Laziness, Part 2 (Or Tiny Things)

Laziness continues, but in between, I've been doing tiny bits of writing - some of it good, I hasten to add. I've been told the best things I write are minimalist.

Good news, too, recently:

1. My writing will be in "140 And Counting", an anthology of twitter literature. More info here.
2. I wrote a tiny "book" made up of twenty "chapters" of twenty word sentences. It's a love story entitled "Twenty Days in Torino". I loved writing it... and I'm delighted that it's going to be published as a little chapbook by Twenty20. More details to follow...

Laziness and Parcels

Ok, so I've been lazy. Not totally, but lazy enough not to do any writing, blogging, even editing in the past few ...er...weeks (I almost said months). I blame it all on the Cyprus heat. I can't concentrate. It's just too much.

But a couple of fantastic things have finally happened:

Last week I received my stunningly beautiful contributor's copy of   :etchings 9: Love & Something  from Ilura Press (Australia). Wow! Wow! Wow! Many thanks to editor Sabina Hopfer, and to fiction editor Glenys Osborne, for including my story "Kafkaesque" in this impressive publication. I am truly honoured.

A few days ago I also received my first copies of "Girl, Wolf, Bones" from Jessi Graustein of Folded Word. The signature edition is absolutelyTREMENDOUS! I am thrilled to see my little stories finally out and winging themselves to unexpected places around the globe.


I'm off to have a lemonade - and maybe write a sentence or two...

A presto! ( as an Italian friend of mine would say... )

Wolf

Words by the wolf in "Girl, Wolf, Bones".
A brilliant video rendition produced by Jessi Graustein of Folded Word.

Putting It Into Words...

Do you remember the palace, the stairs, the part where Cinderella’s coach turned back into a pumpkin? Do you remember the fairy tales you read and the dreams you had as a girl? And do you remember when everything you ever believed in was shattered? Have you any idea how to put that into words?

Glass Slippers

"The girl took off the glass slippers and ran. Her bare feet hurt, and yet she had to run, to tell the fairy godmother that it was two minutes to midnight. With three seconds to go, she dropped the slippers and banged on the door:


I’m here, she said in a barely audible, exhausted voice. I’m here.


Just before the door opened, she looked down at her feet and then at the broken pieces of glass. She was so shattered that she thought her feet were the slippers and the broken slippers were her feet. She looked from one to the other in amazement."

from "Girl, Wolf, Bones" by Nora Nadjarian  (Folded Word, 2011)


Note: This is a special blog post for the upcoming edition #7 of the >Language>Place blog carnival, hosted by Julia Davies, a practised reader & practising writer who lives in Germany and blogs at Practice Makes Perfect. The theme for edition #7: "unwritten language / unnamed places".

Girl, Wolf, Bones

My lovely little chapbook of tiny tales is now out from Folded Word, and open for pre-orders. If you're interested, you can find out more by clicking here.

Fiction Editor

I am very pleased to announce that I am guest Fiction Editor for the Fall 2011 issue of the delightful twenty20 Journal. Many thanks to Benjamin Krause for trusting me with this lovely responsibility!

Being Human - Bloodaxe Books

I am thrilled to announce that the new Bloodaxe Books anthology Being Human is out...
... and I am in it!

I have bought and loved Bloodaxe poetry books for years. They are beautifully prepared and presented, innovative, diverse and internationally renowned. I absolutely adore my collection, which I keep going back to. Time after time.

So when I was asked earlier this year -totally out of the blue- if I agreed to have my poem "Mother Tongue" published in Being Human I thought I HAD to be dreaming. When I eventually realised that I was actually awake, I think I replied with a "YES, pppplease..."

And so here I am: in the same anthology as Yehuda Amichai, Paul Celan, Pablo Neruda, Sharon Olds, Sylvia Plath... to mention a few of my idols. I think I could still be dreaming. Please don't wake me up.

But do buy the book, and read poems about living in the modern world, poems that will touch your heart, stir your mind. Poems about being human, about love and loss, fear and longing, hurt and wonder.

THANK YOU, NEIL ASTLEY!

"Being Human" is the third book in the "Staying Alive" poetry trilogy. "Staying Alive" and its sequel "Being Alive" have introduced many thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry. "Being Human" is a companion volume to those two books - a world poetry anthology offering poetry lovers an  international selection of 'real poems for unreal times'.

'Being Human, the final volume in Bloodaxe's acclaimed trilogy of anthologies, edited by Neil Astley...the first, Staying Alive (2002), ably demonstrated the power of a well-constructed anthology to introduce readers to vital new poets. I'll be expecting a copy of this one under my tree next Christmas morning' – Sarah Crown, Guardian.