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A Greek Cure for the Common Cold

1 Mar

NikolopoulosRakomelo

“A little more, Antonkai,” my yiayia used to say to my father when she was feeling sick and wanted some homemade tsipouro, a Greek liquor made from the leftover skins of grapes. She only drank a little at a time but would keep having my father refill her glass with just a little more.

I followed Greek wisdom the other evening when I wasn’t feeling well: I had a little warmed up rakomelo, which is like tsipouro but with honey in it. I woke up feeling the best I’d felt in a long time.

My father later told me his mother drank Metaxa, similarly a Greek brandy-like drink.

 

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11 Ways to Create Tension

24 Feb
TreeFireEscape
I’m trying to build more tension into my memoir and turned to the internet for advice on how to build tension. Here are eleven tips for creating tension in your book:
  1. Now Novel’s How to Create Tension in a Story: “Keep raising the stakes: Your story needs several points where tension reaches a peak.”

  2. Writer’s Digest’s How to Build Tension and Heighten the Stakes: “Do the flashbacks contain tension, or do they meander backward in time?”

  3. Grammarly’s Suspense: 4 Tips for Putting More Tension into Your Writing: “Talking the reader through the characters’ worrying thoughts, doubts, and feelings reinforces suspense because it becomes clear that the characters don’t know how they might make it out of the situations they are in. The element of unknowing keeps the audience hooked.”

  4. Ingrid Sundberg’s 12 Ways to Create Suspense: “We all wonder if we can we live up to the expectations around us.  Build tension through what others expect of your main character. How do those expectations stress the character out? Self expectations can also be used as well.”
  5. The Creative Penn’s Writing Fiction: Creating Friction With Clashing Personalities: “Conflicting personalities rub against one another, allowing writers to maximize moments when characters come together. After all, if everyone in the scene “plays nice,” the story gets boring quickly.  With a bit of character planning, matching up clashing personality traits offers a quick road to friction.”
  6. The Literary Lab’s How to Create Tension: “Basically, I think a skilled writer can somehow convince a reader to trust them enough to follow them anywhere. Then, they can present material that might seem random or disconnected, and it creates tension because a devoted fan will wonder how it’s all going to come together. They’ll read on to find out.”
  7. Be a Better Writer’s Writing Dialogue with Tension: “Readers should have no trouble distinguishing one character from another according to what each character says and how he or she says it, just as we can recognize our friends by their attitudes and speech mannerisms.”
  8. Margaret Moore’s Tension: “Foreshadowing — the author hints or implies future developments”
  9. Writers in the Storm’s Using A Crowd To Create Tension In Your Story: “A Crowd is a great tool to create tension, good and bad. It can also be used to highlight character personality quirks.”
  10. Terri Giuliano Long’s Setting and Atmosphere, Part 2: 3 Ways to Use Setting and Atmosphere to Create Narrative Tension: “Darkness, turbulent weather and other forces of nature put people on edge.”
  11. WikiHow’s How to Write Tension: “Don’t be scared, experiment with your writing, if you don’t like it, re-write.”Writer’s Digest’s How to Build Tension and Heighten the Stakes: “Do the flashbacks contain tension, or do they meander backward in time?”
 Do you feel tense now???
You might be interested in these other #WritingWednesday posts:

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Dressing John Stamos for Awards Season

31 Jan

Grandfathered

It’s awards season in Hollywood, and Greek-American actor John Stamos just won Favorite Actor in a New Series for Grandfathered at the 42nd People’s Choice Awards! At the January 6, 2016, event, he hammed it up for the crowd, stopping to take selfies with adorable young fans. He looked quite suave in a black velvet suit accented with a red pocket square.

He seems to be a fan of the red pocket square.

He wore the red pocket square again recently, still with an all black suit, though this time it wasn’t velvet and there was a tie involved. (William Shatner was also involved.)

He wore it better with a tux a few weeks prior to the People’s Choice Awards when he attended The 67th Emmys Governors Ball. He told People:

“All dolled up and sporting Frank Sinatra’s pocket square. Given to me by his manager, the great Tony O.”

Okay, if I had a pocket square that once belonged to Frank Sinatra, I might wear it out as often as possible too!

But the pocket square might be getting a bit too ubiquitous. I mean, it’s kind of like how fellow Greek-American Jeffrey Eugenides became so known for his vest that someone started a Twitter account for Eugenides’ vest. Is someone going to start @StamosPocketSquare?

Even The Washington Post commented on it, though that time he wasn’t wearing Sinatra’s red pocket square but a different one.

I think it’s time for John Stamos to find a new accessory! If you follow him on Instagram, you know the man looks good in a pair of glasses. I’d like to see Stamos rock a pair of glasses at his next awards show. I’d recommend these Greek Handmade Frames:

eyeglasses_1-1

 

It would be great to see more Greek-American stars using their influence to help Greek and Greek-American companies, particularly during the Greek economic crisis.

John Stamos strikes me as a man who can pull off a piece of jewelry. I say, ditch the red pocket square and wear a piece of striking jewelry. After seeing Konstantino’s exquisite jewelry at the welcome reception for the GABBY Awards, I would pick a piece from his Byzantium collection for Stamos to wear:

bizantium_1

And you know how his Full House (and now Fuller House!) character Uncle Jesse was obsessed with his hair? I would obviously have Christo, the Greek-American hairstylist behind Curlisto, do Stamos’ hair. Curlisto did hair for the runways for the Greek American Fashion Week, and he has an entire line of men’s haircare products:

Curlisto

On to the fashion! For clothing, John Varvatos is a Greek-American clothing designer who creates stylish looks. For an awards show, Stamos could wear a grey John Varvatos Cotton Shirt.

Cotton-Shirt

Over the shirt, I would add some sophistication with this black Cotton Vest with Piping Detail:

Cotton-Vest-with-Piping-Detail

And over that, I’d layer Varvatos’ black Cotton Jacquard Jacket:

jacket

For pants, a simple black pair of pants like Varvatos’ Wool Blend Pant would do nicely:

pants

 

When Tommy John approached me about dressing a Greek star for the red carpet this awards season, I thought to myself:

Really? But can’t I just leave him … undressed?

I mean, he did just recently share a picture of himself on Instagram in his undies!

Stamos2

And then there was that time in 2014 when the Oikos spokesman showed off his underwear with the Greek yogurt logo on it.

Stamos

Why not just leave him in Tommy John’s underwear Second Skin Square Cut:

Red Carpet 2 TJ

And Tommy John’s Second Skin Crew Neck Undershirt:

Red Carpet 4

Have mercy!

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Hobart Festival of Women Writers in Photographs

16 Dec
I had the loveliest time at the 2015 Hobart Festival of Women Writers. Cheryl Clarke and Breena Clarke organized an inspired long weekend of readings, writing workshops, writing instruction, and networking. The long list of women writers was impressive in its diversity and achievements. It was an honor to be a returning festival participant, and I had the best time teaching a writing workshop inspired by the highly individualistic writers categorized by their friendship, the Beat Generation. The writers in my class impressed me with their passion and literary acumen. I also had the opportunity to attend several workshops taught by other festival participants, and I’m so glad I did! There is always so much to learn from others about finding your voice, developing dialogue, pitching to journals, and creating work that matters. The instructors had years of experience writing and publishing, and I was so grateful to hear their journeys as writers.
If you missed it, you can read Breena’s interview with me here.
You can see video of my reading to support the Festival of Women Writers at WORD Bookstore in Jersey City here.
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Memoirist Michael W. Clune Speaks on Exploring Solitude in His New Book

30 Sep
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My brother could probably play video games before he could walk. He recently told me about a book he was reading about a woman from the same tech sphere as him.  Big sister as I am, I naturally clicked on an article a video-game inspired book when I saw it in case it might be something to pass along to my brother. What I discovered was an interview that resonated with my own life and work.
In an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, author Michael W. Clune talked about Gamelife, his memoir about growing up playing video games that speaks to the idea of solitude. He says:
My mother told me early when I was young that what’s most meaningful in life are the relations you have with other people. In this book, what I really wanted to explore was the part of life we have — the part of life we live — when we’re not with other people. The part when we’re alone.
There’s the cliche that we’re born and we die alone, and I take that quite seriously, and I believe that our most powerful and profound experiences in many ways are solitary experiences, and I believe that computer games, like literature and like some other devices in my life, were a means of training me for that kind of solitude.
Though I did play videogames as a child, it wasn’t a large part of my life. Solitude, however, was. And just as Clune said, it was suggested to me that solitude was a negative thing. Though my parents and teachers praised me for reading and writing, I was also made to believe that I was abnormal for indulging those pleasures at the expense of playing outdoors with other children.
Even as an adult, as I’ve struggled through writing my memoir, I’ve heard mentors and instructors say again and again that protagonists have to be decisive, goal achievers at odds with outside forces. They can’t be writers. They can’t be people who just sit around and think.
They can’t be me?
I feel a little vindicated when Clune says, “I believe that our most powerful and profound experiences in many ways are solitary experiences.” Maybe he doesn’t mean this literally. Maybe he means that even when we’re in relationship with people who love us dearly and whom we love, our experiences, even when shared are, at their core, are so highly individualized that they are solitary.
Relationships—family relationships, friendships, romantic relationships, literary camaraderie—are relevant, important. But so are times of solitude. We need quiet, private moments to ourselves to know ourselves, to be ourselves, to reflect, to dream, to pray, to read, to write, to rest, to imagine.

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THIS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19: The Redeemed Writer: The Call and the Practice

18 Sep

Redeemer Writers

I just returned from a fantastic time teaching at the Hobart Festival of Women Writers, and now this Saturday is the writing retreat The Redeemed Writer: The Call and the Practice. I was one of the organizers of the one-day session of panels, and I’m thrilled with the fantastic lineup we have scheduled. All our welcome to attend. Info below.

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Join Christian writers and industry leaders for a day of professional and spiritual development hosted by the Redeemer Writers Group. Aspiring and accomplished authors, poets, journalists, playwrights, novelists, and wordsmiths of all sorts are welcome to embrace and hone their God-given gifts.

When: September 19 @ 9:30AM – 4:30PM

Where: Redeemer Offices, 1166 Avenue of the Americas, 16th Floor

Cost: $10, to cover food

Registration: here

Program

9:30 : Registration

10:00-10:20:  Opening remarks

Maurice Boyer

10:20 – 11:00: Seed to Harvest

Opening sermon by Pastor David Sung of Christ Resurrection Church

Opening prayer by Anita Sung of Christ Resurrection Church

11:00 – 11:30: The Call to Write

“That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of thy wondrous works.” ~Psalms 26:7 (KJV)

“What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.” ~ Matthew 10:27 (NIV)

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”~ I Peter 4:10 (NIV)

Panelists:

Thomas Estler, graphic novelist to help homeless people avoid being trafficked

Brooke Obie, digital editor for GuidePosts.org

Ted Scofield, novelist

Moderated by Margo McKenzie

11:30 – 12:00: The Practice of Writing

The Parable of the Talents ~Matthew 25:14-30

Panelists:

Jakki Kerubo, on MFAs

Jane Park, on writing colonies

Ted Scofield, novelist

Moderated by Angela Allmond

12:00 – 12:30: Idea Lab 

Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” ~ Proverbs 15:22 (NIV)

Moderated by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm    Lunch

Grace and timekeeper: Maurice Boyer

1:30 pm – 2:15 p.m.  The Business of Writing: Submissions and Rights

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” ~ Joshua 1:9 (NIV)

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline.” ~ II Timothy 1:7 (NIV)

Panelists:

Liz Davis, associate editor at Workman Publishing

Carl Dobrowolski, rights management

Paul Glader, journalism professor at King’s College

Moderated by Maurice Boyer

2:30 pm – 3:15 pm   Finding Your Flock: Marketing

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6  (NIV)

Panelists:

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, on readings

Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy, on the power of being a member of a collaborative

Greg Wong, on social media

Moderated by Stephanie Nikolopoulos

3:30 pm – 4:30 p.m.: Themed breakouts

“Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.” ~ Proverbs 19:20 (NIV)

Nonfiction: Maurice Boyer

Fiction: Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

Writing exercises: Peter Kong

Moderated by Stephanie Nikolopoulos

4:45-5:00 p.m.: Closing remarks and prayer

Maurice Boyer

 

About our Moderators & Panelists

 

Angela Allmond is an educator and artist, as well as a writer.  She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Art and Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.  Her dissertation topic and scholarly writing are related to examining the intersections of art classroom design, optimal learning environments, and human flourishing.  As a Christian, she also enjoys personal reflective writing as a means of processing through her faith, life events, and relationships.

 

Maurice Boyer is one of the coleaders of the Redeemer Writers Group. He is a content coordinator for the corporate marketing unit at Simon & Schuster. Previously, he served as a digital editor/producer for FOX News.com, AOL News and Essence.com. He is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Publishers Weekly and the Network Journal business publication. He has attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church since 2007.

 

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is one of the coleaders of the Redeemer Writers Group. She is the author of Powder Necklace, which Publishers Weekly called “a winning debut.” Named among 39 of the most promising African writers under 39, her short fiction was included in the anthology Africa39: New Writing from Africa South of Sahara. Most recently, she was shortlisted for a 2014 Miles Morland Writing Scholarship. She has contributed fiction to African Writing, Los Angeles Review of Books, Sunday Salon, and the short story collection Woman’s Work. Her think pieces have lent page views to online destinations including EBONY.com and TheGrio.com; and she has contributed commentary on everything from Michelle Obama’s role in the US President’s campaign to Nelson Mandela’s legacy on MSNBC, NY1, Sahara TV and ARISE TV. In April 2015, she was the opening speaker at TEDxAccra. Also noted for her personal style, a host of photographers have captured her looks for the street style slideshows and print editions of outlets including New York Magazine, Essence Magazine, TheSartorialist.com, and The New York Times. She is currently at work on her next novel.

Liz Davis is an Associate Editor of adult non-fiction at Workman Publishing, an independent, family-run publishing house in the West Village. She is the editor of the New York Times bestselling cookbook Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day, but her list is comprised of a wide range of lifestyle books, from inspirational gifts (100 Illustrated Bible Verses) to quirky science humor (WTF, Evolution?!), and even a wall calendar featuring the adorable sloths of Lucy Cooke’s bestselling The Little Book of Sloth.

Carl Dobrowolski has 29 years of experience in religious publishing, with the last 19 focused exclusively on rights sales, acquisitions, publisher relations and contract development.  Carl’s specialty is bringing publishers together through leveraging relationship asset management and creating opportunities for the publication of theologically inspiring content.  For over 12 years, he has served as President of Goodwill Rights Management Corp, www.goodwillrights.corp, a leading rights agency, working with over 15 publishers , ministries and Bible Societies.

 

Thomas Estler is Founder and Director of Freedom Ladder an organization whose mission it is to protect children.  He collaborated with the FBI to create the comic book series, Abolitionista! which educates children about human trafficking and empowers them with tools to protect themselves.  He takes his comic book workshops into schools, libraries, homeless shelters, and churches.  His passion for ending human trafficking has also energized his novels, plays, and screenplays, and he was recently named one of New York’s New Abolitionists.  When he’s not writing, Thomas teaches yoga, Zumba, and other fitness disciplines.

 

Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy is an actress, playwright, and producer. As an actress, she was most recently seen in Resonance Ensemble’s world premiere of The Truth Quotient at Theatre Row, and Retro Productions’ An Appeal to the Woman of the House. As a playwright, her work was most recently featured #StandUp: The Street Harassment Plays and in “Flux ForePlay” (both with Flux Theatre Ensemble) in NY Madness’ “Radical Bias” (with guest Chisa Hutchinson), Flux Theatre Ensemble’s “ForePlay” (appearing before Jane the Plain), and in The Brick Theatre’s “Cleverbot Plays.” Shaun is also, a contributing writer for NY Theatre Review, was one of WRITEOUTFRONT’s 2014 playwrights, and is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She lives in Brooklyn with her dog, Bentley. AEA, DGA  www.shaunbfauntleroy.com.

 

Associate Professor Paul Glader teaches writing, journalism and business-related courses at The King’s College. He also directs the McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute, The NYC Semester in Journalism program and is adviser to the student online newspaper/ print magazine/ video platform, The Empire State Tribune. An award-winning journalist, Glader spent 10 years as a staff writer at The Wall Street Journal, covering a variety of beats including technology, travel, metals/mining, health/science and finance. He’s worked for and written for countless other publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, TheNewYorker.com, The Indianapolis Star, The Associated Press, Der Spiegel Online, FastCompany.com, USA Today and ESPN.com. He’s appeared on national TV and radio programs including CNBC, Fox Business, and WSJ Radio. He currently writes for several national magazines including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, ChristianityToday, The American Legion and is a regular contributor to Forbes.com. Glader received an MS from Columbia University in New York as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and Graduate School of Business in 2007-2008. He is currently an executive MBA candidate at The Berlin School of Creative Leadership at Steinbeis University in Germany. He lived in Germany from 2011-2013, first as a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow and then as a European Journalism Fellow at Freie Universität in Berlin. His research and writing interests include the startup economy / technology innovation; journalism ethics and history / the new journalists; urban planning / transportation; Europe / Germany / Scandinavia; parenthood / fatherhood; creativity in leadership and media entrepreneurship. He enjoys surfing, reading and traveling with his wife and daughter.

 

Peter Kong is one of the coleaders of the Redeemer Writers Group. He is a writer, musician, and software developer living in New York City. His current literary project is an epic adventure novel that takes place in post-war Nepal and the Near East. His EDM band, Lava Levels, released their first single, ‘Just Let Me’, in August 2015 (lavalevels.com).

 

Margo McKenzie is a wife, mother and grandmother with two adult daughters and two grandsons. She retired as an educator after thirty-two years of service and now channels her creative passion for writing to bring hope and light to others while putting a spotlight on God. She is currently working on a novel entitled When Anchors Sway about how the loss of support systems cause the smooth-sailing life of an immigrant family from Barbados to turn upside down. Her other faith-based writings can be found at: www.giftofletters.blogspot.com, www.faithwriters.com/member-profile.php?id=54907, and http://www.inspirationalchristians.org/biography/thomas-dorsey. She is a member of Bethany Baptist Church, Brooklyn, Rev Dr Adolphus C. Lacey, Pastor.

 

Brooke Obie, JD, MFA, is the Senior Digital Editor for Guideposts.org. She was the first Editor-at-Large for EBONY.com where she wrote the column, “The Spiritual Life.” Brooke is also the creator of the two-time Black Weblog Award-winning blog DistrictDiva.com, named one of Essence Magazine’s “Best Online Sites.” Brooke is a graduate of Hampton University, summa cum laude and Mercer University School of Law where she was the Eleventh Circuit Survey Editor of the Mercer Law Review. She also received her MFA in Creative Writing at The New School, was a 2014 finalist for the Fulbright Fellowship award in Creative Writing and is the author of a forthcoming novel series and essay collection. Brooke has a certificate in advanced legal research, writing and drafting and has worked for CNN Entertainment and on HLN’s Showbiz Tonight. She has written for NBC BLK, TheGrio.com, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The National Book Critics Circle, and Vibe Magazine, among other publications. Before becoming editor-at-large for EBONY.com, she served as a contributing editor (2013-2014) for the site and its interim News & Lifestyle editor in spring 2013.

 

Jakki Kerubo has an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU. She’s currently working on her first novel, and moonlights as a PR person in the healthcare industry.

 

Jane Park lives in Edmonton, Alberta. Prior to 2015, she lived in Brooklyn, New York, and worked in the fashion industry. Her fiction has appeared in Echoes Upon Echoes: New Korean American Writing and Han Kut: Critical Art and Writing by Korean Canadian Women. She has attended residencies at the Banff Centre and the Macdowell Colony and is working on her first novel.

 

Ted Scofield: St. Martin’s Press published Ted’s debut novel, Eat What You Kill, in 2014 and released the trade paperback in May 2015. Described as “American Psycho meets Wall Street,” Eat What You Kill is one part financial thriller and two parts morality tale. Famed Hollywood producer Edward R. Pressman (Wall Street, American Psycho, The Crow, etc.) purchased the film rights and is developing the screenplay. Ted is currently writing the sequel and releasing, in serial form, a book on greed. Much to his dismay, when he is not writing, Ted is a securities attorney, with an MBA in finance thrown in for good measure. He is a three-time graduate of Vanderbilt University. Ted lives in Manhattan with his wife, contemporary artist and consumer products genius Christi Scofield, their palm tree, Spike, and their little money tree, Benjamin. They have been attending Redeemer since 2002. www.tedscofield.com.

Anita Sung began to journal her thoughts and feelings sometime in elementary school when her family was living in Long Island, because her mother told her that if she journaled every day, she would become a good writer. Then in middle school, she began to write poetry, because it was hard to connect with people, and the sunsets in Atlanta were like seeing the glory of God. While in high school in New Jersey, one Catholic teacher loved her poems, because she thought it was unusual for a teenager to grapple with spiritual topics. She also encouraged her to continue developing her fiction writing. At Wheaton College, Anita received a B.A. in English Literature, and then received an M.A. in Church History from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in 2006. In 2011, as she and a mentor were praying regularly about a Korean drama she wrote, she learned how prayer brings God’s children close to the heart of the Creator and to the Father. Today, she continues to grapple with theological / spiritual topics and ideas in her fiction writing.

 

David Sung: After having worked in finance for several years and witnessing the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, it was a time for David to rethink his passions and what he believed life was worth living (and dying) for.  At that time, Anita was working in publishing and doing all that “artsy” stuff, but after the attacks on NYC, the grind of “making it” had lost its luster and the glamour of the city faded.  They decided to take a 6-month missions trip abroad to re-evaluate their lives. It was during that time, David and Anita decided to pursue theological degrees, where David got his Masters of Divinity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. After many transitions since then, from seminary to working as a hospital chaplain, his passion to love and build up the beauty and culture of the NYC, to seek its renewal and shalom through the Gospel of Jesus Christ has led him to church planting, starting Christ Resurrection Church (www.christresurrectionyc.com) in the Upper East Side.

 

Stephanie Nikolopoulos is one of the coleaders of the Redeemer Writers Group. She has worked as an editor in the publishing industry for more than a decade and is the author, with Paul Maher Jr., of Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” She has an MFA in creative writing, nonfiction, from the New School, a certificate in editing from New York University, and a BA in English from Scripps College. Visit her at www.StephanieNikolopoulos.com.

Greg Wong is passionate about creativity, innovation and growth hacking. As an art director and social catalyst, he activates brands to grow with real impact. Greg works in digital healthcare advertising as a Vice-President, Art Supervisor at CDMiConnect and consults as a Creative Director to startups and non-profits. Greg has consulted to a wide range of Fortune 100 corporations, small business boutiques and non-profit organizations across the country. Greg has degrees in mass communications from U.C. Berkeley and graphic design from the Pasadena Art Center College of Design. Reaching beyond agency creative, Greg consults on social innovation. He serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for Restore NYC, a non-profit that is dedicated to the holistic life rescue of internationally sex-trafficked women in New York City. This summer, Greg married his wife Liz, in a pop-up wedding on the High Line. They now call Long Island City home and are raising their two Aussie dogs, Olive and Ozzy. You can follow Greg on the internet everywhere at @gregwong.

 

Our Volunteers

Angela Allmond, Disen Huang, Michelle Kaskel, Margo McKenzie, Jacquelynn Osoro, and Ellen Stedfeld

Poet Esther Cohen on Collaboration

19 Aug

18

I had the opportunity to interview poet Esther Cohen for the Festival of Women Writers. She is an amazing talent, and I learn so much just from listening to the types of questions she asks. As someone who has studied writers in collaboration, I was particularly interested to ask Esther about her collaborative projects.

Here’s a snippet from our Q&A:

Nikolopoulos: You’ve done several collaborative projects. For your book Unseen America, you gave cameras to the working class so that they could document their lives and you helped tell their stories. For Don’t Mind Me: And Other Jewish Lies, you worked New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chas. For Painting Brooklyn Stories, you contributed bio-poems to Nina Talbot’s portraits. What is it about collaboration that appeals to you? 
 
Cohen: Yes I have done many collaborative projects, all my life. I’ve written poems with visual arts like the wonderful Nina Talbot, I was lucky enough to collaborate with amazing cartoonist Roz Chast, and I’ve been doing an ongoing project for many years with my favorite photographer Matthew Septimus (our work is on the ON BEING blog on the NPR site at http://bit.ly/1Mb5MZa.) Other people often bring our own work Somewhere Else. Matthew’s pictures, for instance, take my words into another place, a place they want to go.

You can read the rest of the Festival of Women Writers blog.

And just in case you missed it, here’s the interview novelist and Festival co-founder Breena Clarke did with me.

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A Swedish Children’s Author’s World War II Diaries May Make for an Enlightening Read

17 Aug
Pippi-Longstocking1024768Inger Nilsson in Pippi Longstocking 
I just found out that Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren’s World War II diaries are set to be published in English for the first time in autumn 2016. I had the opportunity to see the Swedish author’s ephemera at the Junibacken Museum devoted to her in Stockholm, which I wrote about for The Literary Traveler.
 
As the daughter of a Swedish-American mother, I grew up on Astrid Lindgren’s works. I watched the 1969 film adaptation starring Inger Nilsson repeatedly on VHS.
 
I’m also interested in these particular diaries because it happens to be the time period of literature that I study the most. After all, this was the era that gave rise to the Beat Generation, the era in which a young Jack Kerouac was roaming the seas. You can read more about Kerouac’s sea voyages in Burning Furiously Beautiful.

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I’m Reading at WORD Bookstore in Jersey City

6 Aug

WORD

I am beyond excited to be reading at WORD Jersey City. I’ve been a fan of the bookstore since before the Jersey City location existed when they only had the Brooklyn location. I look forward to reading their newsletter, which always has inspired book recommendations. They also curate great literary events for readers, writers, and authors. It was a secret dream to read at WORD, and now it’s coming true!

It all happens August 18 at 7:30pm at WORD Jersey City (123 Newark Ave.). I’ll be reading from Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” 

Here’s the official info:::

Authors participating in the 2015 Festival of Women Writers in Hobart, NY join us at WORD to share readings from their books. Performers include Evie Shockley, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, E.J. Antonio, JP (Juliet) Howard, Breena Clarke, and Stephanie Nikolopoulos. It will be hosted by fellow author Cheryl Clarke.

Evie Shockley, resident of Jersey City, professor of English at Rutgers University, poet and author of a half red sea  and the new black. Her essays and criticism have been featured in leading journals of African-American thought. She is a 2013 member of the Festival.

Cheryl Boyce Taylor, resident of Brooklyn by way of Trinidad,poet and author of Night When Moon Follows, Raw Air, and Convincing the Body. Founder of NYC’s Calypso Muse Series. She is an editor of the distinguished online poetry journal, The Wide Shore. Her poetry has appeared in numerousliterary and poetry journals. She participated in  the 2013 and 2014 Festivals.

E.J. Antonio, resident of New York City, poet and author of Rituals in the Marrow: Recipe for a Jam Session (cd) and two chapbooks, Every Child Knows and Solstice. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary journals. She is an avid spoken word artist and Cave Canem  fellow. She is a 2014 participating Festival Writer.

JP (Juliet) Howard, a native New Yorker, originally from Harlem, poet and author of Say/Mirror. She is curator of  Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon, a monthly New York salon featuring notable women writers. She is a Lambda and Cave Canem graduate fellow and will be participating in the Festival for the first time in 2015.

Breena Clarke, a resident of Jersey City by way of New York City and Washington, D.C., author of three novels: River, Cross My Heart an Oprah Book Club Selection in 1999, Stand the Storm, named one of the Best 100 Books of 2008 by The Washington Post, and in 2014 Angels Make Their Hope Here.  She is a co-founder and co-organizer of the Festival of Women Writers.

Stephanie Nikolopoulos, a New Yorker and co-author with Paul Maher Jr. of the biography Burning Furiously Beautiful: the True Story of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. She is a blogger, essayist, editor, and cyber journalist. Her essays on art and literature have appeared in a number of publications. She is a participating Festival writer this year as well as in 2014.

Cheryl Clarke, Emcee, a resident of Jersey City by way of New Brunswick and Wash., D.C., author of four books of poetry, the critical study, After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement, and The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980-2005. She is a co-organizer of the Hobart Festival of Women Writers.

Facebook RSVP encouraged, but not required.

So, not only do I get to read at a cherish bookstore, but I also get to read with an impressive group of writers!

The event is just a mere taste of what what’s to come at the Festival of Women Writers taking place September 11-13 in Hobart, New York — a quaint town in the Catskills known for its many bookstores. These authors and many more will be reading and teaching writing all weekend long. I had such a blast last year and can’t wait to go again. I’ll be teaching a new class this year, which I think is going to be a lot of fun if you’re into experimental writing styles. You can register for the Festival here.

If you missed it, you can see the Festival of Women Writers spotlight on me here. Breena Clarke interviewed me for this one. (For last year’s spotlight, go here.)

Here too is a radio interview I did with Simona David while at the Festival.

Get all the latest announcements on my readings and teaching gigs in the Appearance section of my blog.

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Remembering Juggling-Poet Robert Lax!

26 Sep

lax

Born in Olean, New York, Robert Lax studied poetry at Columbia, worked for The New Yorker, cofounded the Catholic publication Jubilee, joined the circus, spent thirty-five years on the Greek island of Patmos, and took up a type of meditation founded by Eknath Easwaran before returning to Olean just weeks before he passed away there on this day in 2000.

Lax never achieved the level of success that some of his colleagues did. He was friends with Columbia alum and Trappist monk Thomas Merton and the abstract expressionist Ad Reinhardt, both of whose work reached a wider audience. Yet early on in his career, Kerouac wrote to Lax, praising his work. The New York Times Book Review favorably reviewed Lax’s poetry book Circus of the Sun.

Lax’s work was collected by editor Jim Uebbing as Love had a Compass: Journals and Poetry. Here’s the overview from Barnes & Noble:

Every generation of poets seems to harbor its own hidden genius, one whose stature and brilliance come to light after his talent has already been achieved. The same drama of obscurity that attended the discovery of Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens is suggested by the career of Robert Lax. An expatriate American whose work to date—more than forty books—has been published mostly in Europe, this eighty-year-old poet built a following in this country among figures as widespread as E. E. Cummings, Jack Kerouac, and Sun Ra. The works in “Love Had a Compass” represent every stage of Lax’s development as a poet, from his early years in the 1910s as a staff writer for the “New Yorker” to his present life on the Greek island of Patmos. An inveterate wanderer, Lax’s own sense of himself as both exile and pilgrim is carefully evoked in his prose journals and informs the pages of the Marseille Diaries, published here for the first time. Together with the poems, they provide a portrait of one of the most striking and original poets of our age.

Here’s what Publisher’s Weekly said:

Lax is a somewhat legendary poet known primarily for two reasons: he traveled in a circle in the 1930s that included Thomas Merton, John Berryman, Robert Giroux and Ad Reinhardt; and he has lived and written on the Greek island of Patmos since the early 1960s. This combination of famous friendships and personal obscurity has added heat to his reputation but not much lighthis poetry has been obscured by his myth. This volume, however, will likely introduce Lax’s considerable poetic power to a wider audience. Uebbing’s introduction captures the essence of Lax’s work: “A simple response to a simple moment”; “much of his work is almost devoid of imagery.” Lax’s early poems are a mix of emotionality (“for we must seek/ by going down,/ down into the city/ for our song”) and formal experimentation (“black/ black/ white/ white/ black/ black/ white/ white”). But his finest work can be seen in the previously unpublished sequence of poems, Port City: The Marseille Diaries. Drawing on the people and places he encountered during an extended, down-and-out time in the city during the 1950s, in “Port City” Lax finally declares his mission: “I will sing you/ of the moments/ sing you/ of those/ possibly/ meaningless moments.”

Lax’s funeral was held at St. Bonaventure University. Excerpts of his poem were distributed.

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