Jump to navigation Skip to content
Watch the book trailer for Terese Svoboda's new biography of poet Lola Ridge, Anything That Burns You: A Portrait of Lola Ridge, Radical Poet, which will be released by Schaffner Press in February 2016. "The Art of Biography: Falling In and Out of Love" by Svoboda is in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"What was I telling you? It was something like this: The world was made exactly for us and we'd never have to leave it." Paul Lisicky reads from his novel The Burning House (Etruscan Press, 2011) for Rosemont College's MFA Reading Series. Lisicky's new memoir, The Narrow Door (Graywolf Press, 2016), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"When I hang in the air it will be by popular demand." Brett Fletcher Lauer reads some of his poems, along with Christopher Sindt, at St. Mary's College. Lauer's new memoir, Fake Missed Connections: Divorce, Online Dating, and Other Failures (Soft Skull Press, 2016), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Sometimes the food we disliked as children—spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, raw fish, dark chocolate—we end up finding a taste for later in life. Or we end up getting tired or bored eating the same family dishes over and over, only to discover that, years later, we want to re-create them ourselves when we are in search of feel-good comfort food. Think of a specific dish or food that you used to hate but now love, or vice versa, and write a short essay about how your perceptions of it evolved over time. Describe the physical location, the atmosphere, and the people that you associate with the food, and how those elements might have changed. What do you remember about your emotional state when you ate this dish long ago? What aspects of this specific food induce your sense of nostalgia? How might your change in taste reflect other aspects of your life that have also been transformed?
"Art was my dearest friend. To draw was trouble and safety, adventure and freedom." Molly Crabapple's new memoir, Drawing Blood (Harper, 2015), includes her illustrations and details her life as an artist, journalist, and activist.
"I believe in following your dreams—being incredibly passionate, and being ruthlessly practical about what it takes to get there." Molly Crabapple, whose memoir Drawing Blood (Harper, 2015) features her illustrations, talks about how to succeed as an artist and a creative entrepreneur.
Kathy Wilson’s background includes many years in the theater both as an actor and teacher. She attended Marymount Manhattan College, earning a degree in Communication Arts, and has taught numerous writing courses at MMC for both Continuing Education and the Center for Learning and Living. Active in the P&W-supported writing workshop at the Goddard Riverside Community Center for over a decade, she published a chapbook, and has read many of her essays for the Poets & Writers annual Intergenerational Reading events held at Barnes and Noble in Union Square. The International Library of Poetry’s 2007 collection published one of her poems “Congito Ergo Sum: I Think Therefore I Am” and her memoir, Out of the Rabbit Hole, was published by Fulton Books in September 2015. Wilson has lived on the Upper West Side in New York City all of her adult life.
Writing had always been a dream put on the back burner. It wasn’t until I was downsized from my full-time job in 2001 that I was able to join the senior writing workshop, funded by Poets & Writers, at the Goddard Riverside Community Center. Finally, I could focus on writing, in what was a noncompetitive and supportive atmosphere. I could write openly with trust and develop my own voice.
The seed of my memoir began with a writing prompt, given in class by our talented and intuitive teacher Veronica Golos: “Write about your earliest secret.’’ I wrote about the guilt I remembered having at three years old when I threatened to drown my beloved toy bear “Poochie” because he would not speak to me. My mother told me he would, if I was a good girl. “Poochie,” was selected to be read at the workshop’s annual reading, after which it was submitted and chosen for the Poets & Writers’ Intergenerational anthology Where I’m From. I became aware that I had a real gift for storytelling and I had quite a story to tell.
Elena Alexander, an accomplished poet, became our second instructor at the Goddard Riverside Community Center. Her dedication and talent guided our group through publishing our own individual chapbooks. This generated even more motivation for me to continue writing my memoir, written from a child's point of view, about how she survives an environment of alcoholism and violence.
When my memoir, Out of the Rabbit Hole, was completed I wondered, now what? At my age I did not want to go the agent route with months or years of submitting to literary agents. I began researching various self-publishers with much hesitation, many were trying to “sell’’ their company, plus reviews from authors that used them were very mixed. Through Poets & Writers, I was recommended to Deborah Englander, experienced editor and writer, and contributor to the Savvy Self-Publisher, a column on self-publishing in Poets & Writers Magazine. Deborah was informative and very clear about what I should expect when choosing a publisher and helped me to firm up my commitment to self-publishing. Armed with her expert advice and through more research, I chose Fulton Books. A tremendous feeling of accomplishment surged through me when I held my book for the first time. As a senior, it no longer seems the winter of my life, but a new beginning, I am an author!
I am excited and take great pride in the positive response I have received about Out of the Rabbit Hole. One review states: “Beautifully written, poignant, sensitive, and with attention to detail, it evokes the sight, smells and sounds of the 1940s and 1950s.”
Currently, I am still a member of the Goddard Riverside writing workshop, where I continue to develop my writing skills, and where I have made many close friendships over the years. It is an inspiring and multitalented group.
Writing is no longer on the back burner. It’s time to start another book, in this newly acquired springtime of my life.
Photos: (Top) Kathy Wilson. Photo Credit: Christina Freudenthal, (Bottom) Goddard Riverside Writing Class. Photo Credit: Walter Grutchfield
Support for Readings & Workshops in New York City is provided, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, with additional support from the Louis & Anne Abrons Foundation, the Axe-Houghton Foundation, the A.K. Starr Charitable Trust, and the Friends of Poets & Writers.
Dawn Lundy Martin on creativity and experimentation in poetry; Joyce Carol Oates’s favorite 2015 books; how to split an infinitive; and other news.
"After conquering / frontiers, the mind comes back to rest, / stretching out over the white sand." At a 92Y event, Pulitzer Prize-winner Yusef Komunyakaa reads "Islands" from his poetry collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2015), and the Wire actor Wendell Pierce reads from his memoir, The Wind in the Reeds (Riverhead Books, 2015), in which he explores art's ability to redeem his native New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Write a short personal essay about your relationship with a family member whom you feel is especially different from you. Explore a few memories or observations from your shared experiences over the years. Are there feelings of insecurity or other emotions that are brought up when you consider your differences? How do the disconnects affect your sense of identity and place within your family? Are you able to detect any common bonds?
