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Poetry news: celebrities, critics, and “Chicago” by Carl Sandburg

02/25/2014 By Ellen Beals Leave a Comment

Celebrities have been making news in the poetry world. The actress Kristen Stewart (who played Bella Swan in The Twilight movies) shared one of her poems (“My Heart Is A Wiffle Ball/Freedom Pole”) with readers of Marie Claire. Critics, especially entertainment writers, pounced on it. Jenn Selby writing in The Independent called it “the worst poem of all time.”  Facebook and Twitter blew up with snark.  I did see one positive use for the poem; Chicago writer Kathleen Rooney … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Accomplished Facts, Amtrak, Anthology, Carl Sandburg, Chicago, Chicago Humanities Festival, Ellen Wade Beals, Frank Bidart, Golden State, Herbert White, Ian Belknap, James Franco, Jenn Selby, Kathleen Rooney, Kristen Stewart, Marie Claire, Mark Neely, Philip Levine, Poems Done on a Late Night Car, Poetry, Poetry Foundation, Solace, Solace in So Many Words, The Independent, The Newberry Library, Weighed Words, William Carlos Williams, writer residencies

Suzy Snowflake

02/05/2014 By Ellen Beals Leave a Comment

The fourth day into February and it looks a lot like its January predecessors. The forecast is for more snow. Already some one from an event tomorrow is wondering whether it will be a snow day, maybe counting on it. Today’s Guest Blog is by Daniel Cleary. I was taken with his poem “More Snow” – he posted it on FB a couple of days ago.  I don’t usually go for rhymed poetry unless it is subtle and natural, and I think this poem is. In the comments section of his post, Daniel … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Anthology, Centaur Productions, Chicago, Dan Cleary, Daniel Cleary, Ellen Wade Beals, Garfield Goose, Museum of Broadcast Communications, Norma Zimmer, Poetry, Snowflake, Solace, Solace in So Many Words, Suzy Snowflake, The Norman Luboff Choir, Weighed Words

Hug it out

01/21/2014 By Ellen Beals Leave a Comment

Today I am happy to post "The Kiss-Me-Quick," a story by Rochelle Distelheim, which I first fell for when it appeared in the Visiting Hours anthology put out by Press 53. I'm happy to say that Rochelle and I are in the same writing group so I have had the privilege of reading her work for some years now. It's been enough years that I have read her novel Jerusalem As a Second Language, witnessed how it was crafted to win the 2012 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Anthology, appreciation, Brendan Coudal, cats hugging, Ellen Wade Beals, fragility of life, Friendship, hug, National Hug Day, Rochele Distelheim, shoe-shopping, Solace, Solace in So Many Words, thanks, The Kiss-Me-Quick, Weighed Words

News from contributors: Levine, Boyle, Bass, Meno, Somlo, Kirk, Bottiglieri, Beals

01/08/2014 By Ellen Beals Leave a Comment

Solace in So Many Words contributors have been busy.  Here’s a look at what they have been up to. Philip Levine has a poem “The Future” in the January 6 issue of The New Yorker, which begins this way, “The past is no more past / than the future,” and ends “but the day kept going / on and on into the future.” T. C. Boyle who released his tenth book of short stories (T. C. Boyle Stories II) in 2013 is working on a novel The Harder They Come. I'm about a half-year late … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Anthology, Arsenic Lobster, Camille Claudel, Contributors, Dancing Girl Press, Ellen Bass, Ellen Wade Beals, Emerge Literary Journal, Fickle Muses, How I Became Miss America, Jan Bottiglieri, Joe Meno, Kathleen Kirk, McSweeney's, Olentangy Review, Patty Somlo, Philip Levine, Pithead Chapel, Poetry, Rattle, Raven Chronicles, Scholars and Rogues, Selected Shorts, Solace, Solace in So Many Words, Susan Yount, TC Boyle, The Boiler Review, The Future, The New Yorker, Weighed Words, WNYC, Work Literary Magazine

Slice of Solace: Carl Sandburg “At a Window”

12/14/2013 By Ellen Beals Leave a Comment

I can image Carl Sandburg looking out the window at the treetops and being inspired to write this poem. It is from the “Fogs and Fires” section of his Chicago Poems.  Like much of Carl Sandburg’s works, this poem is in the public domain. There’s lot of his work available on the Internet; I got this from a site devoted to of all his poems from this book. At the site for the Academy of American Poets, you can find more by Carl Sandburg. And if you’re a Chicagoan, particularly a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: A Slice of Solace Tagged With: Academy of American Poets, Anthology, At a Window, Carl Sandburg, Chicago, Chicago Poems, Chicago poet, City of Chicago, Ellen Wade Beals, Poetry, Slice of Solace, Solace, Solace in So Many Words, Weighed Words

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