From the marvel that is Ruth Thompson, of Saddle Road Press:
“The next Saddle Road Press online reading and conversation will be Sunday January 5, 2025 and will feature two extraordinary poets of grief and loss and grace: JESSAMYN SMYTH, author of THE INUGAMI MOCHI and GILGAMESH WILDERNESS, and Maria Williams, author of WHITE DOE. Jessamyn and Maria are in my opinion two of the finest poets writing today. This should be a memorable experience.”
You can see/hear the reading here.
“…diction spindles off her fingers like an incantation …”
“…elegy of the highest order….”
“…out of the memory of fields, birds, and light emerges the gift of revelation ….”
“dreamy, astonishing, exquisite….”
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Delighted to share that in the fall of 2023, I’ll be starting a PhD program in Public Health/Community Health Education, with a research specialization in Medical Humanities. I’ll be based on the UMASS Amherst campus. Put simply, I’ll be rolling all my long professional and scholarly experience in interdisciplinary Humanities, story (what it is, how it is made, and why that matters), and public health community ed for violence prevention into a new form that will address gaps in medical and caregiver preparation to deal with death, disability, and other life transitions. This research and teaching opportunity will touch on many aspects of public health and interdisciplinary Humanities, and I’m excited to begin weaving all the lifelong threads into this new tapestry while working to make structural and individual improvements in how we handle the hardest conversations.
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Delighted to be joining Amy Dryansky and Loren McGrail at The LAVA Center in Greenfield, MA Wednesday April 23, 2023 from 7-8:30 for an intimate, in-person reading. Join us!
About The [marvelous!] LAVA Center
Coordinated by Lindy Whiton, the Writers Read Series brings in local writers and a couple of outside surprises. $5 suggested donation.
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Reading THIS WEDNESDAY, April 12th, will be Jessamyn Smyth, Amy Dryansky, and Loren McGrail.
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About the artists:
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Jessamyn Smyth’s books The Inugami Mochi (2016) and Gilgamesh/Wilderness (2021) are from Saddle Road Press: “A More Perfect Union” from The Inugami Mochi was selected as one of the “100 Distinguished Stories of 2005” in Best American Short Stories (2006). Kitsune is from Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices Series (2013). Her poetry and prose have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Taos Review, Red Rock Review, American Letters and Commentary, Nth Position, Life & Legends, Wingbeats: Exercises and Practices in Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. She is the recipient of fellowships, scholarships, and grants from the Robert Francis Foundation, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and others. Jessamyn was the founding Editor in Chief of Tupelo Quarterly, and Founder/Director of the Quest Writer’s Conference.
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Amy Dryansky has two poetry collections; the second, Grass Whistle (Salmon Poetry) received the Massachusetts Book Award, and the first, How I Got Lost So Close to Home, won the New England/New York Award from Alice James Books. She teaches creative writing, most recently as the James Merrill Visiting Poet at Amherst College, and works as a grant writer for a regional land conservation agency.
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Loren McGrail is a poet/writer, artist, and theologian. She lived for five years in occupied East Jerusalem and has put together an exhibit of her art and writings called Witness and Hope Reimagined. You can find it online at witnessandhopereimagined.blogspot.com. She is finishing a series of encaustic paintings and multi-media pieces with accompanying poems called Dawn at the Hive about the extinction of bees. She is also a UCC minister serving a church in New Jersey.
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