Catching Up on a Few Announcements

I’ve been transitioning lately, setting off on a new adventure — which will be the topic of my next post. But first, there are a few announcements I’d like to share:

I’m honored that “Hush” has won an Honorable Mention in the Tom Howard / Margaret Reid Poetry Contest 2015 at Winning Writers. (This is one of my all-time favorites of the poems I have written, and it’s exciting for it to have received recognition in a venue I hold in high regard. “Hush” is part of the full-length collection last penny the sun.)

The following poems have appeared in various journals since my last post:
“In-Habit” at Whispers.
Three poems (“Keepsake for Isky” “Interval” “Rough Beast”) at Verse-Virtual.
“Reserving Judgment” (a collaboration with Saddiq M Dzukogi) at Gnarled Oak.

Finally, although not a publication per se, a poem: several weeks ago, I finished reading CROSSING THE LINES: Stories by Tony Press (Big Table Publishing, 2016). I love this series of short stories, and wanted to pay tribute to that by giving it a five star review on Amazon. No matter how I tried, though, I couldn’t express the impression these stories left on me in prose – every attempt felt inadequate. I finally went back to one of my mantras: When I am at a loss for words, that is the place where the poem begins. So I gave into the poem, a poem in response to the book, and submitted it to Amazon as a review. I was nervous while I waited to see whether or not it would actually be “approved” as a review – more nervous than I’ve been about any submissions to journals or contests in quite a while. (I still get nervous about being “interviewed” and “featured” though!) But it WAS actually approved, and the poem does better justice to the book than my attempts at prose did. You can read it here: Sipping It Slow: Poem in Response to Crossing the Lines: Stories by Tony Press.   Do check out the book if opportunity permits. It’s something to be savored.