Remington Roundup: #Reading, #Writing, #Hosting

Roundup image: 1950s photo of woman sitting at Remington typewriter

March and April were full of conferences, conversation, writing ups and downs, and springtime observations. Here’s your Roundup of links to books, essays, and workshops to keep your mind musing and your pen moving.


#Reading

Roundup image: stack of books on desk

This is a stack of just a few books I’ve picked up over the last several weeks and miles of traveling.

I’ve got novels, a literary journal, a book on Native American medicines, and a book of fantasy fiction about a menopausal werewolf.

I’m gearing up for some major, very interesting, summer reading!


#Writing

Roundup: drawing of online symbol with symbols of people surrounding a paper and pencil

I’ve been teaching a great group of women in my Flash Nonfiction II course this Spring.

If you want to read some of their work (already published–these are real go-getters!), take a look at Gloria DiFulvio’s “Living on a Prayer” and Katie Vinson’s “Stealing Lilacs” on Life in 10 minutes.

This great online literary magazine speaks to my heart, encouraging writers to put pen to paper–just do it!–and start with 10 minutes. Because (as Founder Valley Haggard says) “it’s hard to convince yourself you don’t have 10 minutes.”

Outside of teaching on tiny essays, I’m spending the next several weeks revising my own, building a collection of essays and prompts to (hopefully) publish sooner than later. While you wait for that collection 🙂 you can read a few of the essays to be included here and here.


#Hosting

Roundup image: looking down on open laptop with woman holding coffee cup, phone and journal nearby, DREAM spelled out near laptop

You’re reading, you’re writing, you’re thinking about your next steps as an emerging author.

Hidden Timber Books is offering workshops for authors, with the first coming up soon!

Sign up by May 15th for Anne Clermont’s workshop on Author Websites: Your Calling Card for Readers. You’ll learn what makes for a great website that attracts readers, helps them discover your work, and keeps them coming back.


What’s on your reading & writing docket for Spring and Summer?

Remington Roundup: #Promos & #Poetry

1960's photo of woman at Remington typewriter

The month of April brings promotional excitement and poetic expression, along with rain and a little sun and signs of spring. In fact, starting Saturday, you can find several hiking excursions planned around the state through Wisconsin’s DNR. But today, we’re talking #promos and #poetry: an anthology giveaway and links to poets, old & new, & good verse.


 #Promos

By now, you may have heard that the anthology I co-edited with Lisa Rivero (Hidden Timber Books) has been released! Here are three ways you can snag a copy of Family Stories from the Attic:

  1. You can purchase the anthology online through Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee (recently named the best bookstore in Wisconsin!).
  2. Buy the book IRL (as they say) at the Book Launch on May 13th, 7pm, at Boswell, where you can also listen to contributors read from their stories, essays, and poems.
  3. Stop by Hidden Timber Books to enter a giveaway and–as a bonus–read Lisa Rivero’s beautiful introduction from the book. In an excerpt from the intro (below), she speaks to how the origins of the anthology began with her Great Aunt Hattie’s daily journal entries:

I began transcribing the entries to share with family members, and she became real to me through her words. Who was Hattie? She loved puzzles and games, especially solitaire, and she and her husband, William, played cards often with neighbors. She recorded scores of local baseball games. She looked forward to getting the mail and reading material. She enjoyed listening to the radio, especially news programs and serials. She butchered hogs on her kitchen table. She didn’t like to garden. She tended to be stout and then fat, helped along by her fondness for food and the difficulty she had in physical movement in later years. She was keenly interested in both local and national politics and remembered the anniversary of the death of FDR every year. She seems never to have lost her humor or her sense of wonder and engagement.

There will be more posts to come about the book and the contributors. For now, enjoy the introduction and drop your name in the hat to win a copy.


#Poetry

National Poetry Month is off and running with some cool ways to connect to your favorite poet or discover someone new.

  1. Click the picture to the right to pull up the official poster for National Poetry Month as a PDF, where each image links you to a poem.
  2. Stop by Literary Hub for 13 New Poetry Collections to check out during National Poetry Month.
  3. Head over to On Being’s Poetry Radio Project and listen to poets like Wendell Berry read “How to be a Poet” and Mary Oliver read “The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac:”

There is so much to admire, to weep over. / And to write music or poems about. // Bless the feet that take you to and fro. / Bless the eyes and the listening ears. / Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste. / Bless touching.

Several more poets are listed on the Poetry Radio Project page, providing excellent lunchtime listening (and reading, as many have transcripts attached). Hat tip to Yvonne Stephens for sharing the link.


How are you celebrating this week, poetry-wise or beyond?

Published and Marked “Busy”

the-drum-fb-profile-picPublished

If we’re connected on social media, you’ve already seen me post about my most recent essay, “In Texas,” published in The Drum.

What you might not know is that this essay has been years in the making. For that reason, and because this story sits close to my heart, I am more than grateful it’s finally found a home.

If you’re a reader, listen to “In Texas” HERE.

If you’re a writer, submit your own work to The Drum. Their submissions are open again, and I can’t say enough about working with editor, Henriette Lazaridis.


Marked “Busy”

As thrilling as it is to see your own work out in the literary world, it’s just as exciting to share the work of other authors whose stories I love. Lisa Rivero and I have finalized our selection of personal essays, creative nonfiction, and poetry for a family narratives anthology to be published in 2017 by Hidden Timber Books, entitled:

FAMILY STORIES
Bringing letters and archives alive
through creative nonfiction, flash narratives, and poetry.

Hidden Timber Books logoOver the next several months, we’ll be working diligently with both seasoned and emerging writers, fine-tuning these stories and the layout, to give you a rich collection of stories uncovered, discovered, and imagined from letters, journals, photos, and more.

Take a look at the list of contributors on Hidden Timber Books‘ website, and mark your calendar for an early 2017 release!