An Anthology of New York Women Poets By Joyce Peseroff, Contributing Editor Edited byTerri Muuss and M.J. Tenerelli JB Stillwater Publishing The foreword to Terri Muuss and M.J. Tenerelli’s anthology of poems by New York women poets, Grabbing the Apple, could have been written forty years ago. “In response to the glaring lack of parity…
Tag: creative writing
Site Review: The Art of Poetry Video Repository
Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky on Poetry By Emily Jaeger, Features Editor Boston University’s The Art of Poetry Video Repository allows those with a thirst for all things poetry to learn about the masters from Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. An archive of videos recorded for Pinsky’s EdX and Massive Open Online course (MOOC), The Art of Poetry…
Site Review: The Poetry Conversation
Poet Sharon Bryan in the Cyber Arena By Emily Jaeger, Features Editor The first word that comes to mind when thinking of Sharon Bryan’s new website, The Poetry Conversation, is generosity. An award-winning author of four collections of poetry, Sharp Stars, Flying Blind, Objects of Affection, and Salt Air as well as a professor of…
Richard Gilbert: Word by Word
Writing’s Values—Intelligence, Sensitivity & Beauty—Challenge Me By Richard Gilbert, Contributing Editor “The ability to forgive oneself … is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.”—Ann Patchett English departments inherently espouse reverence for thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and comely expression. I codified this recently for myself while…
From Novelist to Poet
On Logophilia and Process By Stephen Mead See his work in Vol IV. #7 Just as some have a natural proclivity for math or sports, I have had one for actual words since an early age. “Chrysalis” was a particular favorite, the name of an old Jethro Tull record – I remember the icon on the…
Eye on the Indies
New To WTP Blog: Indie Book Reviews and a Look at Indie Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Book Review Editor Book: Ninety-Nine Stories of God Portland, OR: Tin House Books, July 12, 2016 ($19.95 cloth hardcover; 168 pages) ISBN 978-1-941040-35-5 Author: Joy Williams The highly respected writing of Joy Williams includes four novels, four prior short-story collections, a…
Information vs. Emotion in Memoir
Writing about Dreams, Loss, Fatherhood & Farming By Richard Gilbert, Contributing Editor One fall day, I sat down to write about my family’s experiences in Appalachian Ohio, where we lived and worked and were part-time farmers for thirteen years. It took me a year and a half to produce a manuscript of 500 pages. It took me…
Literary Spotlight: Tess Barry
Emptied of All But Wildness See her work in Vol. IV #7 Running past an urban field emptied of all but wildness, I see a scattered patch of bricks, sprawling weeds grown brown and tall and in among them glimpse some purpled heads of summer clover. They bend and blow toward me. A single Queen…
Review: Dani Shapiro's Still Writing
Memoir: the Personal vs. the Universal By Contributing Editor Richard Gilbert “Demons haunt your pages because they already exist.”—Dani Shapiro “Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.”—Henry David Thoreau Neat sentiment, Henry David, and it seems apt for writer Dani Shapiro, who has…
Book Review: Versed by Rae Armantrout
Judging by the Blurb By Joyce Peseroff, Contributing Editor I’m writing for the first time about a book I haven’t finished yet. My friend Sharon Bryan recommended Rae Armantrout’s Versed, and I’m enjoying a precision as sharp and startling as the plunge of a needle in Armantrout’s spare, tight lines. Who expects “mass market” to follow…
Site Review: Richard Gilbert's Draft No. 4
The Literary Memoir “Gilbert explores the enterprise of literary memoir in particular, and of good writing in general.” By DeWitt Henry, contributing editor Blogs can serve as anthologies-in-progress or on-line learning seminars, open studios, book drafts, self-dramatizations, lectures, guided conversations, and spiritual and intellectual explorations: Richard Gilbert’s Draft No. 4 Blog and its predecessor “Narrative”…
Interview: Jean Valentine
“I want [my poetry] to take off the diver’s mask.” Interview by Nancy Mitchell, Plume Poetry Originally published in Plume Poetry. Saturday morning, June 4, 2016, Schumaker Pond, Salisbury, Maryland. Our conversation began the last morning of Jean’s four-day visit to our house in Maryland. Because we spent most of our time in the company…