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1st Edition of Virtual Poetry Circle

First an announcement, bloggers interested in reviewing poetry and interviewing poets, please email me your blog addresses and names so I can put you on my Verse Reviewers page. It will help poets locate blogs interested in reviewing poetry. I’ll be working on this list over the summer.

In the meantime, please grab this button and proudly display it on your blog.

OK, Here’s the first poem up for reactions, interaction, and–dare I say it–analysis:

Remember, this is just for fun and is not meant to be stressful.

Keep in mind what Molly Peacock’s books suggested. Look at a line, a stanza, sentences, and images; describe what you like or don’t like; and offer an opinion. If you missed my review of her book, check it out here.

This poem is from Sally Van Doren’s Sex at Noon Taxes; check out my review.

“ENVY”

When speech accumulates
and the circumference
of the mindscape is threatened
by a worn valve, it is

time to make a gesture
of incantation, time to
warn the beasts who
wish to annex that

piece of the mind,
that hovering wilts
the pink flower, that
in missing the caveat,

we fortify our theorems,
and sleep through our dreams.

I will join in this discussion as comments come in, but I’m leaving the poem on the table for initial reactions. Have fun and don’t be shy.

Don’t forget my 2-year Blogiversary celebration giveaways, here and here and here.

The Painter From Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

“That the buyer, if she finds one, probably won’t be able to read it means little. Yuliang doesn’t sign it for him. She signs for herself, to bind her work to her. To tattoo it with a message: she has won.” (Page 20)

Jennifer Cody Epstein’s The Painter From Shanghai, a debut novel, is a fictional account of Pan Yuliang’s rise from the ashes of her life as Xiuqing, a young child sold into prostitution. Through careful brushstrokes of her own, Epstein deftly fills her canvas with the sights, sounds, and images of China–from the dark alleys and brothels to the crowded, chaotic streets of Shanghai–in the early 1920s. Yuliang is a complex character who numbly makes her way through the obstacles she faces as a new prostitute under the thumb of corrupted merchants and a harsh and battered old woman, known as Grandmother. Emerging from the dank and corrupted halls of the brothel, she jumps into her new life as the concubine/second wife to Pan Zanhua and embarks on her career as a student and painter at the height of the Communist uprising in China during the 1930s.

“‘My husband,’ she says, twisting her wedding band, ‘writes that even more conservative Republicans will ally with the CCP now. For the nation’s sake.’

‘If anything, it’s a marriage of convenience.’ Now he looks straight into her eyes. ‘And one I doubt will last.'” (Page 318)

Epstein has a style all her own in which she easily weaves in relevant historical information through character interaction and development, but she also captures even difficult emotions with deft description and poise.

In the brothel, readers will feel Yuliang’s degradation as each man leers at her, touches her skin, and makes her kowtow to their desires. The one solace she has is the poetry of Li Qingzhao, which she recites from memory. Readers will enjoy the verse woven into the narrative as Yuliang examines herself at life-changing moments and seeks solace in the beauty of language.

Yuliang is molded by her mentors, but only truly blossoms when she becomes Zanhua’s wife and starts painting. Through painting she learns to combat her demons, her past, and her future, coming into her own as a painter and individual. As China is pulled in two directions between the republic and the communists, Yuliang is caught between her rebellious nature and Chinese tradition.

“Tearing off the sheet, she tries again, this time with better results. Use each object as a road into the next. She proceeds to the easiest object on the table, the orange . . . And in the space of a moment that neither registers nor matters, she is no longer outside the still life but working within it, running her mind’s hand over nubbly fruit skin. Pressing her face against the smooth tang of the bottle glass. Exploring a vase’s crevices with both finger and pencil tip, each item part of a visual sentence she is translating.” (Page 220)

The Painter From Shanghai
has a lot to offer book clubs, readers interested in painting, historical fiction, the struggle of women in society, China, and political history, and is one of the best novels I’ve read this year.

Check out my interview with Jennifer about her novel and writing habits.

1. Some writers will listen to music while writing and have a particular playlist for their novel or other work. Did you listen to any specific music while writing The Painter From Shanghai, and if so, could you list some of the titles? Or if you were to create a playlist for this novel, what would be the top 5 songs on that list?


I am actually highly distractible, so music is not a good idea for me in general unless it’s very low-level classical. Lyrics are bad–I can’t write words when I’m listening to other words. In general, I really just need quiet.

As for playlist: Hmmmm. Tough one with this book, as I’m not all that familiar with Chinese music from the period. I suppose the Charlston (which was the rage in Paris when Pan Yuliang was there), Verdi’s Macbeth (her first painting tutor is listening to Verdi when Yuliang first meets him); the first Shanghai pop song “Drizzzles” (Maomao yu)–a tune in folk style accompanied by New Orleans jazz-style music, Eric Satie’s Gymnopedie Number 1 (just because it’s the right general time frame and mood). And then maybe Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.”

2. Most writers will read inspirational/how-to manuals, take workshops, or belong to writing groups. Did you subscribe to any of these aids and if so which did you find most helpful? Please feel free to name any “writing” books you enjoyed most (i.e. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott).

I loved Bird by Bird, actually. I also was a huge fan of Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life” (I learned a ton from that) and “A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.” In terms of workshopping–I find it enormously helpful. I went to Columbia to get my MFA and was very happy to have done so. As my husband pointed out at the time It’s expensive, and the whole precept of “teaching” writing is somewhat dubious. But for me, having mentors, feedback, criticism and–perhaps most of all–other people who were trying to do the same insane things with their lives as was I was really reaffirming.


3. The Painter From Shanghai is written with sometimes very broad and very detailed brushstrokes to mete out Pan Yuliang’s past. Have you studying painting at any point, and if not, is it something you have considered?

I took a few oil painting classes for the book, sat in on a Student Arts League class for a day, and also worked with a friend who is a painter on dissecting and trying to re-paint one of Pan Yuliang’s paintings, just to get a sense of what it feels like. I think it’s safe to say the world is lucky I paint with words only!

4. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

Running. History. Good music. Frye boots. My Springer Spaniel Molly.

5. Please describe your writing space and how it would differ from your ideal writing space.

I generally write at a writer’s space, and it is pretty much ideal except for that it’s not easy to get to. I’d like to have it down my street, instead of a good half-hour by foot.
6. What current projects are you working on and would you like to share some details with the readers?
I’m currently working on a novel set in 1945, just before, during and after the Tokyo Firebombings. It’s quite different fromPainter” in that it will be told from a few different perspectives, and most of the characters aren’t as closely-based on real people. But like “Painter” it explores the intersection of different cultures, and the power of art (in this case, architecture) to both create and destroy.

Thanks, Jennifer, for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions.

About the Author:

Jennifer Cody Epstein has worked in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the U.S. for publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Mademoiselle, Self and Parents, as well as for the NBC and HBO networks. She has a Masters degree in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS and an MFA from Columbia. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband, filmmaker Michael Epstein, and their two daughters.

Check out her Web site, here.

She also very interested in speaking with Book Clubs about her novel by telephone and email if not in the New York City area or in-person if you are in New York City.

For reading group guides for The Painter From Shanghai, go here.

Here’s another interview with Jennifer at WOW! Women on Writing.

Interested in the real artist’s work, go here or here.

Check out the rest of The Painter From Shanghai tour with TLC, here.

Don’t forget my current giveaways:

2-year Blogiversary, here and here and here.

Interview With Poet H. L. Hix

Welcome to another 32 Poems Blog and Savvy Verse & Wit interview. This time, we have Harvey L. Hix, author of Legible Heavens and other poetry volumes.

1. Not only are you a contributor to 32 Poems, you are also a professor of English at the University of Wyoming. What “hat” do you find most difficult to wear and why?

The teaching, definitely. In my writing, I feel accountable, certainly, but to myself, to standards of integrity that feel as though they come from inside. In my job as a professor, though, I am accountable to the University that employs me (and ultimately to the citizens of the state whose university it is), and — more importantly — accountable to the students. I find those forms of accountability, which feel as though they impose themselves from outside, more difficult.

We live in a world populated by forces that conspire to reduce us to consumers (in which capacity it is crucial that we not think and that we not establish a unique identity), and, rightly or wrongly, I see the university as one of the few counter-forces resisting that conspiracy. Because the responsibility of resistance seems so vast, so far beyond the capacity of any one person to effect, teaching feels very oppressive to me. In the moment, conversing with students in the classroom, it is joyful, almost ecstatic, but as an ongoing fact and a duty, I find it intimidating, even overwhelming.

2. Do you see spoken word, performance, or written poetry as more powerful or powerful in different ways and why? Also, do you believe that writing can be an equalizer to help humanity become more tolerant or collaborative? Why or why not?

I myself have more interest in written poetry, because I want to be able to slow down, to re-read, to find my own path and pace through the work. And I do trust the expanded and clarified logic of the written, the complexity of thought it makes possible, which means that, yes, I think writing can/does invite tolerance and collaboration, can/does advance equality and liberty, in principle, though for various reasons I’m less certain of its doing so in fact. I’m influenced on this issue by Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Eric Havelock’s Preface to Plato, and other works.

3. Do you have any obsessions that you would like to share?

My poetry results from my obsessions, but surely the world is a better place if I don’t find any additional ways to enact or announce my obsessions.

To check out the rest of my interview with Harvey, go here. Harvey will tell you about his friendships, how he stays healthy as a writer, his writing space, and his current projects. Check out the 32 Poems Blog while your there, too.

About the Poet:

Recent Poetry Collections include God Bless: A Political/Poetic Discourse, Chromatic, which was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award in Poetry, and Shadows of Houses, all from Etruscan Press. Translations include On the Way Home: An Anthology of Contemporary Estonian Poetry, translated with Jri Talvet. Other books include As Easy As Lying: Essays on Poetry (Etruscan) and Spirits Hovering Over the Ashes: Legacies of Postmodern Theory.

Honors & Distinctions: NEA Fellowship, KCAI Teaching Excellence Award, and the T.S. Eliot Prize

Freelance Articles by Me

As many of you have heard, I’ve been looking for ways to make additional money while my hubby looks for a new full-time job. Thankfully, he has found part-time work at our local vet. They were nice enough to offer him a position. So, I wish him more luck in his search.

In the meantime, I’ve started writing freelance articles for Examiner.com; check out my page, here. If you haven’t read my first article already, here’s the link.

Please don’t hesitate to sign up for the email article updates, to follow my postings, or to comment on the articles. The more traffic I generate, the better it is. Or so they tell me. I’ll be writing articles about local events, literature, and offering book reviews, which you won’t see on Savvy Verse & Wit–though I could be persuaded to provide you with an announcement when those posts are up at Examiner.com.

I’m not the only face you’ll likely see on Examiner.com in the coming weeks and months.

If you’re interested in writing articles for your local area, let me know, and I can send you a referral form.

2-Year Blogiversary Quote Challenge

As part of the continued celebration here at Savvy Verse & Wit for my second blogiversary, I’d thought I would share with you some of my favorite reviews. Check them out, here and here. Have you read these books yet? What’s stopping you?

OK, are you ready for another quote challenge?

“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.”

Deadline for the giveaway is July 11, 2009, 11:59 PM EST

What you need to know:

1. Comment on this post with the answer to the quote.
2. Comment on this post about why you follow/read this blog.
3. Comment on this post about when you first started following this blog–an approximation.
4. Leave a link on this post to one of your favorite Savvy Verse & Wit posts.
5. Stay tuned for a new quote each week for another chance to enter.

***Update 6/24/09 at 1:45 PM***

Hatchette Group has kindly offered to add to my Blogiversary prize list. Here are the new books up for grabs: Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly, and the following from James Patterson: Along Came a Spider, Cross, Double Cross, and Cross Country

Does this give you more incentive to try your hand at the Quote Challenge?

Here are your other chances to win:

2-year Blogiversary, here and here.

How to Read a Poem. . . and Start a Poetry Circle by Molly Peacock

“I found grown -up poetry to be as spongy as a forest floor–your foot sinks into the pine needles, the air smells mushroomy and dank, and filtered light swirls around you till you’re deep in another state.” (Page 8)

Molly Peacock’s How to Read a Poem . . . and Start a Poetry Circle provides a great deal of information in just 200 pages–from how to interpret poems to how to create a poetry circle and join the ranks of those dipping their feet into the poetic pool.

“Yet as strangely contemporary as this art has become, it involves a timeless childhood pleasure: rereading.” (Page 13)

Peacock clearly knows her stuff from writing verse to examining its structure and images. She postulates that any poem can be examined in three simple steps. Examine the poem line-by-line, which she notes is considered the skeleton of the poem. Examine the sentence, which readers could consider the muscles of the poem. Finally, readers should examine the image or nervous system of the poem. However, Peacock does not suggest that readers pick apart each element of a poem and discuss it ad nauseam.

“This shimmering verge between what is private and what is shared is the basis of a poetry circle. A poetry circle (which is very different from a writing workshop, where people bring in their own poems to be critiqued by one another or by a teacher) occurs when the mutual reading of poetry is at hand. For me, the circle has its beginnings in the side-by-side reading of a poem by two people.” (Page 16)

A number of chapters examine a number of poems, their images, their rhythms, and their internal music. Beyond the application of these techniques on actual poems, Peacock illustrates the beauty of poetry circles, how to start poetry circles, and provides readers with resources to begin their own poetry circles and how to select poetry for discussion in these circles.

“You never know what’s going to catch your finger–or your eye. You needn’t ever be comprehensive about a book of poetry.” (Page 191)

These groups are not like book clubs where copious notes should be taken and entire books should be read. The purpose of a poetry circle is to generate a mutual respect and joy for each line of verse.

After reading this book, I’m going to try an experiment. I want to create a virtual poetry circle. I’ll post a new poem each week for people to read and comment about what they enjoyed about a line, a stanza, or the entire poem. Comments can range from what is good about a poem to what readers don’t like about a poem. Share your thoughts, opinions, and vision of the poet’s work. I’ll probably post these each Friday or Saturday, so keep an eye out.

This is my 1st book for the poetry review challenge.

Everything Austen Reading Challenge

Remember when I said I was only signing up for the Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge because it was about Vampires? Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’m signing up for the Everything Austen Challenge. Why all this torture?

Here’s why:

1. It’s Jane Austen
2. It’s movies and books
3. It’s Jane Austen Sequels
4. It’s Jane Austen-inspired books
5. It’s only 6 in any of these categories over the next 6 months (July 1, 2009 – January 1, 2010)

Isn’t that enough reasons? Ok, here’s another, there will be PRIZES, thanks to Stephanie’s Written Word.

I’m going to commit to the challenge, and opt for movies and books, but I’ll leave you in suspense as to which ones until I review them.

So, what are you waiting for?

Don’t forget my current giveaways:

2-year Blogiversary, here and here.

Guest Post: Hazel Statham, Author of Lizzie’s Rake

I would like to welcome Hazel Statham, author of Lizzie’s Rake, to Savvy Verse & Wit. She’s taken the time out of her busy schedule to share with us some tidbits about her mischievous dog, Mollie, and her writing space. . .

My Writing Space – Or Rather, Lack of

I wish, oh how I wish I had a workspace all of my own where I could spread my work out and no one would complain! It wouldn’t have to be a large room, I would be quite content with a very modest space – just large enough for a desk, a chair and a bookcase, but most importantly, with a door. Somewhere where I could just hide away from everyone and immerse myself in my own little historical world. There would be peace and quiet and when I was hidden away, everyone would know I wanted to be alone.

Of course, the dogs could come into my inner sanctum, they’re no trouble, except Mollie who, at just 12 months old, is still a little monkey – but we are imagining the ideal here. Sadly, the reality is not quite the same.

Due to the lack of an office, my computer is set up on a desk in a corner of the dining room – not very practical, I know, but as there’s no other space available, it has to be. I write when my husband is at work and the house is quiet. I can’t write when there’s noise around me as it disturbs my train of thought. Sometimes I can be at the computer from morning to night, sometimes for just a few short hours. Wherever I am, so are the dogs. Lucy is content to just lie by my chair but Mollie, more often than not, is always into some mischief or other. It’s not always easy typing with a Labrador trying to get on your knee.

There’s also a computer set up in the opposite corner and when my seven-year-old grandson comes to stay with me during the school holidays, he’s usually on it. He informs me that he’s writing a book about Mr. Bean and Star Wars. Rather a strange combination, I know, but one that seems to work for him.


Mollie getting into mischief!

About Lizzie’s Rake (From Hazel’s Website):

Can a rake reform his ways and truly love? Lizzie’s head tells her one thing, her heart another.

Infamous rake and Corinthian, Maxim Beaufort, Earl of St. Ive, finding himself in possession of a property in Yorkshire, is unprepared for the changes it will bring into his life. Irresistibly drawn to Elizabeth Granger, the former owner’s daughter, he attempts to help the family, finding himself filling the role of benefactor. When the house is razed to the ground, he arranges for

temporary accommodation for Elizabeth and her siblings on his estate.

When Elizabeth rejects his proposal of marriage, he is nonetheless determined to win her over. However, events and his reputation conspire to thwart his efforts and his course is one fraught with dangers.

Trust does not come easily and determined to protect her heart, Elizabeth struggles to resist her own longings. At times, their difficulties appear insurmountable but the earl is widely known as ‘The Indomitable’ and the name was not lightly earned.



Don’t forget my current giveaways:

2-year Blogiversary, here and here.

Mailbox Monday #35

Welcome to another addition of Mailbox Monday, sponsored by Marcia at The Printed Page. I’m getting fewer books in the mail, which is a good thing when the shelves are bursting.

1. Millie’s Fling by Jill Mansell from Sourcebooks


2. Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah from the author and her publicist.

What did you get in your mailbox this week?

Don’t forget my current giveaways:

2-year Blogiversary, here and here.

Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge!

I know, I know, I said I only had time for one reading challenge this year–The War Through The Generations: WWII Challenge–BUT Beth Fish Reads is now hosting the Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge.

What is a Sookie Stackhouse Challenge? Have you been living in a cave? I know I was last year, but I kept hearing great things about the HBO series TRUE BLOOD, and started watching this season, which just started. Well, this series is based upon—BOOKS—by Charlaine Harris about VAMPIRES. And this time, they’re Southern! But don’t forget the shapeshifters and the mind readers.

The challenge runs from July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010. You have to read the series from any starting point and post reviews of the books (I presume). I’ll be starting from book 1 in the series, Dead Until Dark.

There already are prizes up for grabs and of course there will be Twitter conversations, use hashtag #SookieSRC. And of course, you have to sign up on Beth Fish Reads with Mr. Linky.

Why did I decide to join? Well, for two simple reasons. I needed a new vampire television show addiction, and once those start, I always read the books the shows are based upon. Simple, right? Ok, maybe I am a bit odd, but it makes these posts more interesting. Don’t you think?

Don’t forget my current giveaways:

2-year Blogiversary, here and here.