Open Mic Blog

Small Wonders

Posted on December 9, 2011 at 1:20 PM

I took this picture of my niece, Sarah, about fifteen years ago, and it's one of my very favorite photographs---a wondrous moment that I was lucky enough to capture. I hope that your days are full of small wonders, and I wish you many more.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year to all my friends and family!

Murmuration!

Posted on November 26, 2011 at 7:35 PM

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Don't miss this incredible footage. Now I know what murmuration is, and I want to witness it in person!

"Girls canoeing in Ireland behold an astonishing sight as thousands of starlings swoop and pulse, whooshing through the sky as above Irish waters. It's the miracle of "'murmuration.'" via Good News Network and my friend Christina St. Clair.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/most-popular/starling-flock-mesmerizes-boaters.html

WOUB Interview

Posted on November 25, 2011 at 11:10 AM

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Marie Manilla and I were recently interviewed by Wendy McVicker on WOUB public radio about writing and the writing life. Between the two of us we write short stories, non-fiction, poetry, plays, and novels. I hope that you'll click on the link below and listen in. Marie and I will be happy to respond to any questions or comments.

http://woub.org/2011/11/23/poetry-and-prose-talk-marie-manilla-and-laura-treacy-bentley

The Stinging Fly!

Posted on October 21, 2011 at 2:55 PM

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News from Dublin, Ireland! The cutting edge magazine,The Stinging Fly, will be presenting three readings in NYC from their latest New York Issue. Read about all the excitement from editor, Declan Meade.

On Monday, I fly from Dublin to New York along with four writers—Aifric Mac Aodha, Emer Martin, Sean O’Reilly and Keith Ridgway. We have three events lined up on three consecutive nights at venues around Manhattan. It’s very exciting and more than a little scary.

Right from the first issue of the magazine coming out in the spring of 1998, we have organised events in Dublin, and these have become an integral part of what The Stinging Fly does. We bring together all these writers on the pages of each of our issues, and then we bring them together in the flesh and we have them share their work and then they talk and drink and talk some more. They get to meet with their readers too. One of the main reasons the magazine has survived all this time is that we have a loyal band of readers who subscribe to the magazine and who come and participate in our events.

In Dublin, our events start on Irish time. I often find myself pacing an almost empty room as the advertised start-time comes and goes. (Almost empty because typically one or two people will arrive way ahead of time, but they will not be the kind of people who make me any less nervous.) Then suddenly, at five or ten minutes after the hour people begin to arrive and, within twenty more minutes, the room is full and my spirits lift and I know we’ll have another good night.

But three consecutive nights! We’ve never attempted that in Dublin. But to go to New York—to have been given this wonderful opportunity—it seemed like the only way to do it was to go all out and to try and do as much as we possibly could.

So, yes, I’m anticipating a few nervous evenings next week, waiting to see if people will turn up to our different events. I know I’m going to meet a lot of writers, many of whom have contributed to our New York issue, and up to now we’ve only communicated by e-mail. I hope I’m going to meet some new readers for the magazine too— and I hope we all have a few great nights together.

~ Declan Meade

The Stinging Fly in New York, three events on three nights, October 25, 26 & 27, is part of Imagine Ireland, Culture Ireland’s year of Irish arts in America during 2011. The Stinging Fly magazine publishes new Irish and international writing. We welcome submissions from January to March each year. www.stingingfly.org

(Photo by John Minihan)

Declan Meade has published and edited The Stinging Fly magazine since 1998. From 1999 to 2004 he edited the James Joyce Bloomsday Magazine for the James Joyce Centre in Dublin. In 2005 he set up The Stinging Fly Press that he continues to run in tandem with the magazine. He has edited two anthologies of short stories, These Are Our Lives (2006) and Let's Be Alone Together (2008). In 2004 and again in 2009, he organised the Davy Byrnes Irish Writing Award, Ireland's biggest short story competition. http://www.stingingfly.org

The Stinging Fly

PO Box 6016

Dublin 1

Ireland

—new writers, new writing—

The Stinging Fly in New York - 3 events, 3 nights - October 25, 26 & 27 as part of Imagine Ireland

http://stingingfly.org/news/events-news-stinging-fly-new-york

http://www.imagineireland.ie/programme/single/the_stinging_fly_in_new_york

Available now: our New York issue http://stingingfly.org/current-issue

Join us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StingingFly and on Twitter: @stingingfly

Favorite quote

Posted on September 25, 2011 at 9:20 AM

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c 2011

"Hitch your wagon to a star." ~ Emerson

In need of some powerful inspiration? Please share one of your favorite quotations.

Marc Harshman Interview

Posted on August 27, 2011 at 10:40 AM

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Enjoy my latest interview ("Conversations") from the Fall issue of WV LIVING MAGAZINE with acclaimed West Virginia poet, children's writer, and storyteller, Marc Harshman: http://www.wvliving.com/Fall-2011/Conversations-with-Marc-Harshman/

While you're there, explore the brand new WV Living website! http://www.wvliving.com

Jump Start Your Novel

Posted on July 30, 2011 at 11:33 AM

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Have you ever dreamed about writing a novel or need some inspiration on how to organize or complete your latest novel-in-progress? Well, you've come to the right place!

What a stroke of luck to have noted author and teacher Meredith Sue Willis agree to be my guest blogger! As you will discover, her post "Jump Start Your Novel" is filled with solid ideas and fresh perspective on how to tackle the complexities of novel writing.

Meredith teaches creative writing and is a masterful and prolific author who has written novels, short stories, and books about the craft of writing. Born and raised in West Virginia, she graduated from Barnard College Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude and took a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. She has won many prizes for her writing, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Oradell at Sea for adults and Billie of Fish House Lane for children are her most recent novels. Her new Appalachian short story collection is Out of the Mountains, and her latest book on writing is Ten Strategies to Write Your Novel.

Meredith will be taking questions for the next two days, and she has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with us. Don't miss this fabulous opportunity to ask questions about writing your novel!

~ Jump Start Your Novel ~

Meredith Sue Willis

The momentum that got you rolling on your novel is almost certainly going to die out before you finish. Inspiration alone can take you through the draft of a short story, but rarely a novel. When I run out of steam, my favorite approach is to let it rest a while, then come back a month or half a year later. I skim over what I’ve written (trying hard not to start improving the sentences), and try to see the novel as a whole. What scenes are missing? What did I forget about? What scenes might get me writing again?

I tend to think in scenes, especially when I’m coming back to a project, because often that’s where the energy is, in these mini-stories where people interact and talk– the dramatized if not necessarily dramatic parts.

One approach is to use what I call the Archipelago Method. This requires listing the five or seven most important scenes in the novel, including those you’ve written but especially those yet to come. The number is arbitrary, but the idea is to write first the parts that engage you most.

And what engages you is essential for restarting a stalled project. These important scenes, once drafted however roughly, stand in the ocean of your ideas like the islands of an archipelago. Once they’re drafted, you go back and start from the beginning, revising the “islands” and adding connective material and new scenes as well.

The Archipelago method focuses on the structure of your novel as a way of building momentum again, but taking the opposite tack works too.

Make a list of quotidian scenes: people eating or kissing. Have a character look at a refrigerator or pantry or other food storage place that belongs to another person. Have your main character take a shower or bath. The point here is to use the quotidian as a magnet to attract material from your sources.

Or, try something even smaller and more concrete. Describe an ordinary object that might appear in any novel. Use more detail than you ordinarily would, and emphasize the senses other than sight. Use the description to sink into your story almost meditatively and see what other ideas come to you. Draft quickly, trying to make the thing fit into your novel.

Give yourself these assignments or similar ones:

– Put a pair of shoes in your novel. How do they sound, smell, and feel?

– Put an apple in your novel.

– Put a bird in your novel– a pet, a ceramic bird, or a bird cooked for a festive meal.

It’s important to repeat that the aim here is not description for its own sake, but description as a way of priming the pump so ideas will bubble up. There’s no right or wrong, and if you go off on a tangent, enjoy the trip! You might find a subplot or a character or even (at last) your ending.

~ Visit Meredith Sue Willis's website at http://www.meredithsuewillis.com

Meredith Sue Willis

~ Read about and buy her books at http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/commentary.html

~ Discover her wonderful page of resources for writers at http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/resources.html

New Books: OUT OF THE MOUNTAINS: Appalachian Stories.

Visit http://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Out+of+the+Mountains

Honoring Ethan Fischer

Posted on June 20, 2011 at 9:22 AM

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My witty, wise, kind, and caring poet friend Ethan Fischer died a few days ago. Simply heartbreaking.

I wanted to do something to celebrate his life, so I created this tribute page for him where people can come and share their memories of Ethan. I think he would have liked that.

Here is a link when Ethan was featured on my blog a couple of years ago: http://www.lauratreacybentley.com/apps/blog/show/757403-west-virginia-poet-f-ethan-fischer

Scroll down to read about and listen to this wonderful interview with Ethan conducted by his dear friend Grace Cavalieri who talked with him on her award-winning program "The Poet and the Poem" at the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/poetpoem.html or click on this link http://www.loc.gov/poetry/avfiles/poet-poem-fischer-zahniser.mp3

My Poem on Oprah's Website

Posted on April 22, 2011 at 6:14 PM

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Photo: Gentl & Hyers

* * *

I was thrilled to learn that one of my poems, "Keepsake," was selected by Maria Shriver and the editors of O Magazine to be featured on Oprah's website.

If you'd like to read it, here's the link: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/O-Magazine-Readers-Original-Poems#1

NWP Guest: Paul Oh

Posted on April 6, 2011 at 10:19 PM

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I'm thrilled to introduce my very first guest blogger Paul Oh. He is a Senior Program Associate for the National Writing Project. Not only is he a wonderful writer himself, Paul's also an advocate for teachers teaching teachers and an integral part of the quiet revolution that has inspired countless teachers across the country since 1974, kindergarten through college, to write and effectively teach writing in their classrooms.

In celebration of National Poetry Month and to stir up some support for continued funding of the NWP, Paul will be taking your questions and comments for the next two days. Please make him welcome!!!

Paul Oh

Last year, the staff where I work decided to celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day (which this year will be held next week, April 14th, as part of National Poetry Month). The 15 or so of us who participated took turns standing at the top of a small flight of steps, which had a commanding view of the office, and each read our poems.

Some were about love. Some were funny. All were beautiful.

I chose "Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100." Or maybe I meant to. I can’t remember now. I only recall that afterward we shared cupcakes and talked about our poems and enjoyed the experience of reading aloud to one another, of sharing words and their beauty.

Of course this makes complete sense, given that I’m employed by an organization called The National Writing Project. For those of you not familiar with the work of NWP, as so many call it, we are a long-standing education reform non-profit that focuses on the teaching and learning of writing. We are also a network of teachers and of local sites – more than 200 – located in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Our ethos is often succinctly described as “Teachers Teaching Teachers.” Because we believe that teachers, together, through reflection, collaboration, reading and writing, build knowledge that helps us become better educators and our children better learners.

Like the Poem in Your Pocket gathering in my office last year, at writing project sites around the country, teachers periodically gather to share practice, share food, write, and sometimes read aloud.

In my former life as a teacher – I taught various grades and in a computer lab at the elementary level, both in Massachusetts and New York – I was a member of the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. Now, as a staff member at NWP, I live in Oakland, California, miles from our Berkeley office, just across the Bay from San Francisco. In fact, as I stood at the top of those steps reading my poem that day a year ago, I could’ve turned and seen out the window the Golden Gate Bridge.

We have a wealth of teacher resources at the NWP website. But especially relevant right now is this collection pertaining to National Poetry Month. Please check it out. And enjoy your own poems in your own pockets.

* Which poem will you carry in your pocket on April 14? How has NWP impacted and transformed your life?

* Please come and share your thoughts, opinions, and testimonials. Writing is essential.

~ Paul Oh is a Senior Program Associate with the National Writing Project, an educational non-profit dedicated to the improvement of writing in our nation’s classrooms. You can often find Paul at http://twitter.com and you can always find his writing at http://dcomposing.com

All-time favorite poet?

Posted on April 2, 2011 at 7:45 PM

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Since April is National Poetry Month, tell us your all-time favorite poet. Click on the red question below and then type in the name of your favorite poet. It will create a "word cloud" of all the answers.

Who is your all-time favorite poet?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Favorite comfort food?

Posted on February 9, 2011 at 12:12 PM

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What's your favorite comfort food that always seems to make everything better? If it's homemade, how about sharing the recipe, too?!

Click on the red link below, and type in your favorite. What is your favorite comfort food?... at AnswerGarden.ch.

SEVEN: Marie Manilla

Posted on January 12, 2011 at 12:28 PM

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Marie Manilla is a typical hyphenated American: Italian-Irish-West Virginian. She was a barefoot, tomboy growing up as evidenced by the nail-punctured feet and briar-scratched legs. She survived 12 years of Catholic school and is no longer afraid of nuns (mostly). She is still afraid of priests. Her first post-college job was as a graphic artist in Houston where she was introduced to the Latino culture (and the fabulous magical realism of Garcia Marquez). It was in Texas that Marie began writing fiction and her work is often peopled with West Virginians, Texans, and Latinos. Go figure. Magical realism also creeps in from time to time. After earning an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Marie returned to her hometown, Huntington, West Virginia, where she teaches on and off at Marshall University and tries to keep her Appalachian students from buckling under all those worn-out, hillbilly stereotypes. When Marie can’t write she paints or hugs her dog—because dog hugging is also an art form.

Marie's debut collection of short stories, Still Life With Plums, has just been published by WVU Press. Her vivid and award-winning stories have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Prairie Schooner, Mississippi Review, Calzyx Journal, Kestrel, Portland Review, GSU Review, among others. Marie is also the author of the upcoming novel Shrapnel, a winner of the Fred Bonnie Award for Best First Novel which was judged by Daniel Wallace, celebrated author of Big Fish.

Glenn Taylor, National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart said this about Marie's work: "It's soul lies in life's little moments, somehow still yet perpetually fleeing. Manilla's word take flight in the mind and dance 'like paper birds in the wind.' Inevitably, the words will root inside the reader, like the memory of a fossil or a Polaroid picture, and once there, they will cease to be still. Just as the people in these stories, they will keep on humming."

Discover seven revealing and unique things about Marie! She will be answering your questions over the next two days and invites YOU to share one of your stupidest-thing-I-ever-did stories!! Please stop in and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to learn more about Marie and her craft.

~Seven Things You Probably Don't Know About Me~

Marie Manilla

1. I was a cook at a drive-in hot dog stand (Frost Top) throughout high school. I still have the burn scars on my arms to prove it, as well as an affinity for the comingled smell of mustard and onions. I also have fond memories of throwing tomatoes up into the exhaust fan so they would spew all out all over the parking lot. So far hot-dog stands have wound up in two of my stories.

2. I went to the Indy 500 in 1980 (this was before I was born, of course) with an 18” bendable Wile E. Coyote strapped around my waist. Two cool things happened: Walter Cronkite sat in our row, and a vender was selling baggies of ashes from the recently erupted Mount Saint Helens for $1.00. I regret that I did not buy one . . . though admittedly the ashes could have been from the dude’s fireplace.

3. I lost my glasses on the Soufriere Hills volcano on Montserrat Island a few years before it erupted in 1995. I have since wondered where my glasses may have landed after the spew. (What is it with me and volcanoes . . . which feature prominently in The Patron Saint of Ugly, my current novel-in-progress? Hmmm.)

4. On the way to dinner one night in London, I accidentally crossed a police barricade where Charles and Diana were getting out of their car to attend the premiere of the movie Lady Jane Gray. A bobby threatened to club me. A few hours later I again accidentally crossed the barricade as the movie was letting out and nearly fell into Phil Collins’s car (apparently he had a song in the film, which I never saw). What is it with me and police barricades?

5. When the writing is going well, I am a happy, happy camper. The converse is also true.

And now for a Cormac McCarthy detour:

6. Here is one of the seven stupidest things I have ever done: One night in college I walked home from a party by myself. A car pulled up, the guy inside offered me a ride, and because he looked decent I got in. The man drove me home, parked out front, and we talked in his car for about an hour--mostly about his cheating girlfriend. Right before I got out he touched my arm and said it was a good thing he picked me up because our chat had deflated his original errand: He was on his way to kill his girlfriend; he even showed me the gun beneath his seat. Stupid, stupid girl.

7. Another stupid thing happened at that same Indy 500 listed in #2. Wile E. and I were ambling around the beer and popcorn vendors outside the speedway (think seedy carnival) when a guy asked if I could show him how to get back to the highway so he could hitchhike home. I pointed in the right direction, but he kept insisting that I physically show him since it was just a couple of blocks. I was about to go with him (I know. Stupid, stupid girl) when one of the guys I’d come to the race with happened to walk by and said in the voice of God: Don’t go. The other man took off, and now I wonder what he really had in store. I am not so stupid any more.

_______________

Still Life With Plums was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Weatherford Award. Marie's book may be purchased at http://wvupressonline.com/manilla_still_life_with_plums_978193

3202600 and many other online venues, including www.amazon.com

Visit Marie's website at www.mariemanilla.com

Which work of art?

Posted on January 2, 2011 at 9:44 AM

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If money were no object, which original work of art would you most want to own and why?

Dear Santa =)

Posted on December 10, 2010 at 11:29 AM

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Click on the red link below and tell Santa your # 1 wish!

Dear Santa =)... at AnswerGarden.ch.

SEVEN: Beth Anne Miller

Posted on November 27, 2010 at 6:10 PM

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Beth Anne Miller's love affair with Scotland is evident in her forthcoming novel INTO THE SCOTTISH MIST. Ask her about her less-traveled roadtrips to Scotland and Ireland, horseback riding, her uncanny memory for numbers, and one of her favorite quotes: "Not all those who wander are lost." Escape to bonny Scotland by reading her time travel romance and walking right into the breathtaking Highlands!

Glenfinnan Monument and Loch Shiel

Eilean Donan Castle

A couple of years ago Beth and I became friends through our mutual love for all-things-Celtic, and she even emailed me from The Cliffs of Moher after capturing this stunning sunset.

A lifelong New Yorker, Beth has been an avid reader since a ridiculously young age (rumor has it she was reading street signs at around 2, but this could be an urban legend), and is often in the middle of several books at once. A road trip through the eerie moors and misty Highlands of Scotland provided the inspiration for INTO THE SCOTTISH MIST. She longs to ride a galloping horse across a field of heather (and if she has a handsome kilted man to accompany her, so much the better). She currently works in the publishing industry in New York City and is trying to plan her next road trip.

____________

Discover seven fascinating things about Beth! For the next two days, she will be answering your questions about her forthcoming book, writing romance novels, and anything else you want to know (within reason!) Please make her welcome and ask away!

_____________

~ Seven Things You Probably Don't Know About Me ~

Beth Anne Miller

1. I’ve been a certified scuba diver since I was 14, and went to college for marine biology, with the career goal of hugging whales. I ultimately realized (after an internship at a marine mammal research lab in California) that Whale Hugging was an unrealistic career goal and changed my focus to a more general biology degree. And then I did a 180 and got a Master’s in Literature to go with the Bachelor’s in Biology.

2. I am a huge fan of 1980s hair bands. If there’s a bunch of eyeliner-wearing, long haired androgynous dudes in leather screaming at octaves that defy the normal human range, then I’m there. I even have a plush llama named Sebastian, after Sebastian Bach from Skid Row (I also saw Sebastian Bach play the title role in Jekyll & Hyde on Broadway, and he was awesome).

3. I’m a Lord of the Rings geek—have read the books and written papers on them for college, have seen the movies a million times, and have been to see the complete score performed live to the first two movies at Radio City Music Hall (Return of the King- October, 2011—who’s in?). I can sing along with Aragorn’s Elvish song in Return of the King. Oh, and I can’t watch one movie without watching all of them, which can make for a very long movie night.

4. I am, for some unknown reason, obsessed with all things Scottish. I say “for some unknown reason,” because I have absolutely no Scottish blood in me at all. Maybe it’s from growing up in a neighborhood where the streets all have Scottish names (McLean, McDonald, Barrie, Murdock, Campbell, Douglas)? Anyway, I love reading novels about Scotland, I love bagpipe music, I love the kickass Scottish tribal band Albannach, I love traveling to Scotland, and I obviously love men in kilts. Oh, and Gerard Butler.

5. I am a huge fan of road trips. My first one was in a convertible down the west coast from the Puget Sound area of Washington to San Diego and then over to Arizona and Las Vegas. That resulted in me later buying a convertible (so much fun to drive!). Then followed a road trip through Scotland (1400 miles in like 9 days—so beautiful there!), and then another one in Ireland (with an obnoxious Garmin GPS that nearly got chucked out the window). It’s just so wonderful to tool around on the less-traveled roads and come upon a castle ruin. Wondering where to go next …

6. I don’t like cheese. There, I said it. I occasionally eat pizza (but I’m picky about it), and I will eat American cheese (not the Kraft singles, but the kind you get at the deli counter), but as a rule, I don’t like it. Which makes me a nightmare in restaurants, because I always have to ask if the food I’m ordering has cheese on it. And if I don’t ask, assuming it doesn’t, then I find out the hard way that I should have asked. There’s one pizza place near work that uses a ton of parmesan, and I can’t even walk by that place without gagging. FYI, not liking cheese makes you a target for ridicule, strange looks, and outright horror.

7. I spent a 9-week semester at sea on a schooner during my sophomore year at college. We started out in St. Maarten and sailed to and among various Caribbean islands before heading up the eastern seaboard to Long Island, NY. It was a fantastic experience, except for the fact that I was seasick for 9 weeks. There is this legend about something called sea-legs that folk are rumored to acquire a few days into a nautical journey, which makes them able to handle the motion of the sea, but I think that’s all a bunch of rubbish.

_________

~ Sometimes, in order to have a future, one must journey to the past ~

INTO THE SCOTTISH MIST is being released by The Wild Rose Press (www.thewildrosepress.com) in print and e-formats on February 4, 2011. You can find Beth at www.facebook.com/bethannemiller17.

Dream Studio/Library?

Posted on November 8, 2010 at 4:50 PM

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Tell us where you write. In an office, outside, in a coffee shop? If you could design your dream studio/library, what would yours look like?

The video link below comes pretty close to my dream.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/what-does-your-dream-library-look-like_b16289

Internet Moment?

Posted on November 2, 2010 at 8:50 PM

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Tell us about one moment when you knew that your writing, teaching, or everyday life was forever changed by the power of the Internet.

SEVEN: Gerry LaFemina

Posted on October 8, 2010 at 11:43 AM

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Gerry LaFemina believes poetry is the highest art form; believes everyone should rock out with a guitar at least once--even if they can't play; believes teaching is a calling; believes the New York City subways are beautiful (even if they smell badly); believes in love, bigfoot and other mythic creatures; believes in the power of a good meal, a good night's sleep, good wine, etc; believes laughter is a type of prayer.

LaFemina is the author of five collections of poems, two books of prose poems, and Wish List, a collection of stories. A new book of poems, Vanishing Horizon, will be out in early 2011. He directs the Frostburg Center for Creative Writing at Frostburg State University, where he teaches. He divides his time between Maryland and New York. Visit his website at www.gerrylafemina.net or the Frostburg Center for Creative Writing: www.frostburg.edu/cwcenter.

Discover SEVEN intriguing facts about Gerry LaFemina. He has agreed to take questions for the next two days, so ask away!

~SEVEN THINGS YOU PROBABLY DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME~

Gerry LaFemina

1. I joined a punk band around 15. Growing up punk rock taught me almost everything I believe about writing and teaching and being a writer.

2. I can’t resist episodes of the original Star Trek; I’m also a sucker for episodes of Get Smart, Mission Impossible, Barney Miller, and the Monkees. That said, I’m a firm believer that The Odd Couple may have been the best written sit-com ever.

3. The first acceptance letter I ever received was from the old Twilight Zone Magazine for a horror story. I was 17. The publication folded before the story ever came out.

4. If I could do it all over again and not be a writer, maybe I’d be an archaeologist, maybe a painter, maybe a Buddhist monk. I’d probably always dream of being a poet.

5. I went to day care at the Brooklyn Public Library, and have surrounded by books all my life. In the books that parents keep about their kids, my kindergarten career choice is “author or astronaut.” My eighth grade one is: “Author or attorney.” I have wanted to write all my life.

6. I have over 2000 vinyl records. Most mornings include me picking a record at random and starting the day with an album side and a few cups of coffee.

7. Once, I performed The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at a community Gong Show. I was gonged. I was six.

______

LaFemina's latest book of poetry, Vanishing Horizon, will be available for purchase in 2011 from Anhinga Press.

Pre-order now! http://www.anhinga.org/index.cfm

Some of LaFemina's other collections are pictured above: Wish List, Graffiti Heart, Figures from the Big Time Circus Book/The Book of Clown Baby, and Parakeets of Brooklyn.