It's Publication Day! :)
It's my book birthday! Welcome to the world, Poetry Power!
Photo courtesy of Kyle Head at unsplash.com
My subtitle says it all: “An Interactive Guide for Writing, Editing, Teaching, and Reflecting on the Life Poetic.”
Write poetry? You know you need some new prompts. Teach? Your students will thank you for this advice and for the publishing tips. Have some poet friends in your workshop or writing group? I hear that their birthdays and the holidays are just around the bend.
Signed copies available (pm me).
Ebook and tactile copies available at Amazon and Vine Leaves Press.
That Holding-First-Copies Feeling
Look what arrived, straight from my awesome publisher at Vine Leaves! I had to commemorate the moment with my new photo backdrop. ;)
I couldn’t be happier with the text and cover of my new craft book for poets, Poetry Power! One month and counting until publication day! #oct26thlaunch
More details at: Vine Leaves Press, Poetry Power . (The Amazon link for ordering in the States and abroad is at the site as well.)
What reviewers are saying: "Reading Poetry Power by Melanie Faith--chock-full of humour, personal asides, and sensible, doable suggestions to improve one's writing--I felt a continual urge to write and revise my poems. A perfect guide for the poet who wants a refresher course in the basics of this 'little genre' (and a few photography hints) from a new point of view and who needs a nudge to live more deliberately, Faith's book reminds me of an intimate conversation between two engaged introverts for whom layers of complicated interior depth--juxtaposed in the 'nooks and crannies' of dreams and fragments of memory--hold the key to discovery and development of a unique, artistic voice that rings with universality." Helen Losse, author of Every Tender Reed
"This is the definitive book on, for, and about poetry. Melanie more than delivers on the promise she made in the Introduction: This book is meant to reach you where you are and to withstand multiple readings as you explore your individual writer's path. Indeed! I find that no matter what funk I'm in, I open Poetry Power and I discover my next step on my poetry journey. I know my fellow poets will too!" Mari L. McCarthy, International Best-Selling Author of Journaling Power: How To Create The Happy, Healthy Life You Want To Live!
What reviewers are saying: "Melanie takes her readers by the hand and walks them through the whole process of writing, publishing, editing and loving poetry. Little personal vignettes scattered throughout Poetry Power made me feel like Melanie was a friend. It was as if we were in a writing group together and she was sharing her writing secrets. Each chapter ends with a Try this Prompt that are easy and exciting to try. They range from something that might take a few minutes, to others that were more involved. In my second, third, and so on readings of Poetry Power I will jump into the prompts with feet, hands and heart. I am already making a list of the people I will be purchasing a copy of Poetry Power for--and they include writers from all genres, not just poets. This is a book that all writers will benefit from reading." —Tricia L. McDonald, Writer and CEO Splattered Ink Press
Poetry Power: Update!
Hurry, fall! Next month, my poetry craft book will be released.
Super excited to share this volume packed with prompts and real-world writing, editing, and publishing advice with poets, teachers, writing groups, classes, and more.
My book birthday: October 26, 2018. You know you want one for you and the writing friends in your life.
Announcing a Fun New Project: Got Poem? ;)
This project's got wabi-sabi (the art of perfect imperfection) written all over it and plenty of heart.
What do you get when you combine a Royal manual typewriter, an MFA word-nerd in poetry, and a zest for all things celebratory?
Poem Art, of course!
Poems from My New "Self-Portrait of the Author as..." Series Published
Wonderful news. I have two poems from my new series appearing in two literary journals this summer.
"Self-Portrait of the Author as a Silent Movie" appears on page 28 of The Meadow's annual issue, and "Self-Portrait of the Author as a Paperclip" was published on page 69 of Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review (FLAR).
FLAR
The Meadow
Announcing-- Poetry Power: An Interactive Guide for Writing, Editing, Teaching, and Reflecting on the Life Poetic
SUPER excited to announce my Poetry Power: An Interactive Guide for Writing, Editing, Teaching, and Reflecting on the Life Poetic. Check out its awesome cover, and many thanks to Jessica Bell and Alexis Paige, my dream team at Vine Leaves Press. Can't wait for the October 26th release!
My Haiga Published in Daily Haiga
Recently, my poetry-and-photography combo art was published at Daily Haiga: an edited journal of contemporary & traditional haiga.
"What's haiga?" you wonder.
Glad you ask! See below.
My haiga
I have another haiga in a forthcoming issue. Stay tuned!
"Haiga (俳画, haikai drawing) is a style of Japanese painting that incorporates the aesthetics of haikai. Haiga are typically painted by haiku poets (haijin), and often accompanied by a haiku poem. Like the poetic form it accompanied, haiga was based on simple, yet often profound, observations of the everyday world. Stephen Addiss points out that 'since they are both created with the same brush and ink, adding an image to a haiku poem was ... a natural activity.'" Source/Learn More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiga
"Shopping for Images: 3 Tips for Finding Poetry Topics"
Here's a craft article of mine that was just published today. Enjoy!
"Shopping for Images:
3 Tips for Finding Poetry Topics"
By Melanie Faith
Ever have a day where you woke wanting to write, but the ideas were murky or not arising at all? Or maybe you've just finished writing a poem that felt like magic a few days ago, and now any idea feels filled with false starts? What about an afternoon where you finally sit down to write and, thinking of your day, nothing jumps out at you as worthy of verse? Or, after the to-do list is tackled and the wobbly mountains of laundry washed, you open your writer's notebook and stare at a blank page, too tired to focus?
You are not alone. These are common quandaries most writers have at one point or another. Good news! Try one or more of these ideas that have worked for me and my poetry students to release that stuck feeling and get our pens moving once more.
1. Not-so-common Commonality. Certain places and experiences are so ingrained into daily life that whole populations of people share them. Yet we sometimes overlook them as topics for verse. One of the great facets of writing about shared events is that readers will experience their own aha! moments from what you write. You also have the wonderful opportunity to tighten focus on one part of the communal experience that resonates with you and which will make your poem distinctive.
In Alan Ginsberg's prose poem "A Supermarket in California," he takes a mundane trip for groceries and turns it into an event for celebration: "What peaches and penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!--and you, Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?" Many people have written about food, but none in quite the same playful, exultant way as Ginsberg. Don't think it's all been done before; whatever the topic, no one has written a poem about this topic with the exact diction choices, tone, and images you will. Go ahead, write your own supermarket, food, cooking, gardening, or eating poem! You'll bring something unique to the table [pun intended].
2. The Running List. Sometimes, there's a lot of pressure when we sit down to write to pick a topic out off the top of our heads like a rabbit out of a magician's hat. Lower the pressure with a little list. Try keeping your writing notebook with you as you go about your day or start an email list of topics in your phone (I sometimes quickly email myself ideas before I forget them). We often see interesting ideas all day long but infrequently have time to stop in the moment to write a whole poem, but it only takes a minute or less to jot a note about the image or idea. Begin a running list of topics for the future, and add to it as you go. Then, when you sit down to write, either pick one at random from your list or work chronologically, so you'll always know what your next topic will be. Like a game, it becomes more fun the more topics you've listed, and you'll train your mind to notice imagery that could spark poems more often everywhere you go.
3. Get out of Your Own Skin, or: The Conversation. Sometimes we forget that poetry can include dialogue and/or use a conversation as a sparking point. We also sometimes forget that poems don't have to be centered on our own experiences. Go ahead, have a conversation today with a longtime friend, the clerk at the post office, someone in the waiting room, your frenemy, your children or grandchildren, your coworkers, whomever. Something someone else is struggling with or happy about or angry about might just spark your next poem. Of course, you don't have to stay with the circumstances as they are in real life. Re-imagine your conversation partner's circumstances or trials through the eyes of a made-up character. How would another person deal with these events? What would their actions be? What would their thoughts be? Feel free to make up what that person might say in certain circumstances. The point is to get another person's POV on life and to write from there.
