Blue like Apples, my second poetry collection is published
in celebration of PRIDE month 2023!
You CAN tell a book by its cover! I have received a lot of fan mail about this book. It tells a love story in poems. Here’s from the publisher’s website:
Blue Like Apples is a narrative collection of poems that tells a story of coming-out, through love for another woman. It is a coming of age in mid-life, after having never really discovered herself before during her long heterosexual marriage. It’s the story of a marriage of minds and bodies that began in 2003 on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, in a city in the Norwegian Arctic where they are both foreigners. The story doesn’t end…
Writing courses and seminars in Bergen 2023
First I was invited to teach a course for Bergen’s unique festival of words, Literature Summer Camp. Two weeks of free literary events organized by festival genius Lone Ildgruben Bodot. I chose the theme “Don’t Think, Write!” which is better said as “Write, Don’t Think!” or even more accurately, “Write First, Think Later!”.
Then, Tekstalliansen opened Tekstallmenninge, a national hub central for periodical literature located in downtown Bergen. My interest in finding a location for creative writing activities met Tekstalliansen’s interest in broadening their reach into literary Norway and… voilà! Writing From Your Life, and For Your LIfe, is a course in writing life stories in lyrical, creative non-fiction.
Tekstallmenningen is also the location for Bokskap, literally “The Book Closet” which is a meeting for all non-fiction writers to meet and talk about their writing projects, both the ones currently underway and the ones that are still “in the closet”. Bokskap is held in my capacity as regional contact for the Norwegian non-fiction writers and translators’ association.
Prairie Schooner is one of America’s oldest and finest literary journals. I was pleased to have poems in there back at the turn of the century (https://prairieschooner.unl.edu/books-rasma-haidri) and thrilled again when Kwame Dawes wanted to publish my poem “Midwestern” in their recent issue. Recent, as in this spring, though the cover says summer 2022, and the issue is hard to find on their website. I think PS has a way to go in digitalizing their web presence, but the magazine is worth supporting with a subscription. Highly recommended!
New Year 2023 started off with my lyrical essay published in River Teeth’s Beautiful Things magazine.
They were wonderful people to work with in fine-tune editing and finding a picture… The one we landed on was taken by me behind the house.
Please read, share and let me know your thoughts!
read
Honey (I put down my ax)
here
I’m proud to be in the spotlight this month
at Chicago’s Poets & Patrons
They asked some interesting interview questions…
read it here
They also included some of my FOTOPOETRY and the poem that won Riddled With Arrow’s Ars Poetica Prize in 2018.
