Rose Solari Describes Her Favorite Erotic Literary Scene in WIRoB Article
"In Possession, the repressions of time and circumstance explode with a dazzling erotic force."
E.A Aymar's latest article in the Washington Independent Review of Books asks popular authors to review their favorite erotic scenes in novels. As Aymar puts it, "I want something more than 'romantic.'" Fortunately, ASP's own Rose Solari was around to answer the call. her selection: a scene in A.S. Byatt's Possession. Below is an excerpt, but you can read the entire article on the WIRoB site here
“We’re in England in the 1860s. Cristabel LaMotte is a poet of modest reputation and hermit-like tendencies, living with a female companion who is secretly her lover. Randolph Ash is a renowned poet stuck in a sexless marriage with a loving but frigid wife. What begins as a chance meeting develops into an increasingly passionate epistolary relationship. By the time they consummate their love — on a stolen seaside trip — their hunger for each other is at its peak boiling point, fierce and frightening for them and for the reader. A.S. Byatt might not be the first writer to come to mind for hot sex scenes, but in Possession, the repressions of time and circumstance explode with a dazzling erotic force.”
– Rose Solari, author of A Secret Woman
Featured Poetry: “Burial at Shanidar” by Elizabeth Hazen
This is no modern tradition, says Elizabeth Hazen. It is not only now that humans ornament their dead with flowers. “See,” she says in her rumination on tradition and humanity, Burial at Shanidar, “Even from a distance we dream of gardens where there should be stone.” And on Christmas especially, it is so wonderful to curl up with a book of poetry, even to read out-loud to one’s family, and bask in the ways we make words, just like the long winter days of dark, meaningful with light and tradition.
Mark A. Pritchard Reads from His Novel, “Billy Christmas”
It’s that time of year again. As I’m sure you know. That time of year to rediscover all those things one loves and yet stores in boxes during the sunnier months–ornaments, heirlooms, wax statues, wreaths, and the classics. And although one should not consider Billy Christmas a novel pigeon-held by its festive nature, for it is good any day of the year, (as are the classics!) we are so happy the holiday season is here to give us an opportunity to promote Mark A. Pritchard’s incredible young adult novel.
Grace Cavalieri’s November 2018 Exemplars of Poetry
Every month for the Washington Independent Review of Books, the amazing Maryland Poet Grace Cavalieri, author of Other Voices, Other Lives, does a round-up style review of the best recently released independent books of poetry and books about poetry…