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
Linda Watanabe McFerrin Interviewed for Author Matthew Felix’s Video Podcast
Author and poet Linda Watanabe McFerrin sat down with Matthew Felix, himself an author of some renown, for Matthew’s video podcast this last weekend. What follows is an in-depth, thoughtful, and often irreverent look at writing, life, travel, and zombies. And more, we get to hear many of the juicy details on Linda’s new Legacy Book due out from ASP in Autumn 2019…
Fact or Fiction
…And so it is for me, as I send an invented “namesake” into worlds I know vicariously but haven’t lived—Hollywood and hippies, communes and con artists, Woodstock and the Summer of Love. In the opening of Melanie’s Song, J.J. is poised at the edge of the Pacific reflecting on where she has been and where she is going. She is endowed with a deep and spiritual connection to a native place we share, but I am also setting her free to fly into her own undiscovered territory.
Featured Poetry: “Bluebirds” by Grace Cavalieri
Other Voices, Other Lives was my introduction to Grace. Her book sits now on my shelf between The Waves and Duino Elegies, the pages are worn from thumbing-thru, it is dog-eared, destroyed in certain ways well-loved books are destroyed, aged by the eyes, like good denim, but here the creases are black underlines, and the fading is from yellow highlighter and coffee stains. So in honor of, well, my deep admiration for Grace, I’ve picked one of her poems from Other Voices, Other Lives to share. If this is the first encounter with her poetry, welcome, hello, the books page is just yonder up the screen under “books”! If you’ve long been a fan, I think “Bluebirds” is a great poem to share with those who might not yet have been introduced to Grace’s work.