midwest
March 3, 2010
- To paraphrase Richard Ford: This is not a happy story, I warn you. More troubling than that, I'm not entirely sure it's true, even though I remember it vividly.I grew up in Columbus, Ohio in the late 1950s and 1960s. When I was four-to-five years old, I was one of the younger members of the neighborhood pack of kids, a collection of maybe a dozen brothers and sisters from five families in a ...
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February 19, 2010
- The world is full of surprises. Not all are to our liking. Some wear a different face in the beginning and takes us where we didn't want to go. Others are upfront and the colors and sounds are sharply tuned. No surprises there, everything is open. We want our world to be stable, pleasant, everyone friendly, and especially joyful. But this is not life, or at least it is not the life ...
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February 5, 2010
- We are pleased to announce the publication of our Bottom Dog Press Poetry Anthology, the fruits of 25 years of independent small press publishing. Due out in March. Edited by Laura Smith, Allen Frost, and senior editor Larry Smith. Poems from our 91 books and 65 poets. It's a chorus of voices that carry the songs of Midwest, working-class, Nature, Buddhism, engaged writing. From the ...
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January 13, 2010
- Results of the Great Lakes Novel Prize Announced The editors of two of Ohio's independent presses, Bottom Dog Press and Drinian Press, have announced the winner of the first Great Lakes Novel Prize. Strangers in America by Erika Meyers of Mantua, Ohio, has been selected by final judge, novelist Robert Flanagan. The award includes a $350 prize and publication of the novel. ...
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January 3, 2010
- Few things are as beautiful and quiet as a snowy night. Even a busy city like mine is muffled by the flakes that float through the sky like a school of fish—the way I imagine a school of fish might be if I could swim and snorkel. Maybe you hear the occasional snowplow. I appreciate the efforts of those few who are awake at such an hour to ensure the safety of those of us who will travel ...
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December 9, 2009
- Here in the Midwest, we've just had the first of 8,834 snowfalls of the winter of 2009-2010.Everybody's excited. The windows are enameled in ice. People bought out all the skim milk at Miller's market, as though this were not just winter, but nuclear winter. Last night was soft porn for the meteorologists. Tomorrow, it will be the headline writers' task to think of a new way to write, 'Town Digs ...
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October 15, 2009
- Growing up in Nebraska, I was more than a little familiar with the monotonous terrain and lifestyle of our neighboring state, Kansas. And, the promise of Oz. In fact all of us carried Oz around with us. It was something called imagination. Oz, you see, is a state of mind. I’m not sure how Frank Baum came up with Kansas as the habitat of Dorothy, Toto and Auntie Em’. ...
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October 12, 2009
- In Creative Writing classes, I was taught that you should never write stories that begin: “Bob was just a typical guy,” or “It was an ordinary day.” We claim that such beginnings “bore” the reader from the very first line. If the day is “ordinary,” then why tell the tale? If Bob is “typical,” then why do we want to read about him? And, yet, my own personal story would begin no ...
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July 5, 2009
- Today I woke up to the news that my latest release, A Will to Love, has made it onto the Reviewer’s Bookwatch list as a Reviewer’s Choice entry for July 2009 at Midwest Book Reviews. It will stay there, of course, for the next twelve months. I am so excited you guys! I invite you to go out and see the list at http://www.midwestbookreview.com and click on the Reviewer’s Bookwatch link, then ...
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May 20, 2009
- Hello, All, Thanks for sticking with me on the virtual book tour. Here's my stop at Rauan Klassnik's blog, Holy Land. Thanks so much to Rauan for interviewing me, and to you for reading the interview :-) http://rauanklassnik.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-hood-of-cutlass-tour-holy-land-stop.html Take care!Shaindel
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