Fiction, Essay, Photography … Sometimes Vampires
Can you stand perfectly still and hold this moment open? Very cool sign spotted on the way to Whale Prom, the alternative book fair to the one featured at the official AWP writers' conference. It's an appropriate message that likely won't be heard by the people who need it the most. We don't sit still… Continue reading AWP18, indie book fair, and burnout
I usually don't want to talk about my time in South Africa because it makes me feel like this: But seeing the works of South African artists on display in the Arts of Global Africa collection at the Newark Museum had me feeling some type of way. Also we need to talk about "Party Time:… Continue reading Party Time at the Newark Museum
One hang-up for NJ residents (and we have many) is an aversion to being perceived as tourists during time spent in New York City. Because we're savvy! We can navigate the Subway (with no help from MTA, like actually audible announcements of station stops). We are ready for the crush of people and the bright… Continue reading Beauty Behind the Scenes
Growing up, we were a Point Pleasant Day Trip Family, but mostly for the Boardwalk. We liked the softserve icecream in a fresh hot waffle, and playing the game of Frogs. For lying on the beach we were Avon-By-the-Sea daytrippers. Later, we became yearly pass-carriers for Sandy Hook, since it's a State Park and has… Continue reading The Sad Magic of a Beach Town in Winter
After being snowed in, cooped up, and barricaded against a week-long Polar Vortex, I have come to appreciate the simple joy of being able to walk out of the house. I live within walking distance of a free-of-charge art museum on campus. I work along the Atlantic Ocean. I can watch the sun set over… Continue reading Fresh Air
My review is live!
Life After Rugby
By Eileen G’Sell
Gold Wake Press, 2017
$15.95
ISBN: 978-1640084650
Eileen G’Sell’s poetry collection “Life After Rugby” (Gold Wake Press, 2018, $14.95, 74 pages) presents moments of wonder and pain through vocabulary and forms certain to enchant. The dedication of the collection includes two quotations to set the tone: one from Simone Weil about the fleeting beauty of the world, and this one from Mike Tyson: “There’s nothing more deadly and proficient than a happy fighter.”
With these fierce words in mind the reader is greeted by the first poem, “Follow the Girl in the Red Boots,” a sublime invitation to forget what “plenty of people” do, say or expect. There’s magic in the closing stanza:
The entire poem celebrates…
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It's not exactly a secret that in the nonprofit world, grants ends and positions dissolve and people move on. After five years, this was the fate of the urban youth development program I worked at. Grieve and mourn are heavy words and I feared them, staved them off as long as I could. Then I… Continue reading Flowers for the Dead
