Another month, another impressive line-up of WWS publications. Congratulations to all!
From Noriko Nakada‘s “Camp Stories” at Kartika Review:
Glass marbles in
pants pockets and
a forever
train ride rumbling
toward a mountain
Also from Noriko, “Howl” at Kartika Review:
The wind tonight
presses us all
away from the
ocean
From Hazel Kight Witham‘s “Done” at lady/liberty/lit:
Becoming an artist of faces—
of eyes
sultry, smoky, kohl-lined,
all the different looks I’d try
seductress, sunkissed, smoldering
painting myself
from a palette of shimmering promises
From “Sex with Eric Clapton” by Arlene Schindler at Better After 50:
Don’t misunderstand me, I’ve never even met Mr. Clapton. But when I’m having a really colossal sexual experience; I hear music in my head. It’s always the same song – ‘Layla,’ by singer-songwriter Eric Clapton’s then group, Derrick and the Dominoes.
From “Regeneration” by Carla Sameth at Full Grown People:
Do you ever have one of those days where nothing feels like what you want to be doing? Like when you said goodbye to your twenty-one-year-old son who is visiting you and your wife in Connecticut where you’re staying temporarily, and he’s heading over to New York City, by train, to experience the city on his own terms? And you are nervous—like old times?
Also from Carla, “1968: Sammy Boy and Mrs. Kumata Wore Paisley,” at Angels Flight Literary West:
Fourth grade, taught by Mrs. Kumata, is the class I remember most—turns out it was also her first year teaching and her favorite. She held a class reunion when I was in my 20s, the only one I ever attended. Now I’m 56—47 years since fourth grade.
I look back to see what was happening in fourth grade, 1968-69:
From “Ever Considered Writing Your Own Nikah Contract? How About a Prenup?” by Mahin Ibrahim at Amalia:
Nearly two years ago, my sister and I sat across from her divorce lawyer. It was our first time hiring a lawyer and I had found hers on a review service (not my best idea). The office had grimy windows and papers strewn everywhere, with an air about it like it was recovering from a hangover. It was a place none of us wanted to be, including the lawyer. After filling out the paperwork, he handed her a bottle of wine.
“Congratulations. You are on your way to getting divorced.”
From “How to Build a Personal Brand While Staying Authentic to Your Craft” by Andrea Guevara at The Write Life:
About a year into my time at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, a classmate and I attended an all-day marketing for writers seminar. Somewhere around the second or third presenter, I was totally overwhelmed. I thought the hardest work I’d do as a writer would be the writing. I had no idea just how much the publishing industry had tightened its belt, and how much promotion was now in writer’s hands.
I wanted to create art, not be a one-woman marketing show.
From Tina Rubin‘s “Natural Stress Relievers” at Better Nutrition:
“Stress relief isn’t optional anymore, it’s a necessity,” says Cassandra Bodzak, a holistic lifestyle expert, meditation and wellness teacher, and TV personality. “Consider creating a foundational support system for your life. If you don’t have a way to relieve stress, whether it’s national or personal, it’s so easy to crumble.” The following tools can help us create that system.
From one of two untitled poems by Lauren Eggert-Crowe at Hobart:
Where is the dark ship going behind your eyes?
What moods do I need to forecast?
How you taught me patience at the stove
but I am drunk now and just want to shove
everything around
From “A Brief Cultural History of Hairy Legs” by Rachael Rifkin at Racked:
Today people are redefining what it means to be female and have leg hair. Though women and femme-identifying people who have hairy legs are still a minority in the United States, the statistics are shifting. A 2016 Mintel study reported that between 2013 and 2016, the percentage of women who shaved their legs fell from 92 to 85 percent. Mintel cited several possible reasons for the change, including the popularity of the wellness and natural-beauty movement and a desire to buck societal expectations.
Congratulations to Margo McCall whose short story “Laundry in La La Land” was published in Adanna!
Two congrats go out to Rachael Warecki who won the Tiferet Prize in fiction for her story “10:25 a.m. EDT” and who completed an emerging writers residency at Wellstone Center in the Redwoods!
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo became the very first Artist-in-Residence at the Gettysburg National Military Park Poetry Foundation residency. Congratulations!
And a final congratulations to Linda Ravenswood who had two poems published at Foglifter Press and whose work was included in Voices from Leimert Park, edited by Shonda Buchanan of Tsehai Press.