Initially, the poems in Subhaga Crystal Bacon’s fine book show her keen eye for delivering the natural world. It’s tempting to think of her as a naturalist, but as her book progresses it becomes clear that, more broadly, she’s a human nature poet; poems of love and loss and community occur with the same acute precision.

Grounded in the beloved Pacific Northwest, Blue Hunger is an account of a soul’s journey, “empty of longing./Luminous, lambent.” In this world where grief merges with love, so does the poet merge “with that great distance.” Each moment and season in a life is carefully observed, “What I remember most was the flavor of those words, scented with lost possibilities.”

Bacon seamlessly marries the self with the world . . . of wild rivers and dark trees, of coyotes and hawks, of snow and summer grasses— or the human body, with its love, its aging, and its griefs… Bacon sings of our human hungers— “diligent, defended, devout”— with wild consciousness.  

Subhaga Crystal Bacon the author of two volumes of poetry, Blue Hunger, 2020 from Methow Press, and Elegy with a Glass of Whisky, BOA Editions, 2004. A cis-gender, Queer identified woman, she lives, writes, and teaches on the east slope of the North Cascade Mountains in Twisp, WA.

Available at https://confluence-poets-products.company.site/Blue-Hunger-by-Subhaga-Crystal-Bacon-p199293740

It is 1971. The fictional city of Bellport, Massachusetts, is in decline with an urban redevelopment project on the horizon expected to transform this dying factory town into a thriving economic center. This planned transformation has a profound effect on the residents who live in Bellport as their own personal transformations take place. Sydney Stallworth steps away from her fellowship and law studies at an elite university to support husband Malachi’s dream of opening a business in the heart of the black community of his hometown, Bellport.

For Omar Bassari, an immigrant from Senegal, Bellport is where he will establish his drumming career and the launching pad from which he will spread African culture across the world. Della Tolliver has built a fragile sanctuary in Bellport for herself, boyfriend Kwamé Rodriguez, and daughter Jasmine, a troubled child prone to nightmares and outbursts.

The Talking Drum explores intraracial, class, and cross-cultural tensions, along with the meaning of community and belonging. It examines the profound impact gentrification has on people in many neighborhoods and the way in which being uprooted affects the fabric of their families, friendships, and emotional well-being.

The Talking Drum, Lisa Braxton’s debut, is beautifully written (perhaps why it’s being released by a press more known for their poetry), and transports us to early 1970s Massachusetts, where a predominantly black neighborhood is about to fall victim to the twin forces of gentrification and institutional racism, with a strong dose of corruption on the side.

To order, CLICK HERE.
 

For information about the author, CLICK HERE.

Picture Alaska—her braided rivers and Arctic tundra, her tidal shorelines and thrashing salmon. Imagine flying over the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta with an inexperienced pilot, charging into an ever-changing rodeo of sky, clouds so thick it’s like flying through milk. Imagine Yup’ik elders whose humble behavior and reverence for their homeland teaches you more about living with intention than formal education ever could. Imagine learning that to practice deep listening is to practice silence. Imagine spending 21 days on a 42-foot trawler boating the Inside Passage.

Monica Devine’s new collection, Water Mask, captures these experiences alongside stories of New Mexico deserts, Wyoming horses, and family, making accessible through lyrical essays this remarkable American landscape.

In Water Mask, Monica Devine maps out a life in Alaska that explores issues of the human heart: fear, spiritual longing, memory, perception, loss and wonder. She skis woodland trails with her baby on her back, navigates sea ice with Beaufort Sea whalers, negotiates the deaths of her parents and endures the near loss of her cabin on the shape-shifting Copper River. In these captivating stories, Monica reflects on family, the importance of place, her work in Alaska Native villages, and more…all told against the background of a cold northern landscape that both rejects and beguiles.

To order, CLICK HERE.

Through the Lens of Love: Facing Terminal Illness is an open-hearted, inspiring story of the two years Robin’s husband, Dr. Richard (Dick) Gross, was dying from glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain cancer. If you or your loved one has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, this book will guide you through the days and months to come. Robin will be your voice of reason, your shoulder to cry on, and your light at the end of the tunnel.

When Dick and his wife Robin receive news that he has GBM, the life they built together over forty years abruptly changed in one day. With the help of family, friends, and acquaintances, his last two years became an unexpected, extraordinary part of Dick’s life. Through the Lens of Love: Facing Terminal Illness is foremost a love story that brings you on an amazing journey which begins on a photography trip to Monet’s Garden in France and ends with an emotional reunion in Callaway Gardens, Georgia. 

Anyone who has been touched by glioblastoma will hear their own voice echoed somewhere in Robin’s book. With gentle yet exquisite and sometimes humorous style, she invites readers to explore her family, faith, & friendship. 

Why do we write books? In the hopes our story, experiences, lessons learned might help others. Kudos to Robin Gross for honoring her husband, family and community for their loving support through her dark night of the soul. You will be inspired and uplifted by the humanity demonstrated in this book – and will be motivated to reach out to those around you to re-establish what matters most in good times and bad – kindness, compassion and connection. Read it and reap.                             

 To order, CLICK HERE.

Joanne Jagoda of Oakland California, grandmother of seven, used the shelter-in-place weeks to put together a book of seventy of her best poems, My Runaway Hourglass, Seventy Poems Celebrating Seventy Years. Joanne writing journey began when she retired in 2009 and started taking classes and workshops exploring the world of creative writing. She has widely published her poetry, short stories and creative non fiction.

It was during these crazy weeks of the pandemic, as the world turned upside down, that she was hit with a sense of urgency to put together her book. She knew first-hand from recent health issues she and her husband weathered, that life can be fragile and uncertain while time keeps flowing like sand in a runaway hourglass.

Her book is compelling and different than most poetry books. Many readers have reported they could not put it down and stayed up all night reading it. You will laugh and cry with Joanne.

Joanne Jagoda’s poetry gives us the opportunity to reflect on our own lives by opening the doors to hers. Soul-crushing and breath-halting, but uplifting and life-affirming.

Joanne Jagoda takes us on a journey through many different stages of her life and we become addicted to her highly readable poetry. It feels like she is sitting right next to us, telling us stories of beauty and fearlessness, sadness and courage and, always, with unflinching honesty.

For purchase information: https://mypoetry.gift/purchase-my-book/

The Full Moon Herald By Phyllis Klein is a book of poetry in newspaper format filled with real news stories, and personal news stories. It travels the ground of trauma, grief, empathy, and hope.

From Minder-Binder Review of Books:
This exceptional first book of poems should be required reading for anyone who 1) appreciates poetry as a meaningful way to explore who we are in this beautiful and troubling world; 2) is willing to open themselves to the honesty and intimacy of our shared and connected lives; and/or 3) wishes to mine the deeper nature of the news without the noise and nonsense of talking heads. 


”Phyllis Klein’s remarkable poems make hidden wounds visible as she digs into the Breaking News. Entering this world, you breathe in the fresh air of honesty. You fume, you weep with her along the treacherous paths she travels, to finally understand we are ‘relatives in the fields of trees, beauty and devastation we call home.’ Such good news.”

“Phyllis Klein is a poet of great courage. She brings what Ezra Pound called poetry: ’the news that stays news.’ Her determination to see and name what we are afraid to face powers the headlines of this startling debut collection.”

Available for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Full-Moon-Herald-Phyllis-Klein/dp/1733556826/

Stone Gathering: A Reader is a mixed-genre, print anthology of hand-selected, previously published short writings intended for a wide readership. It is issued five times annually by Danielle Dufy Literary under the imprint French Press Editions (“portable, affordable, collectible, literature”).

Our mission is to get more short literature that matters into the hands of as many readers as possible through these beautiful but modestly priced quarterly anthologies. Each collects the work of 20-25 accomplished, inviting writers such as Naomi Shihab Nye, William Stafford, Kathy Fish, Lucille Clifton, Ross Gay, Brian Doyle, Danusha Laméris, Marjorie Saiser, Wendell Berry, Bao Phi, Abigail Thomas, Jane Brox, Molly Fisk, and more—writers you know and writers you’ll be glad to know.

Now in its second year, Stone Gathering has struck a strong chord with a wide readership. Contributors and readers have called it “a lovely, well-curated collection” “brimming with substantial wonders,” “a beautiful garden, with the gate wide open,” “a pocket-sized life raft,” and “a secular missal for our times.” If you like books you can fall back on; if you appreciate the way a line of poetry, a strong idea, a meaningful story can shore you up (or call you out!); if you like to hold beautiful, powerful words in your heart, or carry them in your pocket, or sometimes let them stir you to action, this book, this collectible series, is for you. Won’t you join our community of readers?

For subscriptions, gift subscriptions, and complete sets, CLICK HERE.

What is a diary and why do we keep them? WHITE SNAKE DIARY explores the diary as a literary genre. Uniquely, WHITE SNAKE DIARY is also a diary, offering a timely #MeToo profile of growing up female. Jane pulls on the allure of the repurposed with found photos, school assignments, diary entries, letters, essays, and professional reports, writing with humor and attention to the little moments most people miss. Released during our global pandemic, WHITE SNAKE DIARY highlights the diary’s documentarian and reflective functions in this time of tragedy and cocooning.

Jane P. Perry is a retired Researcher and Teacher from the University of California, Berkeley’s Harold E. Jones Child Study Center and an expert in outdoor play. Since sheltering in place, Jane has been interviewed by Paula Whitacre, featured in Hidden Timber Books Small Press Author Reading Series, and has diary-related pieces published in Persimmon Tree, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Women Writers, Women’s Books and The Oaklandside. 100% of the return on purchase price goes to Ohlone sovereignty through Sogorea Te Land Trust, an urban Indigenous women-led 501c3 organization facilitating the return of SF Bay land to Indigenous stewardship, healing from the legacies of colonization and genocide, promotion of a different way of living, and the continuation of the work that the ancestors and future generations call us to do. To find out more about Jane go to janepperry.com, where you can read an excerpted review of WHITE SNAKE DIARY from her author reading.

Purchase through your local bookstore or here.

In Hilda Raz’s dazzling List & Story, a pencil waits for us in every room, a bride and bridesmaid hold a trashcan between them, and April is recast as “a beautiful automaton” that lights peach blossoms on fire. These kaleidoscopic poems whipsaw between love and grief to create raw, unflinching elegies. Raz’s exquisite formal control is paired with associative leaps in these stunning explorations of identity, mortality, and the threshold between language and speechlessness… Bristling with brutal truths and sudden tenderness, Raz reminds us that, despite our losses, language and love will return in this life and the next.

”Here then is my life in letters. A great weight,” writes Hilda Raz. This harvest—of art, of ripe heirloom tomatoes, of bobcats and lightning—nourishes us body and soul. This poet wants “to know how women sound in their heads.” These poems offer that, plus the beauty of “the glow we can’t see by,” the great mysteries of time and love and the night sky. Here is a poetry in the company of nature and art, saying YES out loud. Here is a poetry that acknowledges death, its nearness, then invites it to the table, where we feast. Thank you, Hilda Raz, for a masterful, profound collection.

To order, CLICK HERE.

To order visit: https://triayarts.com/books

In the driest, harshest corner of the Golden State, along Route 86, sits the Green Lantern Autocourt. There lives Delia, a lonely girl, with her pessimistic, phobic, depressed tyrant of a father, who, despite his neurosis, loves and protects his daughter. In this uncompromising environment, Delia and her father bond and thrive.

Ariel Smart was born at the Green Lantern during the peak of the Great Depression, when characters like the Joads from John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath stopped for gasoline and supplies on their westward movement.

To order, CLICK HERE.

Emergingvoices.co.uk is a quarterly online webzine. Based in London, the webzine presents voices from around the globe reflecting the personal and the political through paintings, poetry, essays, photography and video.

Going into its third year, Emerging Voices features have included:

Paintings linking visual art and politics
Poetry and sculptural art
Photography about politics and religion
Artists addressing climate change
Readings on mothers and daughters
Essays from Armenia, Zimbabwe and South Africa
… and much more.

Rose Levinson, Ph.D., formerly of Berkeley, is Founder and Managing Editor of Emerging Voices. Her writings appear each quarter.

Join our free subscriber list to be updated on quarterly postings.

Send us a 350 word submission on one of the following topics:

What are the most significant changes Covid 19 means for you personally and for your community?
Will the current wave of protests across the United States lead to significant changes? Why or why not?
Finally, our August issue will feature photographic essays. We invite you to submit four photographs along with a short essay. Send your contributions by July 15 to editors@emergingvoices.co.uk

We welcome you to our community of readers!