This summer I wrote a poem that my workshop mates called a call to action! I was encouraged to publish it and since there was not time to send it to to any publishers, in the centuries old tradition of poets before me – I’ve self-published it. This being the age of the independent author, I went with a reputable indie publishing company. Only to be come up against technical obstacles. So the actual bound book and eBook files will be late. But thanks to a conversation with an old friend from high school, I’m sending the chapbook into the wild as a PDF. This particular version has a copyright notation that allows the PDF file to be shared. Share widely. Literal: Defining Moments.
Tag Archives: writing
In November – Novelist Chase J. Jackson
Chase J. Jackson, writes mystery, thriller, and suspense. 
VAH: The kick off question is always why do you write?
CJJ: I write because writing is one of the most powerful forms of self-expression. I love the idea that I can create characters, dialogues and situations that people can relate to and can get a message from.
VAH: What got you started?
CJJ: I became a writer in the 4th grade. I remember my teacher gave an assignment with a variety of words listed and we had to create a story using those words. I wrote the story and when the teacher gave me my assignment back she asked if I got that story from somewhere. I told her I didn’t and she said it was really good. That’s when I felt like a writer.
VAH: Who were your influences:
CJJ: R.L. Stine Goosebumps and Fear Street books influenced me as a writer. My friends and I collected all of them when we were in elementary school.
VAH: What do you remember about one of your earliest stories?
CJJ: I remember writing a story in the 6th grade about one of my classmates. The teachers thought he was funny, girls loved him & all the guys thought he was so cool. So I thought, this guy has to be an alien. There’s no way someone is this well rounded in the 6th grade. So I remember writing a story about him being an alien.
VAH: And your favorite piece that you’ve written?
CJJ: My favorite piece that I’ve written to date is my first novel, Whispers In The Dark. I spent a lot of time working on this book and developing the characters and making sure there was a message that readers can take from this story.
Chase J. Jackson Bio:
Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Chase J. Jackson developed an interest for writing suspense and mystery at an early age after reading all of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books. As a teenager, Chase began writing short stories and poetry based on his experiences. After winning a local poetry slam, Chase decided to bring his writing to life through the art of film. During his collegiate career at the University of West Georgia, Chase studied literature, cinematography, and film editing, ultimately graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English. Working two jobs to save money for film equipment, Chase filmed one of his short stories, Paralysis, which chronicles a teenager named Alyssa as she battles with sleep paralysis. In 2011, Paralysis was nominated for Best Film by The Peachtree Village International Film Festival.After college, Chase dedicated his time to writing his first novel Whispers in the Dark. Chase’s goal is to keep the readers interest from the very first page to the very end, keeping them on the edge of their seat until an ultimate surprise ending. Chase’s future plans include writing his second novel, The Parish Prophecies, and traveling across the country to film other various projects.
Filed under writing life
July’s Three by Five – a chat with Matthew J. Pallamary
And we’re back!
An extra-long Three by Five with Matthew J. Pallamary since due to technical breakdown, he lost out on part of July. Writing life, writing community, and random facts all rolled into one.
VAH: Are you a full-time writer?
MJP: I write, edit, and teach full-time to make ends meet. If not writing, I would probably have a high level technology job as that is where I used to make my money.
VAH: Would you say writing is a vocation, occupation, or profession?
MJP: Yes – probably more aptly defined as an obsession.
VAH: Young writers often ask about writers block. When the page is blank, what gets you writing?
MJP: Getting out of my intellectual and emotional bodies and into my moving body. I go into great detail about these dynamics in my upcoming book Phantastic Fiction – A Shamanic Approach to Story.
VAH: Sounds interesting, and a different approach to writing. What is your “process” when working on a new piece of writing?
MJP: Research, gestation, outline, and then a draft.
VAH: I always find the research phase challenging. I’m inpatient.
What does your typical writing day include?
MJP: Writing, editing, and promotion.
VAH: Promotion – such a big part of the author’s job in the current publishing climate.
What about the writing community? What words of wisdom do you have for the emerging writer?
MJP: Writing = Ass in chair.
Just because it is easy to publish does not mean that you are ready. Writing is far more of a complex art and craft than people realize. One well known quote says, “There is no such thing as writing, there is only rewriting.”
If you are not doing it because you love it and have fantasies of being rich and famous, then you are in for a world of disappointment.
VAH: That is a quite often repeated quote of Robert Graves. Matthew, what choices have you made regards to traditional or independent publishing?
MJP: I am Independent all the way. I have been writing for well over thirty years and have seen and experienced all manner of disappointment and thoughtlessness as well as three agents who never did anything for me. For me, there is nothing more satisfying than having complete creative control as well as all the rights to my works.
VAH: That creative control is both enticing and challenging. Everything is now your responsibility. Getting the writing out there – what part does social media play in your writing career?
MJP: I have been involved with it from the start as a means to promote my writing and see it as a kind of necessary evil. Having said that, unfortunately it is being flooded by volumes of “not ready for prime time” crap that muddies the waters with all the desperate “Buy my book!” posts.
VAH: I’m in agreement with that. If one is going to independently publish, the standard remails make a book as good as the big publishing house does.
Have you found a benefit to writing or author?
MJP: I have been teaching my Phantastic Fiction workshops at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference and the Southern California Writer’s Conferences for twenty five years now and have been a member of numerous other 
conferences, conventions, and workshops. These conferences are my writing family. Everyone needs to get input from sources outside their immediate family and friends if they want to improve. They especially need it from those with more experience to share.
VAH: What was your writing education?
MJP: Other than a creative writing class and English classes in general, I have gotten the most from hands on writing read and critique groups led by qualified professionals and by attending writer’s conferences.
Your favorite writing conferences, retreats, seminars?
The Santa Barbara Writers Conference and The Southern California Writers’ Conference.
I have taught at both of them for twenty five years and they are my family.
VAH: I’ve had the same experience with the San Francisco Writers’ Conference. A core of people I see only once a year at the conference yet I consider close friends and my writing family.
Now, a little fantastical and random life –
If you had a super power, what would it be and why?
MJP: Omniscience – so I could be everywhere at once and fully aware of everything.
VAH: Haven’t heard that one before! How about in a movie about your life and times, who would play you? What would the theme song be and why?
MJP: Mark Wahlberg – because he grew up in Dorchester where I did.
I’ve already written Spirit Matters, an award winning memoir. The song would be “Flying in A Blue Dream” by Joe Satriani because I love the energy of it.
VAH: What is a little known fact about you that will amaze and/or amuse?
MJP: I have been working extensively with visionary plants in the Amazon for fifteen years now.
VAH: What are three random, non-writing facts about you?
MJP: I am an accomplished drummer and vocalist. My mother was a famous child acrobat. I have an extensive background in technology.
VAH: And who is your biggest fan?
MJP: Margaux Dunbar Hession.
VAH: If you knew tomorrow at midnight was your last day – how would you spend it and what would your last meal be?
MJP: I would spend it in the rain forest under the influence of powerful visionary plants to get as much of a preview of “the other side” as I could, so I could have some kind of idea of where I am heading. My last meal would be Thai food.
VAH: Big, nasty bug in the kitchen – what do you do?
MJP: Help it out the door.
VAH: Favorite quote and why?
MJP: “Through the ages, countless spiritual disciplines have urged us to look within ourselves and seek the truth. Part of that truth resides in a small, dark room — one we are afraid to enter.”
It is mine from my first published book – a short story collection titled The Small Dark Room of the Soul and Other Stories.
VAH: Thank you Matthwe J. Pallamary for participating in Three by Five.
Matthew J. Pallamary’s historical novel Land Without Evil, received rave reviews along with a San Diego Book Award for mainstream fiction and was adapted into a stage and sky show by Agent Red, directed by Agent Red, and was the subject of an EMMY nominated episode of a PBS series, Arts in Context.
He has taught a Phantastic Fiction workshop at the Southern California Writers’ Conference in San Diego, Palm Springs, and Los Angeles, and at the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference for twenty five years, and is presently Editor in Chief of Muse Harbor Publishing.
His memoir Spirit Matters took first place in the San Diego Book Awards Spiritual Book Category, and was an Award-Winning Finalist in the autobiography/memoir category of the National Best Book Awards. He frequently visits the jungles, mountains, and deserts of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism and ancient cultures.
Connect with Matthew J. Pallamary:
Web site. Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Smashwords author page.
Sampler:
The Small Dark Room of the Soul and other stories – Preview.
A Short Walk to the Other Side – A Collection of Short Stories
CyberChrist launched in December 2014
Ashley Butler, a prize winning journalist at the San Diego Times receives an email from a man who claims to have discovered immortality by turning off the aging gene in a 15 year old boy with an aging disorder. The email has pictures showing a reversal of the aging process and the names of a scientist and a company to investigate. Thinking it a hoax, she forwards the email to friends.
Though skeptical, she calls to investigate and gets a no longer in service message. When she leaves her office she overhears a news story about the death of the scientist mentioned in the email.
Ashley checks out the company mentioned in the email and discovers a gutted building. At the deceased scientist’s address she has a confrontation with an unfriendly federal investigator. Returning to her office she finds him, subpoena in hand, confiscating her computer. He tells her that the scientist who sent the email is a killer that they need help catching. When her own investigators do more checking, none of them return.
The forwarded email becomes the basis for an online church built around the boy, calling him the CyberChrist. The church claims that the Internet is the physical manifestation of the group mind of humanity and the boy is the second coming of Christ online.
The federal government tries to shut down the church, but its website replicates faster than they can stop it. While church and state battle over religious freedom online, the media and the state battle over freedom of speech.
Ashley battles to stay alive.
Due out in 2015 –
Matthew J. Pallamary’s popular Phantastic Fiction Workshop has been a staple of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and the Southern California Writer’s Conference for over twenty five years. He has also lectured at numerous other venues and led his own weekend intensive workshops.
Matt has spent extended time in the jungles, mountains, and deserts of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism and ancient cultures. Through his research into both the written word and the ancient beliefs of shamanism, he has uncovered the heart of what a story really is and integrated it into core dramatic concepts that also have their basis in shamanism.
Filed under writing life
July’s Three by Five – a chat with Matthew J. Pallamary Part Two
Matthew J. Pallamary and writer reads…
VAH: Who is your favorite literary character?
MJP: Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan and Dr. Dolittle when I was very young.
VAH: Do you have a favorite author?
MJP: Ray Bradbury. He was always passionate and supportive of other writers and he graced me with a blurb for my first short story collection. He rarely if ever gave out blurbs. I learned volumes from him.
VAH: You’re stranded in a snowstorm, stuck on a deserted island. What books would you hope to have with you or find?
MJP: War & Peace. Carlos Castaneda’s books, Hanta Yo
They all transported me to magical times and places which provided great escapes.
VAH: What is the most memorable book, story or poem you’ve read?
MJP: My mother handed me The Exorcist when I was in high school. I went into my bedroom at 7:30 that night and emerged 7:30 the following morning when I finished it.
VAH: Do you have a favorite book, poem, or story and why?
MJP: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance stands out as it delves into the nature of truth, logic, and perception.
VAH: What author or books keep you up at night because you can’t put them down?
MJP: Nothing since The Exorcist, but I am admittedly a bit burned out and jaded after reading, critiquing and editing thousands of manuscripts.
VAH: Which reader are you – always finish what you started or put it down and move on if you don’t like it? Why?
MJP: Once I start, I finish 99% of the time. Something can be learned, even from bad writing and stories.
More Matthew J. Pallamary this month, on days that end in 3.
Matthew J. Pallamary’s historical novel Land Without Evil, received rave reviews along with a San Diego Book Award for mainstream fiction and was adapted into a stage and sky show by Agent Red, directed by Agent Red, and was the subject of an EMMY nominated episode of a PBS series, Arts in Context.
He has taught a Phantastic Fiction workshop at the Southern California Writers’ Conference in San Diego, Palm Springs, and Los Angeles, and at the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference for twenty five years, and is presently Editor in Chief of Muse Harbor Publishing.
His memoir Spirit Matters took first place in the San Diego Book Awards Spiritual Book Category, and was an Award-Winning Finalist in the autobiography/memoir category of the National Best Book Awards. He frequently visits the jungles, mountains, and deserts of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism and ancient cultures.
San Diego, CA
Connect with Matthew J. Pallamary:
Web site. Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Smashwords author page.
Sampler:
The Small Dark Room of the Soul and other stories – Preview.
CyberChrist launched in December 2014
Ashley Butler, a prize winning journalist at the San Diego Times receives an email from a man who claims to have discovered immortality by turning off the aging gene in a 15 year old boy with an aging disorder. The email has pictures showing a reversal of the aging process and the names of a scientist and a company to investigate. Thinking it a hoax, she forwards the email to friends.
Though skeptical, she calls to investigate and gets a no longer in service message. When she leaves her office she overhears a news story about the death of the scientist mentioned in the email.
Ashley checks out the company mentioned in the email and discovers a gutted building. At the deceased scientist’s address she has a confrontation with an unfriendly federal investigator. Returning to her office she finds him, subpoena in hand, confiscating her computer. He tells her that the scientist who sent the email is a killer that they need help catching. When her own investigators do more checking, none of them return.
The forwarded email becomes the basis for an online church built around the boy, calling him the CyberChrist. The church claims that the Internet is the physical manifestation of the group mind of humanity and the boy is the second coming of Christ online.
The federal government tries to shut down the church, but its website replicates faster than they can stop it. While church and state battle over religious freedom online, the media and the state battle over freedom of speech.
Ashley battles to stay alive.
Filed under writing life
July’s Three by Five – a chat with Matthew J. Pallamary
Welcome Matthew J. Pallamary. Let’s start with writer beginnings.
VAH: Three by Five always starts with asking why do you write?
MJP: I am passionate about my search for truth and meaning and I believe that I have a unique perspective on reality that comes from a life time of exploration, particularly in non-rational and non-ordinary shamanic realms that defy description and can only be experienced directly. Most people never get to experience reality in these ways, so I have spent a lifetime trying to articulate them to give my readers a glimpse of an expansive perspective that pushes the boundaries of the “known” world.
VAH: Why did you become a writer and when did you know or feel like you were a writer?
MJP: English was by far my best subject in school. Everything else was secondary. I won school wide spelling bees and excelled as a storyteller. When I took a creative writing course in college I had to write an essay, which was to be turned in as a first draft to the teacher, then re-written and typed out for a final grade. I wrote my first draft about my first experience skydiving in longhand and when the teacher read it, she said, “This is excellent. You don’t have to do anything else. You get an “A”.”
VAH: Any influences on your development as a writer?
MJP: I was blessed to be taken in and more or less adopted by the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference where I had the tremendous good fortune to be mentored by Ray Bradbury, Charles Schulz, leading L.A. Times film critic Charles Champlin, and Barnaby Conrad as well as learning from Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, Gore Vidal, and many others. In San Diego, I have had an awesome friendship with science fiction writer David Brin.
VAH: What do you remember about your first piece of writing?
MJP: I am also a drummer and a vocalist, so my first poem/songs were about my search for truth and meaning. My first published piece was an article titled “Whose Reality is it Anyway?” which was published in an inspirational magazine. It had to do with the multitude of different ways that people view the world.
VAH: What is the favorite piece you’ve written to date?
MJP: I remember reading an interview with Billy Joel many years ago where he was asked, “What is your favorite song that you have written?”
His answer that I have paraphrased here was, “They are all my children and though they are different in popularity and achievements, I love them all equally.”
More Matthew J. Pallamary this month, on days that end in 3.
Matthew J. Pallamary’s historical novel Land Without Evil, received rave reviews along with a San Diego Book Award for mainstream fiction and was adapted into a stage and sky show by Agent Red, directed by Agent Red, and was the subject of an EMMY nominated episode of a PBS series, Arts in Context.
He has taught a Phantastic Fiction workshop at the Southern California Writers’ Conference in San Diego, Palm Springs, and Los Angeles, and at the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference for twenty five years, and is presently Editor in Chief of Muse Harbor Publishing.
His memoir Spirit Matters took first place in the San Diego Book Awards Spiritual Book Category, and was an Award-Winning Finalist in the autobiography/memoir category of the National Best Book Awards. He frequently visits the jungles, mountains, and deserts of North, Central, and South America pursuing his studies of shamanism and ancient cultures.
San Diego, CA
Connect with Matthew J. Pallamary:
Web site. Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Smashwords author page.
Sampler:
The Small Dark Room of the Soul and other stories – Preview.
Filed under writing life
Poetry Scouts
May Day has arrived and National Poetry Month comes to another conclusion. The Found Poetry Review once again sponsored a creative and challenging project for production of found poems during the entire month. This was my second time taking part. The concept of poetry “scout” badges was fun and tough at times. I did complete all 30, though more than half in the final hours due to an extremely challenging month in non-literary ways.
During the month of May, all the poems will be visible online. They will go dark come the end of this month. I hope you will check out a few of mine. I’m rather proud of them.
PoMoSco rocked.
Filed under writing life
Rebecca Foust Part IV
Rebecca Foust and the writing life…
VAH: Are
you a full time writer?
RF: Yes.
VAH: Is writing vocation, occupation, or profession?
RF: Vocation because I do it for love, not money.
VAH: When the page is blank what gets you writing?
RF: Writing—anything—gets me writing.
VAH: What is your “process” when working on a new piece of writing?
RF: Right drunk and revise sober. Let it all out in the first draft and then pare back and revise.
VAH: Do you have a submission system or plan?
RF: Yes, three times a year: fall, spring, summer.
VAH: What does your typical writing day include?
RF: Unfortunately it begins with answering a ton of emails—the main reason I go on writing retreats is to get away from emails and social media.
VAH: That immersion into writing and the ability to turn off the tech is quite inviting.
Bonus:
VAH: If you had a super power, what would it be and why?
RF: Never have to sleep because I hate to sleep.
VAH: What is a little known fact about you that will amaze and/or amuse?
RF: I used to collect rocks.
VAH: How fun! I used to collect rocks too. In fact, I occasionally can’t resist picking up and stashing one away in my pocket.
Three random, non-writing facts about you?
RF: I love to cook. Have 3 kids. Am a pretty good snowboarder. Once was proficient on the stationary trapeze.
VAH: Who is your biggest fan?
RF: My sister Sandy Geimer.
Thank you Rebecca Foust, for taking the time to talk about your writing life.
Rebecca Foust Sampler:
Southern Indiana Review Spring 4014 Issue, “the fire is falling,” Jan 2014:
“Dynamic Response of Multi-Layered Soil Media in the Frequency Domain,” featured on Poetry Daily, 2/1/15
“Biography,” “But What Can Wake You,” and “Eulogy,” published in OmniVerse, Fall 2014
“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14
“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)
Rebecca Foust was the 2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence and is the recipient of fellowships from the Frost Place and the MacDowell Colony. Her fifth book, Paradise Drive won the 2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry. Molly Peacock calls it “jagged” and “fresh” and Thomas Lux says “There is great music in these poems, and sonnet after sonnet is masterful. Not si
nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”
Foust’s poems are widely published and appear in current or next issues of the Hudson Review, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, North American Review, Southern Indiana Review, and other journals. Her book reviews and essays have published in American Book Review, Calyx, Chautauqua, Prairie Schooner, and Rumpus, and her essay, “Venn Diagram” won the 2014 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award and appears in the current issue of Malahat Review.
Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media: Website. Twitter. Facebook.
Filed under writing life
Rebecca Foust Part III
April’s conversation with Poet Rebecca Foust continues.
Part II
I with Poet Rebecca Foust
VAH: What words of wisdom do you have for the emerging writer?
RF: Learn to accept rejection and to reject acceptance (Ray Bradbury). The writers who succeed are the ones who don’t give up. Do it for love, not money or fame because those things are not gonna happen. Enjoy the process. As Isak Dineson said, write every day with hope but without specific expectation.
VAH: What choices have you made regards to traditional or independent publishing and why?
RF: Traditional because with 5000 books of poetry a year getting published now, a writer has to do all she can to distinguish her work in the great wash.
VAH: What part does social media play in your writing career?
RF: Lately, more and more. FB is vastly more efficient than email for spreading the word. I am just learning twitter and the jury is out on whether this will be effective in helping to distribute my work.
VAH: Both can be useful marketing tools and just as effective time sucks.
Do you belong to writing or author organizations and what benefit have you found in doing so?
RF: Left Coast Writers at Book Passage in Marin is great. AWP conferences are great, too. And I love Marin Poetry Center, which offers so much for $25 a year: monthly readings by high profile poets, a monthly roundtable workshop, the chance to contribute to an annual anthology, and the opportunity to read in the summer traveling shows.
VAH: I’ll need to look into the Marin Poetry Center. Do you have any favorite online sites or blogs that you find useful or interesting?
RF: Narrative, Cortland Review, and the Best American Poetry and the North American and Mid-American Review Blogs.
More with Poet Rebecca Foust posting here on days that end in three (or occasionally begin with 3).
In the meantime, enjoy a sampling of her work:
Southern Indiana Review Spring 4014 Issue, “the fire is falling,” Jan 2014:
“Dynamic Response of Multi-Layered Soil Media in the Frequency Domain,” featured on Poetry Daily, 2/1/15
“Biography,” “But What Can Wake You,” and “Eulogy,” published in OmniVerse, Fall 2014
“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14
“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)
Rebecca Foust was the 2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence and is the recipient of fellowships from the Frost Place and the MacDowell Colony. Her fifth book, Paradise Drive won the 2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry. Molly Peacock calls it “jagged” and “fresh” and Thomas Lux says “There is great music in these poems, and sonnet after sonnet is masterful. Not si
nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”
Foust’s poems are widely published and appear in current or next issues of the Hudson Review, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, North American Review, Southern Indiana Review, and other journals. Her book reviews and essays have published in American Book Review, Calyx, Chautauqua, Prairie Schooner, and Rumpus, and her essay, “Venn Diagram” won the 2014 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award and appears in the current issue of Malahat Review.
Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media: Website. Twitter. Facebook.
Filed under writing life
Rebecca Foust Part II
April’s conversation with Poet Rebecca Foust continues. Today’s installment looks at what the writer reads.
VAH: Rebecca, Do you have a favorite literary character?
RF: Boo Radley
VAH: Harper Lee’s characters are often mentioned in response to that question. First time for Boo Radley though.
Any favorite authors?
RF: No, I love so many.
VAH: You’re stranded in a snowstorm, stuck on a deserted island. What books would you hope to have with you or find?
RF: Shakespeare and the bible.
VAH: The gamut of emotion there. Love, pain, joy, anger, revenge, hope, redemption, drama, comedy… and would last a while.
What is the most memorable book, story or poem you’ve read?
RF: Well, I just wrote a piece for Poetry Daily on Yeats’s “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” and that is the only poem I have ever truly memorized, so let’s say that one.
VAH: I find hope that you’ve only memorized one poem, since I can’t memorize anything.
Do you have a favorite book, poem, or story?
RF: I love the poems of George Herbert, Gerard Manley Hopkins and John Donne. My favorite book of poems is probably Ariel by Sylvia Plath, The House on the Marshland by Louise Gluck or Winter Stars by Larry Levis.
VAH: What author or books keep you up at night because you can’t put them down?
RF: I recently loved The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and Donna Tart’s The Goldfinch and The Secret History. I really loved The Old American by Ernest Hebert. Anything by Tobias Wolff is great. I love reading short stories too. Poems take more attention and work and it is hard for me to read them at night with the focus they require.
VAH: Reading poetry at night before bed would probably keep my mind awake, churning the images around. Which reader are you – always finish what you started or put it down and move on if you don’t like it?
RF: Always finish because I am stubborn and not a quitter.
More with Poet Rebecca Foust posting here on days that end in three (or occasionally begin with 3).
In the meantime, enjoy a sampling of her work:
“Dynamic Response of Multi-Layered Soil Media in the Frequency Domain,” featured on Poetry Daily, 2/1/15
“Biography,” “But What Can Wake You,” and “Eulogy,” published in OmniVerse, Fall 2014
“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14
“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)
Rebecca Foust was the 2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence and is the recipient of fellowships from the Frost Place and the MacDowell Colony. Her fifth book, Paradise Drive won the 2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry. Molly Peacock calls it “jagged” and “fresh” and Thomas Lux says “There is great music in these poems, and sonnet after sonnet is masterful. Not si
nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”
Foust’s poems are widely published and appear in current or next issues of the Hudson Review, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, North American Review, Southern Indiana Review, and other journals. Her book reviews and essays have published in American Book Review, Calyx, Chautauqua, Prairie Schooner, and Rumpus, and her essay, “Venn Diagram” won the 2014 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award and appears in the current issue of Malahat Review.
Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media:
Filed under writing life
Rebecca Foust Part I
Three by Five welcomes Poet Rebecca Foust. This installment focuses on writer beginnings.
VAH: Welcome Rebecca Foust to Three by Five! The first question is always – why do you write?
RF: I am impelled to by a pressure from within.
VAH: Why writing and what led you to identify as a writer?
RF: I’ve always been a writer but did not know it till the year I turned 50 and published my first poem and book.
VAH: That certainly gives the many older, emerging writers hope. Any influences with your development as a writer?
RF: So many—women writers like Sharon Olds, Molly Peacock Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Gluck, and Gwendolyn were all important because in college we studied only Dead White Men and I needed role models to convince me that I could write, too. James Cummins’s book of hilarious and smart linked sestinas based on the Perry Mason TV series was a big source of inspiration for Paradise Drive.
VAH: I think that question is one of my favorites because it so often gives some back story to what the author is doing. For any difficult profession – seeing someone that looks like you that is successful makes such a huge contribution towards successful individual effort. Role models give hope.
What do you remember about your first story or poem?
RF: Don’t recall my first poem but “Mom’s Canoe,” my most widely anthologized poem was the first poem I published, in 2007 the year I turned 50.
VAH: I love the rhythm and music in that poem. Fifty is a milestone and Mom’s Canoe seems to have gotten you off to a fine beginning.
Do you have a favorite piece you’ve written to date?
RF: A very short poem called “Only” written for my son who has Aspergers.
VAH: That poem must be particularly close to your heart.
More with Poet Rebecca Foust posting here on days that end in three.
In the meantime, enjoy a sampling of her work:
“Dream of the Rood” featured on Poetry Daily, 10/2/14
“Prodigal,” Valparaiso Poetry Review, Volume XIV, Number 2 (Spring 2013)
Rebecca Foust was the 2014 Dartmouth Poet in Residence and is the recipient of fellowships from the Frost Place and the MacDowell Colony. Her fifth book, Paradise Drive won the 2015 Press 53 Award for Poetry. Molly Peacock calls it “jagged” and “fresh” and Thomas Lux says “There is great music in these poems, and sonnet after sonnet is masterful. Not si
nce Berryman’s Henry have I been so engaged by a persona.”
Foust’s poems are widely published and appear in current or next issues of the Hudson Review, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, North American Review, Southern Indiana Review, and other journals. Her book reviews and essays have published in American Book Review, Calyx, Chautauqua, Prairie Schooner, and Rumpus, and her essay, “Venn Diagram” won the 2014 Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Award and appears in the current issue of Malahat Review.
Find Rebecca Foust on the web and social media:
Filed under writing life
Vicki Hudson 