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Site Review: The Poetry Conversation
Poet Sharon Bryan in the Cyber Arena By Emily Jaeger, Features Editor The first word that comes to mind when thinking of Sharon Bryan’s new website, The Poetry Conversation, is generosity. An award-winning author of four collections of poetry, Sharp Stars, Flying Blind, Objects of Affection, and Salt Air as well as a professor of…
The Benefits of Entering a Writing Contest
Courtesy of The Puritan Senior Editors For every literary magazine, a prize. Our lit culture’s thick with them. Whether you’re an ardent submitter, see them as a necessary evil to keep literary ships afloat, or you love to hate them, writing contests can often feel more common than the periodicals they support. Here at The Puritan,…
Richard Gilbert: Word by Word
Writing’s Values—Intelligence, Sensitivity & Beauty—Challenge Me By Richard Gilbert, Contributing Editor “The ability to forgive oneself … is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.”—Ann Patchett English departments inherently espouse reverence for thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and comely expression. I codified this recently for myself while…
Gross and Wapiennik's Freak Show
Collaborative Calm Behind the Carnival View Cheryl Gross and Marta Wapiennik’s work in Vol. IV #7 Artistic collaborations can often be tenuous arrangements, especially when the traditional expectation or practice of the artist is to create alone. However, as Cheryl Gross and Marta Wapiennek, the artists behind Freak Show have shown, collaboration can spark artistic growth and works…
Art Spotlight: Kathryn Baczeski
Claystack See Baczeski’s work in Vol. IV #7 Claystack is an “object experiment” created by dipping the straw of one entire bale into clay slip, and then firing the resulting mound. Gravity caused ‘Claystack’ to sag and morph during the process. Considering the long history of ceramic objects made by hand, ‘Claystack’ was formed by the…
From Novelist to Poet
On Logophilia and Process By Stephen Mead See his work in Vol IV. #7 Just as some have a natural proclivity for math or sports, I have had one for actual words since an early age. “Chrysalis” was a particular favorite, the name of an old Jethro Tull record – I remember the icon on the…
Eye on the Indies
New To WTP Blog: Indie Book Reviews and a Look at Indie Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Book Review Editor Book: Ninety-Nine Stories of God Portland, OR: Tin House Books, July 12, 2016 ($19.95 cloth hardcover; 168 pages) ISBN 978-1-941040-35-5 Author: Joy Williams The highly respected writing of Joy Williams includes four novels, four prior short-story collections, a…
Art, Coffee, Tea and Blogs
Chattanooga, a City Cafe, and MOMA By Donald Kolberg, Contributing Editor After a short summer hiatus, I’m back to my blog and bringing you art stuff from around the Web. I was in Chattanooga (stayed at the Cho Cho Hotel, the old train station.) and spent some time looking at the regional art. If you’re…
Walking on Egg Shells
Performing Anticipation Video by Kathryn Baczeski Kathryn Agnes Baczeski is a visual artist from Southbury Connecticut. She received her BFA in Sculpture with a concentration in Ceramics from the University of Connecticut in 2009. She is currently earning her MFA from Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana. Baczeski is an avid dreamer and believer that anything…
Information vs. Emotion in Memoir
Writing about Dreams, Loss, Fatherhood & Farming By Richard Gilbert, Contributing Editor One fall day, I sat down to write about my family’s experiences in Appalachian Ohio, where we lived and worked and were part-time farmers for thirteen years. It took me a year and a half to produce a manuscript of 500 pages. It took me…
Seeing in New Ways
Photographic Composition By Jeff Alu Look for his work in upcoming Vol. IV #8 Everything is a good photographic subject. There are no bad photographic compositions. I was incredibly lucky and honored to have given an artist talk to the Disney Imagineering Photography Group last year. One of the Imagineers bought my photography book at…