Archive for July 26, 2021

How Did I Go From Writing The Teen Talk Column To Writing For The Senior Section??

When I started to think about how to market Inheritance Of Aging Self I read every article and book I find about the topic. One suggestion that clicked was to contact your hometown newspaper. For me that was an Oh Snap moment because I had been a columnist for one of those newspapers way back when. Which led me to send an email to the current publisher of the Arizona Jewish News, Shannon Levitt, to let her know that 50 years later, one of their Teen Talk columnists was still writing and attached a press release about my book.

She promptly wrote back and asked if I’d like to do a guest column for the wait for it…senior section. Which in an I feel so old sort of way makes perfect sense, so I accepted her kind offer. Then I tried to remember something about my experience writing that column way back when which was when I realized that I had kept those columns. And there they were, the original newsprint versions, carefully saved in my file cabinet.

I had a lot of fun writing my guest column, weaving in the history with a bit about my book, which includes a number of poems, a number of which were inspired by events and people that were part of my Arizona landscape.

You can read my romp down memory lane here, and below in all it’s glory is a pic of me from my Teen Talk days.

Write Women Book Fest 2021

I am delighted to be participating in this year’s Write Women Book Fest on October 9, 2021, noon-5pm edt. This will be a hybrid event taking place online and at the Marietta House Museum in Glenn Dale, MD. The schedule is still getting worked out but I’ll post more information when it is available. This wonderful event was founded by Heather Brooks to, “lift up women authors and publishing professionals”, and is a cooperative endeavor with the Prince Georges County Parks Department.

Video from Poets vs The Pandemic Reading

I was delighted to have the opportunity to read at Cafe Muse’s Poets vs The Pandemic series last night, along with Ann Bracken and Miles David Moore. Great thanks to Henry Crawford and Karren Alenier for hosting this wonderful series. I read from Inheritance Of Aging Self as well as a newer poem about quilting. Have a listen below. My reading starts at the 40 minute mark.

Poets vs The Pandemic Reading July 21rst

I will be reading along with Miles David Moore and Ann Bracken at the July 21rst Poets vs The Pandemic reading sponsored by Cafe Muse. The reading begins at 7 pm and will last for an hour. I’ll be sharing several poems from Inheritance Of Aging Self as well as a pandemic poem or 2 and some new work.

The readers were chosen based on all of us being poetry reading organizers, Ann is one of the organizers of the Wilde Readings in Columbia, MD and Miles was the force behind the long-running Iota readings in Arlington, VA, and I founded the DiVerse Gaithersburg (MD) reading. As I’m sure they will both agree, it is always fun to be the reader and not the organizer every now and again. Many thanks to Henry Crawford for all the work he has done to organize this series. Read more about MIles and Ann here.

The reading will be on zoom and you can register here for the link. It will also be available later on You Tube because as Henry pointed out in an email, one of the purposes of the series is to “document DC area poetry during the pandemic.” As a huge fan of documenting things, I’m so glad that they are doing this because our poetic voices during the pandemic are an important part of helping us to make sense of what we’ve all been through.

Come join us for a wonderful evening of poetry!