Marly Youmans's Blog, page 100

Thaliad giveaway

sponsored by Elizabeth Adams of Phoenicia Publishing is now up at Goodreads here. For more information on Thaliad, click on the tab above or go to Phoenicia Publishing's Thaliad page here.

Art and the path x 3

SPAM Just when the Balrog spam guards were heartily sick of eating spam (and wearing Ugg boots), along comes dessert spam: effusive flattery that actually seems to have made a 60-second attempt to grasp the blog. Nom, nom! The Balrogs scoop it up with big spoons! In answer to the pressing question of what the Balrogs look like, I inform you that they do not look like the one in the movie but

Requesting opinions--

Poll-time! I have a question regarding Thaliad, as we get ready to do some newspaper pieces. Does calling a poem an epic put readers off? (I mean "general" readers, refined readers, middlebrow readers, any kind of readers! And if you don't know what Thaliad is, check out the tab above.) Does calling it a story in verse help, is it--oh, I don't know--friendlier, less of a barrier? (Is epic a dirty

Review, The Foliate Head and more

Books editor Greg Langley of The Baton Rouge Advocate reviews three recent poetry books:

Thomas Lynch's The Sin Eater,
Kay Stripling Byer's Descent,
and my The Foliate Head.
Here.

Clip: "A rarity among poets today, Youmans writes in metered verse, sometimes rhyme. Her skill at mastering the forms is impressive."

When I was a high school girl in Cullowhee, Kay worked with my mother at the

"You can conquer anything"

Dear FOREVER 21,



I am a U. S. author of 11 books, and I am here to tell you that it is wrong to "borrow" work from independent artists. You have taken art work from a young artist, "moosekleenex" a.k.a. Kelly Bastow, without permission and without payment. I was brought up to call such things stealing, and I just imagine you were too.


You do her and all independent artists a great

Art and time

Favorite facebook response to the prior post, dealing with time and merit:


Ashley Cooper A lot of times the good art that comes quickly and suddenly is actually a result of countless hours spent on works that were less successful.


It's possible to say that any particular work is a kind of culmination (even if it is a rejection) of the hours spent making art. Often there are deep roots in the

The Fair Unfair

Yesterday I read Damien Walter's essay in the Guardian about the "attention economy." This sense that time is now the desired currency in short supply, and that leisure has decreased (while new techno-pleasures have taken over leisure time) is one that seems to be cropping up in print lately. Damien's take on the situation is that writers should not be too hasty about rushing into print, lest

Mary Boxley Bullington

Portrait of moi by my college friend, painter Mary Boxley Bullington, requested by poet and teacher Robbi Nester, also a college friend. We were all aspiring young poets together and all still write poems, all these years later.

Mary taught Medieval Literature in her post-schooling life but has been surviving for many years now as a painter and collagist working with painted papers. As many

Most questions answered, no. 3

Here's another question from those left at the "Huswifery" post and elsewhere: Why The Palace at 2:00 a.m., when your two books of children's fantasy refuse all European tropes and focus on the American South?

I conceive of The Palace at 2:00 a.m. as a secret nook in time, its name inspired from the work of Giacometti, who told of "a period of six months passed in the presence of a woman who,

Company arriving plus a sick child: back tomorrow with a ...

Company arriving plus a sick child: back tomorrow with a new post...