Ladder and she collected them in a book called Lesbiana published in the early 1970s.
Grier could sniff out a lesbian from a book anywhere. Grier wrote about Mary Oliver's first book in 1967 (I think) that it would be sensuous and interesting to lesbians. Oliver didn't formally come out until 2002.
Grier was a prodigious letter writer. She estimated that she wrote 300 letters a week. At a typewriter or by hand. Astonishing.
Grier worked in a variety of jobs - generally so that she could have access to a free long distance telephone line. (Some remember that in the old days, we paid by the minute for long distance phone calls; barbaric, I know). The job that she was especially good at was bill collection. She could whip through her calls, collect the money (she apparently had extraordinarily high collection rates - this is by her account and she does have a bit of braggadocio, so take that for what it is worth), and then make her calls to organize lesbians.
She was a voracious reader and her literary tastes ran the gamut. I don't think it is an understatement to say that Gertrude Stein has popularity among lesbians in part because of Barbara Grier. She published a stand alone edition of Tender Buttons which before that was by and large unavailable to common readers. She also brought out an edition of Renee Vivien's work which sparked the scholarship on lesbians in France between the wars. Literary poetry though in Grier's mind and life was on the same shelf as mystery and romance. In the end, I think Grier's tastes were both profoundly ecumenical and strategically profitable.
She was savagely attacked for selling a serialization of Lesbian Nuns to Penthouse Forum in 1985. Yet, she insisted that she wanted to reach lesbian readers wherever they were, including readers of Penthouse and in fact there are a number of letters to her condemning her for including the serialization in Penthouse from women who said they saw it there because they were subscribers and find it erotically satisfying (my words at the end there, not theirs!)
She was an extraordinarily savvy business woman. She sold books profitably. She recognized by the mid-1980s that lesbians were going to buy movies on VHS and sold those profitably.
In addition to being a savvy business woman, she was extraordinarily principled. Many disagreed with her principles, but they really shine through in all of her work. Lesbians first. Real images of lesbians. Real images of lesbian sexuality. Debate and engagement as a part of community.
I am extraordinarily sad about her death. She was a literary giant. No one quite fills her shoes in the lesbian community right now and I hope that we won't look back and write that Grier was the end of an era because there still is more work to do. I hope that wherever Barbara Grier is tonight she is finding it a place filled with good lesbian books and plenty of time to read them.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Lambda Literary Foundation Announces
New Guidelines for Lambda Literary Awards Submissions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 29, 2011
CONTACT: Dr. Judith Markowitz, LLF Co-Chair
(773) 769-9243, jmarkowitz@pobox.com
For its first 20 years, the Lambda Literary Foundation accepted submissions for the Lambda Literary Awards based solely on a book's LGBT subject matter. That policy changed in 2009 to restrict the awards to self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer authors. After two years of implementing the LGBT-only policy, the queer book community remains sharply divided about limiting Lammy nominations to LGBT authors only.
In its review of the LGBT-only policy, the LLF Board of Trustees took into consideration LLF's mission statement
The Lambda Literary Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers.
and core provisions in its Bylaws. The Board also noted that the large majority of finalists and winners of the Lambda Literary Awards have been LGBT authors, but not all of them. There have also been a small number of outstanding books about LGBT lives written by our heterosexual allies.
In addition, the LLF Board solicited opinions from individuals in the LGBT book community, including publishers, authors, important donors, readers, and casual supporters. Those opinions represented both sides of the issue and were, in many cases, intensely held.
After careful consideration of all these factors, the Board crafted a new policy designed to honor excellence in writing about LGBT lives. The new policy has three components:
LGBT authors will be recognized with three awards marking stages of a writer's career: the Betty Berzon Debut Fiction Award (to one gay man and one lesbian), the Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize (to one male-identified and one female-identified author), and the Pioneer Award (to one male-identified and one female-identified individual or group)
Awards for the remaining Lambda Literary Award categories will be based on literary merit and significant content relevant to LGBT lives. These awards will be open to all authors regardless of their sexual identity
All book award judges will be self-identified LGBT
"We fully understand the importance of this issue and the extent to which it has divided our community," said LLF Board Co-Chair, Dr. Judith Markowitz. "Resolving these strongly-held differences was not easy. We worked carefully keeping in mind the best interests of LGBT people, writing, and writers."
She continued, "The policy we've crafted recognizes that those opposing viewpoints are actually contained in LLF's mission. We hope that the result of our deliberations promotes healing and strengthens LGBT writers and literature."
The revised guidelines appear on the LLF website. They are effective immediately in preparation for the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards to be held in New York City in early June 2012.
##
The Lambda Literary Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers. LLF's programs include: the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, and our comprehensive website, www.LambdaLiterary.org. For more information call (213) 568-3570.
New Guidelines for Lambda Literary Awards Submissions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 29, 2011
CONTACT: Dr. Judith Markowitz, LLF Co-Chair
(773) 769-9243, jmarkowitz@pobox.com
For its first 20 years, the Lambda Literary Foundation accepted submissions for the Lambda Literary Awards based solely on a book's LGBT subject matter. That policy changed in 2009 to restrict the awards to self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer authors. After two years of implementing the LGBT-only policy, the queer book community remains sharply divided about limiting Lammy nominations to LGBT authors only.
In its review of the LGBT-only policy, the LLF Board of Trustees took into consideration LLF's mission statement
The Lambda Literary Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers.
and core provisions in its Bylaws. The Board also noted that the large majority of finalists and winners of the Lambda Literary Awards have been LGBT authors, but not all of them. There have also been a small number of outstanding books about LGBT lives written by our heterosexual allies.
In addition, the LLF Board solicited opinions from individuals in the LGBT book community, including publishers, authors, important donors, readers, and casual supporters. Those opinions represented both sides of the issue and were, in many cases, intensely held.
After careful consideration of all these factors, the Board crafted a new policy designed to honor excellence in writing about LGBT lives. The new policy has three components:
LGBT authors will be recognized with three awards marking stages of a writer's career: the Betty Berzon Debut Fiction Award (to one gay man and one lesbian), the Jim Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize (to one male-identified and one female-identified author), and the Pioneer Award (to one male-identified and one female-identified individual or group)
Awards for the remaining Lambda Literary Award categories will be based on literary merit and significant content relevant to LGBT lives. These awards will be open to all authors regardless of their sexual identity
All book award judges will be self-identified LGBT
"We fully understand the importance of this issue and the extent to which it has divided our community," said LLF Board Co-Chair, Dr. Judith Markowitz. "Resolving these strongly-held differences was not easy. We worked carefully keeping in mind the best interests of LGBT people, writing, and writers."
She continued, "The policy we've crafted recognizes that those opposing viewpoints are actually contained in LLF's mission. We hope that the result of our deliberations promotes healing and strengthens LGBT writers and literature."
The revised guidelines appear on the LLF website. They are effective immediately in preparation for the 24th Annual Lambda Literary Awards to be held in New York City in early June 2012.
##
The Lambda Literary Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers. LLF's programs include: the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, and our comprehensive website, www.LambdaLiterary.org. For more information call (213) 568-3570.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Milk and Honey Schedule of Reading Events
Milk and Honey -- A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry! West Coast Book Launch! Join contributors Joan Annsfire, Ellen Bass, and Elana Dykewomon in moving us toward a new year and new inspirations
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 6:30 p.m.
James C. Hormel Center at the San Francisco Public Library
Co-Sponsored by Keshet and the East Bay JCC
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 10:30 p.m. EST
Radio Interview with Lara Zelinsky on BlogTalkRadio
For more information and to tune in, go to: http://blogtalkradio.com/lara-zielinsky
Monday, October 10th, 7:00 p.m.
Reading at Bluestockings
172 Allen
New York, NY
Featuring Joanna Hoffman and Eleanor Levine
All other contributors are invited to join us and read at this event!
Tuesday, October 11th, 6:30 p.m.
Reading at The City College of New York, sponsored by The Simon H. Rifkind Center
160 Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031
Featuring Sandra Tarlin, Hilary Lustick, Rose Fox, and Sima Rabinowitz
Saturday, 12 November 2011 Time TBD
Reading at Charis Books & More in Atlanta, GA
Megan Volpert has graciously coordinated this event which will be held in Atlanta during the National Women's Studies Association Conference. I will be attending and reading with Megan, Lisa Dordal, and Batya Weinbaum. All other contributors are invited to join us for this event.
Sunday, 13 November 2011 Time TBD
Reading at Location TBD in Atlanta, GA
Sunday, 18 December 2011 at 5 p.m.
Sunday Kinds of Love Reading Series
Busboys & Poets
14th & V. Street
Washington, DC
Eryca Kasse and I are the featured readers for half the program; Ahron Taub is the other featured reader.
Reading/Celebration of Milk and Honey at Split This Rock! - March 22-25, 2012
Eryca Kasse secured a reading and celebration for Milk and Honey in conjunction with the 2012 Split This Rock conference, March 22-25. We don't have the time and location yet, but when we do, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, feel free to make plans to join us.
More information about Split This Rock here: http://www.splitthisrock.org/festival2012/festival2012.html
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Photos from Milk and Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry
Reading at The Center in Washington, DC on Saturday 6 August 2011
Margarita Miniovich from Toronto, Ontario, Eryca Kasse from Washington, DC, and Batya Weinbaum from Cleveland, OH
From left to right: Margarita Miniovich, Julie R. Enszer, David Mariner, Eryca Kasse, Jessica Simon, and Batya Weinbaum.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Bikram Yoga and Dissertation Writing
The Bikram Yoga challenge kicked off the next nine months of me focusing on writing and completing my dissertation. While I did the challenge first and foremost for health and exercise reasons, I learned a lot about writing while on the yoga mat and thought that I would share some of these reflections here.
First, Bikram is a highly regimented form of yoga. Thirty-six postures each done two times over the ninety minute class. The same thirty-six postures every class, in the same order. Once I learned the poses, I found the format and repetition comforting. In addition, the instructors deliver what is called a dialogue, telling you exactly what to do every step of the way. You job as a student of Bikram is to shop up and tune into the dialogue. I think that this process parallels writing. My job as a writer is to show up, tune in to what needs to be written, breathe, and stay in the room.
Even though Bikram is a repetitious practice, new things happen on the mat every day. Some days, poses are easier, some days poses that were easy are difficult. I'll never forget the day I had trouble with the opening breathing practice. This is easy, breathe in through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Six counts. In and out. One day, I just couldn't do it. Couldn't get with the pattern, couldn't take long breaths. This happens while writing. Stay with it. The next posture is coming up and this one will end shortly.
Progress is both incremental and happens in leaps and bounds. Some days, I feel as weak and out of shape as I did before Bikram. Other days, I slide into a strong camel pose and thing wow! I am really getting good at this. Some days, while it is still hard to hold the awkward pose, it feels a smidge easier than yesterday. I still can't get out of the one bent legged tree pose. I fall every day. I hope someday to have the strength to come out of it gracefully. Writing is the same way. Some days, things flow and come together. Other days, it's a lot about moving commas around, fixing footnotes, or rereading a passage for the umpteenth time. What is important is that I'm there, putting in the time, on the mat, in front of the computer.
Complaining about things doesn't help. Yes, the room is hot, yes, sometimes teachers keep you in a pose too long or too short. Sometimes there are other things I'd rather be doing. Water doesn't help. Moving the mat or adjusting the towel doesn't help. Being present, tuning into the breath, being still, those things help. Just like at the computer. Checking email? Not helpful. Looking at Facebook? Not helpful. Getting another diet coke? Not helpful. Being present, being still, tuning into the words and the argument, those things help.
In yoga, no one is perfect. We all have good days and bad days. Just like in writing. What is important is the intention. Breathe deeper. Hold the standing bow pose longer. Balance. Stretch. Breathe. Write the next sentence, make the next connection, sharpen the argument a wee bit.
Writing is a practice. Writing big projects is a long practice. Tune in. Spend time on the mat.
The Bikram Yoga challenge kicked off the next nine months of me focusing on writing and completing my dissertation. While I did the challenge first and foremost for health and exercise reasons, I learned a lot about writing while on the yoga mat and thought that I would share some of these reflections here.
First, Bikram is a highly regimented form of yoga. Thirty-six postures each done two times over the ninety minute class. The same thirty-six postures every class, in the same order. Once I learned the poses, I found the format and repetition comforting. In addition, the instructors deliver what is called a dialogue, telling you exactly what to do every step of the way. You job as a student of Bikram is to shop up and tune into the dialogue. I think that this process parallels writing. My job as a writer is to show up, tune in to what needs to be written, breathe, and stay in the room.
Even though Bikram is a repetitious practice, new things happen on the mat every day. Some days, poses are easier, some days poses that were easy are difficult. I'll never forget the day I had trouble with the opening breathing practice. This is easy, breathe in through the nose, exhale through the mouth. Six counts. In and out. One day, I just couldn't do it. Couldn't get with the pattern, couldn't take long breaths. This happens while writing. Stay with it. The next posture is coming up and this one will end shortly.
Progress is both incremental and happens in leaps and bounds. Some days, I feel as weak and out of shape as I did before Bikram. Other days, I slide into a strong camel pose and thing wow! I am really getting good at this. Some days, while it is still hard to hold the awkward pose, it feels a smidge easier than yesterday. I still can't get out of the one bent legged tree pose. I fall every day. I hope someday to have the strength to come out of it gracefully. Writing is the same way. Some days, things flow and come together. Other days, it's a lot about moving commas around, fixing footnotes, or rereading a passage for the umpteenth time. What is important is that I'm there, putting in the time, on the mat, in front of the computer.
Complaining about things doesn't help. Yes, the room is hot, yes, sometimes teachers keep you in a pose too long or too short. Sometimes there are other things I'd rather be doing. Water doesn't help. Moving the mat or adjusting the towel doesn't help. Being present, tuning into the breath, being still, those things help. Just like at the computer. Checking email? Not helpful. Looking at Facebook? Not helpful. Getting another diet coke? Not helpful. Being present, being still, tuning into the words and the argument, those things help.
In yoga, no one is perfect. We all have good days and bad days. Just like in writing. What is important is the intention. Breathe deeper. Hold the standing bow pose longer. Balance. Stretch. Breathe. Write the next sentence, make the next connection, sharpen the argument a wee bit.
Writing is a practice. Writing big projects is a long practice. Tune in. Spend time on the mat.
30-Day Bikram Yoga Challenge
In late June I completed a thirty day Bikram yoga challenge. It was exhilarating. Now before you think I am a crazy exercise person, let me be plain: I'm not. In fact when I started the challenge in late May, my first class of the thirty day challenge was only my third class of Bikram yoga. My previous two classes had been eleven months earlier and twenty-five months earlier. So, I jumped in the deep end with no preparation. The first ten days, I thought I would die in the heat and humidity of the class, or at least when I realized I wasn't going to die, I wanted to die. Yet, I persisted, in large part because I had schedule the classes into my calendar and I am loathe to not fulfill my commitments. Around day eleven, I started enjoying the classes, though my hips and back protested that it wasn't pleasurable. Around day sixteen, I started having orgasms every time I slept. Daytime naps, long nights of sleep. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, it has waned since I have scaled back my practice. So having completed the Bikram yoga 30-day challenge, I have some advice for folks considering it. In short, do it. I loved it and recommend it. I was able to do it because I had the time to devote to the classes. Each class is 90 minutes. Yup, 90 minutes in a 105 degree room at about 40% humidity. The reality is though it takes up about three hours a day by the time you get to the studio and get home ands showered. Sometimes, an extra hour to recuperate, especially at the beginning. For the first ten days, I was exhausted. I can't imagine doing it full time with a stressful job. There are a few other things you'll need besides time and energy to do the challenge:
Washer and dryer. I know people probably do it without home laundry, but it is a lot of laundry with the daily costume and towel. I can't imagine schlepping it all to the laundromat every few days. I did laundry every other day during the challenge.
Good deodorant soap. During the challenge, I used a lot of soap, strong, dry your skin soap. My skin was so soft and moisturizer from all of the sweating that a good deodorant soap in the shower was a blessing.
Water, water, water. Coconut water, vitamin water, tap water. I drank about 96 ounces every day of the challenge.
I feel healthier, happier, stronger, more focused and calmer since my challenge. Now I am trying to do Bikram three times a week and balance it with running and an occasional trip to the gym. Oh, and doing some writing, too!
In late June I completed a thirty day Bikram yoga challenge. It was exhilarating. Now before you think I am a crazy exercise person, let me be plain: I'm not. In fact when I started the challenge in late May, my first class of the thirty day challenge was only my third class of Bikram yoga. My previous two classes had been eleven months earlier and twenty-five months earlier. So, I jumped in the deep end with no preparation. The first ten days, I thought I would die in the heat and humidity of the class, or at least when I realized I wasn't going to die, I wanted to die. Yet, I persisted, in large part because I had schedule the classes into my calendar and I am loathe to not fulfill my commitments. Around day eleven, I started enjoying the classes, though my hips and back protested that it wasn't pleasurable. Around day sixteen, I started having orgasms every time I slept. Daytime naps, long nights of sleep. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, it has waned since I have scaled back my practice. So having completed the Bikram yoga 30-day challenge, I have some advice for folks considering it. In short, do it. I loved it and recommend it. I was able to do it because I had the time to devote to the classes. Each class is 90 minutes. Yup, 90 minutes in a 105 degree room at about 40% humidity. The reality is though it takes up about three hours a day by the time you get to the studio and get home ands showered. Sometimes, an extra hour to recuperate, especially at the beginning. For the first ten days, I was exhausted. I can't imagine doing it full time with a stressful job. There are a few other things you'll need besides time and energy to do the challenge:
Washer and dryer. I know people probably do it without home laundry, but it is a lot of laundry with the daily costume and towel. I can't imagine schlepping it all to the laundromat every few days. I did laundry every other day during the challenge.
Good deodorant soap. During the challenge, I used a lot of soap, strong, dry your skin soap. My skin was so soft and moisturizer from all of the sweating that a good deodorant soap in the shower was a blessing.
Water, water, water. Coconut water, vitamin water, tap water. I drank about 96 ounces every day of the challenge.
I feel healthier, happier, stronger, more focused and calmer since my challenge. Now I am trying to do Bikram three times a week and balance it with running and an occasional trip to the gym. Oh, and doing some writing, too!
Monday, June 20, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Happy Birthday Djuna Barnes!
(From The Writer's Almanac)
It's the birthday of writer Djuna Barnes (books by this author), born near Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York (1892). For many years she lived in the Bohemian world of Greenwich Village and then as an expatriate in Paris, drinking and smoking and having love affairs with men and women alike. She interviewed celebrities, from Florenz Ziegfield to Coco Chanel, and she was friends with James Joyce, Emily Coleman, and Gertrude Stein.
She had a long affair with the sculptor Thelma Wood, who was constantly unfaithful. Barnes' most famous novel, Nightwood (1936), was a modernist novel about the destructive relationship of lovers named Robin and Nora, and she based Robin heavily on Thelma. Nightwood didn't sell well—her first royalty check was for £43. But it got rave reviews from other writers. T.S. Eliot convinced Faber and Faber to publish it, and he said, "It is so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it." Dylan Thomas called it "one of the three great prose books ever written by a woman." William S. Burroughs wrote: "I read Nightwood back in the 1930s and was very taken with it. I consider it one of the great books of the twentieth century. At that time I even tried a few writing experiments, consciously imitating her style. It is an entirely unique style: one sentence, and you know it is Djuna."
Whatever its critical reception, Nightwood didn't make money, and Barnes lived off the support of Peggy Guggenheim, the patron of many writers and artists. She went through a bottle of whiskey a day. As early as 1930 she wrote: "I've gotten cranky and old-maid like — I don't even like to have an animal looking at me, and when I lay a thing down I want to find it exactly where I put it — it's as bad as that!"
So she moved back to New York City and into an apartment in Greenwich Village, 5 Patchin Place , where she lived as a recluse for the last 42 years of her life. In 1971, she agreed to be interviewed by The New York Times. She said, "Years ago I used to see people, I had to, I was a newspaperwoman, among other things. And I used to be rather the life of the party. I was rather gay and silly and bright and all that sort of stuff and wasted a lot of time. I used to be invited by people who said 'Get Djuna for dinner, she's amusing.' So I stopped it." Writers came to pay homage to her, including Bertha Harris and Carson McCullers, but she sent them away. Her neighbor E.E. Cummings used to check on her by yelling out his window. She rarely left her house, and she spent her last 30 years working on a long poem that was found in her apartment when she died in 1982. In 1973, she told her editor Douglas Messerli: "It's terrible to outlive your own generation."
(From The Writer's Almanac)
It's the birthday of writer Djuna Barnes (books by this author), born near Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York (1892). For many years she lived in the Bohemian world of Greenwich Village and then as an expatriate in Paris, drinking and smoking and having love affairs with men and women alike. She interviewed celebrities, from Florenz Ziegfield to Coco Chanel, and she was friends with James Joyce, Emily Coleman, and Gertrude Stein.
She had a long affair with the sculptor Thelma Wood, who was constantly unfaithful. Barnes' most famous novel, Nightwood (1936), was a modernist novel about the destructive relationship of lovers named Robin and Nora, and she based Robin heavily on Thelma. Nightwood didn't sell well—her first royalty check was for £43. But it got rave reviews from other writers. T.S. Eliot convinced Faber and Faber to publish it, and he said, "It is so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it." Dylan Thomas called it "one of the three great prose books ever written by a woman." William S. Burroughs wrote: "I read Nightwood back in the 1930s and was very taken with it. I consider it one of the great books of the twentieth century. At that time I even tried a few writing experiments, consciously imitating her style. It is an entirely unique style: one sentence, and you know it is Djuna."
Whatever its critical reception, Nightwood didn't make money, and Barnes lived off the support of Peggy Guggenheim, the patron of many writers and artists. She went through a bottle of whiskey a day. As early as 1930 she wrote: "I've gotten cranky and old-maid like — I don't even like to have an animal looking at me, and when I lay a thing down I want to find it exactly where I put it — it's as bad as that!"
So she moved back to New York City and into an apartment in Greenwich Village, 5 Patchin Place , where she lived as a recluse for the last 42 years of her life. In 1971, she agreed to be interviewed by The New York Times. She said, "Years ago I used to see people, I had to, I was a newspaperwoman, among other things. And I used to be rather the life of the party. I was rather gay and silly and bright and all that sort of stuff and wasted a lot of time. I used to be invited by people who said 'Get Djuna for dinner, she's amusing.' So I stopped it." Writers came to pay homage to her, including Bertha Harris and Carson McCullers, but she sent them away. Her neighbor E.E. Cummings used to check on her by yelling out his window. She rarely left her house, and she spent her last 30 years working on a long poem that was found in her apartment when she died in 1982. In 1973, she told her editor Douglas Messerli: "It's terrible to outlive your own generation."
Friday, June 10, 2011
May Swenson: The Writer's Almanac
Question
by May Swenson
Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do
when you are fallen
Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt
Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead
How ill it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye
With cloud for shift
how will I hide?
"Question" by May Swenson, from Nature: Poems Old and New. © Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.
Question
by May Swenson
Body my house
my horse my hound
what will I do
when you are fallen
Where will I sleep
How will I ride
What will I hunt
Where can I go
without my mount
all eager and quick
How will I know
in thicket ahead
is danger or treasure
when Body my good
bright dog is dead
How ill it be
to lie in the sky
without roof or door
and wind for an eye
With cloud for shift
how will I hide?
"Question" by May Swenson, from Nature: Poems Old and New. © Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994.
Monday, June 06, 2011
May Sarton Poem: The Writer's Almanac
May Sarton is a favorite poet of mine for a series of long and complex reasons which I am not going to innumerate here. Still read this poem from The Writer's Almanac.
Now I Become Myself
by May Sarton
Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
"Hurry, you will be dead before--"
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
"Now I Become Myself" by May Sarton, from Collected Poems 1930-1993. © W.W. Norton, 1993.
May Sarton is a favorite poet of mine for a series of long and complex reasons which I am not going to innumerate here. Still read this poem from The Writer's Almanac.
Now I Become Myself
by May Sarton
Now I become myself. It's taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people's faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
"Hurry, you will be dead before--"
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!
"Now I Become Myself" by May Sarton, from Collected Poems 1930-1993. © W.W. Norton, 1993.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards Announced in New York
Three-time Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright Edward Albee &
Award-Winning Crime Writer Val McDermid Honored at
23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards
New York, NY -- Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee and Gold Dagger Award-winning crime fiction writer Val McDermid were honored last night at the 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards, in a ceremony at the School of Visual Arts Theater in New York City. Taking place the same week of Book Expo America-the book publishing industry's biggest annual gathering of booksellers, publishers, and others in the industry-the Lambda ceremony brought together over 400 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature.
The ceremony was hosted by comedienne Lea DeLaria who kept the evening light and hilarious with her brand of bawdy humor saying, "I don't know what the [expletive] I'm doing here. You're all smarter than me." Also in attendance were presenters such as Jim McGreevey, Stefanie Powers, and award-winning author, Emma Donoghue.
Awards were presented in twenty-four categories. Among the winners were Eileen Myles's Inferno (A Poet's Novel) which took the top honor in Lesbian Fiction and Adam Haslett's Union Atlantic in Gay Fiction. There were two ties as well, an unusual occurrence for the Awards, in the Lesbian Memoir category as well as in LGBT Studies.
Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally presented the Foundation's Pioneer Award to Edward Albee, saying of the legendary playwright, "He has avoided gay subject matter throughout his career that people wonder if he's gay. Well, I'm here to tell you he is ... I picked him up at a party in 1960." In accepting his honor, Albee remarked "I'm not a gay writer. I'm a writer who happens to be gay."
The other Pioneer Award was given to acclaimed Scottish crime writer Val McDermid who joked that there were no lesbians in the small town she grew up in believing they were "mythical, like mermaids." McDermid went on to thank the writers who came before, such as her award presenter Katherine V. Forrest, saying, "I understand the importance of doors being opened. Other people opened doors for me."
LLF Executive Director, Tony Valenzuela, in his remarks from the stage appealed to the audience to support the literary arts. He said, "If civil rights are another way of saying quality of life, of what makes life meaningful and gives us joy, then writers, publishers, literature, arts, are a key component of civil rights and we have to say that over and over again."
Alex Sánchez, Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults, and Susan Stinson, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award in Fiction, received the Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prizes, and the University of Wisconsin Press received a special Publisher's Service Award.
The Lambda Awards ceremony's glamour quotient reached new highs this year with a stellar roster of presenters from a diverse cross section from the worlds of film, television, theatre, politics, religion, sex, and of course literature. Besides McGreevey and Powers, gracing the stage to bestow awards were transgender photographer Amos Mac, feminist porn actress and director Tristan Taormino, former speech writer for Billy Graham Mel White, Mr. Gay USA Eddie Rabon, and beauty queen Claire Buffie, Miss New York.
Immediately following the awards ceremony, a VIP after-party took place at Chelsea's Cheim & Read, the legendary art gallery that has exhibited Robert Mapplethorpe, Don Barchardy, and Diane Arbus. The performance troop Unitard (Mike Alboof the Underminer, Nora Burns, of the Nellie Olesons, and David Ilku, of the Dueling Bankheads) provided their twisted and sardonic brand of entertainment.
Ceremony Sponsors:
Sponsors of the event include: RÖKK Vodka, Harper Perennial (all at Benefactor level); Kensington Publishing (Patron level); Northwest Press, Barefoot Wine (Mentor level); Cleis Press, Blind Eye Books, Arsenal Pulp Press, Seal Press, Bywater Books, The American Institute of Bisexuality, Rainbow Book Fair (all at Friend level); and FLUX Books (Gift Bag level).
23rd Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners
Lesbian Fiction
Inferno (A Poet's Novel), by Eileen Myles, OR Books
Gay Fiction
Union Atlantic, by Adam Haslett, Doubleday
Lesbian Debut Fiction
Sub Rosa, by Amber Dawn, Arsenal Pulp Press
Gay Debut Fiction
Bob the Book, by David Pratt, Chelsea Station Editions
Lesbian Memoir/Biography (TIE)
Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life, by Barbara Hammer, The Feminist Press
Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures, by Julie Marie Wade, Colgate University Press
Gay Memoir/Biography
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist and Sexual Renegade, by Justin Spring, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Lesbian Mystery
Fever of the Bone, by Val McDermid, HarperCollins
Gay Mystery
Echoes, by David Lennon, Blue Spike Publishing
LGBT Anthology
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, edited by Kate Bornstein & S. Bear Bergman, Seal Press
LGBT Children's/Young Adult
Wildthorn, by Jane Eagland, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
LGBT Drama
Oedipus at Palm Springs, by The Five Lesbian Brothers: Maureen Angelos, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey, and Lisa Kron, Samuel French, Inc.
LGBT Nonfiction
King Kong Theory, by Virginia Despentes, The Feminist Press
LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror
Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories, by Sandra McDonald, Lethe Press
LGBT Studies (TIE)
Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism, by Scott Herring, New York University Press
Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality, by Gayle Salaman, Columbia University Press
Bisexual Fiction
The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet, by Myrlin Hermes, Harper Perennial
Bisexual Nonfiction
Border Sexualities, Border Families in Schools, by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli,Rowman & Littlefield
Transgender Fiction
Holding Still For as Long as Possible, by Zoe Whittall, House of Anansi Press
Transgender Nonfiction
Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community, edited by Noach Dzmura, North Atlantic Books
Lesbian Erotica
Sometimes She Lets Me: Best Butch/Femme Erotica, edited by Tristan Taormino, Cleis Press
Gay Erotica
Teleny and Camille, by Jon Macy, Northwest Press
Lesbian Poetry
The Nights Also, by Anna Swanson, Tightrope Books
Gay Poetry
Pleasure, by Brian Teare, Ahsahta Press
Lesbian Romance
River Walker, by Cate Culpepper, Bold Strokes Books
Gay Romance
Normal Miguel, by Erik Orrantia, Cheyenne Press
PHOTOS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDS
found in link below: Photo credit: Donna Aceto
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambdaliterary/
Start you summer reading by buying the Lammy winner!
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/2011-lambda-literary-award-winners/
23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards Committee Members
Honorary Host Committee
Ann Bannon
Don Bachardy
Bill Clegg
Kate Clinton
Mart Crowley
Michael Cunningham
Stacey D'Erasmo
Jim McGreevey
David Mixner
Ann Patchett
Stefanie Powers
Andrew Tobias
Edmund White
New York Host Committee
David McConnell - Co-Chair
Don Weise - Co-Chair
S. Chris Shirley - Co-Chair
Jamie Brickhouse
J. Brooks
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
Dick Donahue
Jessica Falvo
David Gale
Charles Rice-Gonzalez
Nicholas Nicholson
Heather Aimee O'Neill
Julia Pastore
Lori Perkins
Patrick Ryan
Rakesh Satyal
Liz Scheier
Bob Smith
Jerl Surratt
Linda Villarosa
Paul Whitlatch
About the Lambda Literary Foundation: The Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers. LLF's programs include the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, and our web magazine at www.lambdaliterary.org.
Three-time Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright Edward Albee &
Award-Winning Crime Writer Val McDermid Honored at
23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards
New York, NY -- Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee and Gold Dagger Award-winning crime fiction writer Val McDermid were honored last night at the 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards, in a ceremony at the School of Visual Arts Theater in New York City. Taking place the same week of Book Expo America-the book publishing industry's biggest annual gathering of booksellers, publishers, and others in the industry-the Lambda ceremony brought together over 400 attendees, sponsors, and celebrities to celebrate excellence in LGBT literature.
The ceremony was hosted by comedienne Lea DeLaria who kept the evening light and hilarious with her brand of bawdy humor saying, "I don't know what the [expletive] I'm doing here. You're all smarter than me." Also in attendance were presenters such as Jim McGreevey, Stefanie Powers, and award-winning author, Emma Donoghue.
Awards were presented in twenty-four categories. Among the winners were Eileen Myles's Inferno (A Poet's Novel) which took the top honor in Lesbian Fiction and Adam Haslett's Union Atlantic in Gay Fiction. There were two ties as well, an unusual occurrence for the Awards, in the Lesbian Memoir category as well as in LGBT Studies.
Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally presented the Foundation's Pioneer Award to Edward Albee, saying of the legendary playwright, "He has avoided gay subject matter throughout his career that people wonder if he's gay. Well, I'm here to tell you he is ... I picked him up at a party in 1960." In accepting his honor, Albee remarked "I'm not a gay writer. I'm a writer who happens to be gay."
The other Pioneer Award was given to acclaimed Scottish crime writer Val McDermid who joked that there were no lesbians in the small town she grew up in believing they were "mythical, like mermaids." McDermid went on to thank the writers who came before, such as her award presenter Katherine V. Forrest, saying, "I understand the importance of doors being opened. Other people opened doors for me."
LLF Executive Director, Tony Valenzuela, in his remarks from the stage appealed to the audience to support the literary arts. He said, "If civil rights are another way of saying quality of life, of what makes life meaningful and gives us joy, then writers, publishers, literature, arts, are a key component of civil rights and we have to say that over and over again."
Alex Sánchez, Mexican-American author of award-winning novels for teens and adults, and Susan Stinson, winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award in Fiction, received the Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prizes, and the University of Wisconsin Press received a special Publisher's Service Award.
The Lambda Awards ceremony's glamour quotient reached new highs this year with a stellar roster of presenters from a diverse cross section from the worlds of film, television, theatre, politics, religion, sex, and of course literature. Besides McGreevey and Powers, gracing the stage to bestow awards were transgender photographer Amos Mac, feminist porn actress and director Tristan Taormino, former speech writer for Billy Graham Mel White, Mr. Gay USA Eddie Rabon, and beauty queen Claire Buffie, Miss New York.
Immediately following the awards ceremony, a VIP after-party took place at Chelsea's Cheim & Read, the legendary art gallery that has exhibited Robert Mapplethorpe, Don Barchardy, and Diane Arbus. The performance troop Unitard (Mike Alboof the Underminer, Nora Burns, of the Nellie Olesons, and David Ilku, of the Dueling Bankheads) provided their twisted and sardonic brand of entertainment.
Ceremony Sponsors:
Sponsors of the event include: RÖKK Vodka, Harper Perennial (all at Benefactor level); Kensington Publishing (Patron level); Northwest Press, Barefoot Wine (Mentor level); Cleis Press, Blind Eye Books, Arsenal Pulp Press, Seal Press, Bywater Books, The American Institute of Bisexuality, Rainbow Book Fair (all at Friend level); and FLUX Books (Gift Bag level).
23rd Annual Lambda Literary Award Winners
Lesbian Fiction
Inferno (A Poet's Novel), by Eileen Myles, OR Books
Gay Fiction
Union Atlantic, by Adam Haslett, Doubleday
Lesbian Debut Fiction
Sub Rosa, by Amber Dawn, Arsenal Pulp Press
Gay Debut Fiction
Bob the Book, by David Pratt, Chelsea Station Editions
Lesbian Memoir/Biography (TIE)
Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life, by Barbara Hammer, The Feminist Press
Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures, by Julie Marie Wade, Colgate University Press
Gay Memoir/Biography
Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist and Sexual Renegade, by Justin Spring, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Lesbian Mystery
Fever of the Bone, by Val McDermid, HarperCollins
Gay Mystery
Echoes, by David Lennon, Blue Spike Publishing
LGBT Anthology
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, edited by Kate Bornstein & S. Bear Bergman, Seal Press
LGBT Children's/Young Adult
Wildthorn, by Jane Eagland, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
LGBT Drama
Oedipus at Palm Springs, by The Five Lesbian Brothers: Maureen Angelos, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey, and Lisa Kron, Samuel French, Inc.
LGBT Nonfiction
King Kong Theory, by Virginia Despentes, The Feminist Press
LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror
Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories, by Sandra McDonald, Lethe Press
LGBT Studies (TIE)
Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism, by Scott Herring, New York University Press
Assuming a Body: Transgender and Rhetorics of Materiality, by Gayle Salaman, Columbia University Press
Bisexual Fiction
The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet, by Myrlin Hermes, Harper Perennial
Bisexual Nonfiction
Border Sexualities, Border Families in Schools, by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli,Rowman & Littlefield
Transgender Fiction
Holding Still For as Long as Possible, by Zoe Whittall, House of Anansi Press
Transgender Nonfiction
Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in Jewish Community, edited by Noach Dzmura, North Atlantic Books
Lesbian Erotica
Sometimes She Lets Me: Best Butch/Femme Erotica, edited by Tristan Taormino, Cleis Press
Gay Erotica
Teleny and Camille, by Jon Macy, Northwest Press
Lesbian Poetry
The Nights Also, by Anna Swanson, Tightrope Books
Gay Poetry
Pleasure, by Brian Teare, Ahsahta Press
Lesbian Romance
River Walker, by Cate Culpepper, Bold Strokes Books
Gay Romance
Normal Miguel, by Erik Orrantia, Cheyenne Press
PHOTOS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL LAMBDA LITERARY AWARDS
found in link below: Photo credit: Donna Aceto
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambdaliterary/
Start you summer reading by buying the Lammy winner!
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/2011-lambda-literary-award-winners/
23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards Committee Members
Honorary Host Committee
Ann Bannon
Don Bachardy
Bill Clegg
Kate Clinton
Mart Crowley
Michael Cunningham
Stacey D'Erasmo
Jim McGreevey
David Mixner
Ann Patchett
Stefanie Powers
Andrew Tobias
Edmund White
New York Host Committee
David McConnell - Co-Chair
Don Weise - Co-Chair
S. Chris Shirley - Co-Chair
Jamie Brickhouse
J. Brooks
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
Dick Donahue
Jessica Falvo
David Gale
Charles Rice-Gonzalez
Nicholas Nicholson
Heather Aimee O'Neill
Julia Pastore
Lori Perkins
Patrick Ryan
Rakesh Satyal
Liz Scheier
Bob Smith
Jerl Surratt
Linda Villarosa
Paul Whitlatch
About the Lambda Literary Foundation: The Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers. LLF's programs include the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers' Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, and our web magazine at www.lambdaliterary.org.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
I Knew a Woman
by Theodore Roethke
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English poets who grew up on Greek
(I'd have them sing in a chorus, cheek to cheek).
How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand;
She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin;
I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing we did make).
Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
Her full lips pursed, the errant notes to seize;
She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
(She moved in circles, and those circles moved).
Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
I'm martyr to a motion not my own;
What's freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
But who would count eternity in days?
These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
(I measure time by how a body sways).
"I Knew a Woman" by Theodore Roethke, from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. © Anchor, 1974. From today's The Writer's Almanac.
by Theodore Roethke
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English poets who grew up on Greek
(I'd have them sing in a chorus, cheek to cheek).
How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin,
She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand;
She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin;
I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand;
She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake,
Coming behind her for her pretty sake
(But what prodigious mowing we did make).
Love likes a gander, and adores a goose:
Her full lips pursed, the errant notes to seize;
She played it quick, she played it light and loose;
My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees;
Her several parts could keep a pure repose,
Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose
(She moved in circles, and those circles moved).
Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay:
I'm martyr to a motion not my own;
What's freedom for? To know eternity.
I swear she cast a shadow white as stone.
But who would count eternity in days?
These old bones live to learn her wanton ways:
(I measure time by how a body sways).
"I Knew a Woman" by Theodore Roethke, from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke. © Anchor, 1974. From today's The Writer's Almanac.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Review of Sisterhood!
Lambda Literary published a review by V. Jo Hsu of three chapbooks, including my chapbook, Sisterhood. I am so pleased! It is especially great because I am in the wonderful company of Christina Hutchins and Stacey Waite, two poets I admire greatly. You can read the review over at Lambda Literary here. And if you don't have a copy of Sisterhood, I think that the incredible publisher Ron Mohring of Seven Kitchens Press has a few left. You can visit Ron's publishing empire here.
Lambda Literary published a review by V. Jo Hsu of three chapbooks, including my chapbook, Sisterhood. I am so pleased! It is especially great because I am in the wonderful company of Christina Hutchins and Stacey Waite, two poets I admire greatly. You can read the review over at Lambda Literary here. And if you don't have a copy of Sisterhood, I think that the incredible publisher Ron Mohring of Seven Kitchens Press has a few left. You can visit Ron's publishing empire here.
Friday, May 13, 2011
MILK AND HONEY: A CELBRATION OF JEWISH LESBIAN POETRY
Official Release: September 2011
Advance copies on sale now at A Midsummer Night's Press
In this land of Milk & Honey, poems flow. Contemporary Jewish, lesbian poets address an array of experiences – relationships between and among women, family relationships, politics, solitude, ethical responsibilities, history, solidarity, and community.
Milk & Honey features beloved poets like Ellen Bass, Robin Becker, Elana Dykewomon, Marilyn Hacker, Sharron Hass, Eleanor Lerman, Joan Nestle, Lesléa Newman and Ellen Orleans, as well as new and emerging voices.
With language and imagery that moves from the sensual and political to the tender and serene, Milk & Honey explores the vibrant, complicated, exhilarating experience of being Jewish and lesbian—or queer—in the world today.
Julie R. Enszer’s first book of poems is Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press). She has published also published the chapbook Sisterhood (Seven Kitchens Press). She has an MFA from the University of Maryland and is enrolled currently in the PhD program in Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland.
MILK AND HONEY: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LESBIAN POETRY
edited by Julie R. Enszer
Body Language 07
ISBN-13: 978-0-9794208-8-7
ISBN-10: 0-9794208-8-1
Poetry/Lesbian Studies/Jewish Studies
86 pages/perfect bound
Pub Date: 1 September 2011
US: $14.95
Europe: €11
FREE SHIPPING ON U.S. ORDERS!
Official Release: September 2011
Advance copies on sale now at A Midsummer Night's Press
In this land of Milk & Honey, poems flow. Contemporary Jewish, lesbian poets address an array of experiences – relationships between and among women, family relationships, politics, solitude, ethical responsibilities, history, solidarity, and community.
Milk & Honey features beloved poets like Ellen Bass, Robin Becker, Elana Dykewomon, Marilyn Hacker, Sharron Hass, Eleanor Lerman, Joan Nestle, Lesléa Newman and Ellen Orleans, as well as new and emerging voices.
With language and imagery that moves from the sensual and political to the tender and serene, Milk & Honey explores the vibrant, complicated, exhilarating experience of being Jewish and lesbian—or queer—in the world today.
Julie R. Enszer’s first book of poems is Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press). She has published also published the chapbook Sisterhood (Seven Kitchens Press). She has an MFA from the University of Maryland and is enrolled currently in the PhD program in Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland.
MILK AND HONEY: A CELEBRATION OF JEWISH LESBIAN POETRY
edited by Julie R. Enszer
Body Language 07
ISBN-13: 978-0-9794208-8-7
ISBN-10: 0-9794208-8-1
Poetry/Lesbian Studies/Jewish Studies
86 pages/perfect bound
Pub Date: 1 September 2011
US: $14.95
Europe: €11
FREE SHIPPING ON U.S. ORDERS!
A POEM BY DONALD HALL
From Today's The Writer's Almanac
Conversation‚s Afterplay
by Donald Hall
At dinner our first night
I looked at you, your bright green eyes,
In candlelight.
We laughed and told the hundred stories,
Kissed, and caressed, and went to bed.
"Shh, shh," you said,
"I want to put my legs around your head."
Green eyes, green eyes.
At dawn we sat with coffee
And smoked another cigarette
As quietly
Companionship and eros met
In conversation's afterplay,
On our first day.
Late for the work you love, you drove away.
Green eyes, green eyes.
"Conversation's Afterplay" by Donald Hall, from The Painted Bed. © Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Reprinted with permission.
I just adore Donald Hall.
From Today's The Writer's Almanac
Conversation‚s Afterplay
by Donald Hall
At dinner our first night
I looked at you, your bright green eyes,
In candlelight.
We laughed and told the hundred stories,
Kissed, and caressed, and went to bed.
"Shh, shh," you said,
"I want to put my legs around your head."
Green eyes, green eyes.
At dawn we sat with coffee
And smoked another cigarette
As quietly
Companionship and eros met
In conversation's afterplay,
On our first day.
Late for the work you love, you drove away.
Green eyes, green eyes.
"Conversation's Afterplay" by Donald Hall, from The Painted Bed. © Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Reprinted with permission.
I just adore Donald Hall.
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