Pay Attention: Poems for Oral Interpretation

Pay Attention: Poems for Oral Interpretation, edited by John Pierce, now on sale at Amazon,  contains two of my longer persona pieces: "Her Last Cotillion" about Doc Holliday and his cousin Mattie (whom Melanie Wilkes in Gone With the Wind was modeled after) and "Richard Lionheart's Mummified Heart Examined" a piece in various voices about the recent discovery of King Richard's heart buried beneath a church in Rouen.  The editor's intention is that this collection of poems be used for high school dramatic interpretation competitions.  I thought it was a great idea, especially as he says it is difficult to find good pieces to use for this purpose.  When I was in Forensics in high school, I couldn't find a piece I liked and I ended up writing my own, and after I left it was used by others.   

"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!

The Australia Times Poetry Magazine features "Bahia Honda Beach Conch" on their Facebook page.

The Australia Times Poetry Magazine has published a few of my poems: two in the October issue, "Inspiration" (a sonnet) and "The Last Thing I'll Lose" and now has accepted two more, and featured "Bahia Honda Beach Conch" on their facebook page!  It was accompanied by a beautiful picture of a conch shell. I wrote the poem right after I attended the Key West Literary Seminar Writers' workshop led by poet and FIU professor Campbell McGrath.

Literary Arts Review publishes review of my book Shining from a Different Firmament!

Many thanks to the editors of The Literary Arts Review for their two-page book review of my chapbook Shining from a Different Firmament!!  They are among the few journals that review poetry chapbooks!  I was expecting a few paragraphs but they went far beyond that; their thoughtful, thorough review highlighted the most unique and relevant aspects of my book.

I read this debut issue from cover to cover with great enjoyment and interest; I especially liked the short story “Bach’s Last Composition: A Fantasy” by Lenny Cavallari and the article “From the Restorationists to the Romantics: Rochester and Byron” by Alexander Larman!  I am doubly glad for my book to be mentioned in this magazine because it appeals to readers like me--with literary interests and intellectual curiosity.  Cavallari's story reminded me of what I liked about Jorge Luis Borges' short fiction.  Larman's article made me want to read all his books!

The Copperfield Review publishes three of my historical persona poems.

The Copperfield Review, a journal which features historical fiction, poetry and great interviews of authors of historical fiction like Mary Doria Russell, Jean M. Auel, Jeff Shaara and John Jakes, has published three of my historical persona poems in their latest online issue: Maid Joan’s Gethsemane (about Joan of Arc), Genesis, 1880 (about the first electrically lit city in the world–it’s not the one you think!) and The Lost Colony (about Virginia Dare, the first child born in the Roanoke colony.)

(Image from Britannica.com Biography of Saint Joan of Arc)

Spark: A Creative Anthology will publish my poem The Fourth Brontë Sister

Spark: A Creative Anthology, a paying market, just accepted my poem, The Fourth Brontë Sister, for publication in a future volume.

This persona poem is about two Emilys:  Emily Dickinson and Emily Brontë.  Dickinson was known to be a great admirer of the Brontës.  She was such a fan that an associate of hers commented that she should be called the fourth Brontë sister!  (Hence the poem's title!)  
And she (anecdotally) asked that her favorite of Emily's poems be read at her own funeral.

 

Shabda Press reveals the cover art for its Nuclear Impact anthology

Shabda Press recently announced its forthcoming poetry anthology (which will include one of my poems) Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands will feature cover art by John Sokol!

Update!:

Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands is available on AMAZON  and BARNES & NOBLE.  Proceeds from sales of the Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands anthology will be donated to the Women's Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

Celebrating National Poetry Month

This year I decided to put up a Juvenile poetry display (since the adult display area was already taken up with my FIU faculty authors display, to coincide with the reception) instead.  We had a great Shakespeare bust to make use of, and the juvenile poetry books are colorful and imaginative!  There are poetry books on every theme imaginable, including Big Foot!

FIU Provost office and Barnes & Noble bookstore honor faculty authors

Jim's cd Reaching for the Stars and my poetry chapbook Shining from a Different Firmament are now both on sale at FIU's Barnes & Noble bookstore!  The Provost's office and the bookstore had a reception honoring faculty authors with recent publications and the Dean of Libraries mentioned in her speech that we might be the first husband and wife team to have publications come out the same year!

Jim has an ebook textbook coming out later this year and I hope to get my 2nd chapbook published at some point, so hopefully we will repeat the feat at next year's event!  I also put together a display of FIU faculty authors' books at the Green library in the new books area.

Green Library display of Faculty authors' books (I left my own out of this display)

Poet Lidy Wilks' guest post, chapbook cover reveal and giveaways!

Fellow Scribber, poet and blogger Lidy Wilks is on a blog tour for her chapbook Can You Catch My Flow?  Lidy is my first guest blogger!

Thanks for having me today Beatriz!

Why Do I Write Poetry?

Robert Graves once said, “There’s no money in poetry, but there’s no poetry in money either.” Well he’s right. Poetry is not a genre that will bring you fame and money. But of course one doesn’t write poetry for fame and money either.

So why do I write poetry?

It’d be too easy to say how can I not. But the reason really is a simple one. I write poetry to say what I can not. To write what I hold inside. Poetry is my creative outlet that delves much deeper into my heart and mind than any of my other writing. Through a poem, I question my own and the world’s preconceived notions. It and everything around me becomes a little darker. Or a little brighter. A little greyer. And a little more colorful.

Poetry exposes and reinvents. It is the journal of narrative into the deepest recesses of my mind and heart. And through it, I become more aware of all of the beauty and ugliness, the truth and lies found within and without. Giving birth to a hope that people, views, opinions and this world can change. That even I, as set in my ways at times, can change.

I write poetry to know and be true to myself. To know you and the world we live in.

 ~ Lidy Wilks

About Lidy:

Ever since she was young, Lidy Wilks was often found completely submerged in the worlds of Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Sweet Valley High and Nancy Drew. She later went on to earn a Bachelor degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, from Franklin Pierce University. Where she spent the next four years knee deep in fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction workshops.

Lidy is the author of Can You Catch My Flow? a poetry chapbook and is a member of Write by the Rails. She currently resides in Virginia with her husband and two children. And an anime, book and manga library, she’s looking to expand, one day adding an Asian drama DVD collection. Lidy continues her pursuit in writing more poetry collections and fantasy novels. All the while eating milk chocolate and sipping a glass of Cabernet. Or Riesling wine.

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Here is a closeup of the beautiful new cover of Can You Catch My Flow?

Lidy is also hosting a giveaway of five autographed copies of her chapbook on Goodreads and a Rafflecopter giveaway of four possible prizes:

Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands anthology will include my poem "Point of No Return"

Shabda Press's anthology "Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands" will include my sonnet dedicated to Harry K. Daghlian, the first American (peacetime) casualty of the Atomic Age: "Point of No Return."

Street Voice will publish three of my poems!

Andreas Weiland of the international, multilingual online journal Street Voice has accepted three of my poems:

Poem for my father (previously published at Label Me Latina/o),  
In the shadow of the Miami Metrorail overpass,
and Departures,

for publication in a future issue.  Street Voice's themed issues feature poetry, translations of poems, and articles from poets all over the world.

Mr. Weiland also edits an online art journal: Art in Society and he would like to encourage those writing on Latino/Latina art and theater to send pertinent articles for a future issue.  He also accepts
poems in Spanish, with an English translation

March 6th marks the anniversary of my father's death many years ago, so I'm very happy this poetical tribute to him will once more appear online. In the shadow is based on an encounter in downtown Miami with an unforgettable homeless man.  Departures is a poem about the internal and external voyage immigrants make and honors my matriarchal ancestors, beginning with my great-grandmother Rosa, to my mother, Luisa.

Ghazals galore for Valentine's day!

Valentine's Day month, is also very appropriately the month several of my ghazals about famous pairs of lovers are appearing:  first, "Maid Marian's Many Silences" was published by Quarterday Review in their Imbolc issue.

This poem, as I mentioned in an earlier post, was inspired by the film "Robin and Marian" starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn as an older Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

Another pair of ekphrastic ghazals, "On Viewing 'Dante and Beatrice' by Henry Holiday, 1884" was republished by The Ghazal Page, in their Issue 58.

These ghazals are companion persona ghazals, written in the voice of Beatrice, then Dante, and inspired by the painting by Henry Holiday:

FEM Magazine interview

FEM Magazine interviews me!

THE FEM is a literary journal that publishes feminist, diverse, and inclusive creative works and interviews with writers, artists, and creators twice a week. 

Poetry Press Week 2016 in Miami-- an exciting new way of presenting your poetry!

I am one of the judges!

From Poetry Press Week's site:

Poetry Press week is currently accepting submissions from South Florida poets for our 2016 show at the O, Miami Festival, April 22-23.

We are honored to have three distinguished poets who will select invitees from the submissions pool:
John Brehm is the author of two books of poems, Help Is On the Way and Sea of Faith, and the associate editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry. His poems have appeared in POETRY, The Southern Review, New Ohio Review, The Sun, Prairie Schooner, The Writer’s Almanac, and many other journals and anthologies. He teaches for Mountain Writers Workshop and Literary Arts.

Ashley Toliver is the author of IDEAL MACHINE (Poor Claudia, 2014). Her poems have appeared in Caketrain, Front Porch, PEN America and Third Coast, among others. A Cave Canem graduate fellow, she currently lives in Portland, Ore.

Beatriz Fitzgerald Fernandez is the author of Shining from a Different Firmament (Finishing Line Press) which she presented at the Miami Book Fair International this year.  Her poems have appeared in Boston Literary Magazine, FLARE: The Flagler Review, Label Me Latina/o, Verse Wisconsin, and Writer’s Digest, among others.

Submissions for Poetry Press Week at O, Miami close January 31.

Post-Writing Workshop Wrap-up

Now I know what people mean when they talk of coming "back to reality" after a writing workshop! After attending a poetry workshop in Key West, it is difficult to process all the feedback I got from fellow writers and the teacher, as well as try to retain everything I learned.  I think my brain is two days behind, still downloading data! It was nice to immerse myself in writing and think of nothing but poetry and where to have dinner for five days, but now I must start thinking about dental appointments and home repairs, etc.   I wouldn't really have the stamina for a longer workshop, anyway!  I produced three poems which are close to being in publishable form.

First acceptance of the New Year!

Ah, how sweet it is!  The first acceptance of the year comes from the Quarterday Review for their Imbolc issue. (The editor also offered candid feedback from her and her staff readers, so that was very helpful.  It's always interesting to see what other readers focus on when reading your poems.)

They accepted my latest ghazal Maid Marian's Many Silences!  This poem was inspired by the film "Robin and Marian" starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn which must have made an impression on me since I have never forgotten it!  Contrary to most portrayals, this film showed an older Robin Hood and Maid Marian.

Right now I'm working on a free verse poem entitled Plague Graffiti and another one about Joan of Arc.  I guess I'm sort of mentally stuck in the Middle Ages right now!