Palm Beach Poetry Festival 2021

 Last week I attended an online Palm Beach Poetry Festival 2021 workshop:

the Conventions of Free Verse with Kevin Prufer as an auditor.

It was a wonderful experience!  

We were asked to provide a recording of one of our own poems.

Catherine Asaro, where have you been all my life?

Nothing's sweeter than discovering an author, who, unbeknownst to you, has been writing exactly the type of novel you love to read for years and yet somehow has managed to remain under your radar!  We're talking about an extensive backlist of titles waiting for my reading pleasure!

I've heard Catherine Asaro's name before but finally chanced upon her book, Primary Inversion, recently and had a great time immersing myself into its colorful characters and world.

Kick-ass female protagonists ready to take over galactic empires, political machinations, worlds in conflict, star-crossed lovers...it's all there for your reading enjoyment!

To top it all, Asaro is one of the few well-known hispanic female science fiction writers and she's a scientist and dancer as well!

"Calle del Cristo, Old San Juan" chosen for Arte Latino Now 2017 exhibit

ARTE LATINO NOW 2017 has chosen my poem about Puerto Rico, "Calle del Cristo, Old San Juan" to be read and displayed in next year's exhibit at the

Max L. Jackson Gallery, Watkins Building, Queens University of Charlotte, Jan 17-Feb 17, 2017.

From their site:

"Sponsored by The Center for Latino Studies at Queens University of Charlotte in partnership with artist Edwin Gil, Art Sí and Queens' Departments of Art and World Languages, ARTE LATINO NOW seeks to highlight the exciting cultural and artistic contributions of Latinos in the United States.

 We invite artists who self-define as Latino and live and work in the United States to submit an original creative work in their medium of choice. Winners will be exhibited at Queens University of Charlotte in Spring 2017."

This poem is another offspring of the Key West Literary Seminar Writers' workshop. I received lots of positive feedback about it from the group and altered it slightly before sending it off to the competition.

I hope to visit the exhibit when I go to Charlotte for my Mom's 94th birthday!

Pay Attention Journal acceptances; FIU News; #100!!

Pay Attention Journal just accepted two of the longer (read: hard-to-place) pieces in my chapbook:  "Her Last Cotillion" (about Doc Holliday's cousin) and "Richard the Lionheart's Mummified Heart Examined."

 Pay Attention is an annual, print literary journal founded to print verse that makes for dynamic reading performances.

The mission on the journal, in particular, is to collect and promote high quality poetry that may be performed on the high school and college forensics circuits and taught in classrooms that feature the oral interpretation of poetry.

I was in Forensics in high school and I also had difficulty finding material I was comfortable with, so I ended up writing my own and performing in the "Original" category.  I'm happy to know my work may be performed by others!

I never would have found Pay Attention without using Duotrope, which I can't recommend enough!
Duotrope helps you find the perfect fit for your poetry or fiction.

From the Editor:

To tell the truth, these two poems
epitomize what I’m hoping to collect in the journal. I love the
interesting voices you’ve created and the precise images you’ve filled
these poems with. It’s very clear that you knew what I was looking for
in forensics-worthy pieces.

I will probably read one of these pieces at my Miami Book Fair International poetry reading, which was advertised in this FIU News story yesterday!  Many thanks to Ashley Garcia for the great article (and publicity!)  I wasn't joking about wanting an empty room to read to, though!  As my reading takes place at the same time as Rosie Perez and John Leguizamo's talks, not to mention Brian Weiss' of Many Masters, Many Lives fame, I doubt I have much to worry about!

(P. S. This is my 100th post!)

Miami Book Fair International appearance

The Miami Book Fair International has announced its final schedule and and I am listed as one of the featured authors!  My presentation of my poetry chapbook, Shining from a Different Firmament, will be on Sunday, November 22nd, at 5:30 pm, along with two other local poets/writers.  Now, it's time to begin panicking!  It will be in the Centre Gallery, Bldg 1, 3rd floor, Room 1365.

I'm very excited one of my favorite poets, Kay Ryan, former U.S. Poet Laureate, will be speaking earlier that day!

Don't begin a novel by Sharon Shinn before work!

I recently discovered Sharon Shinn and her wonderful science fiction and fantasy novels. The best part is that I've discovered her late in the day so she has an extensive back list of works to explore! Her first novel, The Shape Changer's Wife is an incredible book that brought her instant fame. It's being made into a film but they are still looking for funding, so visit the film's website to see more details and how to donate toward this effort.

Shinn is a Firefly fan, which doesn't surprise me, as her characters strike me as similar to Firefly's--the type of characters you want to take home to dinner!

Just a warning, though, don't begin any Sharon Shinn novel before work or you may end up calling in sick!

Best Buys of 2010--total $65

When I look back on this year, I realize the two items that added most to my quality of life were simple and inexpensive: a $25 dollar fleecy robe and a $40 zero gravity
lawn chair (both bought on sale.) The time I spent wrapped up in one and sitting in the other, blissfully reading were the most satisfying, most relaxing hours of my year! (The books were free, courtesy of the public library!)

Private Persuasions of Poetry: "Ideal Audience" by Kay Ryan

Kay Ryan is the newly named Poet Laureate of the U.S.
This poem succinctly sums up how I feel about writing, reading and being read:

Ideal Audience

Not scattered legions,
not a dozen from
a single region
for whom accent
matters, not a seven-
member coven,
not five shirttail
cousins; just
one free citizen--
maybe not alive
now even--who
will know with
exquisite gloom
that only we two
ever found this room.

from the collection The Niagara River, Grove Press, 2005.

I love Ryan's sly, sparse style: her economy of words reminds me of Mark Strand's work; he's one of my favorite poets of all time.

This poem, referring to the imaginary meeting of minds that occurs when reader and writer connect, out of time, out of physical space, sums it up so perfectly that I can add nothing. It epitomizes what Ryan calls the "private persuasions of poetry."

Most of the writers I've loved were long dead when I was born and I've felt that "exquisite gloom" when I discovered them. It's out of reality yet it's the most authentic feeling I've ever had.