Holly Walrath's Blog, page 21

Behind the Glass: An Excerpt from ‘Glimmerglass Girl’featured on The Coil

The Coil Magazine has five poems from my chapbook Glimmerglass Girl up today! It's really cool to see these poems out in the world. 

Read them here . . . 
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YUM-DERDOME: Oh My Sweet Pickle Babies

I wrote a little creative nonfiction piece over at Cotton Xenomorph today on my secret food love: sweet pickles! Yes, I am a Southern girl and I love these little sweet nuggets of goodness. I am ashamed/not ashamed. 

Read the full essay here. . . 

Interview with Andrea Blythe: Poet Spotlight: Holly Lyn Walrath on hybrid writing and the idea of femininity

I had the pleasure of chatting with fellow Finishing Line Press poet Andrea Blythe about what it means to be a weird writer, how Melville's poems are way better than that whale book, and refusing to cater to genre rules. 

Read the Interview here!

New Subscriber-Only Post on Curious Fictions: Creating an Environment Where You Have License to Try New Things

Today I've got a new post up at Curious Fictions for subscribers about creating an environment in your life where you give yourself license to try new things. As a writer, this is so important to my process, but I think it applies to other places in your life too.  Subscribe to Read

New Interview with Katie Lewington

Today I have an interview up with Katie Lewington, a UK-based poet and book blogger! Katie and I chatted about my upcoming projects (Spoiler: Space Pirates!), how I balance writing/life (Spoiler: I suck at it.) and what poetry means to me. "Edward Hirsch, one of my favorite poets, says that “Reading poetry is an adventure in renewal, a creative act, a perpetual beginning, a rebirth of wonder.” He talks about how the poem has to journey a very long way to get to the reader—all the way from inside my weird mind to the page, where I just hope that the right reader will find it . . ."

Read the full interview here.

GlimmerGlass Girl: Where to Get Your Copy

Amazon: My book will release on Amazon this Friday, August 24th! Pre-order a copy and then leave a review. It makes your favorite poet love you dearly. 

Barnes & Noble:  You can also pick up a copy at B&N. Does your local store not have a copy? Just ask an associate to place an order for you! It helps stores know what books to order and helps indie authors! 

Other Indie bookstores offering pre-order sales: 
Search your local bookstores at IndieBound!

Houston: 
Brazos Bookstore
Murder by the Book
Blue Willow Bookshop
Katy Budget Books

Austin & Texas
Book Woman
Book People
The Twig (San Antonio)
Interabang (Dallas)
The Dock (Fort Worth)

Nationwide
Cavalier House Books (Louisiana) 
Watermark Books (Wichita, KS)
​Left Bank Books (St. Louis, MS)
BookWorks (Albuquerque, NM)
Village Lights (Madison, IN) 
Book Soup (West Hollywood, CA)
Green Apple Books (San Francisco, CA)
Skylight Books (Los Angeles, CA)
Tattered Cover (Denver, CO)
Politics & Prose (Washington, DC)
Print (Portland, ME)
Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY)
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As always, Glimmerglass Girl is also available from the publisher at Finishing Line Press. 

Now Available for Pre-Order: Shards: A Noblebright Anthology

​I'm excited to share that my story "Tarot of the Animal Lords" will appear in the Shards anthology edited by C.J. Brightley. This is a story that I worked very hard on and always hoped would get picked up for publication. It's got a unique structure based on tarot cards. I hope you pick up your copy!

Pre-order a copy on Amazon!

After the First Comes the Last

My story "After the First Comes the Last" is up at Daily Science Fiction today. 

Read it here.

This piece was written in a flash fiction class by the queen of flash, Kathy Fish. I really would suggest anyone wanting to generate some new flash to take one of her online classes, which sell out very fast. (ba-dum-cha.) When I wrote this piece, I was playing with the prompt of "firsts and lasts". Somehow, that got to be the question of "What if a witch only had a limited amount of spells in her lifetime? How would she use them?" It's a personal story for me. Someone in the DSF Facebook page has already called it a #MeToo story, but I think if we think in terms of that it limits how we view the world. This isn't just a today story. 

TW: Assault/Consent

When I wrote it, I was thinking of Haruka Weiser, a freshman at UT who was raped, strangled, and killed, her body left in Waller Creek. I went to UT back in 2003-2007. The campus holds a very special place to me. It was one of the few places I felt safe and comfortable. I felt like the trees were my friends and that the other students were people I could talk to and relate to. I'd never had that experience in a school before. Waller Creek, for those of you that don't know, is a beautiful creek that runs below campus (Most of the paths are built above it.) For my Victorian lit class, we went down to Waller and looked at the footprints of dinosaurs that are preserved there, and wrote while sitting on the rocks. It's like a hidden world. So I was devastated to learn of a student's death and assault in that sacred place. I was even more devastated to learn that the person arrested was a homeless man with mental illness. There are no easy solutions to these problems. When I went to UT, the homeless population was everywhere. I never would have thought to be afraid, but I never walked the campus at night because I lived off-campus. Every so often when parent's weekend came, the police would round up the homeless population and get them off the streets for a while, for show. But they never seemed to care about finding a solution that worked in a human, caring way. 

For me, we can make big choices and try to change things on a larger scale, but it all starts small. With tiny choices. Tiny actions that reverberate. We are humans living in this place together. How we help each other can mean more sometimes than the stalled work of congress. I really believe that by helping one person you can make a big difference. 

Anywho, I've gotten off topic, but I hope you read my story and enjoy it.

Save the Date: GlimmerGlass Girl Launch party!

Save the date! I'm celebrating the launch of my book Glimmerglass Girl in Houston at Writespace on October 19! And, because I love this community of writers, it's also an open mic for other women who want to come read their work. I can't wait to hear all the amazing writers who I know will be in attendance. This is not an event you'll want to miss!

RSVP or Share on Facebook!

New Subscriber Post at Curious Fictions: "Art as a Way Into Writing"

I've got a new post for subscribers up at Curious Fictions on how art can be an entry point for writing. Curious Fictions is a platform similar to Patreon where you can subscribe to receive updates from me including reprinted short stories and writing-related exclusive posts, previews of upcoming projects and early releases! 

Subscribe today for just $2/month...