Author of over 400 Books for Children and Adults
I had been writing poems for a science fiction magazine in Scotland. (I have a house in Scotland that I spend a lot of the summer at, so it’s not as big a stretch as you think.) Because they had already published a lot of my sf poems, they asked if I would like to do a small paperback book of sf poems and I was delighted to be asked.
Peter and I had dated for two months in college. He was known as the Williams College Poet at that time, and I as the Smith College Poet and someone (neither of us remember who that was!) thought it was a good idea to have us meet. We spent the entire two months discussing poetry,
I already have ten books of adult poetry that have come put of that daily poem work, and Kaddish–a book of poems in two parts, one feminist Biblical midrash and the other poems about the Holocaust–is the eleventh. The poetry publisher, Holy Cow! Press already did three of my books…
So I had a brilliant idea. Humorous poems about stinky animals. Lots of back matter. You know–skunk, stink bug, mink, ferret,. Had a moment’s doubt that there wouldn’t be enough. Google set my mind at rest. Talked to daughter Heidi about doing the book with me.
This verse novel began as a bunch of different poems about Baba Yaga,my culture hero. I’d read a bit of a blog in which the author purports to be Baba Yaga as a love columnist. The columns were particularly snarky and strong. So I wrote a poem about Baba Yaga as a love columnist and then branched out into writing poems about her in general: having tea with Kostchai the Deathless, (When he kisses the Baba on the cheek, “it leaves a scar.”) or how she feels about her cousin the witch from Hansel in Gretel.
Hard- hitting political poetry for adults. Remember—-I lean left. Far left. So Trump & Co. get no kudos from me. I began writing the poems slightly before the vote, Finished it in January when it was published. Wonderful intro by Bill Newman, head of the Western Mass ACLU, a writer himself. And Civil Rights lawyer.
I first met the editor, John Patrick Pazdziora as he was finishing his doctorate at St Andrews University in English Literature. My friend Debby brought him, his lovely wife Rebecca, and their amazing then two year old daughter Fern to tea at my house. We began a conversation about his work
This small art press limited edition (of 50) hand-bound books is for the serious collector. The book includes both published and unpublished adult poems in the faerie tale/fantasy genre. If you go to www.papaveria.com you will find ordering information
My third book of adult poetry, first book of political poems, for the wonderful small poetry press Holy!Cow. I was hitting the right wing hard here, in a variety of poems, and developed a style for what I would later use in the poetry book I began in 2016 right before the traitorous Trump won” Before the Vote/After.
Over a period of seven years, I wrote a sonnet a year about the life of my favorite poet (and neighbor!) Emily Dickinson. Not looking to get them published, not at first. Just writing them. They certainly didn’t seem to me to be something either an adult poetry publisher would want or something