Poetry: General
Finalist
A Ligature For Black Bodies by Denise Miller
Eyewear Publishing
Finalist
Death, With Occasional Smiling by Tony Medina
Indolent Books
Finalist
Stars in the Junkyard by Sharon Berg
Cyberwit
Finalist
Touch My Head Softly by Eileen P. Kennedy
Finishing Line Press
Finalist
Warren by Karina van Berkum
MadHat Press
Finalist
Watermelon Linguistics: New and Selected Poems by Alexis Krasilovsky
Cyberwit
We have to read to write. It’s that simple. If you want to write a fiction, read good novels. If you want to write poetry, read good poetry.
Reading serves as a form of mentorship, especially if we read as writers, and read good writing. Reading provides rich fertilizer for your own writing.
Writers need to read what they like, what they find stimulating, what other people find stimulating. This will improve a writers writing.
Reading in our genre, and outside of our genre, will give us an idea of the diverse compositional structures that exist and are available for us to use, and use well. For an ode’s structure, read “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” by Keats. For historical fiction, try Real Estate by Kathryn Holzman (Propertius Press, 2020.) For grief or illness poetry, try Touch My Head Softly (Finishing Line Press, 2021.) For a memoir try, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (Harper, 2016.)
I will be blogging on Thursdays, with announcements, as they come up, on Tuesdays.
I so appreciate the thoughtful review Emily-Jane Hills Oxford gave my book in Reader’s Favorites:
“This is a passionate and engaging read, one that will strike a chord with many, as Alzheimer’s, like cancer, has affected most families in one way or another. It’s a powerful tribute to who have and are suffering and those who care. Stunningly, sublimely beautiful.”
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
This is the website: https://www.strawdogwriters.org/post/exploring-some-japanese-poetry-forms-writing-haiku-and-tanka.
Register by email to admin@strawdogwriters.org
This is the website: https://www.strawdogwriters.org/post/exploring-some-japanese-poetry-forms-writing-haiku-and-tanka.
Register by email to admin@strawdogwriters.org
Everyone has an inner critic. The inner critic is there to protect you from doing dangerous things. But it can also make us too cautious.But writing isn’t dangerous and we should learn to use our inner critic to help us write.
The inner critic serves as a guardian angel to keep you safe and doing something dangerous. When it comes to life and death situations, the anxiety from your inner critic causes you not to act. But you don’t need your inner critic to write.You need to act to write. Have your inner critic give you permission to write.
I just finished a book about my experiences with my partner who died of Alzheimer’s in his sixties (Touch My Head Softly, Finishing Line Press, 2021.) It was a hard book to write and i struggled with my inner critic. But the writer in me won out in the end.
Part of the proceeds of the book will go to the Alzheimer’s Association, so it’s all positive. Take a look:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
I have many unfinished poems. Billy Collins says five or six poems wind up in his trash bin before he gets one that’s a keeper.
The concept of being complete is an interesting one. If you are complete, you don’t have to strive to do anything else. You don’t have to reinvent yourself.
We can change as we develop new skills, new experiences, new outlooks. That’s what makes the writing interesting. We adapt to new circumstances and overcome limitations. This affects our writing.
I wrote a book that was just published by Finishing Line Press:
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/touch-my-head-softly-by-eileen-kennedy/
After it was published, I floundered for awhile, trying to write different things, but not really liking any of the new work. Then I started on a new longer poem about the drowning earth. Here’s an excerpt:
The Boat
“Cuando sale la luna, el mar cubre la tierra
When the moon rises, water covers the earth”
–Federico García Lorca
I want to begin with the boat. It was a thing of beauty.
Can one be seduced by a boat? I was.
This project intrigued me and I continue to work on it today. How do you stay engaged with your writing?
Eileen P. Kennedy Author 