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...]
News from contributors: Levine, Boyle, Bass, Meno, Somlo, Kirk, Bottiglieri, Beals
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...]
News and updates
Somehow it's September. Are you like me and wondering where the summer went? Well, at least I still have a vacation attitude in that I remain indolent and easily distracted. Contributors to Solace in So Many Words have been busy. I want to remind you again that Jan Bottiglieri's new chapbook "Where Gravity Pools the Sugar" is out from Finishing Line Press. Daniel Chacón has revamped his website. His next book," is a hybrid of flash-stories and loops in text and … [Read more...]
Winter weekend: reading Philip Levine and Donna Hilbert
It's a quiet weekend here and a perfect time to post. Did you read The New Yorker (Feb 11 & 18 issue)? Philip Levine has a poem "In Another Country" and when I say it's dreamy, I mean it literally. In this other country, ". . . There is no town, only / fields of long grass blowing in the wind / and beyond the wind the gray mountains." It ends, ". . . . The wind kept prodding / at my back as though determined / to push me away from where I was, / fearful, perhaps, I … [Read more...]
Updates and news: Mahan, Adamkiewicz, Hilbert, Kirk, Langan, Levine (and me)
Due to construction I have been slacking, but not so with Solace in So Many Words contributors. Kathleen Kirk has four poems, "Daughter of Midas," "Children Again," "Goldfinches," and "Mythology" in Glasschord Magazine (volume 27). I hadn't heard of this online magazine before but the website explains, "Glasschord Magazine was founded by a community of emerging artists as an open forum for creative expression. Each monthly issue explores a single theme from a variety of … [Read more...]