Month: September 2021

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? At the time of initially writing this poem, I had conceived an idea to write a series of poems based on nursery rhymes and children’s fairytales. Initially this poem was…… Continue reading #327 Backstory of the Poem: Stewart Shaw’s “What little blk gurls are made of”

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? I started in March 2020 and finished in June 2021. Updated the postscript in August 2021. I did not know I was writing a memoir when I began writing essays about the pandemic in NYC for The Village…… Continue reading #014 The Magnification of One Memory In Memoir: Kate Walter’s Behind the Mask: Living Alone in the Epicenter

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? I began writing this memoir about ten years. It’s a story about my search for my Irish roots. My Irish mother gave birth to me in England and returned to Ireland, alone, soon after I was born. I…… Continue reading #013 The Magnification of One Memory In Memoir: Sylvia Greene’s Finding the Homeplace.

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? This poem emerged from a writing class unlike any other I have ever taken. It was taught by the unique Christopher Bursk, beloved teacher, mentor to so many poets, especially…… Continue reading #326 Backstory of the Poem: Faith Paulsen’s “Poem In Response To Steve Nolan”

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir? I began writing this book in 2018 on my own. Then decided to do a he said/she said type of writing so for a year my husband and I have been co-writing the memoir together. I hope to have it completed…… Continue reading #012 The Magnification of One Memory in Memoir: Dawn and Sal Vecchio’s BREAKING THE CHAINS OF SIN: A Testimony of Love, Life, and Meth.

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? Although it’s hard to remember the exact circumstances around the writing of this poem, this is what I know: I was in graduate school at Florida International University, and I was constantly obsessed…… Continue reading #325 Backstory of the Poem: Alabama Poet Laureate Ashley M. Jones’s “Racially Content at Christmastime”

Name of fiction work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us?  Harvesting the Sky. There weren’t any other names because once I knew the story was about a special apple from Kazakhstan, I knew this had to be the title. The title has hidden meaning so if…… Continue reading #265 Inside the Emotion of Fiction: Karen Hugg’s Harvesting the Sky

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? This poem is part of What Shot Did You Ever Take, the book of poems I co-wrote with Brian Oliu. This book of poems is inspired by the Rocky series…… Continue reading #324 Backstory of the Poem: Jason McCall’s “Rocky II”

Francine Sterle in Maine, August of 2021. Copyright by Francine Sterle Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? The poem began as an exploration of a friend’s preoccupation with a relationship of which he was never able…… Continue reading #323 Backstory of the Poem: Francine Sterle’s “Icendiary”

What is the date you began writing this memoir and the date when you completed the memoir?  Prozac Monologues: A Voice from the Edge is a book within a book. The original manuscript, called simply Prozac Monologues, was written in three weeks, January 23, 2005 through the second week in February that year, most of…… Continue reading #011 The Magnification of One Memory in Memoir: Willa Goodfellow’s PROZAC MONOLOGUES: A VOICE FROM THE EDGE.

Name of fiction work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us? THE KING’S MAN was originally meant to be titled TO KILL A KING (as the premise of the story is based on numerous plots to kill Oliver Cromwell). Unfortunately, a film of the same name (and…… Continue reading #264 Inside the Emotion of Fiction: Alison Stuart’s THE KING’S MAN.

New Yorker Maddie is a forty-three-year-old African American who seems to have it together- she had the best education that only money can buy; she is able to make a living out of her own passions of singing and playing the piano at an old hotel lobby in New York City; and she has been…… Continue reading CARC Analysis of Toni Ann Johnson’s novella HOMEGOING: “The Search For Forgiveness and Accountability”

Name of fiction work? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us? The novel is called Rise From The River. Over the years that I was trying to write it, it was mostly called Nightswimming. I changed it during the final draft, because Nightswimming no longer reflected what…… Continue reading #263 Inside the Emotion of Fiction: Kathie Giorgio’s RISE FROM THE RIVER

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form?“A White Room, A Piano” began with a prompt from poets Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar in a workshop I attended. We were given a word bank, and while I don’t…… Continue reading #322 Backstory of the Poem: Karen Paul Holmes’s “A White Room, A Piano”

Name of memoir? And were there other names you considered that you would like to share with us?  Hello! All My Dogs Go to Heaven was almost called The Road Trip of My Life. Either title would fit, especially because I’ve lived all over the United States (and in China) and many different towns within…… Continue reading #010 The Magnification of One Memory in Memoir: Kay Bratt’s ALL MY DOGS GO TO HEAVEN.

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form?  Some of my answer to this question is below because my process is directly related to where I was when I began writing. The first stanza or so was written…… Continue reading #321 Backstory of the Poem: “Deirdre Fagan’s “Phantom Limbs”

Can you go through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea was first conceived in your brain until final form? I chose “Parting Gift,” a poem from my collection, Welcome to Midland. I can actually trace different iterations of this poem all the way back to 2006. Welcome to Midland…… Continue reading #320 Backstory of the Poem: Logen Cure’s “Parting Gift”