a bunch of good things

Have you had a chance to visit the website for Accents Publishing? If not, please do. Accents is a new, independent press with some really interesting titles from Georgi Borissov, Barry George, Jim Lally, Jude Lally, and Brian Russell. The coolest part about Accents? They sell their books for $5. Yup. Five bucks. Accents Publishing will be hosting an author signing during the AWP conference in Denver this April, so I encourage you to stop by, meet some authors, and congratulate senior editor Katerina Stoykova-Klemer. Also visit her personal author website here.

There are still a few days to enter the 2010 Snowbound Chapbook Award at Tupelo Press. This is an open competition for a poetry manuscript with a $1,000 prize and 50 copies of the winning book. For more details, go here.

There are also just a few days left to enter the Sawtooth Poetry Prize. The winning volume receives $1,500 and will be published in January 2011 by Ahsahta Press. For submission guidelines, go here.

Earlier this week, I received the lovely news that one of my current chapbook manuscripts was a semi-finalist for the 2009 Concrete Wolf Chapbook Award. Super! I also want to offer congratulations to Mark Neely for his manuscript Four of a Kind. Concrete Wolf will publish his winning chapbook this fall 2010.

Spread the news about these submission opportunities and excellent new titles.

Have a great weekend and see you Monday!

Q&A with author Tim King

For today’s Q&A, I am pleased to introduce Tim King, author of From the Ashes of Courage. Shall we begin?

Hi, Tim. What can you tell us about From the Ashes of Courage?
It's the story of Gail, a 29-year-old woman, an independent, successful professional with her own business, has worked hard to make a career for herself, and she loves what she does. And she's also about to turn 30. In fact, she's been so successful that she's stopped growing and starts to wonder whether life has anything more for her. So she gets together with a colleague and friend, whom she had met in college; she moves back to the Boston area; and they start a new business together. She's trying to recapture the excitement she once felt years before.

Her new business partner, in turn, sets Gail up on a blind date. And through a bizarre coincidence, the kind that's too crazy for anyone to have made up—except that I actually did make it up—her blind date turns out to be her ex-husband.

Of course, that's when her life really gets interesting.

At its heart, what is this story really about?
It's about love without strings, which is a theme that pops up over and over again for me. This was also a major theme in my romantic memoir, and it's been a major theme in my life.

That is, when I decided to marry my wife, I knew that I needed to do so freely. I don't love her only if she does or says certain things, for example. And some days we fight, or we get angry with each other, and I swear I absolutely can't stand her! But I still love her, because that's what our relationship is built on.

I try to teach the same thing to my daughters. We will never disown them, no matter who they are or what they do, because they're family. And I always do my best to support them—even though it sometimes seems not nearly enough. I want them to have that stability to build a life on.

How is it you came to write inspirational romance?
Part of it started with Gilmore Girls, by Amy Sherman-Palladino, which is one of my all-time favorite TV programs. And you can probably see some of her storytelling style in my stories (even though they're in a different medium).

Actually, the Missus recently reminded me of this, indirectly, because she told me how funny From the Ashes of Courage is. (She's just now reading it for the first time, believe it or not, because she simply didn't have time during the book's beta-reading phase.) She also mentioned to me that someone at work was telling her how funny my romantic memoir was. I didn't intend either of these to be romantic comedy, but I'll take it! I knew that Gilmore Girls (a TV "dramedy") had seriously inspired and informed my style, and I assume that some of the humorous aspects of that style may have leaked through. (Or maybe it's just that romance is funny.)

The other part is that I've always wanted to write stories that say something, rather than just being a fun escape from reality, and I've always loved the character complexities in TV romances. So when I first decided I wanted to write a novel, it was an inspirational romance, which I never finished, because I didn't know what the heck I was doing. Up until that point, I had not even read any romance novels—I loved TV dramas and science-fiction novels, but most of my reading had been dominated by non-fiction. So I actually had to learn about how to write fiction, and about the romance genre and how I fit into it, and how I don't always fit.

On your website, you talk a little about ‘life-expanding stories.’ For our readers today, what does this term encompass?
I use the term "life-expanding" to try to describe the stories I enjoy most, that affect me most and stick with me as the best I've ever read. They have realistic characters embroiled in interwoven conflicts, and they inspire the reader toward hope. In an effective story, this happens through metaphor—sometimes a metaphor that's personal to the reader and that the author could not have foreseen—rather than through didacticism. Like an uplifting parable.

They don't always have literary merit: I tend not to care so much about literary merit, because fancy words don't move me; stories do. They aren't always top sellers: 90% of everything on the best-seller list is crap, a corollary of Sturgeon's Law. They aren't always romances, because they don't always have love stories, and other genres can include all those elements. And not all romances are life-expanding. (For example, I enjoy Janet Evanovich's work, and the Love Boat, too. Call them guilty pleasures.)

A simple example, a tale that I've heard in different contexts (though I can't find a reference to the original story): A wife and her husband were having difficulties seeing eye to eye in bed. He liked to move quickly from foreplay to the old rough and tumble, whereas she preferred a more leisurely approach. They finally went to Milton Erickson [or so the story goes] for marital counseling, who told them a story. "You remind me of some of my friends," he said. "She's a gourmet cook, who loves to prepare and serve seven-course meals. But he's a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, digs right into the main course. But he used to get indigestion sometimes from eating too fast. When he told his doctor, the doc told him that in order to have good digestion and to really appreciate his wife's cooking, he should savor each part of the meal, pay close attention to the different pleasures each course gives. Then he would finish satisfied and fulfilled." Weeks later, Dr. Erickson got a thank-you note from the couple. Apparently, their dinners were better, too.

Stories are a powerful tool to open our minds to new possibilities and help us move our lives forward. And that's what I seek to do with my stories.

You also write non-fiction. How do you balance your various writing interests?
Poorly. (How's that for an answer?)

Actually, most of the non-fiction I write now is simply blogged. But I still have to balance blogging and marketing with working on my next novel.

I work best when I'm working on one project at a time. (I suspect everyone does, whether they admit it or not.) So I have a non-fiction project or three that I'd like to work on, but I haven't been progressing on them. Rather, I just collect ideas for them when those ideas occur to me. I hope to flesh out those ideas when I'm writing later books.

I'm actually struggling with marketing & blogging on the one hand, and progressing on my next Ardor Point novel on the other hand. The one tends to distract from the other. So I'm trying to make progress in blocks of a day or two each, swapping off from one to the other and back again. But that's not really working either, because I'm always behind on everything. There's always more work to do than the time available in which to do it. :-)

Where can readers learn more about you and your work?
My blog blog.JTimothyKing.com is probably the place you want to look first, because I post links to free ebooks or special discounts there, as well as discussions about books that I'm reading and inspirations for books I'm writing.

Thanks, Tim!
So glad to be here. Thank you.

*****

Thanks for stopping by for the Q&A. Next week will feature author Kristin Bair O’Keeffe.

Before I forget, I want to congratulate “MelJPrincess!” Your name has been selected for the February book draw. Mel, send me an email with your postal address and we’ll get a signed book out to you asap!

I’ll be doing another draw for a signed copy of stains: early poems; the draw will take place at the end of April in honor of National Poetry Month!

Take care and see you Friday.

Review: Deena Metzger’s Ruin and Beauty

I am pleased to share my review of Ruin and Beauty by Deena Metzger (Red Hen Press).

The full review is at Rattle.com, but here’s a teaser of what I had to say:

“Metzger offers us an abundance of necessarily heavy subject matter bundled with passion between these pages of love, rage, and hope.”

Read the full review on Rattle.com:

http://rattle.com/blog/2010/02/ruin-beauty-deena-metzger/

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I also want to share news about The American Poetry Journal book prize, which I read about earlier this week:

The American Poetry Journal Book Prize
Guidelines & Information for 2010

The postmark deadline for entries to the 2010 The American Poetry Journal book prize is February 28, 2010.

To enter, submit 50-65 paginated pages of poetry, table of contents, acknowledgments, bio, email address for results, No SASE (manuscripts will be recycled), and a $25.00 reading fee for each manuscript entered. The winner will receive $1000 and 20 copies. All entries will be considered for publication. Both free and formal verse styles are welcome. Multiple submissions are acceptable. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but if your manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere you must notify The American Poetry Journal and/or Dream Horse Press immediately. Fees are non-refundable.

Writers' names should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Please include your name and biographical information in a separate cover letter. Please be sure to include your email address. The winner is chosen by the editor of The American Poetry Journal, J.P. Dancing Bear. Close Friends, Students (former or present), and Relatives of the editor are NOT eligible for the contest and their entry fee will be refunded.

The American Poetry Journal book prize entries may be sent, following the guidelines above, to:

The American Poetry Journal book prize
P. O. Box 2080
Felton, California 95001-2080

Please make checks payable to: Dream Horse Press.

Or you can now save yourself the cost of postage, paper, envelopes and a trip to the post office and email your manuscript and pay online at: http://home.comcast.net/~jpdancingbear/apj_contest.html

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Thanks for visiting the blog today. I hope you'll come back on Wednesday for my Q&A with author Tim King.

2010 Snowbound Chapbook Award

What better way to end the week than with a post of opportunity! I recently received an email from Tupelo Press with all the juicy details about the 2010 Snowbound Chapbook Award. Are you ready to submit? The deadline for all entries is February 28, 2010.

Here’s what you need to know:

Tupelo Press
Welcomes Your Submissions
to the 2010 Snowbound
Chapbook Contest

The 9th Annual Snowbound Series Chapbooks Award
is an open competition for a poetry manuscript,
with a $1,000 prize and 50 copies of the winning book.

Prior winners include Mark Yakich,
Cecilia Woloch, Joy Katz, David Hernandez,
Barbara Tran, and John Cross.

Submissions are accepted from anyone
writing in the English language.
Translations are not eligible for this prize.

All entries must be postmarked
or sent via the online submission manager,
on or before February 28, 2010.

The final judge for this year's contest
is Patricia Fargnoli.

Read the Guidelines for the
Snowbound Chapbook Contest:
www.tupelopress.org/contests

Deadline for all Entries is
February 28, 2010

*****

Good luck!

Q&A with author Dawn Paul

I am pleased to introduce Dawn Paul as today’s Q&A guest. Dawn is a writer and editor and is here to tell us a little bit about her latest book, The Country of Loneliness. Please join me in welcoming Dawn Paul.


Hi Dawn. You started writing The Country of Loneliness as a memoir. Can you tell us how and why you made the switch from non-fiction to fiction?
My original intent was to write about my life with my father, to remember it as accurately as possible. I wasn’t even thinking of writing a book. The book began when I tried to imagine my father’s life, when I realized how little I knew about him, how little we had talked when he was alive. That’s when the writing became fiction, became the story of a daughter imagining her father’s life. It was a wonderful freedom—I no longer had to slavishly render facts that did little to tell the real story, the metaphorical reality.

What were some of the particular challenges you came across when writing Loneliness?
The biggest emotional challenge was writing from anger and loss. It weighed me down. The book did not transform into anything good or hopeful until several drafts. Until then, I was anchored to old grudges and childhood fears. The other, more manageable challenge was trying to accurately portray small-town New England life during the Great Depression. I read several historical books, looked at a lot of photos and watched the movie Seabiscuit, to get a sense of what it felt like to be living in the midst of those times, when there was so little hope. I’ve heard from some readers that I did show the times well.

What did you learn about yourself through this process? What did you learn about yourself as a writer?
I learned, once again, that writing is transformative. Writing the book changed my perception of myself, my father, and our relationship. And the book is, in the end, about how imagination can transform a relationship, a life. That is, in part at least, what I want readers to find in the book—an appreciation for fiction, for imagination, for the real work they can do. As a writer, I learned to stay with the story. There were so many times I wanted to put the manuscript away and work on something more pleasant and easy. And sometimes I did that. In fact, I wrote a collection of short stories in the middle of writing Loneliness. But I always made myself go back to it.

You have a solid publication history with short fiction. How did writing The Country of Loneliness compare to your process for writing shorter works? Was it more freeing or more challenging to write on such personal subject matter?
I have never taken years to write a short fiction piece. I have never written so many drafts or imposed so many different structures on a shorter piece. I never got to the point in writing Loneliness where in working with it became a “technical” process of revision. It was always gut-work. It was very challenging for me to write something that is personal and that readers will definitely perceive as personal. It was so much harder for me to decide when the book became art and not just me, whereas with a short story, I know that from the start.

You've been a resident writer with the Ragdale Foundation, Vermont Studio Center and the Spring Creek Project. How have these experiences enhanced your career? Why were they valuable to you?
If writing is central to your life it is so necessary to have a time and place where all you have to do is eat, sleep and write. It is an amazing experience, to live within your work and not have to leave it to go to a job, pay the electric bill, mow the lawn… I wrote the first draft of Loneliness at VSC—drove home with a hand-written manuscript in the back seat. I brought a “final” draft to Ragdale and made it a book. The pages covered the floor in my studio for a solid week. Residency time is so rich and valuable. I am grateful to VSC, Ragdale and Spring Creek (which I went to after finishing Loneliness).

In addition to being published by a small press, you are also editor of Corvid Press. What makes small press publishers so appealing to writers?
The small presses will publish a book because they love it, because they think it needs to be out in the world. For writers who write what they must write, it is crucial that there are publishers willing to take on a book knowing it will not be a lucrative bestseller. Most of the interesting, challenging and quirky books out there right now are published by small presses. Small presses are keeping literature alive.

What events do you have coming up?
I’m reading at Montserrat College of Art, where I teach writing, on February 18.

How can readers learn more about you and your work?
Go to the Marick Press website http://www.marickpress.com/ and while you’re there, check out the other Marick writers.

Thanks, Dawn!

*****

And… thank you, dear reader. I hope you continue to enjoy the weekly author Q&As featured on this blog.

Come on back this Friday for some writing news and possibly some reviews…

By the way, if you are at all associated with a low-res MFA program, be sure to check out the blog post below.

Thanks for visiting!

Interviewees Wanted – Low-Res Programs

I’m conducting interviews with faculty, visiting writers, alumni, and current students of Low-Residency MFA/MA programs.

If I have not already chatted with you and you’re associated with any of the following institutions, please email me at lori@loriamay.com if you’re willing to be interviewed.

FYI – I’m working with a deadline. Thanks!

Alaska-Anchorage
Albertus Magnus College
Antioch LA
Antioch McGregor
Ashland
Bennington
UBC
UC Riverside
Carlow
Chatham
Drew
E. Kentucky
Fairfield
Fairleigh Dickinson
Goucher
Hamline
Hong Kong City U
Lancaster
Lesley
Murray State
National
Naropa
New England
New Orleans
Oxford University
Pacific
Pine Manor/Solstice
PLU/Ranier
Queens U Charlotte (faculty, current students)
Seattle Pacific
Seton Hill (faculty)
Sewanee
SNHU
Stonecoast
UTEP
Warren Wilson (faculty, current students)
Western State College of Colorado
W. Connecticut State
Wilkes

Email lori@loriamay.com if you’re willing to be interviewed.

*Note – If you don’t see your program listed, it’s because I have already conducted a variety of interviews. That being said, please feel free to email me if you’re eager to share your experiences in an interview.

The Compulsive Reader reviews STAINS

I am delighted and honored to share this latest review of stains: early poems. Maggie Ball, editor of The Compulsive Reader, has this to say:

Stains is a delicate picture of the stains of experience that shape and define us. It reminds the reader of his or her own stains - the transitory and life changing moments of reflection, experience, or enlightenment that accompany the motion from childhood to adult.

Please click here to read the full review of stains: early poems.

You might want to consider subscribing to The Compulsive Reader newsletter. In the next issue, Maggie will be giving away a signed copy of stains!

For additional reviews of stains, visit my website.

Also, please join me again on Wednesday for my Q&A with author Dawn Paul.

Thanks for visiting!

books to fall in love with

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, there’s no better time to fall in love with some new books. By now, you should know I will take any excuse with me to the local bookstore!

If you haven’t yet had a chance to read my review of Susan Holbrook’s latest gem, Joy Is So Exhausting, now’s the time. I fell in love with this book; you will too. Read the review at Northern Poetry Review and then visit Powell’s Books to make a purchase.

I highly recommend visiting Tightrope Books to see all the exciting new titles in their Spring 2010 catalogue.

Share some love with your local indie bookstore this weekend. If stuck at home in an unusual amount of snow, read about some passionate and determined indie shop owners in the new interview series at Poets & Writers.

I also have to share this super duper Valentine’s Special from Tupelo Press:

Send a literary Valentine to someone you love, or treat yourself to a pair of books for half the price!

During the month of February, visit our website and Buy-One-Get-One-Free on any of these six titles celebrating the beauty of love, ardor, dance, and ecstasy.

You can also forward this special offer to your loved ones.

Think of it as a Valentine from us!

Order today: www.tupelopress.org
and use promo code: VALENTINE

ardor by Karen An-hwei Lee

At the Drive-In Volcano by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Narcissus by Cecilia Woloch

Invitation to a Secret Feast: Selected Poems by Joumana Haddad

Locket by Catherine Daly

Dancing in Odessa by Ilya Kaminsky

Note: No limit to the number of books ordered with this 2-for-1 special. Offer ends February 28th and may not be combined with any other offer. Discount applies to items of equal or lesser value. Regular shipping charges apply. International shipping may be extra.

*****

It’s easy to love a book and they most often will love you back. So will the authors you support.

Enjoy the weekend, share the love (of literature), and let me know how you’re hooking up with some excitement between the (book) covers.

Q&A with author Laraine Herring

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. I’m pleased to welcome Laraine Herring for this week’s Q&A.

Can you tell us about Writing Begins with the Breath: Embodying Your Authentic Voice?

I came to a yoga practice after reaching a point in my life where I was too busy, too unhealthy, and too everything. I am not an athlete, and I don’t naturally want to go running around, so I’ve always stayed away from sports and very physical activities. Yoga was indoors. :-) And it seemed slow enough that I could do it.

Little did I know what it would do for me. A yoga practice began to show me what my mind was doing. It gave me space to watch how I got in my own way. I noticed that the deeper I moved into my body, the deeper I was able to move into every other area of my life. I thought there might be a book in all that, but I didn’t really know what it would be. Then I went to a writing retreat in Oregon in 2003, and was snowed in. I was terrified. I’d never really been in snow, and certainly never alone. I had heat only from a wood stove (which I’d also never used before in my life ... I spent most of my life in Phoenix where there is little use for a wood stove or snow clothing!) That retreat gave me the opportunity to really practice yoga off the mat, and the idea for the book was born.

It took a few years to find a publisher (Shambhala), and the book was released in 2007. I wanted to provide a guide for writers to move deeper into the body, while also introducing them to the concept of writing as a relationship rather than something one expects to be readily available on call. We have to cultivate our lives, and writing is a part of that cultivation. What we cultivate bears fruit. What we stop cultivating, dies. If we want a healthy relationship to our writing, we have to nurture it like any other relationship. In Breath, I use basic yoga poses and sounds and pranayama (breath work) to supplement the writing exercises. I hoped to have a conversation with the reader, not be a didactic teacher about anything. We’re all on the journey. I have far from arrived. :-)

How did you discover for yourself that writing can be a tool for healing?

I always wrote. I wrote a “complete” autobiography by age 7 (MY NAME IS LARAINE) - ha. It was about 80 pages — full of scintillating information about what snacks we had in kindergarten and what we had for dinner, but it had a basic structure and it followed a narrative. When I reread it many years later I could see how I taught myself to write.

I didn’t think about whether or not I was doing anything “good” for myself. Writing was just something I had to do. It wasn’t until my father got sick when I was 8 that I began to notice that writing made me feel a little bit better. As I got older, I had varied and various relationships to writing, but it was always an anchor underneath the chaos. After my dad died, I started writing his story right away. Of course, it was crap because it was too soon, but it was helpful on a personal level. There’s writing that’s meant for you, and writing that’s meant for an audience. Writing that is used for healing doesn’t always find an outside audience, but that’s not what it’s intended to do. Writing helps us make meaning from chaos — it helps us see connections where we might not have otherwise seen them. I truly cannot imagine who I would be if I didn’t write. Writing helps us deepen our relationship to ourselves. We don’t even have to try — it just does it. That can be scary for some people. Writing pushes us to be more honest and more authentic. When I write, I cannot lie to myself. That was a very valuable piece of information for me to learn.

When I was 30, I went back to grad school to get my MFA. I chose Antioch University because they have a mission that incorporates using writing (and art) as a tool for social change. I wanted to be a part of a community that understood the connection between art and well-being. After I finished there, I went on to get an MA in counseling psychology, with an emphasis in writing as a healing tool. That degree program gave me the foundation to write Lost Fathers: How Women Can Heal From Adolescent Father Loss, which came out in 2005 from Hazelden. I have also designed a class for the college called Writing and Healing.

Tell us about the workshops you do in conjunction with Writing Begins with the Breath.

I do some local workshops, (I live in northern AZ) but the two primary locations are at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Healing in Lennox, Massachusetts, and the Omega Institute for Holistic Health in Rhinebeck, NY. My workshops involve writing, movement, and breath work to help the participant deepen his or her relationship to writing and to the self. I believe in the connection between the physical body and our work. Many writers are trying to write only from their heads. They want to control too much. Moving into the body can help give people an avenue to get out of their own way so that they can write what they are meant to write, rather than what they think they “should” be writing. My workshops are generally a weeklong. I like having the opportunity for people to really move deep within themselves. In a retreat setting like Kripalu or Omega, people can just let go and not worry about making dinner, cleaning up after the cat, etc. They can really listen, and when that happens, a lot of amazing things occur for people.

Care to tell us about the creative writing courses you teach with Yavapai College?

I am the director of the creative writing program at Yavapai College. Each semester we offer between 8 and 10 courses to the community. I am fortunate enough to be full-time at the college, so my teaching load is 5 courses. This semester, which begins on January 20, I’m teaching two intro to creative writing classes (both on line), two short story writing classes (one on line and one in person), and an advanced creative non-fiction course. We are also offering two poetry courses (one advanced and one intro) and a course called experiments in story. I try each semester to offer at least one unusual course. I’m planning to do a course on writing the young adult novel in the next few semesters, as well as a course on magical realism.

What events or workshops do you have coming up?

I’ve got a weeklong workshop at the Omega Institute July 4 – July 9, 2010. The workshop is called The Writing Warrior, based off of my newest book, which will be out in August 2010. I’m also considering setting up on-line workshops on “book birthing” through my website. These would be self-paced and individually contracted. I’m still in the planning stages on that one. :-)

You also have two new books coming out later this year. What can you tell us about them?

The Writing Warrior: Discovering the Courage to Free Your True Voice, comes out from Shambhala in August 2010. This is a follow up of sorts to Breath. It incorporates a different type of movement (taoist shaking) and breathwork combined with writing to break down our resistances. It is a bit “tougher” than Breath. Breath was intended to help the reader cultivate a safe and open relationship to the self and to writing. In the Writing Warrior, I hope to push the reader farther along, through some of the barriers that seem to get erected along the way. The Writing Warrior also contains writing exercises — one set for personal writing and one set for works in progress. It uses personal essay and memoir essays to illustrate the concepts. For example, one section deals with what I call the Writer’s Wheel of Suffering, which consists of the illusions of money, fame, time, etc. I hope the book provides readers with concrete next steps and solid guidance along their own path. I don’t want to prescribe a single way to do anything. I want to provide a wide path so people can trust themselves and find their own ways.

Ghost Swamp Blues is a novel, which will be out in June from White River.

Here’s the current back panel copy:

How far would you go to protect someone you love?

Nothing is black or white in the murky town of Alderman, North Carolina, no matter how much the human and ghostly residents of Idyllic Grove Rice Plantation would like it to be. Weaving together the threads of three women rooted by life or death to this haunted Southern landscape, Ghost Swamp Blues pulls the reader into the layers of racism, family loyalties, and hidden relationships that intertwine as naturally as the kudzu that covers the trees where the Swamp Sirens sing.

Fourteen-year-old Lillian Green witnesses the unthinkable in 1949. Her choice to remain silent about what she saw ripples into the swamp water surrounding her family’s home, awakening the ghost of Roberta du Bois, former rice plantation mistress, who drowned herself in the swamp in 1859. Roberta and Lillian forge a bond based on shame, silence, and an impenetrable loneliness. When Lillian’s daughter Hannah is born into the maze of haunted hallways, Lillian has no interest in raising her. Hannah is left alone, with only Roberta and her own exceptional singing voice for company. When the truth about what Lillian saw surfaces, no one, living or dead, can prevent what must come next.

It’s always really hard to summarize your own fiction (I think) -- much easier to talk to you about the non-fiction! :-) Ghost Swamp Blues came out of an attempt to understand my grandmother, who was a Southern matriarch. My family has deep and old roots in the south, and I have always been troubled and fascinated by the place and its ghosts and history. I lived there until 1981, and I’ve really never recovered from moving out west. :-)

Where can readers learn more about you and your writing?

My website is http://www.laraineherring.com/. It’s being updated this year to correspond with the launch of the two new books. I also blog at http://laraineherring.blogspot.com/.

Thanks, Laraine!

*****

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Q&A. Remember to come back on Friday for some writing news and all-round good things to share.

Have a great week!

Review of Joy is So Exhausting

Please visit Northern Poetry Review to see my review of Susan Holbrook’s Joy is So Exhausting.

From my review: "Holbrook's offering is simply honest, at times joyful, and at times blunt..."

You can read the full review here.

Call for Submissions: SWAMP

From the editors at SWAMP
Call for Submissions

This is a note to remind you that SWAMP submissions close in 4 weeks. Please send us your work: we're looking forward to reading it!

Submissions close: Friday March 5, 2010.
The theme for the issue is: "Form".

Prose writers, we’re looking forward to seeing your interpretation of this — physical forms, genre forms, filling out forms — surprise us!

Poets, we’re looking forward to seeing some poetry adhere to more traditional forms, but also the inversion of said forms.

Please go to our website for submission guidelines, to see previous issues, or to find out more about the publication or the editors. http://www.swampwriting.com

Don't forget you can find the SWAMP group, full of writers and contributors, over on Facebook. Just search for "SWAMP Writing" and you will find us.

***
Best of luck with your submissions!

winter issue of Poets’ Quarterly

You may be expecting an interview for the usual Wednesday author Q&A, but I thought I’d direct you to five amazing interviews instead.

The Winter 2010 issue of Poets’ Quarterly is now available online for free and features interviews with poets William Hathaway, Kevin Brown, Lauren Rusk, Stanley Plumly, and Dawn Potter. I hope you enjoy the recent interviews at http://www.poetsquarterly.com/.

Also in this issue are twenty – count ‘em, 20 – in-depth reviews of new poetry books by authors such as Patricia Smith, Jessica Garratt, Ed Skoog, and Amy King.

Please have a look at the latest issue and see what the contributors have to offer in this recent issue of Poets’ Quarterly.

Interested in contributing something yourself? Poets’ Quarterly is open to new contributors for book reviews and author interviews. Have a look at the Submission Guidelines available at http://www.poetsquarterly.com/.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Have a great week!

new review to share

Today has to be a quick post as I am up against some tight deadlines – which is always a good thing, but nonetheless consuming. I had to make time to share, though, this review I wrote for Patricia Fargnoli’s Then, Something. It’s up on the Rattle website so head on over and have a look.

Later this week I’ll also have to share some pics from the weekend poetry reading at The Scarab Club. It was a fantastic event with fellow poets Joy Gaines-Friedler and Ken Meisel. What an amazing crowd for a Sunday afternoon! Thanks to John b. Lamb and ML Liebler for putting on such a fine event. Check back for photos later this week.

Back I go to the worker’s den… have a great Monday!