Valerie Nieman v. 3.0

I enjoyed taking part in the "Books by the Bed" feature at We Wanted to Be Writers. It's a bit of a fiction, however, as I just chose a handful of volumes from the stacks by the bed, ignoring the musch larger deposits in the den, the living room, bathroom, etc. etc. They are everywhere. Hallelujah. Books by Valerie Nieman’s Bed

I was trying to explain the Folk School experience to a friend the other day. How nourishing it is, how you learn within the classroom and over meals and on rambles across the mountain landscape. How it is a place apart that returns you to the world restored. I am anticipating my return in July as both a teacher and then a student. In this interview for the John C. Campbell website, I talk about teaching and learning in a noncompetitive environment. http://blog.folkschool.org/2015/03/03/discovering-author-valerie-nieman

Technology can be a marvelous thing, especially when it links you with readers and writers all around the world. That was the case with  a blogger from Ghana, West-Africa, who posts at "Geosi Reads." He says, "I am a book addict and I just can’t stop reading. I am particularly interested in literary fiction, be it contemporary or classic and poetry." It was a pleasure to correspond with Geoffrey and be interviewed by him about my work, from my first novel to my newest poetry collection. If you'd like to read the interview, click here.

However you celebrate the turning of the year - wishing you light and happiness on our fragile blue planet. Stunning Time-Lapse Reveals Auroras and Earth From Space

A big thank you to James Tate Hill, my colleague at North Carolina A&T State University, for inviting me on this blog tour, My Writing Process. His post appeared last week at this site. It’s always interesting when people ask us to step back and explain exactly what we’re doing, what I’m doing there in the corner in front of the computer, early in the morning or into the night, typing in words in uneven bursts. 1)                    What are you working on? Right now, I’m engaged in far too many projects. I am completing final edits to a new collection of poetry, Hotel Worthy , which will be published in the spring by Press 53. I’m pretty pumped about that – the best of ten years’ worth of poetizing. The editing has been light from the publisher, but I have to skinny down three formal poems – a ghazal, pantoum, and sestina – to fit the page width. Free verse and prose poems are not an issue...

Don't you just love that cover? I took one look at it and immediately thought of our legislative "process" these days. The summer issue of The Missouri Review is out, with a theme of "Fast Living." It's fun to see how an issue comes together, how a theme emerges from the submissions even if not imposed from the start. We used to see this kind of synergy back when I was opening snail mail submissions to Kestrel , and today as I scroll through Submittable for Prime Number.  (And watch for a redesign there soon!) Of course, I'm especially excited as six poems from my novel-in-verse, "The Leopard Lady Speaks," are featured - watch for the audio to be released soon, and another of the poems to be the "Poem of the Week." The issue also Diane Seuss writing about art and Andrew Grace in the voice of a man with a dangerous past.  Prose features include stories by Carol Ghiglieri, Ben Hoffman, Sharon Pomerantz, and  Amanda Harris, a...

It was bound to be a special night. Marjorie Hudson , stellar author/teacher/cook, came to Greensboro on June 14 so that we could reprise the call and response" readings we had created from our 2012 books - my novel Blood Clay and her short story collection Accidental Birds of the Carolinas.  We had had a blast on our original book tour, reading selections that spoke to mutual themes of strangers in the South, religion, race, the natural world, sex and love, so I was anticipating another night of this writerly dialog. Before we set out for Scuppernong Books , however, Marjorie had a surprise. She presented me with a jade-colored medallion and said it was part of her new focus on confidence building for herself and other women. It did go beautifully with my dress - but its value lay in how with each breath I got a gentle reminder, a tactile moment like fingers moving along a string of prayer beads. Like many women, I have suffered from what an Atlantic article calls  The...