Spring 2020

Intro:  Between November 2019 and March, when I started compiling this newsletter, Lise and I were happy to get praise for the anthology from widows, poets, widowed poets, friends of widowed poets. Now that our everyday life has been turned on its ear—again—can poetry help us cope in a time of political crisis, climate change, and coronavirus pandemic? We certainly hope so, but I’m not laying any bets. Here’s the latest from you, as of May 15.

Anthologies: The anthology announced in the Fall newsletter, Is It Hot in Here or Is It Just Me?, including poems by Donna Hilbert and Iris Litt, is now available in print and as an e-book: https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Here-Just-Me-Women/dp/1675651930

Judy Bebelaar’s poem “Gathering Light” appeared on Digital Paper in March, just when we needed it.  https://digitalpaper.wordpress.com/archives/issue-twenty-seven-winter-2019/gathering-light-by-judy-bebelaar/?fbclid=IwAR1sv8PJrTG4RiZinwMzMDHECMmI6BoibnP4syia24nB0kNF6yes2WgvvHU

Roselee Blooston’s play “Tikkun,” which means spiritual repair, opened at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, NY at the end of January. Roselee also gave readings from her novel Trial by Family and led writing workshops at Northern Dutchess Hospital. She also does private editing and coaching. And her novel, Trial by Family, was a Gold Medal Winner in the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Awards for Mid-Atlantic Best Regional Fiction. www.roseleeblooston.com

Gail Braune Comorat’s poem “Geese” appeared in the winter issue of Willawaw Journal: http://willawawjournal.com/category/journal/winter-2019-issue-8/page/2/?fbclid=IwAR32cWXax6I39o9NqVH_89y7SvYuAr6Vz5q92ZWR3UH7eYUS-JqDpOdyE-E

Mary Pacifico Curtis‘s story “Honeymoons” was a finalist in the New Millennium Writings contest last November. But she didn’t know that until she saw it on their web site in January…! Her poem City Window was recently published on Jam& Sand. And at the end of last year her poem Ubi Caritas…  ! was a finalist in a Tiferet Journal poetry contest.

Patricia’s Fargnoli’s poem “Olives” appeared in the December issue of Crab Orchard Review, p.72:    https://issuu.com/craborchardreview/docs/book_24_2c2__1_ 

Connie Fisher had almost finished the manuscript of a memoir, about her escapades growing up in Mexico City, when she wrote to me. She also reviewed lots of plays around Lake Norman (NC), after visits with her daughters and grandchildren in Dallas and a reunion with her sisters and brother in Florida.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, in December. She went back to work, cancer-free, in January. https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2019/12/20/rbg-inducted-hall-fame-philadelphia-jewish-museum/?fbclid=IwAR2e8I-XuzSpRjE368l2gDx80AI5HaUdvEohxzKaGsw7g582QZN0t05D-h8

On Feb. 14, she presented the inaugural Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award to art patron Agnes Gund. Now she’s working from home—and still working out with her trainer.

Barbara L. Greenberg died April 2, at 87. She was the author of several novels and short-story collections, in addition to her books of poems. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?n=barbara-l-greenberg&pid=195859394&fhid=8784

Donna Hilbert’s poem “Going Home” appeared on Braided Way in December: http://braidedway.org/going-home/?fbclid=IwAR2_weC2BNdk8hWCVi4zydZOx-xlAZnwd6pMc994v5Hy-f7u2xwV5wd-CWI  Her poem “Green Fire” is in California Fire & Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology, out in April. Donna went to AWP in San Antonio, but a month-long residency in Wisconsin had to go “virtual” because of the Covid-19 pandemic. She’s working on a new book and hoping to lead a workshop in coastal Maryland, planned for mid-June. www.donnahilbert.com

Jessica deKoninck’s poem “After Babel” appears this month in Tiferet (http://www.tiferetjournal.com);

‘You Would Have Enjoyed” appears in the Frost Meadow Review’s section of Pandemic Poetry (https://frostmeadowreview.com/pandemic-poetry–scroll down to April 21). Her powerful poem “Pastoral” appeared online as SWWIM’s (Supporting Women Writers in Miami) “Poem of the Day” the day after Thanksgiving 2019 (https://www.swwim.org/). Jessica has also had poems in Diode, Paterson Literary Review, and Valparaiso Poetry Review, and was featured twice on Verse Daily. She was leading a poetry workshop at the Greenwich House (NY) Senior Center before group activities were “distanced.”

Natasha Sajé’s poem “Palliative” appears in issue #2 of Under a Warm Green Linden: https://www.greenlindenpress.com/issue2-natasha-saje?fbclid=IwAR0o66aTjfdRkBnz-7RqJ2hV93kgZHJtuVj_4IYUrc4tRyYaHA_J_ci8514  She blogs about cooking at natashasaje.com

Aline Soules won 2nd place in Kelsay Books’ Metrical Poetry Contest with a sonnet, which appeared online Dec. 1 (the start date of Tupelo Press’s 30/30 “challenge”) and also in their print publication.

Ellen Steinbaum was interviewed by Elizabeth Lund for cable channel NewTV’s program, Poetic Lines:

https://newtv.org/recent-videos-community/127-poetic-lines/5135-poetic-lines-ellen-steinbaum

Tammi Truax is teaching, writing for the Portsmouth Herald, and working on her poet laureate project—remotely, for now. Seacoast Repertory Theater gave a staged reading of her novel in verse, For to See the Elephant, before the shutdowns, but the student trip to Japan that she was going to chaperone this month had to be cancelled.

Condolences to Carolyn Stephens Geary, whose mother died Feb. 13 with her five surviving children around her; and encouragement to Patricia Fargnoli, who’s in rehab after an unplanned hospital stay and hopes to go home soon. If more of you send news, maybe I’ll send out another letter in November. Hope we can all stay safe and well going forward. ~

Fall 2019

Fall 2019 TWH Contributors’ Newsletter

  Thank you for announcing your poems, peregrinations, prizes, publications—especially now, when  news reports are so appalling. Your energy encourages all of us! Lise and I send our deepest sympathy to contributors who are mourning again. And to all, our wishes for a sweeter, healthier year.

Judy Bebelaar received a 2018 Northern California Book Award in June for And Then They Were Gone (Silver in General Non-Fiction). She read her own poems on the Jonestown theme for a “Poetry of Witness” event at the Octopus Literary Salon (Oakland), and excerpts from the book in July at Pegasus Books (Berkeley) and Benicia Books. This month, Judy won first prize at the Ina Coolbrith Poetry Circle Banquet (theme: Circle) for a poem called  “That Instable Object of Desire.” She also got a framed plaque for winning the Grand Prize last year. That poem was “Ode to Broken Things.”

Roselee Blooston’s first novel, Trial by Family (Apprentice House), launched in October with reading/signing events at Oblong Books Rhinebeck, NY), Watchung Booksellers (Montclair, NJ), and Barnes & Noble (Kingston NY). Available from the publisher, independent bookstores, Amazon, and B&N.

Gail Braune Comorat‘s writing group, “The Muse,” published a poetry collection called Walking the Sunken Boards, from their biannual retreats over the past ten years. The four women read together in Chestertown, MD in July and at several Delaware venues in October: Rehoboth Beach Museum, Newark (DE) Senior Center, New Castle County Court House Museum, and OLLI in Wilmington. To order a copy ($16), send Gail an e-mail: gailcomorat@comcast.net.

Mary Pacifico Curtis’ poem “Ubi Caritas” was a finalist in Tiferet Journal’s annual writing contest.

Patricia Fargnoli is the focus of Innisfree Poetry Journal’s A Closer Look (current issue, Fall 2019), with 22 poems from Hallowed (Tupelo 2017): www.innisfreepoetry.org  or http://authormark.com/artman2/publish/Innisfree_29PATRICIA_FARGNOLI.shtml  Hallowed also won both the NH Literary Award in Poetry and the Reader’s Choice Award, in October.

Cary Fellman is working on a new book, memoir-ish prose this time, with one of her daughters as proofreader. She gave two readings in the spring and may have other opportunities coming up. Cary also has a poem in the Bard’s Chapbook, a fundraiser for the Hunger Task Force, “telling the truth about those who live on the streets.”

Tess Gallagher’s new collection, Is, Is Not, is now available (www,graywolfpress.org). She gave a reading at Dublin’s Books Upstairs in July. In October, Tess read at Whitman College, where she used to teach. Then she and Alice Derry, also a widowed poet, toured schools and universities in Michigan, on a grant from the Theodore Roethke Foundation, and read at Pelican Bay Books in Anacortes (WA). This month, Tess read at Eagle Harbor Bookstore and at Village Books (Bellingham).

Sandra M. Gilbert received the 2019 Fred Cody Award for Lifetime Achievement and Service from the Northern California Book Reviewers. Her latest poetry collection, Judgment Day (Norton), was published earlier this year.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg received an honorary doctorate in New York from the University of Buffalo and spoke at the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival. In September she was interviewed by NPR’s Nina Totenberg at a packed sports arena in Little Rock, AR and spoke at Meredith College in Raleigh,NC. She also officiated at a wedding in Chicago, gave an interview at Amherst College, spoke to supporters of Moment Magazine at the Yale Club in Manhattan, then spoke again at the Library of Congress (honoring Sandra Day O’Connor’s judicial legacy) before returning to work last month.  In October she gave the inaugural Herma Hill Kay Memorial Lecture at UC Berkeley Law School, spoke at Georgetown Law, and won the Berggruen Prize for Culture and Philosophy, given annually to a “thinker whose ideas are shaping human self-understanding to advance humankind.” RBG announced that she would donate the prize money to charities and nonprofits. She’ll get a trophy at a private ceremony Dec. 16.

Patricia L. Goodman has almost completed a memoir in poetry about the horse business she and her late husband ran together—“full of hilarious stories, and it’s our story, too.” Next step will be finding a publisher. Her teaching partner at the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning is traveling, so their writing course is on hiatus. Meanwhile, Pat’s singing with the OLLI chorus in Wilmington (DE), including several solos, with six performances scheduled before Christmas.

Florence Grende’s memoir, The Butcher’s Daughter, was shortlisted for the 2019 Rubery Book Award. Florence gave a talk and reading in October at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Holocaust Center in Portland. One of her paintings was included in Sacramento’s Bold Expressions exhibit, Oct. 1-27.

Donna Hilbert has poems (from her manuscript-in-progress) “My Husband” and “We Don’t Believe in Rain” on the Sheila-Na-Gig blog: https://sheilanagigblog.com/the-poets-volume-4-1-fall-2019/ ; “Since” and “Dear Husband”’ in the Summer issue of Chiron Review; and “Buried” in Golden Streetcar. “Dear John Letter to my Uterus,” and “Once, Time,” appear in Is it Hot in Here or Is It Just Me? Women Over 40 Write on Aging (Social Justice Anthologies), forthcoming any day now from the publishing arm of the Beautiful Cadaver Project Pittsburgh. She’s still giving workshops and readings from Gravity.

Jacqueline Lapidus is still trying to find someone who can boost TWH sales by mentioning the anthology on prime-time TV, even though (she admits) she herself doesn’t watch it. Herpoem “Mourning” (from TWH) appears online in the Winter 2019 issue of Anti-Heroin Chic, which focuses on grief and loss: http://heroinchic.weebly.com/blog/mourning-by-jacqueline-lapidus. Her “Three Paintings by Tabitha Vevers,” accepted for the Winter 2019 issue of Persimmon Tree (featuring East Coast poets), will go live in mid-December: www.PersimmonTree.org

Iris Litt‘s partner of 25 years, retired sociologist Gerald (“Jerry”) Solk, died in mid-August. Iris writes that she misses him terribly and plans to stay this winter in Woodstock, where she has a good home health aide. One bright note amid the sorrow: Iris’s poem “Getting Older” will appear in Is it Hot in Here or Is It Just Me? Women Over 40 Write on Aging (Social Justice Anthologies, see above). Another poem,

“Plastika”, was accepted in August for the Proverse Poetry Prize 2019 anthology Mingled Voices 4, a periodical based in Hong Kong.

Lise Menn has sent almost all of her professional library to a research library in Ukraine, “a tremendous relief.” As a result of moments of clarity during her illness two years ago, and with partner Bruce Kawin’s help, she’s also preparing as much of her old research data as she can for a shared archive, so that other people can use it. Although it will take years to finish the job, Lise says, she’s really enjoying the process.

Pamela Manche Pearce was interviewed by Sharon Israel on “The Writer’s Voice” (Planet Poet–Words-in-Space, The Writers Voice WIOX Radio, then spoke and gave a reading at the NYC chapter of Soaring Spirits (widows and widowers sharing their experiences). Widowland was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, recommended by the US Review of Books, reviewed in Yellow Rabbits Review, (reprinted in Midwest Book Review), US Review of Books,  Glass: A Journal of Poetry and The Highlands Current  (with an article), and is a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award. Now Pamela’s working on new projects, including revision of a novella, The Red Couch, and a memoir, Blue Crete, for future publication.

Helen Ruggieri read from her new book, Camping in the Galaxy, in August at Word Soup in Canandaigua, NY. She has two poems in the anthology Local News: Poetry about Small Towns from MWPH Books (Fairwater, WI), available from the publisher.

Natasha Sajé has a new web site and blog:  https://natashasaje.com  It includes a long, fascinating biography, recipes (she was a chef earlier in her life), and photos, along with information about her books. She’s still teaching at Westminster College in Salt Lake City and leading seasonal workshops at Vermont College in Montpelier. Last week, Natasha gave a local reading with Boston poet Robin Becker. Her memoir, Terroir: Essays on Otherness, comes out next year.

Aline Soules had two poems, “Gutting” and “Witching Hour” in The Galway Review last fall, and a brief essay, “Forever Dali,” in The Ekphrastic Review this past spring.  Now her poem “Bullfrogs” has been published in Loon Magic and Other Night Sounds (https://www.outriderpress.net/publications.html).

Tammi Truax’s novel in verse, For to See the Elephant (Piscataqua Press) appeared on Amazon’s list of bestsellers in poetry for teens and young adults the morning after it came out and stayed there all through May. As Portsmouth (NH) poet laureate, Tammi read in June at the Book & Bar with her counterpart from Orlando, accompanied by the Beat Night Band. She’s been giving readings and talks at other bookstores, libraries and festivals in Maine, NH, Massachusetts and Connecticut throughout the summer and fall. And on her birthday, she landed a two-book contract with Oghma Creative Media for YA novels.

Phyllis Wax had three poems in the December 2018 issue and another in the June 2019 issue of JerryJazzMusician, an online magazine produced in Portland, OR. Read them at www.jerryjazzmusician.com  She’s still “writing like mad, inspired by what our country and the world are going through.”

Spring 2019

Remember that scene in “The Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy (Judy Garland) emerges from Auntie Em’s house after the cyclone and suddenly everything bursts into Technicolor? Somewhat like Lise’s poem “March 9th” – and me on March 11th. In longer daylight I saw all the dust and grime accumulated over the winter–eek! Sleepy and sluggish, not going anywhere, I decided to send news again, hoping to lift us all.

And now, it’s April–National Poetry Month, FWIW. The new sales manager at KSUP, Richard Fugini, has informed Lise and me that he’ll give TWH some extra publicity on National Widows’ Day, May 3rd, and International Widows’ Day, June 23rd. (First time we’ve heard about those—have you?) He encourages all contributors to use social media platforms (web sites, blogs, Facebook pages, etc.) to mention TWH right now, since it’s National Poetry Month, and again on both of those days. Please do!

Anthologies: Susanne Braham, Lise Menn, Joan Michelson, P.C. (Pat) Moorehead, Christine Silverstein and Nancy Womack have received their contributor’s copies of Nan Bauer-Maglin’s Widows’ Words (Rutgers University Press). If any of you participate in readings from it, let us know dates! I hope you’ll mention The Widows’ Handbook  at those readings, and KSUP is willing to send copies for sale. Lise has already approached the Boulder library to suggest an exhibit of both anthologies for May 3rd.

Jessica de Koninck, Katharyn Howe Machan and Natasha Sajé have poems in Diane Lockward’s forthcoming anthology A Compendium of Kisses (Terrapin Books).

Judy Bebelaar was on a panel at AWP in Portland, OR, on “Turning Tragedy Into Hope: Teaching Transformation Through Writing,” with examples from her memoir And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers from Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown. The book has just won first prize for general non-fiction from the Northern California Publishers and Authors association.

Susanne Braham, Ellen Steinbaum and I (Jacqueline) read in Boston from TWH on March 12 at the Loring-Greenough House, a beautiful 18th-century residence maintained as a museum. A smallish but very responsive audience turned out on a Tuesday night to hear us and talk about the poems afterward.

Jessica de Koninck gave a poetry reading March 23 at the Classic Quiche Café in Teaneck, NJ with Donald Zirilli. Her bio note mentions (ours did not—I wish it had!) that she’s a retired lawyer with 30 years’ experience in public education policy.

Tess Gallagher read at AWP with Tarfia Faizullah and Ilya Kaminsky. Her poem “Ambition” appeared in the March 25 issue of The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/25/ambition . Tess’s new collection, Is, Is Not, was launched in Galway, Ireland on April 11 and will be available from Graywolf Press in May.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg got past three cracked ribs last November and surgery for a spot of lung cancer in January. Now she’s back on the SCOTUS bench after missing only a week of oral arguments (for the first time since she was appointed in 1993). She celebrated her 86th birthday on March 15.

Pat Goodman’s second book of poems, Walking with Scissors (Kelsay Books), came out in February. It’s available from the publisher and on Amazon. Thanks to Gail Comorat for the tip! When I followed up, Pat confirmed that she’s still writing and teaching, too.

Donna Hilbert reads with five other women on Mothers’ Day, May 12, at Gatsby Books, Long Beach CA.

Lucia May went ziplining on vacation in Mexico with her daughter, who posted a video on Facebook. Braver by far than yours truly—I’m just glad she’s back on the ground and teaching violin again.

Mary Oliver, as you probably know from mainstream media, died of lymphoma on Jan. 17, at her home in Hobe Sound, Fla. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize (for American Primitive, 1984) and the National Book Award (for her New and Selected Poems, 1992), as well as many other prizes and honors, Mary was one of the best-known, most widely read poets in the United States. Community gatherings to celebrate her life and read her poems were held in Provincetown and many other places, with more coming up at poetry festivals this month and in May.

Pamela Manché Pearce read from Widowland to the New York chapter of Soaring Spirits where, she reports, everyone knew and praised TWH ! During her trip to Paris, she read on March 29 at the home of a member of the Association of American Women in Europe (AAWE); on March 31 at WICE, an English-speaking community that organizes events, courses and social occasions (www.wice-paris.org) and on April 4 with ParisLitUp, a small press and reading series (http://parislitup.com/plu-open-mic-featuring-pamela-manche-pearce-2/).

Helen Ruggieri’s new book, Camping in the Galaxy: Haibun and Other Writings About the Natural, is out from Woodthrush Books, Swanton, VT. (Walt@Woodthrushbooks.com)

Natasha Sajé was on a panel at AWP discussing a new anthology, Critical Creative Writing, that explores how diversity issues can be addressed in writing courses. She has new poems in Poetry, Copper Nickel, Hubbub, Epoch, On the Seawall, and Smartish Pace—plus an essay, “Ode to the hen’s egg” (fun and informative—she was a gourmet chef in her earlier life) in the April issue of Catalyst. Natasha’s poems in Prairie Schooner won this year’s Glenna Luschei Prize. And her memoir, Terroir: Essays on Otherness, will be out from Trinity University Press in 2020.

Ellen Steinbaum, after reading with me and Susanne in March, learned that one of her poems appears in the Waterford (Michigan) Township Public Library’s exhibit, “Poetry Leaves.”

Tammi Truax has just been named Poet Laureate for the city of Portsmouth, NH where she works at an elementary school and as a Connections program facilitator for the N.H. Humanities Council teaching new adult readers. Her novel in verse, about the first two elephants brought to North America and their enslaved young keeper, will be launched April 26.  For to See the Elephant (Piscataqua Press) is available already, on Amazon and at http://ppressbooks.com/.

Florence Weinberger‘s launch party for Ghost Tattoo, her  fifth collection of poems, was rescheduled to February 10. The reading, followed by brunch, took place at the Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue, 24855 Pacific Coast Hwy. Time: 11:30 a.m.  Originally planned for November, the event had to be postponed because of the catastrophic wildfires in the area.

Nancy Womack gave a reading for Poetry Month on April 17, with the other two women in her writing group (still meeting monthly) and a male poet from an adjoining county. One of her poems was a finalist in the Ron Rash Poetry Competition (held by the Broad River Review).  Of the five pieces she sent, the one they chose was her least favorite—go figure!

As I send this out, I’m hoping to hear from more of you in the coming months, whether or not I send another newsletter. Please stay in touch! Jacqueline Lapidus, Co-editor, The Widows’ Handbook: Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival(Kent State University Press)www.widowshandbookanthology.com

January 2019

Editors’ Note: Warmest wishes for a healthy, satisfying New Year to all of you! This is our last newsletter. Five years after The Widows’ Handbook was published, both of us need to move forward into a murky future (we’re 77!) with fewer tasks on our to-do lists. We’re grateful to all of you for joining us as we all slog through our mourning, memories, coping strategies and rebuilding our lives. We’re especially grateful for the supportive network created by the anthology, the readings you and we have given from it, and your responses to our newsletters. Thank you! Please stay in touch! Lise’s techie tenant updates the TWH web site when we send her contributor news. If you’re going to AWP, check the program for fellow contributors. And if your travel plans include Boston, let me know! The connections that have developed among us make all the work worthwhile. Judy Bebelaar is still taking And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers from Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown to new audiences. Look for her at AWP in Portland, OR (March 27-30)—she’s on a panel with Herbert Kohl and Jonestown survivors John Cobb, Deborah Layton and Jordan Vilchez. The topic is “Turning Tragedy to Hope: The Transformative Power of Writing.” Find date, time and venue on the conference schedule at www.awp.org. Judy discussed the book, with survivors Julia Scheeres and Deborah Layton, at East Bay Booksellers in Oakland on November 15, then again Nov.17 during an open house/commemoration at the California Historical Society in San Francisco. In December Judy gave a reading and talk at Book Passage, on the Embarcadero. She and co-author Ron Cabral were just named 2019 Library Laureates by the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. They’ll be guests at a celebration fundraiser in March, at the Main Library. Roselee Blooston’s 1996 play “Rehearsing for Oscar,” about the struggles of female performers in pursuit of fame and fortune, is being revived. Full information about dates and tickets at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, NY (two hours, train or car, from Manhattan and Montclair NJ): http://www.centerforperformingarts.org/ Roselee’s novel Trial by Family will be published by Apprentice House Press (at Loyola U, MD) in October. Meanwhile, Northern Dutchess Hospital has asked Roselee to lead a monthly writing workshop for cancer survivors. A busy year ahead! Lenore McComas Coberly is still participating in three writing groups and actively seeking a publisher for her memoir, Piecemeal. From the mountains of West Virginia to the academic groves of Wisconsin, she has packed a lot into her 93+ years. Mary Pacifico Curtis’ chapbook, The White Tree Quartet (Turning Point), announced in the Summer 2018 newsletter, explores various faces of ‘otherness’ – a subject that has become even “hotter” since she wrote them. Her poems “The Late Poem” and “The Mystery of Me” appeared in Havik, the literary anthology of Los Positas College; “Who Knew?” in Shantih Journal (https://shantihjournal.org/issue-2-2/), “45 At the One Yard Line” in Evening Street Review, and “The Question” in Poetry Now, a publication of the Sacramento Poetry Center. Mary also had prose pieces in Boundless, an anthology from Compass Flower Press, and in Streetlight Magazine (https://streetlightmag.com/?s=Mary+Pacifico+Curtis). Gail Gilliland has been writing short stories and getting them published in various literary magazines over the past few years. Eventually, she hopes to publish a book-length collection. Florence Grende’s The Butcher’s Daughter: A Memoir won the Kindle 2018 Book Award for Non-Fiction. She’s still living and painting in Mexico but hoping to move back to the States to be closer to family, especially her new and only grandchild. Pamela Manché Pearce’s travels with her chapbook, Widowland, continue. After Green Bottle Press’s London launch last fall, plus readings in Sleepy Hollow and New York City, she’s taking it to Paris, France in April. (Two dear friends of mine, American widows long settled in France, have sent her–and me–information about possible venues for readings in English. Anyone else tempted? –JL) More info and ordering at www.pamelampearce.com Ellen Peckham has had more poems published in recent months: “St. Sebastian” in Caesura, “Depressive States” and “Half-Asleep” in the anthology Without Words, a haiku “after rain” in the anthology Four Hundred and Two Snails (Haiku Society of America), and six haiku forthcoming in Westchester Review. Ellen also had artwork in a show called “Dialogues in Print” that traveled to Korea, Peru and Germany before winding up at the Monmouth (NJ) Museum. And, her memoir is making the rounds. Helen Ruggieri has a new book, Camping in the Galaxy, due out in March (Woodthrush Books, Vermont). It includes a series of haibun (a short poetic-prose form from Japan) on nature-related themes and a section called “Hope,” essays on ecotopics. Helen thinks we may have started a trend, keeping in touch post-publication; another anthology, Nasty Women Poets, now has a Facebook page. (Anyone want to start and maintain one for TWH?) Aline Soules retired last August from the library staff at Cal State East Bay, where she participated in and ran writing circles. Her chapbook Evening Sun: a Widow’s Journey,is available online at Amazon. Aline had two powerful poems in last fall’s issue of the Galway Review (you’ll find them at https://thegalwayreview.com/2018/10/28/aline-soules-two-poems/?fbclid=IwAR1ltNkJs71CwzFaRTR7PLmMDKq1vAVhAljsq1ljwOLEdZ19plTuO_mvwmg). She also maintains a blog on her web site, http://alinesoules.com/blog. Ellen Steinbaum will read in the First and Last Word series at Somerville Armory Cafe January 15, with Susan Donnelly and Charles Coe. She also read from This Next Tenderness at the historic Loring-Greenough House in Jamaica Plain in December. (I’ve contacted the coordinator for a different reading series at Loring-Greenough, in the hope of getting TWH on the program in March or April. –JL) Florence Weinberger’s fifth collection of poems, Ghost Tattoo, was published in November. A publication party, with a reading and brunch, was held at the Malibu Jewish Center & Synagogue. Copies are available on Amazon. Florence has also published poems in Adanna, Spillway, and the Baltimore Review, and has more poems forthcoming in Miramar, Hummingbird, Rattle, Shenandoah, Turtle Island Review and Rockvale Review.

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Fall 2018

SCAM ALERT! Some bozo claiming to be “Widow Chick” (an open community page on Facebook) is sending messages to widows, telling them about a grant, purportedly from “Health & Human Services” (ha!) and supported by “UN and Amazon” (yeah, right).  Don’t fall for it! Report, then delete, and change your password. The real owner of the page (whose profile pic was used, too), has been alerted.

Summer 2018

Editors: Lise Menn is feeling much stronger, driving again and traveling.  Jacqueline Lapidus is counting down to summer.  Still hoping for more reading gigs and, especially, some TV exposure to boost anthology sales. And more news from all y’all. T.J. Banks has been writing a cat behavior column for petful.com and book reviews and an occasional feature for A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine. She’s also teaching some writing workshops and working on a couple of book ideas. Susanne Braham has a humorous poem, “Pigeon Trees,” forthcoming this fall in The Offbeat, a publication of Michigan State University “devoted to the weird…fits me to a tee!”  Meanwhile, her short poem “Solo” appeared online in Right Hand Pointing. To find it, scroll down about halfway. https://www.issues.righthandpointing.net/122 Ann Cefola read in April at the PEN World Voices Press Fest in New York.  Her translation of Hélène Sanguinetti’s Alpharego Like Nothing Else will appear in The Operating System’s 2019 Unsilenced Texts series. Mary Pacifico Curtis’s new chapbook, The White Tree Quartet, was published by Turning Point (an imprint of WordTech Communications) in April. It’s available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. A formal launch party-in-advance was held in March at the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose. Jessica de Koninck has a poem in the online journal Eclectica, in the special features section. Here’s the link: http://www.eclectica.org/v22n2/poetry_list.html. She has been reading with other local poets in NJ venues and also in California. Connie Fisher is editing a book she’s been writing and hopes to complete it before the end of the year. She also reviews plays for a local paper in Davidson NC. Last year Connie read at Chico’s (the ladies’ clothing shop) in nearby Huntersville, for a special event benefiting a widows’ organization. Tess Gallagher‘s April trip to northwest Spain included lecturing and reading in San Sebastian (with live simultaneous translation) and at a bookstore in Errenteria, a nearby town, to very responsive  audiences.  She also filmed an interview.  Tess describes “meeting poets, eating great food, walking walking walking, staring at the sea…petting dogs, going into bookstores [where she found some of Ray’s books, as well as her own]… Life is getting possible again…and a feeling of Josie being glad for me kept it all good.” On that note, she’s back in the Pacific Northwest, planting her garden. Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “RBG,” the documentary about the gender equality and women’s rights cases that made Ruth’s reputation as an attorney, is playing now—see it if you can! Another film, “On the Basis of Sex,“ about a case in which she and her late husband, Martin, were co-counsel, will be released at the end of this year. She adds, “…script written by my nephew Dan Stiepleman….Felicity Jones plays me, Armie Hammer plays Marty, and there’s a bit part for grandson Paul.” A new edition of the illustrated biography Notorious RBG, aimed at young readers, was published in February. And…on a quick trip to Washington in mid-April, my fairy goddaughter #2 (now almost 14) and I (JL) attended oral arguments, then saw Ruth briefly in chambers—gracious as always, stalwart in spite of everything. Pat Goodman is in a writing-like-crazy stage, with small press and contest successes and a new collection, Walking with Scissors, looking for a publisher. She’s still teaching advanced poetry writing with her friend Betsey Cullen at Wilmington’s Osher Institute of Lifelong Learning. And, she’s the great-grandma of a baby girl! Florence Grende is still in San Miguel de Allende (Mexico). She’s wait-listed for an apartment in Williamstown (Mass.), hoping eventually to go back and forth with the seasons. Meanwhile, she’s been painting, showing her work in a local gallery, and rejoicing in the birth of a new grandson last  August. Donna Hilbert’s Gravity: New and Selected Poems (Tebot Bach) is now available from the publisher: http://tebotbach.org/publication.html. Eventually it’ll be on Amazon and B&N, too. Donna’s aiming for Cape Cod in August, so maybe some of us will catch her there, for a reading or a swim. Ellen Kamp, one of our blurbers and co-founder of The W Connection, is still running the nonprofit organization for widows helping widows. Her friend and co-founder Dawn Nargis appeared in January 2017 on ABC7’s TV show  Eyewitness News, hosted by Ken Rosato, with two members of this expanding support network for widows. Watch it at http://abc7ny.com/video/embed/?pid=1754614. Jackie Kudler is still writing and teaching adult classes at the College of Marin. Sixteen Rivers Press, the San Francisco-based poetry collective of which she was a co-founder, is bringing out an anthology in September of poems of resistance, resilience, and witness: America I Call Your Name–with work by renowned poets (from Shakespeare to Milosz) and new poems gleaned from an open call. Iris Litt, back in upstate New York after six months in Florida, continues to have poems published in periodicals, most recently the East Jasmine Review, Gloom Cupboard, apt, Straightforward Poetry, Apalachee Quarterly, and The Westchester Review. Marci Madary graduated from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago on May 24, with a D.Min. in Spirituality. She has a poetry blog on her web site: www.Insideoutspirituality.com, teaches groups how to use the Enneagram, and practices both Reiki and spiritual direction. Susan Mahan gave a reading May 6 at the Plymouth Public Library, with another poet…but I saw the listing in the Sunday Globe too late to go! What else is on your calendar, Susan? Pat Parnell, I’m sad to report, died March 22 in her 94th year, leaving four sons, 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Pat was loved and admired as poet, teacher, and head of the now-defunct Seacoast Writers Association in NH; she inspired many poets, including some of us. A funeral service was held April 13 in Exeter, NH. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/unionleader/obituary.aspx?n=patricia-parnell&pid=188647769&fhid=4797 Ellen Peckham has two poems in American Writers Review (Summer), one in Nourish (which focuses on haiku), and three in South Wind. A Canadian magazine, Kolaj, ran an essay on some of Ellen’s prints (etchings superimposed on collages). She also had a print in the Salmagundi Open Printmaking exhibition in New York.  “I’m looking forward to my August retreat, when I can get more done.” Natasha Saje will read at Berkeley Books in Paris, Saturday June 9, with novelist Carol Anshaw. She’s still teaching at Westminster College in Salt Lake City during the academic year and at Vermont College the last week in June. Her recent publications include essays in the Catalyst (April) and North American Review (online), as well as poems just out or forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, and Plume. Ellen Steinbaum’s new collection, This Next Tenderness, is out now and available directly from her or on Amazon (her web site’s being updated). She’s reading May 30 in New York City at Book Culture, where some of us read together in 2014, and on Sept. 6 at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave. in Somerville, MA (with Martha Collins). There’s parking in the back. Check the time closer to the date, probably 7 pm. Older News

Winter 2018

New Year wishes and valentine hugs to everyone! May the year 2018 bring us inspiration, patience, stamina, and a glimmer of hope for the future, in health (above all) and good company—and with good poetry. Rejoicing, hard beset or just treading water, we’re in this together. Editors: Jacqueline will try to keep up with your news and send out a newsletter at least twice again this year. Please e-mail her (jaxedit@aol.com) about readings you’re giving from TWH and/or your new work, milestones or changes in your life, and latest publications. Meanwhile, Lise is convalescing at home, feeling stronger and glad to be more mobile. She sounded lively on the phone, though she still finds typing arduous. And she’s happy to get news from us all. Natasha Saje will read at Berkeley Books in Paris, Saturday June 9, with novelist Carol Anshaw. She’s still teaching at Westminster College in Salt Lake City during the academic year and at Vermont College the last week in June. Her recent publications include essays in the Catalyst (April) and North American Review (online), as well as poems just out or forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, and Plume. TJ Banks is working on a couple of new books and teaching some writing classes—including one at an independent living community where, she says, she’s learning so much from the participants, all 80+. Judy Bebelaar’s book about the students from Peoples Temple whom she knew—when she taught in San Francisco—before their fatal journey to Guyana, And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown, will be out this spring, maybe as soon as March. Roselee Blooston traveled to Toronto last fall for her second Camp Widow, where she led two workshops: “Becoming A New You” and a writing workshop, “Things Left Unsaid.” She also gave a talk in Quinnipiac University’s Visiting Writers series and a Master Class with a group of creative writing students. Fueled by their interest, she’s starting a second memoir, about her earlier career as an actress and playwright. Roselee continues to teach her “Write Your Life” workshop in Rhinebeck, NY, and to offer private editing and coaching services for memoirs, personal essays, and blogs. Susanne Braham had a poem titled “On Oahu on Your Birthday, 2017” in Hawaii Pacific Review last October. https://hawaiipacificreview.org/2017/10/30/oh-oahu-on-your-birthday-2017/ (the typo in the link is theirs, not hers, but the link works). She also landed a Letter to the Editor in the New York Times Book Review, appearing in the print edition Dec. 31, 2017. Ann Cefola‘s translation from the French of Hélène Sanguinetti’s The Hero will be published this year by Chax Press. Her translation of Sanguinetti’s “From Treatise of the Robin (Revery)” will appear in Presence, in April. Lenore McComas Coberly had three poems recently in Hummingbird, the Journal of the Short Poem. She’s sending potential publishers a book manuscript entitled Piecemeal, “not seeking narrative,” she writes, “or the proof of anything but, rather, accepting my life as it happened…a bit at a time…a series of stories… I will follow any publishing lead!” Lenore participates in three writing groups that meet at her house, “very nice for a woman of 93.” Indeed! Tess Gallagher‘s partner of 24 years, the painter Joseph (Josie) Gray, died in Ireland in December. His children and grandchildren are helping Tess get used to this painful change in her life until she feels ready to return to the States. Josie’s stories about his life in Ballindoon (Co. Sligo) and NW Ireland, which Tess recorded, were published as Barnacle Soup (Blackstaff Press), still available from Amazon. Tess’s poem “Earth” appeared in the Feb. 5 issue of The New Yorker, and she’ll have another poem in the April issue of Plume (a lovely one about her mother is online now). She plans to attend a conference in San Sebastian, also in April, invited by her Spanish translator. All sympathy and strength to you, Tess…. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back at work after a speaking tour, having hired a full staff of law clerks for the Supreme Court‘s spring term and beyond. She also attended the premiere of a documentary film about her at the Sundance Festival. Her trainer Bryant Johnson’s The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong..and You Can, Too! is a best-seller. Desk potatoes, take notice! Donna Hilbert’s recent publications include poems in Rattle, Nerve Cowboy, Chiron Review, and the anthology Poetry of Presence. Donna’s Gravity: New and Selected Poems is forthcoming in April 2018 from Tebot Bach. She hopes to come as far east as Cape Cod on a reading tour. Iris Litt has had poems in several literary magazines over the past few months: “Nothing Happened” in the Edison Literary Review and others in The London Magazine, OVS (Organs of Vision and Speech), Westchester Review, and Euphony, a magazine from the University of Chicago. She’s recovering from last year’s fall, getting out more, and glad to be sitting out the worst of winter in Florida. Joan Michelson has a chapbook, The Family Kitchen, coming out this spring from Finishing Line Press, about three generations of family members migrating from the “old country” in Eastern Europe to the New World of 20th-century America. Her collection Landing Stage, on the theme of refugee/immigrant lives, is available now on Amazon. Ellen Peckham had a poem, “Musings,” in the Comstock Review last spring and three in Like Light, an anthology celebrating 25 years of the Bright Hills Center. In Germany the Encyclopedia of Tenderness published her print “Ça Change,” with her text and a gloss on the work. In autumn 2017, Ellen produced and published an “occasional” book, a “Frasca”, or trifle, The Book of Arachne, Etchings and Poems, featuring prints accompanied by poems about each one. The January 2018 issue of the Journal of the Print World has an article about it, highlighting “Arachne Surprised.” Patricia Savage still loves working in education and living in the land of contrasts: New England. Both feed her poetry. She is also actively working to promote solar energy—owning panels for nearly 20 years, educating townspeople, growing a garden and hanging laundry out-of-doors (when it’s not below freezing). Ellen Steinbaum’s new book of poems, This Next Tenderness, will be available in April at https://www.readcwbooks.com/, at her web site, ellensteinbaum.com, and eventually on Amazon. Three poems from it appeared in Roanoke Review last fall. And she’s still blogging. Carolyn Stephens and craft brewer David Geary were married Jan. 3 in Portland, Maine, in the presence of their kids and kin. Under her caterer hat, Carrie baked her own wedding cake (Boston cream pie, his favorite), then put on her mother’s wedding dress for the ceremony (yes, her mom was there). Caption under a radiant photo: “the triumph of hope over experience.” We can relate! Mazel tov, Carrie! Tammi Truax, inspired by the Rumi poem “The Guest House,” is thinking of putting together an anthology on the theme “This Being Human.” She will organize, edit, and seek a publisher if enough poems for a volume come in. E-mail your submission to her at T4tu@comcast.net any time through 3/31. Publication of Tammi’s own collection from Hobblebush has been postponed, alas—stay tuned. Nancy Womack’s “A Trilogy in Praise of Figs” was selected for the 2017 Kakalak, an annual anthology published by Main Street Rag, featuring Carolina poets. She has also rewritten a chapbook called Red Jacket Requiem, about her husband’s illness and death and learning to live independently, which includes her “Christmas Trilogy” from TWH. Nancy says it was good to work on the poems from a new perspective, for herself, but she has also submitted the book to a competition. By the Way: A friend sent me a recent poem by a nurse practitioner recalling her first day of widowhood. It definitely echoed some of ours, in spirit and circumstance. The poem appeared in Pulse: voices from the heart of medicine, an online journal that also publishes an annual print anthology. If you’d like to consider submitting, Pulse is reading prose now and will resume considering poetry in the fall. https://pulsevoices.org

2017

AWP: Helen Ruggieri reports that writers attending the AWP conference in Washington DC held a vigil in the park across from the White House. Good for them! Barbara Bald: The “poetry book Other Voices/Other Lives (by Barbara Bald with Beth Fox) www.gibsonsbookstore.com/event/other-voices); is making the rounds … in NH, trying to show the world that seniors (even Nonagenarians) are fabulous people with vibrant pasts and lots to offer despite their physical/mental limitations. It’s been an exciting journey.” Roselee Blooston’s memoir Dying in Dubai was released in October 2016, available from the publisher at www.apprenticehouse.com/. Roselee had a book signing at AWP in February, and several interviews, including  deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/2016/12/q-with-roselee-blooston.html.  Reviews include a good descriptive one from NewPages.com, www.newpages.com/book-reviews/dying-in-dubai. Roselee also read in Hudson, NY at Spotty Dog Books & Ale on Feb. 11, as part of “Volume,” a free monthly reading and music series every second Saturday (www.facebook.com/volumehudson/). A note about Roselee’s readings in October and November appears in Chronogram: www.chronogram.com/hudsonvalley/short-takes-for-october-2016/Content?oid=2389012  She gave a presentation with Marina Cramer at Millbrook Literary Festival and a reading and signing at the lovely, warm and classic Queen Anne Book Company in Seattle.” Roselee returned to the west coast in August, to give a presentation at Camp Widow on “Becoming a New You” –and two more at Camp Widow Toronto, both on November 11. Susanne Braham’s essay “Life Lessons Learned” was recently published online at http://www.clevermag.com/essays2/life.htm Ann Cefola‘s second book, Free Ferry, was published by Upper Hand Press in April.  September marks the 75th anniversary of the isolation of plutonium, and Free Ferry tracks the story of one of its key scientists. Ann requests that we purchase it directly from Upper Hand Press so that they get the profits they deserve. For more information, see www.annogram.blogspot.com and www.anncefola.com. Ann read at Fordham University October 11 and at City College October 18. She’s also reading in the Poets in Conversation series at the Norwalk Public Library, November 2. Gail Braune Comorat has two poems, ‘Independence’ and ‘You are one of us tonight’, in the Summer 2017 issue of the Rat’s Ass Review (http://ratsassreview.net/). Patricia Fargnoli‘s new book: Hallowed: New & Selected Poems was published by Tupelo Press in September 2017. The book, which includes several poems from each of her four previous books plus 20 new poems, is available from the press or on Amazon. Pat is also scheduled to read at the Brattleboro VT Library on Oct. 25. Sandra M. Gilbert received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University at Commencement May 25, along with several other distinguished people in the arts, including actors Dame Judi Dench and James Earl Jones and composer John Williams. Gail Gilliland had several stories in journals: ‘What Happened Then’, Vermont Literary Review (Castleton State College, Burlington VT, 2016); ‘The Balloon King of Albuquerque’, Red Mesa Review (University of New Mexico-Gallup, Vol. 18, 2016); and a collection of linked stories, ‘Seeds On Stone’. Ruth Bader Ginsburg‘s collection of speeches and articles, My Own Words (Simon & Schuster), came out last fall, as did Free to Be Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Women and the Law by Teri Kanefield (Armon). Several articles/interviews have appeared online recently, for example, www.cnn.com/2016/10/01/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-notorious-rbg/index.html Pat Goodman: “During 2016 I’ve had many pieces in Rat’s Ass Review, as well as Jellyfish Whispers, The Weekly Avocet, our own High Spots [and] Diane Lockward’s newest book, The Crafty Poet II which my partner and I are using as a textbook for our class. And a friend and I are teaching an Advanced Poetry Writing course for the third time at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Wilmington, DE.” Pat gave a reading at The Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center on July 9, and her second book is out for critiques. Florence Grende‘s memoir The Butcher’s Daughter, published by Madison Literary Press,, is available at Amazon.com and Goodreads.com and in the museum stores of both the New York Jewish Museum and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was short-listed for the prestigious 2017 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize and won a bronze medal from the Reader’s Favorite 2017 Book Awards in the Non-fiction/Memoir category. It was also included in Huffington Post’s list of IndieReader’s Best Reviewed Books of the Month/August. Colin Harrington wrote, “…an important memoir… a heartfelt journey of discovery that goes deep into its quest for remembrance and connection.   www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/book-reviewa-story-of-survival-suffering-and-finally-making-peace,498634 Ag Herman, who is our doyenne at age 95, is still blogging at http://seamlessaging.blogspot.com/ and writing commentary for her retirement community’s weekly newsletter. Rosalind Kaliden’s Arriving Sideways, her first chapbook of poems, was published by John Gosslee. A launch party was held at Penguin Bookshop, Sewickley, PA, on Sept. 29. Jacqueline Lapidus has three poems–“Sewing,” “Shawkemo Heights” and “Mortal”– in the debut issue of The Dandelion Review (thedandelionreview.com/,. edited by Sarah Sandman. It’s available on demand at www.lulu.com/shop/sarah-sandman/the-dandelion-review/paperback/product-22902468.html. To submit poems for a future issue, write to thedandelionreview@gmail.com Iris Litt’s chapbook Snowbird was published by Finishing Line Press. It is available from Amazon or from the publisher, and it “sold quite a few copies on Anna Maria Island, which inspired it.  A fine restaurant ordered 50 copies, prepaid, for its gift shop, and the fish store ordered 15.”  There’s more than one way to market a poetry book! Iris also had poems published recently in The London Magazine, The Edison Review, Up The River and The Avatar Review (three poems).  Her short story “Karl Marx Doesn’t Know Everything” won honorable mention in the Tom Howard/John Reid Fiction Contest and is online at winningwiters.com/past-winning-entries-karl-marx-doesn’t-know-everything.  Iris also has a short story, “Pissed Off”, in the Saturday Evening Post online edition, “The Best Short Stories from the Great American Fiction Contest 2016”, http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Saturday-Evening-American-Fiction-ebook/dp/B01A05K7RU Laura Manuelidis will have three poems, ‘Without Cure’, ‘Interrogation 2’, ‘Your cheek is my pasture’, in the next issue of Innisfree Poetry Journal and another, ‘Rapt with oil and balms’, in the Grey Sparrow Journal. Lucia May and her husband Bruce moved to RI recently when he retired from running the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She adds, “ We have quite a bit of family in New Haven and Boston, and we’re frequently in NY.” Lise Menn: On December 8, 2016, Lise was interviewed briefly about TWH by host Tom Martino on his Denver talk show ‘The Common Man’; a few callers-in asked where to buy it. She read from TWH to the staff on Denver Hospice in February, and as a result, she participated in a grief workshop they held in June. Lise and social worker Lynn Malkinson read from and discussed The Widows’ Handbook at Frasier Meadows retirement community in Boulder on April 21. They repeated the program on August 8, for a new group of widows (and one widower), also at Frasier Meadows. Joan Michelson has a book and two chapbooks coming out. She says it’s “the fruition of 18 years of work finally getting published all at once.” The Family Kitchen, a chapbook of poems (stories, portraits) drawing on three generations, is forthcoming from Finishing Line, 2017-8; Landing Stage, a collection with poems around refugees and immigrants, from Sentinel Books/ SPM Publications, UK; and Bloomvale Home, a chapbook of poems about residents in an assisted living facility, dual language edition (Romanian/English), also this year from Integral CPL Romania. Mary Oliver’s Upstream, a collection of essays, was published by Penguin Press (www.amazon.com/Upstream-Selected-Essays-Mary-Oliver/dp/1594206708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490128842&sr=8-1&keywords=Mary+Oliver+Upstream). From The Washington Post’s review: “Now 81, Oliver … provides deep insights and delightful anecdotes as she examines her role as a writer, reader and a spiritual seeker who constantly practices what she describes as the redemptive art of true effort.” Pamela Pearce won the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Blake Scholarship at The Art Students League, NYC. The financial award covers her tuition for next year. Later in the summer she attended the St. Ives School of Painting at the Verrocchio Art Center in Italy. Ellen Peckham was one of two artist/poets launching a new organization in the Hamptons.  A video was made at the reading, called Doubly Inspired, available at https://youtu.be/i2QYRR6Zb4I. Three poems in Western mode and three haiku were included in the recent issue of HQ Poetry Magazine published in Britain, and for the first time, she will have a poem in The Comstock Review (next issue). Also, the Editor of Juxta 3 “assigned” various haiga artists to work on a haiku by Billy Collins for that issue.  She says, “I was one but find i am not a good ventriloquist.” Helen Ruggieri leads a writing workshop every Wednesday from 1 to 3 pm at the African American Center for Cultural Development, 17th & West State Streets in Olean, NY.  Visitors are welcome. Maureen Tolman Flannery won this year’s First Prize in the Adult category of the Evanston Public Library’s 39th Annual Jo-Anne Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Awards, for her poem “Path to the School Bus.” Tammi Truax: In 2015-16 Tammi was awarded the Buffler Poetry Residency at Portsmouth (NH) High School, and was nominated to serve as the next poet laureate of Portsmouth, NH. She had a poem published in The Best of Kindness: Origami Poems Project 2016 (www.amazon.com/Best-Kindness-Origami-Project-Anthology/product-reviews/0692671986). Tammi recently completed a manuscript of historical “found poems” that she hopes will be published sometime soon. Natasha Sajé read her poems at NEFELI Caffe, 1854 Euclid Ave., Berkeley, on Aug. 11, gave a poetic modes workshop in Dallas TX at the Writer’s Garret on Nov.18, and read poems in Austin TX on Nov. 19 at Bookwoman. Details on her website: www.natashasaje.com.  She has a radio interview with Judith Arcana posted at http://kboo.fm/media/58979-interview-natasha-saje.  Natasha also has an essay in the fall issue of Dogwood Literary Review (about guilt, love, and widowhood) and poems forthcoming in the Antioch Review and Plume. Aline Soules had a poem entitled “Half Life” published in an anthology, Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands (Shabda Press, 2017), edited by Teresa Mei Chuc. Ellen Steinbaum’s fourth poetry collection, This Next Tenderness, will be published in spring 2018 by CW Books, which also did her last two collections. Carolyn Stephens has two recent blog posts, ‘Lucky’ and ‘Down to the River’  https://throughawidowseyes.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/lucky/ and  https://throughawidowseyes.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/down-to-the-river/ Tammi Truax was offered spots in two competitive residencies. She had to turn down the Tin House summer workshop, but with a partial scholarship she was able to accept The Salty Quill Writers Retreat for Women and spent a few October days on McGees Island, off the coast of Maine, doing final revisions of a historical novel. Tammi also got a scholarship from the Maine Poet’s Society to attend the NH Poetry Festival [in September] where she workshopped with Oliver de la Paz and hoped to meet Gregory Pardlo. An excerpt from her novel-in-progress was chosen by the NH Writer’s Project for a stage performance in ‘The Hatbox Readings’ series in September.  She adds, “Most exciting of all, I have a volume of my own poetry scheduled to be published by Hobblebush Books in February.” Florence Weinberger will have three poems online in December on Cultural Weekly.  Also, Tebot Bach will be publishing her fifth collection of poems, entitled Ghost Tattoo, publication date TBA. Nancy Womack has an “absolutely wonderful” three-person writers’ group.  They have worked together since they did a program on coping with grief through writing, shortly after TWH came out.  One of Nancy’s friends was mourning her mother, and the other, an adult child. Her poem ‘A Trilogy in Praise of Figs’ will appear in the fall 2017 Kakalak, the annual collection of works by Carolina writers published by Main Street Rag. Thelma Zirkelbach’s essay “No Seat at the Table” appears in the anthology Black Lives Have Always Mattered, edited by Abiodun Oyowole by and released this summer by 2Leaf Press, an imprint of the Intercultural Alliance of Artists & Scholars Incorporated, New York.