The leaves that fell in January |
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Susan Sontag once said ... |
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My idea of a writer: someone interested in everything.
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Remembering Bauke Kamstra |
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We're saddened to announce the recent loss of poet and Vine Leaves author Bauke Kamstra. Publisher Jessica Bell remembers him as "one of the most brilliant poets I’ve ever read. He wasn’t read enough. We tried to get his poetry read with his passion series, but, alas, poetry will always remain a hard sell. I hope his work lives on forever. It really should."
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Stanley Kunitz once said ... |
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I can hardly wait for tomorrow, it means a new life for me each and every day.
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Ann S. Epstein |
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One Person's Loss
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Ann S. Epstein was recently a part of the Ann Arbor District Library's Imagination Meets Experience: Alternative Paths to the Writing Life panel discussing their careers outside of writing, how they honed their skills via writing groups and workshops instead of writing programs, how fact and fiction intertwine in their works, and more.
To watch the event, click here.
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Ann S. Epstein |
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Learn History Through Fiction
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"In 1939, 90% of Americans opposed declaring war on Germany; 95% were against admitting more Jews. In 1941, after Pearl Harbor, resistance to entering the war decreased but not opposition to admitting Jews." Ann S. Epstein's recent Learn History Through Fiction posts focused on the recent commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Her piece, "Snappily Ever After” will also appear in Improbable Press's forthcoming anthology, Anna Karenina Isn’t Dead.
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Meg Johnson |
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1/18/2023
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"I think the most important thing is that I’m writing, but I guess I do feel a bit anxious and guilty to say I’m not working on any poems at the moment." Read Meg Johnson's latest blog post where she discusses the latest books she's read and her works-in-progress.
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Jennifer Lang |
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Go Figure
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"Still, as the year comes to a close, I am baffled. How can I succeed at the one and bomb the other to such an extent?" Enjoy Jennifer Lang's year-in-review post where she recaps her writing life and career ups and downs, the lessons she learned in 2022, and how that will impact her in 2023.
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Emilie-Noelle Provost |
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Taming the Haters...
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"I’d worked on that book for years. Why would a person who knew nothing about me or my work put so much effort into casting doubt on my achievement? Why would anyone be so mean to someone they don’t even know?" Learn how Emilie-Noelle Provost and others have dealt with online negativity and some people's need to rain on parades in her recent guest post for Writer Unboxed.
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Interview with Cordelia Biddle
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When asked about the teacher who said she'd never be a writer, Cordelia Biddle remembers that "she said I didn’t ‘possess sufficient imagination’ to become an author, which was my dream." Find out more about how Cordelia proved her teacher wrong, her writing and teaching career, and more in her recent interview with Roz Morris.
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Interview with Roz Morris
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Why aren't authors able to finish their books? Check out Roz Morris's recent interview with Joanna Penn to find out what Roz thinks the answer is and how to overcome the obstacles along the way to create a finished product.
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Eleanor Vincent’s debut memoir, Swimming with Maya: A Mother’s Story (Dream of Things, 2013), is a New York Times e-book bestseller that explores love, loss, and resilience following the death of her daughter. Her essays appear in several collections, including Creative Nonfiction’s anthology, At the End of Life: True Stories About How We Die and This I Believe: On Motherhood. She holds an MFA from Mills College and belongs to the San Francisco Writers Grotto, Left Margin Lit, and the Women’s National Book Association. She lives in Walnut Creek, California, with her husband Alex and loves long walks, Zydeco dancing, and dark chocolate.
Her memoir will be published at the end of 2024.
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David Starkey's collection, The Moon Shall Not Give Her Light, will be published in January 2025.
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Marc Parent once said ... |
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If January is the month of change, February is the month of lasting change. January is for dreamers…February is for doers.
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Check out our top-rated all-time bestsellers & other recommendations: |
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by Joseph Lezza |
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I'm Never Fine
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In I'm Never Fine, a collage memoir of essays and poetry, Joseph Lezza shouts in the dark from the backseat of a stranger’s car, a ditch on the Italian coast, a forest outside the arctic, and from the bottom of a shaving cream can.
When Joseph caught himself wishing necrotizing skin infections upon unhurried retirees in the self checkout lane, and fantasized about loud-talking commuters making quick friends with the underside of a steamroller, he began to wonder if he was fine.
Of all the things Joseph Lezza could have been, he certainly wasn't fine.
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by Emilie-Noelle Provost |
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The River is Everywhere
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Sixteen-year-old honors student Ernest Benoit has always followed the rules. But when his best friend drowns on Cape Cod, he begins to question his family’s devout Catholicism, and he disrupts an Advent prayer service at his Catholic high school. Now his life will never be the same.
A blizzard leaves Ernest stranded in a depressed western Massachusetts mill town after he boards a bus to Manhattan to avoid being sent to a Jesuit boarding school. It’s the beginning of a months-long journey that leads him to rescue a young girl from an icy river, into the bed of a lonely middle-aged widow, and to the woodland cabin of Roland Laliberté, a recluse who can shoot with the accuracy of a sniper.
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Martha Engber's Winter Light Now Available as an Audiobook
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Though a smart, beautiful kid, Mary Donahue is a motherless girl raised by an uneducated, alcoholic father within an extended family of alcoholics and addicts. Aware that she’s sinking, she’s desperate to save herself and so reaches out to an unlikely source, Kathleen, a nice, normal kid from English class.
But when the real storm hits, the full force of a harsh adult world almost buries Mary. Only then does she learn that the only difference between life and death is knowing when to grasp an extended hand.
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by Jessica Bell |
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A Tide Should Be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon
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Inspired by the special bond between mother and child, Bell's poems search for meaning in a world of misconception. They begin with small everyday moments and end with a shift in understanding that not only enlightens, but leaves you wondering.
From quiet nights reflecting on the sound of her child's smile, to viewing the world from the perspective of a potted tree dreaming of being rooted into true mother earth, A Tide Should Be Able to Rise Despite Its Moon is a collection of raw, honest, modern-day fables that remind readers to look deeper, feel more, and let the world speak for itself.
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by Walter B. Gibson and Morris N. Young |
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Houdini's Fabulous Magic
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Incredible escapes, fantastic sleight-of-hand-Houdini's most challenging performances are dramatically portrayed in Houdini's Fabulous Magic. Walter Gibson, co-author, was in close touch with Harry Houdini for a number of years before his death and worked with the master magician in preparing material for the book. It is with the aid of Houdini's own scrapbooks and notes that this book was written.
The spectacular highlights of Houdini's career are described--and explained--here. Included are the famous escapes: escapes from a padlocked milk can filled with water; from locked jail cells; from a water-filled Chinese torture cell while suspended upside down; from packing cases weighted underwater. Again, in this book, Houdini walks through a brick wall, vanishes a 10,000-pound elephant and is buried alive. Once more, Houdini and his wife Bessie mysteriously exchange places in a locked trunk-in three seconds!
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