Semi Finalist!!!

I entered a chapbook into Black Lawrence's Black River Chapbook Competition... an American organisation  It was a long shot but I liked the stories I submitted. I called the collection 'THINGS THAT CAN BE LOST'... might even go forward and extend this into a complete collection at some point. 

Anyway, just found out that they had over 800 entries - poetry and prose - and my wee thing was a semi-finalist, which can't be at all bad. Just got an email from Kit Frick saying that all the semi-finalists and finalists were loved.

Here's the link if you want to look at the lists: https://www.blacklawrence.com/spring-2019-black-river-chapbook-competition-finalists-semi-finalists

Reading 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous'

'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' by Ocean Vuong is an amazing read... so far... I am only just over 3/4 through. The language is just beautiful - poetry as prose. Just so stunningly beautiful. Anyone interested in how language can be used should read this... harrowing sometimes but never less than brilliantly written.

Here's something that caught my eye:

"I read that beauty has historically demanded replication. We make more of anything we find aesthetically pleasing, whether it's a vase, a painting, a chalice, a poem. We reproduce it in order to keep it, extend it through space and time."

Something to think on.

HERE AT LAST!!!!!

A little later than originally planned, but here it is now... available for purchase!!! So strange to hold the book in my hands... strange in a good way. Huge debt to the late Helen Lamb for this being a physical thing and no longer something lining the bottom of a drawer.