Autumn Abundance

Autumn brings forth abundance--it is a productive season for me, and I have come across more than one poet or artist who agrees.  This time last year, Meredith Wise, editor of the poetry journal Dappled Things, wrote

It’s October as I write, which seems to be a poetry-writing season for me and possibly a lot of people—off the top of my head: Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath—and I wonder why that is. Is it because we finally give up on the lie of eternal summer and accept that we have limited light to work in (easy thing to forget, when poetry is something you can procrastinate on until you die without inconveniencing anyone)? 

If you are one of these people and you are thinking about your neglected poetry or fiction again, you are probably praying for inspiration right now. In addition to praying, I must admit that I always revisit a handful of poems that have a quality best captured by the Welsh term “hwyl” (hoo-ill?)—a kind of high-handed mastery, a sense that the poet has just been ordained and that power has been poured into him. . .

The article, "Welsh Starlight," can be read in full here.  What's higher than highly recommended?  That's my recommendation that you read this article, especially in the season of the waning sun.

There is also a new publication from a fairy tale acquaintance, affectionately referred to as Mr. Pond: New Fairy Tales, a collection of poems and essays.  In addition to Mr. Pond (John Patrick Pazdziora), it includes contributions by another acquaintance, Josh Richards, and Katherine Langrish, of Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, worthy author of West of the Moon, Forsaken, and others.  It can be purchased from Amazon here.

Goblin Fruit's late summer edition includes a poem of mine written in the season last year, more toward the dead-end of autumn.  You can even listen to a recording of me reciting the poem!  And the most recent issue of Dappled Things features a poem of mine as well.

Tahlia Merrill of Diamonds and Toads, the used-to-be sister site of Enchanted Conversation, has inaugurated a new fairy tale webzine of her own: Timeless Tales, now open for submissions.  What's neat about these fairy tales it that you can listen to them--there is an audio version of each issue!

As for me, I hope to settle down into the harvest season and reap some new inspiration myself.  What about you?

A Few Fairy Notes

1.  With the disappearance of the classic SSiG background, I'm revamping the imagery; so please bare with me and the shape-shifting blog for now!

2.  My poem "Achilles's Sister" was published in Fickle Muses.  Click the link to read.

3.  A new fairy tale publication is being released by the editor of Enchanted Conversation, Kate Wolfold, brought to us by World Weaver Press!  Beyond the Glass Slipper: Ten Neglected Fairy Tales to Fall in Love With introduces a collection of lesser known tales with the non-tedious yet intelligent blend of professionalism and personability with which Ms. Wolfold mans Enchanted Conversation.

In honor of the book's release, World Weaver Press is hosting a Fairy Tale Festival until May 6.  Go and join the fun!  And purchase the e-book because EC will be hosting a group discussion on the book you won't want to miss out on!

Mirror, Mirror . . .

Check out the Winter Issue of Mirror Dance, now live, for my prose poem experiment "Green," all polished and professional-like, Spinning Straw into Gold's friend and regular, A.L. Loveday, and well known in the speculative fiction blogosphere, talented poet Sandi Leibowitz, among others.

Always a fairy tale treat, Mirror Dance, perfect for toothsome bites throughout the day.

Call for Submissions at Unsettling Wonder

A new publication titled Unsettling Wonder is calling for submissions, which close on December 1, 2012.  The theme for the fist issue is the folk motif of wonder voyages (the Odyssey is the first thing that comes to my mind).

The aim of Unsettling Wonder, or what I understand from their goose-flesh summoning introduction, is to tell tales for the love of story; to conjure the numinous in a way only a story-as-it's-being-told/read can; to keep the trade alive, from master to apprentice.  Come to think of it, storytelling is one of the oldest professions in the world.

Woods and princes, elves and fools, voyages and rolling cheeses, tricksters and righteous sages, kings dressed as beggars, stories told by thieves.  We want to tell these tales, not as deconstruction or subversion, not as nostalgia or sentiment, but in the same way these stories have always been told--spun out and re-imagined by the tale-teller in the moment of telling, for the ones who hear it, to reclaim the magic of story.

There is, after all, no real past in literature, just as there is no real future.  Any literary work lives, unalterably, in an eternal now--the moment the writer or the reader sees or hears the words on the page, and follows them to whatever unknown regions lie beyond.

There is also a pristine introductory article by Katherine Langrish of Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, author of Dark Angels and the Troll Mill series.  

I know already I'm going to relish anything put out by UW.  Here's to many future years bright with wonder and dark with mystery.

On Submissions II

My little poem "Collector" was published online this morning!

The Red Poppy Review is a neat little e-journal, which I like to peruse for its varying styles and genres.  I enjoy the simple-but-encompassing sturdiness of its poems. 

The Bedtime Book, Jessie Willcox Smith

Also, our own contest is drawing to a close tomorrow.  Please be sure to upload your entry using the inlinkz tool.  It will end at midnight, like Cinderella's jaunt at the ball.