The Good News Department

I've had a few good weeks for good news. I recently signed up for Poets & Writers Thursday e-newsletter. It comes each week and includes a fiction prompt, a poetry prompt, and a Best Books for Writers recommendation. Look what came this week!

I am thrilled to have my book The Crafty Poet listed as a Best Book for Writers. This recommendation appeared not only in the newsletter but also at the P&W website where it will remain.

Then the book also received some local attention with an article in the online newspaper, The Jersey Tomato Press. The article is titled Crafty year round, not just for season of the witch: The Crafty Poet.

A few weeks ago I was invited by poet Adele Kenny to be a guest blogger at her blog, The Music In It. Adele posts a new prompt every Saturday and recently began inviting other poets to contribute a prompt. My contribution is The Word Chain Poem, which appears in The Crafty Poet. Adele also appears in my book with a Craft Tip on Imagery and a model poem from her collection, What Matters.

I was also happy to receive this lovely, unsolicited testimonial: "I was just at a 4 day retreat with two poet friends. Each of us had a copy of your book. And we used several prompts. As a result we walked away with about three new poems each and several revisions of old ones. Thank you for your newsletter and your book!" How perfect is that? This is exactly what I want my book to do, i.e., provoke new poems and improve ones in progress.

And there's a book party coming up for The Crafty Poet on Sunday, November 10! Ken Ronkowitz, one of the contributors to the book, has posted the details and information about The Crafty Poet at his blog, Poets Online. Twenty poets from the book will be reading, including Ken and Adele. Ken has a sample poem in the book. I'll be baking cookies for this reading.

Also on the list of good news: two Pushcart Prize nominations. The first came from Rose Red Review for my poem, The Color of Magic, which appears in the current issue.

The second Pushcart nomination is for Original Sin from Naugatuck River Review. This poem appeared in the spring issue.

I like good news so much better than bad news. The best that can be said of bad news is that it makes us so much more grateful for the good news. And I am grateful. Thank you, Universe.

Good News Department

I have won a contest! My poem "Original Sin" has received First Place in Naugatuck River Review's annual contest for 2012. I rarely enter contests these days, but obviously I'm glad I entered this one. Although this poem, when I wrote it, made my whole body happy in that way the keepers do, I was still delightfully surprised when I received an email a few weeks ago informing me that the poem was a finalist and on its way to the final judge, Pam Uschuk, and would at the very least be offered publication.

Then this past Sunday I was reading when the phone rang and I wondered grumpily, Oh, who the heck is that and it better not be a robot. It wasn't. It was editor Lori Desrosiers. So I thought maybe second or third, but she clearly said First Place! I was quite literally speechless and kind of choked up.

The prize is a joy-inducing check for $1000 and publication in the 2013 winter/spring issue.

Naugatuck River Review is a journal for narrative poetry, but the sub-title of the journal is Narrative Poetry That Sings. I knew that my poem had a story to tell and I worked hard to make it sing.

Once again my involvement with someone else's work stimulated my own. Several months ago Vermont Poet Laureate Sydney Lea contributed a wonderful Craft Tip to my monthly Poetry Newsletter. I bought his most recent collection, Year of the Young (Four Way Books, 2011). The gorgeous rabbit on the cover reminded me of one of my childhood pets, an unfortunate rabbit named Snowball, a pet who'd left me a legacy of guilt. I worked out that guilt in the poem. And surprised myself in doing so, so I was gratified that the judge mentioned the element of surprise as something she admired in the poem. I think Frost had it right: No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

The finalists and semi-finalists are listed at the journal's website.

Poems New and Old Here and There

I've had two more poems reprinted from my first book, Eve's Red Dress. "Feeding Habits" and "Losing the Blues" both appear online at Redux, a site run by writer Leslie Pietrzyk. This site is "invitation only," though there is a time when you can submit poems. Then if the poems pass Leslie's approval, you receive an invitation. Right now the submission window is closed. The policy is that the poems must first have appeared in print but not be available elsewhere online. The site features both prose and poetry. The online posts occur each Monday. Then on Tuesday the weekly post goes out to email subscribers. You can subscribe at the site.

I was also asked to send "The Story Behind the Poems," so that follows the two poems. My story begins, "We poets are multi-taskers. We are never just dining or driving; we are also gathering material for poems." Read more.

Lest you think that I'm only repeating myself these days, I'm also happy to report that I have two spanking new poems, "Your Blue Shirt" and "The Wrong Monkey," in the fall issue of Innisfree Poetry Journal. This issue is loaded with a terrific variety of poems and a number of book reviews. You'll find poems by at least four dozen poets, including Kim Bridgford, Grace Cavalieri, and Rosemary Winslow.

I've also just received my contributor's copy of Naugatuck River Review. How gorgeous is that cover? Publisher Lori Desrosiers has made a beautiful reality of her dream of having a print journal devoted to narrative poetry. My poem, "Warnings," is joined by poems by Pat Fargnoli, Michelle Bitting, Paul Scot August, and many others.

The journal is currently accepting online submissions for their annual contest which offers a $1000 prize. If interested, you'd better move fast as the deadline is September 1.

You can order a copy of the new issue at the website—and should do so!

One last thing—my poem, "Your Blue Shirt," was written to one of the prompts I created for my monthly Poetry Newsletter. Not yet subscribed? Head on over to the sidebar and sign up in time for the September 1 issue.