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.

 

Readers' Choice: Letter from Lara and Point of No Return chosen as readers' favorites.

I was very happily surprised to come across this post from Spark: A Creative Anthology--they had a vote on which pieces, either prose or poetry, from each volume over the last two years were the readers' favorite pieces and two of my poems were chosen!  "Letter from Lara" was chosen as the number one favorite from Volume V, which was an excellent volume of stories and poems, so I am extremely flattered!

Spark: Readers' Choice--The First Two Years

More Poems Finding Homes

I'm very excited to be published by a journal I've submitted to several times, Boston Literary Magazine, whose Editor-in-Chief Robin Stratton just accepted "Fourth Grade Dance" for their summer issue.

Last month, Falling Star Magazine, a paying market, accepted "Lincoln's Long Trip Home" for their upcoming issue themed "Point A to B."

Friday I received my contributor's copy of Spark: A Creative Anthology, volume V, so my birthday month is replete with writing pleasures!

I'm busy at work for Spellbound, who solicited world-wide fairy-tale related poetry with a diverse background for children aged 8-12.  Writing for children is always a challenge for me, but this is such an interesting anthology, I'm giving it my best effort!

Spellbound Table of Contents

Fiction

Jacinta and the Cornstalk by Kari Castor
The Boi Who Drew Cats by Jay Wilburn
Black River, Blue Sky by Pamela Love
The Frog and the Condor by Christina Tesoro
The Four Skilled Sisters by EM Beck
The Key by Alex Townsend
Queenie the Beautiful and her Magical Doll by Szmeralda Shanel

Poetry

What you need to know about fairy godmothers by Laurel Klein
Mirror Image by Beth Rodriguez
Counting by Jennifer Moser Jurling
The Coquí Captain by Beatriz Fernandez
After the Nettles by Sara Cleto
Vasilisa the Beautiful by Sharon Fedor

Artwork

Jane Baker, Paul Davey, Melanie Gillman, Charli Gunn, Tory Hoke, Susan Knowles, Nilah Magruder, Marta Milczarek, Audrey Roche & Steve Wood.

Irene Adler haunts Sherlock's mind....

My poem, "Very Truly Yours, Irene Norton, née Adler” which won 2nd place in Spark's Contest Two, will be published in Spark, A Creative Anthology Volume III on Halloween!  

“To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen.... And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.”

― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Feedback, the essential fuel for writing

One thing I like about certain journals is that the editors take the time to provide precious feedback for the writer.

A remark by the editor of Boston Literary Magazine enabled me to vastly improve the poem I had submitted, and led me to seek more individual help, which is how I found Andrea Hollander, both a gifted poet and tutor.

In all endeavors in life, sometimes you get to the point where you can't proceed without help. Journals like Boston Literary Magazine and Spark, A Creative Anthology, whose editors and staff provide that essential feedback, are invaluable to a writer at any stage in their development.

"Point of No Return" accepted by Spark, A Creative Anthology

Spark a Creative Anthology just accepted "Point of No Return," a sonnet in two septets honoring Harry K. Daghlian, Jr., the first American casualty of the Atomic Age.

I am very excited to be part of Spark's next volume. They have great contests which award not only cash prizes and publication, but also subscriptions and books!