Poet, Writer, Instructor
Attending an AWP Conference is exhilarating and exhausting. Watching thousands of introverted writers awkwardly networking is, of course, part of the fun; being too overwhelmed to even nod at someone you know is not. At the most recent AWP (Portland 2019) I admit to moments of complete and utter bewilderment, whether I was trying to … Continue reading Getting the Most Out of AWP
I’m happy to share that my haiku collection, STONE empty chair, has received its first review! I self-published it late last year, and had an enjoyable time selecting the poems, designing the book, and then, of course, receiving the box of copies. I’m also grateful to Serena Agusto-Cox, who runs Savvy Verse & Wit, a … Continue reading STONE empty chair’s first review
In January of this year, I spent four days at a retreat for women entrepreneurs. Located on the Oregon Coast, we were blessed with amazing weather, a lovely beachside house, great food, and each other’s company. I brought my journal, because I always bring it wherever I go. I noticed that most of the other … Continue reading Writing at a Non-Writers’ Retreat
I was reading my Christmas present, The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Volume 2: 1956-1963, when I came across a mention of syllabic verse. Plath’s poem “Mussel-Hunter at Rock Harbor” is written in stanzas of seven lines, each line containing seven syllables. In a letter to her brother Warren, dated June 11, 1958, she writes about the … Continue reading Syllabic Verse
Two of the books I received for review consideration in 2018 came from poets who live and write in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California: Starshine Road by L.I. Henley, and Waking Life by Cynthia Anderson. Henley writes of growing up in the Mojave, of walking down dirt roads as a child past a house filled … Continue reading The Poetry of Place
Here are the covers of the twenty-five books I reviewed for the first year of Sticks & Stones. As you can see, the covers make a lovely collage, and each one reveals something about the poems inside. Every one of these books was an adventure, a chance to delve deeply into a poet’s world, and … Continue reading Sticks & Stones: The First Year
In October of this year, my almost-brand-new Instagram account was hacked, starting a long chain of unpleasant events that included stolen passwords, barrages of phishing emails, my inadvertent deleting of my entire hard drive (I got it back, thanks to the Cloud) and weeks of stress and paranoia. At the end of this awful experience, … Continue reading Haiku Book Leads to Hack
In October, I was happily writing a poem about gardening, when it took a sudden turn and revealed its true topic: the calamity of immigrant children held in cages at the US/Mexico Border. That day, I posted “For some reason my nature poems keep turning into political poems” to my Facebook page. In her essay … Continue reading Politics, Theme and Poetry
I recently picked up a copy of Pages, the Creative Guide for Art Journaling & Bookmaking. Illustrated journaling is one of my hobbies, and I was drawn to the project on the magazine’s cover (“mini ZINES create your own!”) At the end of the magazine, I found the article “Gathering Your Story Elements,” by Jeanne … Continue reading Storyboards for Creative Writing
After attending the Oregon Poetry Association’s 2018 conference, I’ve been thinking about what makes a good conference. I’ve attended many, from small events put on by a few dedicated volunteers to big noisy affairs (AWP comes to mind). What struck me most about the OPA conference was its collegial, non-competitive atmosphere. It was a pleasure … Continue reading The 2018 Oregon Poetry Association Annual Conference, September 29-30, Eugene, OR
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