2018 has been a wonderful year for WWS members finding homes for their work and March was no exception. Congratulations to all the women who had work published this month!
Congrats to Carla Sameth who had three poems published at Unlikely. From “Secondary Inspections“:
A nose, a foreign look, a memory. “They just want to know if you are Jewish,”
your mom says of questions about what country you came from;
you know that you’ll never pass for who you are. Everyone foreign claims your face.
City of Angels swelters, everyone here from somewhere else, still they ask,
“Where were you born?” and “How do you say ‘Hello’?” You answer fearing hatred.
Fear you came by naturally after strip search and secondary inspections. Not beautiful.
Also check out “Mornings Still Scare Me,” which Carla saw published at the b’k.
From Mahin Ibrahim‘s “Meet Nijla Mu’min: Director of SXSW Award-Winning Film ‘Jinn‘” at MuslimGirl:
Inspired by her upbringing with a Muslim father and a mother who converted to Islam, Nijla Mu’min weaved in her experiences inside the mosque as well as growing up in California to create a startling coming-of-age film which explores what it’s like to be a young black Muslim woman today.
Congratulations to Tanya Ko Hong whose poem, “A Blonde Whispers Korean in My Ear,” was published in Rattle and whose poem “Heo Nanseolhean (1563-1589)” was published at Califragile and Better than Starbucks, along with her poems “Dear Yeobo” and “Denied.” From “Heo Nanseolhean (1563-1589)“:
To be born a woman
To be born in the Chosǒn Period
To be the wife of a husband
From Arlene Schindler‘s “Talk Dirty to Me: I Was a Phone Sex Pioneer” at Purple Clover.:
It was 1983 and I was sitting at work one day when I got a call from Richard, an old friend, who said, “How would you like to make a hundred dollars on your lunch hour?”
Excited at the prospect of fast, easy cash, his offer was almost too good to be true.
“What do I have to do?”
“Just use your voice. You know, ‘that’ voice—your breathy, flirty, answering-the-phone voice…”
Also from Arlene at Purple Clover., “Alone with My Mother“:
I took care of my divorced father every day the week before he died. One night, right before he went to sleep, he said to me, “I know you and mother never got along. I hope now that it will be just the two of you, you’ll be able to find a bond and offer kindness to one another, finally getting past your difficulties.”
Speechless, my eyes welled up with tears. As soon as I could talk, I said, “Why did you choose her? I don’t like her. How could you leave me alone with her?”
From “AWP 2018: Narrative Audio and Podcasting: Crafting Stories for the Ear” by Arielle Silver at Assay Journal:
As a writer of both stories and songs who has survived the Los Angeles I-405 traffic perhaps only because of This American Life and Radiolab, I should have considered audio storytelling ages ago. Yet, dabbling in narrative audio only occurred to me recently. This panel pulled back the curtains on the genre, revealing craft considerations, gear suggestions, the panelists’ own projects, and work that inspires them.
From “Six Ways to Stay Inspired and Beat the Blues” by MeMe Kelly at Thrive Global:
There are instructions and guides everywhere about staying inspired, living on purpose, leaning forward, networking correctly, navigating social media, and meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right. You’re supposed to be happy, moving toward destiny, dressed just right, and connected to the right folks.
But what if you do everything right, but the blues still sneak up on you?
Congratulations to Romaine Washington whose poems “Life and Death Speaks” and “On Fire” were published in the Spirit Fire Review, and whose poems “Helium,” “Ground Swell,” and “When Palms Breathe” were published in Inlandia Anthology!