Spring has sprung and with it has come a new crop of publishing successes for WWS members. Here is a brief look at the work published and awards won this month.
From Carla Sameth‘s “Feed Me, Fund Me, Leave Me Alone” on Brain,Child:
From age 8-12, boys go from puppy dogs to war video games to Beyonce. The transition is a collage, what you see decorating their walls; Tupac, Bob Marley and Martin Luther King are on my son’s walls too. When Raphael was 12, we went to Israel for a wedding and a pre-Bar Mitzvah trip. Jerusalem was oppressive with its over-arching trifecta of religious intrusiveness. But leaving for Tel Aviv, Raphael spied the olive skinned Sabras wearing bikinis and Uzis and said, “Now, we’re talking!”
From Carla‘s “Letting Go” on Full Grown People:
Raphael looks directly at me from what seems like an insurmountable distance across the tight rope. He stands still for a moment, balanced. “Mom, I’m okay. You need to just think about yourself now,” he says.
Congratulations to Rachel Warecki whose story “Something Blue” was shortlisted for the Masters Review Volume V anthology. Amy Hempel will select the ten winning stories for publication.
Congratulations also go out to Toni Ann Johnson whose story “Up That Hill” was accepted at Xavier Review.
Congratulations to Lisa Cheby whose poem “Exorcism of Mom” was accepted to Snapdragon. Lisa’s piece, “Open Access Metadata for Journals in Directory of Open Access Journals: Who, How and What Schema?” will be published in the iSchool Student Research Journal.
More congratulations to Mona Alvarado Frazier whose short story “House of Dreams” placed third in the Ventura County writing contest.
Elline Lipkin‘s poem “Catholic Boarding School, Six Years Old, 1943,” was accepted to Calyx. Wonderful news!
Diane Sherlock received confirmation that her novel, “Wrestling Alligators” will be published by Martin Brown Publishers. Congrats!
Karin Aurino has many reasons to celebrate in May. She was accepted into Ru Freeman’s Master Class at Hedgebrook in June, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference in July and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in August!
May was a great month for Arielle Silver, too. She had two essays, both on stepmothering, accepted to the print and online issues of Lilith Magazine. She won the 2016 AULA Library Research Award for her paper, “Wicked, Selfish and Cruel: An Inquiry into the Stepmother Narrative.” Her piece “Crimping the Edge” was published in Gulf Stream. Here’s a peek:
Some days are like bruises, the kind you can’t stop pressing. Mother’s Day, for instance. And the girls’ birthdays. One mid-October morning, before coffee, I asked you to tell me about the day Rose was born. Press on the bruise. Press, press.
From “A Complicated Canada,” Désirée Zamorano‘s review of Ausma Zehanat Khan’s “The Language of Secrets” in the Los Angeles Review of Books:
Perhaps some of us do know that Toronto, with its many immigrant communities, is one of the most diverse cities in the world. It is this multicultural place, where populations connect and collide, that Ausma Zehanat Khan’s novels investigate and reveal.
Mark your calendars! The NoHo Lit Crawl has accepted the WWS proposal for “The Rejection Game,” a reading created and hosted by Lauren Eggert-Crowe and featuring work from WWS members Rachael Warecki, Siel Ju, Tammy Delatorre, Ryane Nicole Granados, Stephanie Abraham and Kate Maruyama. On October 26th, 2016.
Watch Stephanie Abraham discuss two new Cuban films in “Will Hollywood Get Cuba Right?” on Rising Up with Sonali.
From Stephanie‘s “As Hollywood Turns Its Eyes to Cuba, Will the Island Be More Than Just a Prop?” on Bitch Media:
As Hollywood filmmakers descend on the island, it remains to be seen what stories will be told. Will they produce plotlines that give agency and voice to Cubans? Or will they treat the island and its people as a mere backdrop for formulaic, United States-centric narratives?
Happy writing!