Rose Solari talks with Acclaimed Poet David Gewanter “I am not seeking to articulate a political position. To make poems I seek paradox and contradiction: the opposite of an ideology.” — David Gewanter This Sunday, October 21, at 8 p.m., ASP’s Rose Solari is reading with acclaimed poet, essayist, editor, and professor David Gewanter in a new poetry reading series at Second Story Books, 2000 P Street NW, Washington DC. In preparation for their reading, Rose talked with David about his work, particularly his most recent collection, Fort Necessity. Here is a part of their … [Read more...]
The Legacy Series: What it Is, Why it Matters Europeans have always known that writers who practice one form of writing might naturally write in another form. American publishers seem stymied when poets write novels or playwrights turn to prose. Fortunately, Alan Squire Publishing gets it! Now, what was so hard about that? Grace Cavalieri Anyone who has founded, worked for, or been published by an independent literary press knows the joys of it: Being able to put great writing into print without going through tiers of vetting by the “marketing” department; editors and authors … [Read more...]
On Her Relationship with Music, Three Poems by Rose Solari Read all three poems by Rose Solari: Another Country, Myself When I was There, and That Day on the Redux Literary Journal site "These three poems are all rooted in my relationship with music. After my brother died, I was going through some old photos when I ran across one of us as young adults in our parents’ living room. Mom was at the piano singing and playing, and he and I were laughing, trying to sing along while he balanced me on his shoulders. This became the basis for 'Another Country.' Our mother was a tremendously gifted … [Read more...]
Finding Myth By Rose Solari As a child, I distrusted mythology, as I did any literature that adults seemed to think was especially well-suited to kids. Tales of Mount Olympus, of Zeus and Hera and their many disruptive children, seemed to me to be just stories about people who never existed performing feats that were clearly impossible, not unlike Santa Claus. I much preferred, for example, the work of Louisa May Alcott and Charlotte Bronte. In Little Women and Jane Eyre, I found believable tales that I could both enjoy and learn from, stories that helped me to grow up. I found my way … [Read more...]
Report from the West Coast: ASP’s Joanna Biggar Talks Paris, Then and Now March 28, 2018 The San Francisco Bay Area Group met March 10th for a timely presentation by Joanna Biggar, whose first novel, That Paris Year, was published by ASP in 2010. Here’s a report: Joanna began her talk, entitled, “I Will Always Have Paris: A Writer in the City of Light,” by saying it would not be a PowerPoint, but rather a show and tell, subjective, intuitive, and circular. She began by reading a segment of her essay in Wandering in Paris: Luminaries and Love in the City of Light, an … [Read more...]