YourArtsyGirlPodcast

Lee Matthew Goldberg is an awesome fiction writer and screenwriter hailing from NYC. Listen to us discuss his new book, "The Ancestor", learn what led him to writing, how he starts his novels, & find out some of his inspirations & processes! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://leematthewgoldberg.com Order your copy here: https://downandoutbooks.com/bookstore/goldberg-ancestor/ BIO: Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE ANCESTOR, THE MENTOR, THE DESIRE CARD, and SLOW DOWN. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. ORANGE CITY is forthcoming in 2021. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. He is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City.

Listen to poet, John Compton, read his poetry and discuss his journey into writing poetry, publishing, and connecting with industry folks! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com https://www.facebook.com/josh.compton.12914 Bio: John Compton (formerly John Thompson) is a 33-year-old gay poet who lives in Kentucky. His poetry resides in his chest like many hearts & they bloom like vigorously infectious wild flowers. He has published 1 book and 5 chapbooks: "trainride elsewhere" (August 2016/TBA) from Pressed Wafer/Rouge Wolf Press; "that moan like a saxophone" (December 2016); Ampersand (March 2019) from Plan B Press; "a child growing wild inside the mothering womb" (June 2020) from Ghost City Press; "burning his matchstick fingers his hair went up like a wick" (Fall), From Dark Heart Press, "to wash all the pretty things off my skin" (end of 2021) from Ethel Zine & Micro-Press. Compton has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. https://ghostcitypress.com/2020-summer-series/a-child-growing-wild-inside-the-mothering-womb https://www.planbpress.com/store/p56/ampersand_by_john_thompson.html https://www.amazon.com/that-moan-like-saxophone-thompson-ebook/dp/B01NBP6JL3 winter poem mouth open letting snow cover my burial plot of words & fingers too cold to dig the tongue out: frozen corpse, the stature of teeth chirping a ruptured poem we seeded him holy you'll find him in a chair sequenced gay is vandalism we used white rags & smoke to purify him to bleach the sin, to poach the black resin from the heart-skin to bring him right by rules of man his arms & ankles tied crosswise the naked body a rosary bead tucked in each wound how we bury fish motionless in my womb... i remembered my fish - i was eight. it was floating belly up. i tapped on my stomach as a mother – a little girl trying to tap her fish from sleep. i gave birth to a stillborn. my father explained to me how we bury fish: i heard the toilet flush behind my sobbing. John Compton Book Launch and Open Mic with Redheaded Stepchild https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IlBdFVBCcE

Yay! The 60th episode. How surreal. I introduce to you Clinnesha D. Sibley, a writer & playwright with many publications and theatrical productions under her belt. Hear us discuss her process, her advice to writers, & what creative projects she's working on now. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://thewriteaddiction.com A Love Letter to Ntozake You played with Barbies and watched as little boys gawked at Cindy Crawford in a Pepsi commercial. Your teacher suggested The Babysitters Club, “Kristy’s Great Idea” for your book project because it was heartwarming, not um…controversial… like The Bluest Eye. You watched The Cosby Show and knew you wanted to be that kind of black. You were eating grandma’s field peas and okra when you got your period. Mama was workin. Stayed workin. Your body changed immediately and grandma gave you a girdle. Same kind of girdle she gave your mama. You stayed lookin in the mirror hoping your ass would catch up to your chest and hips. It never did, not on its own. Sophomore year, he let you wear his letterman. It was warm and smelled like November. He never let anyone but you wear his letterman. He told you he loved you. You didn’t know a man could ever do that. He would take back the number 7 when y’all hated one another. Back and forth, the jacket began to smell less like autumn and more like alcohol and meat. /// You were in the McDonald’s bathroom when you got one line and a faint. You cried into your chicken nuggets. You told your best friend and her mama who’s cool. Then, cool mama told you ’bout Mrs. Poole… He said he would come, too. He lied. But he brought you somethin to eat afterwards. /// You left home after graduation. Your mama had to work graduation day, and the day you moved away. Grandma put a rolled up one hundred dollar bill in your hand for gas money and groceries. You got a job on campus. He needed money and you would take care…he hated that you could do that. You hated going home, and seeing him reminded you of how much you hated yourself. So, you changed your look. You found a college best friend who got you into places you were too young to be in. She’s better than your old best friend who’s been actin real funny. You hate her cuz you hate you. And she hate you cause of that thing with him. You say she pulls you down every time you get elevated. But you high more than you elevated. (High, drunk people don’t keep their scholarships.) Your school daze become filled with nights you don’t remember. And now, you goin back home. At least you tried. One day, you’re gonna finish. /// Friend was like, I told you. You had white liquor in you that night, and you fought her. You looked at yourself in the McDonald’s bathroom mirror and didn’t like the scratches, or your nose, your eyes, what the perm did to your hair, your dark skin, or the fact that you flunked out of college. Maybe your mama waz right when she called you a dumb ho; that was before she got in bed with her best friend’s man. You hate everything about yourself, and your mama’s probably right about you bein a dumb ho, so… You sleep with him again. He tightens his sweaty palm around your heart. You remember the baby. This time, you won’t need Mrs. Poole. /// Two healthy babies later, you’ve changed your look again. People wonder what’s different. They don’t wonder what your new hurt is. They just know you’ve got babies by him, and so does your best friend. But you’re the main one cuz he looks at you just like the boys looked at Cindy Crawford. You haven’t seen him since y’all got into it at his mama’s house. You’ve been texting her cause she helps you understand him more…she cares about you more than your own mama…more than your best friend, who loves him, too. You finally talk to your mama about him, and she hugs you. Apologizes and says things can only get worst. /// His mama said he’s becoming like his daddy. You realize that absent in one...

Dominique M. Carson has interviewed over 100 notable figures in entertainment. Listen to us discuss how she became a journalist for major publications and author of two biographies as well as how message therapy has sustained her while she continued to pursue her artistic goals. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://dominiquecarson.contently.com BIO: Dominique M. Carson is a freelance journalist, researcher, massage therapist, reporter and author. Carson's work has been featured in several publications including Ebony.com, The Grio, NBC News, Singersroom.com, Soultrain.com, Education Update, and Brooklyn news media outlets. She interviewed over 100 notable figures in entertainment such as Charlie Wilson, Regina Belle, Patti Labelle, Kirk Franklin, and many more. She also collaborated with Brooklyn historian and journalist, Suzanne Spellen and launched a 118 page journal on Lefferts Manor, a neighborhood in Brooklyn, and is releasing a biography on an R&B musician this fall while her first book is going through some legalities.

Listen to this week's featured guest, poet, Angela M. Brommel. We discuss her influence & her new poetry collection, "Mojave in July". We also talk about her past & current projects supporting the art & literary community as an art curator & Editor-in-Chief at the Citron Review. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://tolsunbooks.com/shop/mojave-in-july-pre-order Mojave in July by Angela M. Brommel You can’t explain to friends from home how the desert makes it better, but you try: Imagine a heat so dry that it presses down into the earth, releasing its scent so that it takes on the comforting smell of clay pots in your grandmother’s kitchen when you were a child, or your hideout under the evergreens where you used to sit for hours smelling only the dirt, the sap, the pine. Imagine a smell that reminds you of the kitchen on holidays: sage, rosemary, and something you chase that is reminiscent of honey, but feels like love. Some people still fight it. They call the heat oppressive, they call it unrelenting. They have not learned how to live within it. You must learn to smell the water beneath the surface. You must learn to let the heat pass through you, warming your bones, your ligaments, and all the pieces that you call you. Let the heat draw out everything unneeded. Let it put you to bed midday. Let it make you new. --- Images/Angela M. Brommel Book cover image art/Su Limbert --- BIO: Angela M. Brommel is a Nevada writer with Iowa roots. In 2018, her chapbook, Plutonium & Platinum Blonde, was published by Serving House Books. Her poetry has been published in The Best American Poetry blog, The North American Review, The Literary Review’s (TLR) Share, and many other journals and anthologies. A 2018 Red Rock Canyon Artist in Residence, Angela served as the inaugural poet of the program. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University and an MA in Theatre from the University of Northern Iowa. Mojave in July is her debut full-length poetry collection. Angela is the Executive Director of the Office of Arts & Culture as well as affiliate faculty in Humanities at Nevada State College. You can also find her at The Citron Review as Editor-in-Chief.

Gay Majure Wilson wrote a biography on the suffragist, Sue Shelton White, entitled: "Some Woman Had to Fight: The Radical Life of Sue Shelton White". Listen to us discuss Gay's story on how she started writing and how she decided to write Sue Shelton White's biography. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes https://www.amazon.com/Some-Woman-Had-Fight-Radical-ebook/dp/B0859NBB58 BIO: Gay Majure Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and has worked as a writer, editor and project manager in software development and investment banking in Dallas, New York and London. She earned a master’s degree in family and consumer sciences from the University of Tennessee at Martin and is now an author and registered dietitian in Jackson, Tennessee. Book Synopsis Some Woman Had to Fight: The Radical Life of Sue Shelton White This biography explores the personal, political and professional life of Sue Shelton White, a militant suffragist, pioneering Tennessee lawyer and vocal leader in the controversial protests and tireless lobbying campaign for ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women their equal right to vote 100 years ago. gaymwilson@gmail.com

Check out Susana H. Case! She is a NYC poet & a sociology professor at New York Institute of Technology. Listen to us discuss how her academic work and poetics intersects & where she gets her ideas! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes http://susanahcase.com Susana reads from her book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIyObZ_PToo http://broadstonebooks.com/Susana_H_Case.html The poems in this collection are inspired by the ways in which gender (and sometimes other divisions) creates opportunities for both victimization and survival. A theme woven throughout is the tension between being objectified and being human. There are three sections. The first section is organized around the idea of the stereotype of the living doll, and rebellion against that concept. The middle section, an ekphrastic section, is inspired by the life and the nutshell studies, crime model constructions, of Frances Glessner Lee, "mother of modern forensics," and includes some black and white images that are in the public domain. The third section, which includes the title poem, focuses more fully on the negative effects of objectified existences. Bio: Susana H. Case is the author of seven books of poetry. Drugstore Blue, from Five Oaks Press, won an Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY). She is also the author of five chapbooks, two of which won poetry prizes. Her most recent chapbook is Body Falling, Sunday Morning from Milk and Cake Press. One of her collections, The Scottish Café, from Slapering Hol Press, was re-released in a dual-language English-Polish version, Kawiarnia Szkocka by Opole University Press in Poland. Her poems appear widely in magazines and anthologies. Recent poems can be found in: Calyx, The Cortland Review, Fourteen Hills, Portland Review, Potomac Review,Rattle, and RHINO, among others. Dr. Case is a Professor and Program Coordinator at the New York Institute of Technology in New York City.

I introduce to you Anne Marie Wells @amwellswrites from Wyoming, a poet and playwright. You will find interesting tidbits about her work & her life: when she was a nanny for a rock band she wrote a draft of 70,000 word novel in 3 days, among other things! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://annemariewellswriter.com ------------------------------ Enemy Bridge My enemies will someday hold their dying mother in their arms, and their crooked hole of a mouth screaming anguished into the air above will become my next breath. We will share the same chorus of pain, the secret song that unites us all, a universal refrain that asks us to bless this world for its suffering for it’s the only thing that builds the bridge of empathy. Selected by Muddy River Poetry Review, Spring 2020 ---------------------------------- Shell Holding the shell of the man he used to be to my ear, his tidal voice crashed ashore, calling me to watch a nest of turtles break free from their sandy womb, frantic to find their ocean mother; a race from first breath to moonlit waves. I will remember you this way, I promised. Selected for publication by In Parentheses, Winter 2020 ---------------------------------- Bio: In 2015, Anne Marie Wells published her children’s book, MAMÃ, PORQUE SOU UMA AVE?/MOMMY, WHY AM I A BIRD? (Imprensa Universidade de Coimbra). She earned first place in the Riot Act Regional New Play Festival in 2017 for her play, LOVE AND RADIO (AND ZOMBIES... KIND OF), and earned second place in 2018 for her play, LAST. ONLY. BEST. In 2019, the Wrights of Wyoming judges blindly selected four of her theatrical works for the statewide play festival in Cheyenne (LAST. ONLY. BEST.; MISS SNICKLEFRITZ'S MURDER MYSTERY; THE DOOR; and INDIGO SIREN). In 2020, her play LAST. ONLY. BEST. was selected for publication in The Dallas Review, and her 10-minute play, THE DOOR will appear in The Progenitor Art & Literary Journal. Anne Marie is also an avid storyteller and performed in and won several Cabin Fever Story Slams and was selected by The Moth to perform in a 'Main Stage' event in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in 2019. Her poems have appeared or will appear in In Parentheses, Lucky Jefferson, Unlimited Literature, Soliloquies Anthology, Muddy River Poetry Review, Variant Literature, Poets' Choice, Meniscus Journal, Changing Womxn Collective, and The Voices Project. Facebook: @annemariewellsriter Instagram: @anne___.marie Twitter: @amwellswrites Pintrest: annemariewellswriter Tumblr: @annemariewellswriter

This week, I talk to Filipino American writer, Jason Tanamor. It was great discovering his work & learning more about him and his writing processes. His latest book: "Vampires of Portlandia" is a Filipino American urban fantasy novel. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://tanamor.com Bio: Jason Tanamor has 10 plus years of experience as an entertainment writer and interviewer for Yahoo!, the Moline Dispatch/Rock Island Argus, Cinema Blend, Celebrity Cafe, Strip Las Vegas Magazine, Pulse Magazine, and Zoiks! Online. Tanamor has interviewed the likes of author Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club); comedians Demetri Martin, Jim Breuer (SNL, Half Baked), Aisha Tyler (Talk Soup, The Ghost Whisperer), Dane Cook, and Gabriel Iglesias; musicians Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ann Wilson (Heart), Taylor Momsen (The Pretty Reckless and Gossip Girl), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), and Henry Rollins (Black Flag); and baseball legend Pete Rose. He has covered everyone from Steve Martin to Jerry Seinfeld and from Evanescence to President Obama (see gallery). With novels, Tanamor enjoys writing in different genres. He is the critically acclaimed author of the dark novels, "Anonymous" (which received a star review from Publishers Weekly) and "Drama Dolls"; the satirical novels, "Hello Fabulous!" and "She's the One?"; and the epic superhero themed children's book, "I Heart Superhero Kid". His newest novel, "Vampires of Portlandia," is an urban fantasy. Pre-order it here: http://www.tanamor.com/p/vampires-of-portlandia.html Tanamor is married and has a family of fur children. He currently lives and works in the Portland, Oregon area.

Check out this episode with writer, Anya Ow, a Singaporean residing in Australia. We discuss her work, her "co-workers" (cats), & reads a segment from her newly released novella, "Cradle and Grave". http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://anyasy.com http://neonhemlock.com

This week, I feature Filipinx visual artist, Pam Peacock. She is the very talented younger sister of Eddie Peacock, a former classmate and neighbor of mine at Clark Air Force Base & Angeles City, Philippines. Listen to us discuss her work, her process, future plans, & how she is holding up during this pandemic. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://thevoyagerpeacock.com Instagram: @thevoyagerpeacock

I'm back in effect, and this week, I am featuring, Filipinx poet, Ina Cariño. We discuss her work and her future plans and how she is holding up during this Coronavirus pandemic. Note: I will be discussing how other writers/poets/artists and creatives are dealing with creating during these times. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes www.inacarino.com Bio: Born in the Philippines, Ina Cariño is a queer Filipinx-American writer. She holds an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, and is a 2019 Kundiman Fellow. Her work appears in Waxwing, New England Review, The Oxford Review of Books, Tupelo Quarterly, and VIDA Review, among other journals. In 2019, Ina founded a reading series in the Triangle area of NC called Indigena, which centers marginalized voices, including but not limited to those of BIPOC, QTPOC, and people with disabilities. Through her writing, Ina explores the navigation of being American as a brown body, and the deeply impactful effects of living in the diaspora. She hopes to find paths to not just justice, but also to healing of self and community. It Feels Good to Cook Rice by Ina Cariño it feels good to cook rice it feels heavy to cook rice it feels familiar good & heavy to cook rice when I cook rice it is because hunger is not just an emptiness but a longing for multo: the dead who no longer linger two fingers in water I know just when to stop: right under the second knuckle in the morning chew it with salted egg in the evening chew it with salted onion at midnight eat it slovenly with your peppered hands licking relishing each cloudmorsel sucking greedy as if there will no longer be any such thing as rice good is not the idea of pleasure rather it is the way I once tripped spilled a basket of hulls & stones onto soil — homely sprinkle of husks as if for a sending off — how right it was: palms brushing the chalk of it swirls rising in streaking sun heavy is not the same as burden rather it is falling rice as ghostly footfalls — trickling mounds scattered on wood — my dead lolo in compression socks my dead lola in red slippers scuffing & a slew of yesterday’s titos & titas their voices traveling to me tinny ringing as if from yesterday’s nova familiar just what it sounds like family blood home marrow bone grit calcified memories of things that feel good & heavy calcified as in made stronger by mountain sun only to have them crumble after enough time has passed (just like the mountain forgot what it used to be) still it feels good to cook rice it feels good to eat rice even by myself & it feels familiar to know with each grain I swallow I strap myself to my own heavy hunger ------------------------------------------------------------ Below are links to her other works: http://www.nereview.com/vol-40-no-3-2019/bitter-melon/ http://waxwingmag.org/items/issue20/7_Carino-It-Feels-Good-to-Cook-Rice.php https://readwildness.com/21/carino-bodies https://www.the-orb.org/post/when-i-sing-to-myself-who-listens IG: @indigena.collective / Facebook: Facebook.com/indigenaNC/

Thanks for tuning in and being patient! Episode 50 features poet/writer, Tony Robles who I have back on the show. He had just been awarded the Carl Sandburg Writer-In-Residency. Tony discusses his past & current work. He also recites his poem, "My Father's Music". http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com https://www.nps.gov/carl/learn/news/2020-wir-tony-robles.htm http://tonyrobles.wordpress.com My Father's Music My father's music Percolates and palpitates Like hot coffee dreaming A tap dancer's arrival Hitting throat with the Right note, going back, Deep, unopposed My father's music is Caught in a kettle whose Grease endured screams And flame of gas stove Decisions where curling irons Bent notes and contemplated Hooks landing on the chin and Announcing a verdict on a Rippled canvas My father's music is An empty cup of my Favorite things where soup Is made from pain and Love is made from rain My father's music is Made in wood when he Would then wouldn't then Would again and would Is softer than stone and Woodn't you know it? My father's music is the Chamber of cool poking Into the greenness of the Sun's estate of ecstatic static My father's music Is sky minus rain Divided by sun Multiplied by incense In the smoldering Pyramid of branches My father's music is the In-time pantomime of The heaven-hell debate Whose defense rest On the 8th day My father's music floats And glides from Head to thigh and on that other Side where up is down and down Is up, sticking like flap jacks Whose wings lap lap lap the Tick tock oil of greasy time My father's music Skips, bumps, burps, Slurps, sizzles on the Sunny side of the street Crackle pop Bop Pan fried With an Egg on Top My Father's Music ------------------ If you are interested in being featured on yourartsygirlpodcast.com, please send me your bio, black and white photo, and work samples to yourartsygirl@gmail.com . Please know I cannot respond to every email, but I will reach out to if I'd like to feature you on the show!

Beverly Parayno is a talented fiction and creative non fiction writer. Learn more about her journey as a writer and her tremendous volunteer & outreach work for arts organizations. Do follow her work. She is someone to look out for! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com http://www.beverlyparayno.com Bio: Beverly Parayno is from East San Jose. Her fiction, memoir, essays, and author interviews have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Bellingham Review, World Literature, The Rumpus, Warscapes and Huizache, among others. Her work has been translated into Mandarin by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is currently working on a memoir entitled RUN, set during her teenage runaway years in upstate New York in the mid-1980s. Parayno earned an MA from University College Cork and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Currently, she serves on the board of PAWA, a nonprofit arts organization and publisher dedicated to supporting and promoting Filipinx writers, and on the executive committee of Litquake. She is a grants consultant for social justice nonprofits in the Bay Area. You can find her at www.beverlyparayno.com.

I open this new year, 2020, with John A. Vanek: a mystery/thriller writer with a sleuthing priest series about Father Jake Austin's life. Listen to him discuss how having a great creative writing teacher in college while going to med school inspired him to write & publish poetry & now a mystery series. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes http://www.johnvanekauthor.com BIO: John A. Vanek graduated from Case Western Reserve University, where his passion for creative writing took root. He received his M.D. from the University of Rochester and practiced medicine for a quarter century, but his interest in writing never waned. Medicine was his life, but mysteries became his drug of choice. He began honing his craft in creative writing workshops and college courses and was gratified when his early work won contests and was published widely. He now lives happily as an ink-stained-wretch in Florida with Geni, his wife, fellow writer, and best friend. He teaches a poetry workshop for seniors at a local college, and enjoys swimming, hiking, sunshine, good friends, and red wine. John is an active member of the International Thriller Writers. DEROS (book 1): Father Jake Austin returns home in search of inner peace after a brutal war, but a series of murders force him to confront his own violent past, regrets over lost love, and his doubts about the priesthood. Miracles (book 2): Father Jake Austin’s life is hurled into the vortex of three storms: A dying sister, a bleeding Virgin Mary statue, and a comatose infant in the intensive care unit. What will be left standing after these tempests have passed? Absolution (book 3): Father Jake Austin must decide whether to turn his back on his biological father, the man who deserted him as a child, or to turn the other cheek and save him from a vengeful drug lord, risking his own life and the lives of those he loves. Genesis of the Father Jake Austin Mystery Series: Father Jake Austin is a fictional character, but aspects of his personality and struggles are modeled after two Catholic priests who became my close friends and confidants. When I first met them, I expected the usual stereotypes, but when their Roman collars came off, I found that they were simply human. One priest confessed his attraction to a young nun. Call his love unrequited; he called it hell. I watched this righteous man struggle with his commitment to his vows. This became the inspiration for Jake and Emily’s relationship in my novels. Seeing these men wrestle with the same emotions that we all share shattered my preconceived notions. I wanted to portray Father Jake as a spiritual man, but as realistically as possible. Coffeetown Press in Seattle, WA published DEROS and Miracles in paperback & eBook formats in 2018 & 2019 respectively. Book 3, Absolution, will be released March 15, 2020. *** Thorndike Press (an imprint of Gale/Cengage, which merged with McGraw Hill in 2019) recently purchased the large-print rights to DEROS and Miracles as part of their Clean Reads selections for libraries and schools. Clean Reads is billed as: "General fiction, mystery and romance titles that do not contain graphic violence, explicit sexuality or strong profanity. Full of encouragement, warmth and humor that you’d be comfortable giving to your grandmother!" Note: get your local library to stock John Vanek's large-print editions! *** In praise of the Father Jake Austin Series: “Interesting, nuanced characters in a finely wrought setting.” -- Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of Wilde Lake. "John Vanek guides the reader through the seldom-seen worlds of both medicine and the priesthood. His years as a physician at a Catholic hospital make him the perfect creator of this literary mystery, but few physicians can manage prose as well as Vanek does." -- Sterling Watson, Professor of Creative Writing at Eckerd College, and author of Suitcase City. “A riveting tale of mystery and murder. Superb...

Closing out this year with a sensational guest: poet, Nick Carbó! Listen to this episode and discover how Nick's Filipino American literature and poetry anthologies helped catapult Filipino-American poetics. Find out what he's been up to and listen to him read some of his poems! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes You can purchase Secret Asian Man here: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Asian-Man-Nick-Carbo/dp/1932339639 Some interesting links pertaining to Nick's work! http://archivio.el-ghibli.org/index.php%3Fid=1&issue=01_05&section=6&index_pos=5&inlingua=t.html Nick on NPR: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1667164 ------------------------------------------------------------- THE BOY IN BLUE SHORTS The screaming woman on the other side Of our tall black gate Would have thrown a rock at me My maid, Rosita, sheltered me from the insults— Something about my being Retarded and full of worms The woman nudged her son forward. Blue shorts, clean t-shirt, rubber slippers. She said her little boy was the one Who should have been adopted, he was healthy. He looked about my age, four or five. We were both silent. “I want to see the Mr. and the Mrs., they are making a big mistake!” Rosita bolted the gate, took me by the hand— “those are bad people, don’t listen to them!” I felt the crisp whiteness of her skirt all the way across The garden back to our house. ------------------ The next poem was recently scrolled on the big screen in the big U2 and Bono's Joshua Tree concert in Manila in December 2019. They might use the poem in some video in the future. DIRECTIONS TO MY IMAGINARY CHILDHOOD If you stand on the corner Of Mabini Street and Legazpi Avenue, Wait for an orchid colored mini-bus With seven oblong doors, Open the fourth door— An oscillating electric fan Will be driving, tell her to proceed To the Escolta diamond district— You will pass Maneng Virays bar, La isla de los ladrones book shop, The Frederick Funston fish sauce factory, And as you turn left into Calle de los recuerdos, You will see Breto, Bataille, and Camus Seated around a card table playing Abecedarian dominoes— Roll down your window and ask Them if Mr. Florante and Miss Laura Are home, if the answer is yes, Then proceed to Noli Me Tangere Park, And wait for a nun named Maria Clara— If the answer is “je ne sais pas!” then turn Right into the parking lot of Sikatuna’s Supermarket to buy a basketful Of lanzones fruit, then get back To Calle de los Recuerdos until you reach The part that’s lined with tungsten-red Juan Tamad trees, on the right will be A house with an acknowledgements page And and index, open the door and enter The page and look me in the eye. Bio: On the day Nick Carbó (kar-boh) was born on October 10, 1964 in a village beside the sea in the Philippines, the number one song was “Oh Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison. One can imagine that riff (cue in Da-na-na, na-na, da-na-na, na-na) following him the rest of his life after being born to a poor peasant family and quickly improving his lot in life when he was adopted by a well-to-do Spanish/Filipino couple at around fifteen months old. Yes, there would be pretty women walking in and out of his life with the first being his adopted mother Sophie who was half Greek and half Filipino/Spanish.

Courtney LeBlanc is a poet from the Arlington/DC metro area who has a full-length poetry collection out entitled Beautiful & Full of Monsters through Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. Listen to this episode and learn more about her work and about us discussing self promotion and coordinating your own book tour, among other things! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes http://courtneyleblanc.com Preorder your copy here: http://www.vegetarianalcoholicpress.com/titles/courtney-leblanc-beautiful-amp-full-of-monsters Bio: Courtney LeBlanc is the author of Beautiful & Full of Monsters (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, March 2020), The Violence Within (Flutter Press, 2018, currently out of print), and All in the Family (Bottlecap Press, 2016) , and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She has an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. She loves nail polish, wine, and tattoos. She blogs at WordPerv and she can be contacted at Courtney (dot) LeBlanc2015 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Ron Riekki and I had a great conversation about his work, his life, and our common experiences. He is a Saami, Karelian, Finn, and Greek writer with many writing credits. He's studied with Anne Beattie, John Casey, Jayne Anne Phillips, Anselm Hollo, and Stuart Dybek, to name a few! He also hung out with actor Sean Penn! Do give a listen and learn about this fascinating writer! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes https://rariekki.webs.com/ You can order "Posttraumatic" here: https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9781732336162/posttraumatic-a-memoir.aspx You can order "My Ancestors Are Reindeer Hers and I am Melting in Extinction" here: https://www.amazon.com/Ancestors-Reindeer-Herders-Melting-Extinction/dp/1627202102 "In My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I am Melting in Extinction, Ron Riekki presents a collection of non-fiction, short stories, and poetry about the Karelian- and Saami-American experience. In true nomadic fashion, his writing takes the reader to Kuusamo, Utah, Berkeley, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Lake Mohave, Yosemite, Karelia, and a hazmat facility where all the animals on site have been forgotten. A mix of Anselm Hollo, Gregory Orr, Eric Torgersen, and Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Riekki’s writing forces the Saami-American voice to be heard, a voice that some might not even realize exists. It does. Furiously." You can order "Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice" here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1611863082/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0 You can order "The Many Lives of the Evil Dead" here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-many-lives-of-the-evil-dead/ Bio: Ron Riekki is a poet and award-winning screenwriter. He is the author of My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting In Extinction: Saami-American Non-Fiction, Fiction, and Poetry, U.P.: A Novel, and Posttraumatic: A Memoir. He edited five anthologies: The Way North (Michigan Notable Book), And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917–2017, Here: Women Writing on Michigan's Upper Peninsula (Independent Publisher Book Award), Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice, and The Many Lives of The Evil Dead: Essays on the Cult Film Franchise. He's published his writing in The Threepenny Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Wigleaf, Spillway, Poetry Northwest, and many other literary journals. Riekki is Saami-American, Karelian-American, and Finnish-American. If he ever got a tattoo, it'd say Sisu. His home is the north. The far north. No, farther than that.

This week I am talking to the inaugural Hartford Poet Laureate, Frederick-Douglass Knowles II, whom I've known personally for many years because I also claim Norwich as my "hometown", and as colleagues, we have seen each other "grow up" in the literary scene. Listen to Frederick-Douglass talk about how it was growing up in Norwich and his evolution from spoken word, to the academics, and onto the literary page. He is prolific with literary and social justice projects literally all over the world while performing his Hartford Poet Laureate duties. So, listen in. You'll be inspired! http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes http://frederickdouglassknowles.com You can purchase BlackRoseCity here: https://www.amazon.com/BlackRoseCity-Frederick-Douglass-Knowles-II/dp/1456729535 Bio: Frederick-Douglass Knowles II is the inaugural Poet Laureate for Hartford, CT. His collection of poetry, BlackRoseCity, was featured at the 2018 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). His works have featured in the Connecticut River Review; Poems on the Road to Peace: A Tribute to Dr. King by Yale UP; Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry on HIV/AIDS by Third World Press. The Mississippi University for Women nominated his poem “Mason Freeman Cuts Jenkins Down” for a Pushcart Prize. He is the recipient of the 2019 Nutmeg Poetry Award. Frederick-Douglass is an Associate Professor of English at Three Rivers Community College.

Suzanne Frischkorn is a talented and prolific poet living in Connecticut, my home state. Listen to her explain how she got into poetry and the poetry scene and what influenced her work and the many similarities that we shared "growing up" in CT as women writers and poets in our formative years. http://yourartsygirlpodcast.com/episodes You can purchase Girl on a Bridge here: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/girl-on-a-bridge/ Poem from Girl on a Bridge --- Great Lash You wear too much eye makeup. My sister wears too much. People think she's a whore. Our cornfields were paved in asphalt, sulfur lights snuffed our stars. When one of us had no shoes, we went barefoot, walking streets laid with tar. First we coated lashes blackest black from tubes of green and pink, our eyes lined kohl. If it was Thursday we found boyfriends and waited by the liquor store for anyone to buy us Smirnoff. Anyone at all. We were not sweet girls. * We were not sweet girls, yet we wore silver chains with silver hearts & crosses, onyx rings, blush, lipstick, powder. Hair flipped by vent brush before entering a night without stars. Our parents were line dancing, were bank tellers, were absent. We were a family that knew nothing about its members. * We cut school and watched Foxes. We cut school and drank vodka. We cut school and got stoned, did our makeup, walked the streets. One of us got out. One of us ran into our connection working a shoe store, one of us glimpsed another with a baby, one of us marries her Thursday night boyfriend and shatters her image. * We were not sweet girls, no. If there had been corn, or stars? Maybe the deep sweet girlness would have surfaced ― dreamy fresh-faced girls ― petals listening to rain. You can purchase Lit Windowpane here: https://mainstreetragbookstore.com/product/lit-windowpane/ Poem from Lit Windowpane-- Window A damp windowsill means nothing— it’s no bird tapping on a pane— I am waiting for the swallow’s stone, the anodyne to illness brought by sparrow song. This morning rain gathers in still puddles and the songbirds sing without percussion― loud notes echo the empty street— they sing and sing and sing. No owl has brushed its wing against our windowpane and sunlight overcomes the clouds. Thrush birdsong: lacey throated stars. The April of our fifth year reeds withered around the pond. Last summer I painted the porch ceiling robin’s egg blue. Spring now and the sparrows weave a nest in our dryer vent. I watch you ladder your way into their world, lift bits of twine and sticks and string, yet you know they will return. How I love you then— how I should have loved you all along. BIO: Suzanne Frischkorn is the author of Lit Windowpane (2008), Girl on a Bridge, (2010) and five chapbooks. Her honors include the Aldrich Poetry Award for her chapbook, Spring Tide, selected by Mary Oliver, an Emerging Writers Fellowship from the Writer’s Center, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. Visit her website: https://suzannefrischkorn.com/