Mary Carroll-Hackett's Blog, page 83
June 20, 2016
Monday Must Read! Carter Sickels: The Evening Hour
This week meet Carter Sickels, author of the novel The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury), a Finalist for the 2013 Oregon Book Award and the Lambda Literary Debut Fiction Award. He is the recipient of the 2013 Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Award, a project grant from Oregon’s RACC, and an NEA Fellowship to the Hambidge Center for the Arts. He’s been awarded fellowships or scholarships to Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the MacDowell Colony. He is the editor of the anthology Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships, and Identity. Carter has taught in Low-Residency MFA programs at Eastern Oregon University, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Eastern Kentucky.
Buy Carter’s stunningly beautiful book The Evening Hour
https://www.amazon.com/Evening-Hour-Novel-Carter-Sickels/dp/160819597X
The Evening Hour On the Way to Film!
Praise for The Evening Hour!
“But no book has captured what Appalachia is like right now better than Carter Sickels’ moving and beautifully wrought novel, The Evening Hour. So up to the minute that it feels as if the novel is being written as you are reading it, the novel takes a long, hard look at the dark, wonderful heart of Appalachia and reveals it in all of its complex beauty, ugliness, joy, and sorrow. . . This is one of the best American novels of the year, and it is a major contribution to Appalachian literature.”-Silas House, Appalachian Heritage
“Absorbing… Nearly every character is an underdog, and readers can’t help but root for them, even knowing all the while that it is futile….Sickels manages to depict the region and its inhabitants vividly, but without condescension… As a backdrop to Cole’s story, Sickels weaves in subtle commentary on the political hot-button issue of mountaintop removal. . . At a time when it’s easy for outsiders who are living comfortably to speak in terms of optimism and hope, “The Evening Hour’’ doesn’t shy away from the harsh truth that, for some, there simply isn’t a light at the end of the tunnel.”-The Boston Globe
Buy Untangling the Knot:Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity
https://www.amazon.com/Untangling-Knot-Marriage-Relationships-Identity/dp/1932010750
Read More From Carter Online:
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/06/16/carter-sickels-honesty-compassion-and-grace/
https://www.guernicamag.com/fiction/wildlife/
http://appalachianheritage.net/2014/05/01/johnson-city/
http://outcity.com/carter-sickels/
http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/books/2012/11/09/saving-trans-author-carter-sickels
http://davidabramsbooks.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-first-time-carter-sickels.html
Hear Carter Read!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3driom6OZKk
Happy Reading!
xo
Mary
June 18, 2016
Call for Submissions: HeartWood
Also seeking fiction and creative nonfiction.
Reading now for the October issue.
HeartWood Literary Magazine
Daily Prompt <3 Yogananda on Opportunity
18 June 2016
“Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance. You yourself, either now or in the past (including the past of former lives), have created all opportunities that arise in your path. Since you have earned them, use them to the best advantage.” ― Paramahansa Yogananda
Make art about opportunity, about creating your own opportunity.
June 17, 2016
#WeAreOne
Can we start a movement?
The Birds of Grief
This week I keep going back to a poem I wrote a couple of years ago, about grief, about sheer physicality of grief and loss. About feeling helpless. About how loss, no matter what, belongs to all of us.
________________________________________
I Want to Bring the Birds
inside, hold them in my hands, tuck them inside my shirt, claws and all, feel the sharp tic of each frightened beak, surround them with my fingers, cradle them against the cage of my ribs, whisper shh shh shh—until they each find and linger in their place: the titmice tatting nests into my hair, crested sparrows and juncos perched and singing from my feet, the jays who see me as so much meat, supplier of suet and otherwise foolish and useless, each take a shoulder, their alarm squawk sudden and hard as a couple of crows stand sentry on my back. The chickadees, those flying golf balls with their punk rock eyes and ebony mohawks, bossy and brazen, take my ears, letting me know just how they see this whole thing going, while the shy nuthatch hides, its cinnamon shadow disappearing under my shirt as it hops up my ribs and nuzzles in like a newborn near my heart. A pair of doves, and then another, their wings ash gray and spotted with apricot, nestle in on the soft give of my belly; I touch them with just the tips of my fingers, hoping, praying, they’ll teach me the tender songs only possible in the dark. One by one, they all settle in, on my limbs, my skin, feathering, resting, and maybe, so will I, settle for real, for the first time in years, as I hear and feel their heartbeats steady, slow, ease finally, into a companion rhythm with my own. Or mine to theirs? In my dreams, it doesn’t matter. In my dreams,we are the same.
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This poem is included in my collection The Night I Heard Everything from FutureCycle Press.
Friday Call for Submissions Love: Brand New Mag: Collateral
Collateral Literary Journal—New Military Themed Magazine
Submissions accepted year-round.
Collateral is a new online literary journal affiliated with the University of Washington, Tacoma. We showcase high quality creative writing and art that explores the impact of the military and military service on the lives of people beyond the active service person. These voices sometimes go unheard, and this journal captures the “collateral” impact of military service, whether it is from the perspective of the partner or child; parent or sibling; friend or co-worker; veteran, refugee, or protester. Our editorial vision is to be as inclusive as possible and ideologically diverse. We encourage submissions from professional and emerging writers.
From their About page:
MISSION STATEMENT:
Collateral explores the perspectives of those whose lives are touched indirectly by the realities of military service. Numerous journals already showcase war literature, but we provide a creative platform that highlights the experiences of those who exist in the space around military personnel and the combat experience. We feel these voices sometimes go unheard, and this journal captures the “collateral” impact of military service, whether it is from the perspective of the partner or child; the parent or sibling; the friend or co-worker; or the elderly veteran, the refugee, or the protester. In any issue, you might find the haiku of a seven-year old girl whose father is in Afghanistan alongside the short story of an award-winning fiction writer. Or the first-person essay of a military spouse alongside the critical essay of an academic.
Our editorial vision is to be as inclusive as possible and ideologically diverse. We encourage submissions from professional and emerging writers alike. Regardless of authorship, we are committed to publishing high-quality fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art that speaks authentically about the collateral impact of military service.
Daily Prompt <3 What You Would Have Said
17 June 2016
“They don’t teach you what to say to someone who’s dying.”~Neil Gaiman
Make art about what you wish you had said before they died.
June 16, 2016
Daily Prompt <3 What We Believe
16 June 2016
“I believe there is a song that is stranger than wind, that sips the scald from the telling…”~Karen Volkman
Make art about the first thing that comes to mind with the phrase I believe….
flowers-1680-1050-wallpaper
My Dream of Retreat with The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers
So I never imagined myself doing crowdfunding, but the chance of attending this retreat means more to me than I can even begin to say. The work toward Peace and Justice and Love these amazing women do have inspired me daily for more than a decade. So endless gratitude to those who have shared or given. Your support means more than I can ever say
And We’re almost there! You guys are amazing! So kind and so generous! ❤Thank you sooo much!
So much of the Thirteen Grandmothers’ work is about healing, but healing is work that we all can do, in every moment, in every interaction we have with each other, and no action is too small. When you hold the door for your sister or brother, when you smile at a child or a dog or a flower, when you forgive another, or yourself, even in those fleeting passing pleasantries you exchange in the coffee aisle at the grocery store, in those small kindnesses, healing power is present. And we need that healing power–your healing power–even more now than ever.
“You are the embodiment of the Grace and the Spirit and the Wisdom of the Ages. You are the Light of the World.”
I’m so grateful to know you are in this world ❤
Visit my Gofundme Campaign Here: gofund.me/13grandmothersretr
See more from the THirteen Grandmothers Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3–BseD3Mw
June 15, 2016
Midweek Call for Submissions: Chattahoochee Review: Off the Record
Call for Submissions: Off the Record
Deadline: September 15, 2016
Off the Record. Disappearing remarks. Invisible people. Music that isn’t there. Intuition. Gut. Unclaimed, unofficial, uncategorized. A record respects the broadest possible audience. Off the record, your audience awaits. What you don’t want to write. We want to read. Note the call in a cover letter.
Deadline September 15 or until the issue fil ls.
thechattahoocheereview.gpc.edu
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