Happy December, friends! (Photo courtesy of the New York Times) “The idea of perfection in a poem is pretty stupid. Because if nothing else is perfect, why should a poem be perfect?” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/books/bernadette-mayer-dead.html Over the Thanksgiving holidays, the world lost one of the most remarkable, brilliant, and generous poets around. That person is Bernadette Mayer, … Continue reading December weekly prompt (in honor of Bernadette Mayer)
Tag: poetry
July 1st 2022
Friends of the unreal blog – The past couple of years have been intense ones for me personally and creatively. Being locked down so far away from family and friends in California but having the comfort of my spouse, Larry, I engaged in some very deep introspection and memory and wrote like crazy. As an … Continue reading July 1st 2022
What to read during Pride Month 2021: revisiting the work of Ryka Aoki (and looking forward to a forthcoming sf novel!)
My last quarter of teaching at UC Riverside, almost 10 years ago now, I elected to focus my Women's Lit class on issues related to trans-gender identities and to writing by trans and non-binary authors. It was during that time, that I discovered a hybrid collection of poetry and essays by the writer Ryka Aoki. … Continue reading What to read during Pride Month 2021: revisiting the work of Ryka Aoki (and looking forward to a forthcoming sf novel!)
and… read something
Friends -- while we're gearing up to write we can also read something. Read something by a friend or a stranger. Read something by a stranger who became a friend. A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of Gloss, the new poetry collection by Wendy Barker. It's fantastically good. I met Wendy at … Continue reading and… read something
Story Time Sunday on Monday: August 11th, 2014 — how poetry world got nicer
Once upon a time there was a little girl who read the Cat in the Hat book and thought to herself "poetry rhymes and is funny and can tell a story with great pictures, and I shall make a poem that rhymes and is perhaps a little bit funny, but mostly the sounds at the … Continue reading Story Time Sunday on Monday: August 11th, 2014 — how poetry world got nicer
Story Time Sunday — July 6th, 2014 — a flash fiction story about a bookstore reading
Once upon a time there was a man who said he was and indeed he WAS a literalist. This means, according to him, that he couldn’t see pictures in his head or understand metaphors. He couldn’t imagine abstract things, he said. “Well that’s not so weird,” I told him at the bookstore where we came … Continue reading Story Time Sunday — July 6th, 2014 — a flash fiction story about a bookstore reading
The Writing Process Blog Tour continues at Magically Real!
Many thanks to Kelly Davio for inviting me to participate in the Writing Process Blog Tour! Kelly is the author of the poetry collection Burn This House (Red Hen Press), and she has a forthcoming novel in poems Jacob Wrestling, that will launch in Spring 2015 with Pink Fish Press. She is a former poetry editor … Continue reading The Writing Process Blog Tour continues at Magically Real!
Story time Sunday, April 21st, 2013 “It’s all poetry”
One upon a time there were two brothers.No, not Jacob and Esau. And for heaven's sake not Abel and Cain!And no, not the Wachowski Brothers.No. These were two brothers living in late 18th Century Germany (well, not Germany yet, more like the remnants of the Holy Roman Empire).No, not the Brothers Grimm.The guys I am … Continue reading Story time Sunday, April 21st, 2013 “It’s all poetry”
Stephanie Barbé Hammer Writing (Un) Real 