Marly Youmans's Blog, page 119

Thanks to poet Charlotte Innes--

Here's a vignette for my forthcoming long poem Thaliad(Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 11/2012.)  Artwork byClive Hicks-Jenkins. Book design by Beth Adams,with many surprises to come.


Thanks to poet Charlotte Innes for writing about A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage on Eratosphere, facebook, and Amazon. And what is more surprising is that each passage is a little different to fit the

Picked by the ghostwriter!

Tuesday "Twos" pick from Roxie, writer and ghostwriter:  Multi-talented Youmans has penned novels, poetry, and young adult works but never before drew on her family history. The Depression-era novel traces the life of a young orphan jostled about by life’s unyielding pressure, refining his spirit as he struggles into adulthood. Heard it before? Not like this. Youmans gift is her prose... More

Thaliad & The Foliate Head

One of many new vignettes for Thaliad by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
Read about it at Phoenicia Publishing of Montreal: forthcoming 11/2012


If you would like to see some images of the book in progress, hop to Clive's blog, where the title page and some other pages are on display. (You may scroll down and see lots and lots of the work for this book, and if you go back far enough, you'll bump into

Ferry Day

I have updated my A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage page, including links to and quotes from new reviews. Hop here for more like this: It is a stunning book; both cruel and tender, dark and light,
but always shot through and stitched with a powerful beauty.

Yesterday was a ferry-the-youngest-to-one-of-many-of-his-summer-camps days, and I am grateful that I did not plant my husband's big

Un-post. Really.

Clive Hicks-Jenkins, for Thaliad

I am ignoring posts in favor of reading NBA-Young People's Lit books. The mountain to be read and judged is beginning to make me feel just a tad guilty. And alas, I may not talk about what I am reading. Although I can say that the heap of books is starting to be a bit daunting!  So: back tomorrow. 

Here's a Clive Hicks-Jenkins vignette (for what will be the

Shelf Awareness and more

A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage at Shelf Awareness: 
"Powerfully moving"

I'm grateful to Shannon McKenna Schmidt for a wonderful article, "Handselling Favorite: Nancy Olson's Novel Choice," about how Nancy Olson of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh has championed A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage. (And yes, I am infinitely grateful to Nancy and her exuberant love for good books.) The

Finishing touch & book news--

For more about Clive Hicks-Jenkins, leap here.


Clive Hicks-Jenkins and Thalia

Here is the Clive Hicks-Jenkins front jacket of Thaliad, a long poem forthcoming from Phoenicia Publishing in Montreal some time after The Foliate Head (UK: Stanza Press) appears in the fall. The last bit was my name, and I was not expecting that zingy, fresh-spring-juice-and-wild-celery! I am glad that Clive chose

The Quilted Girl

Thalia shows her face

Here is the face of Thalia (for my post-apocalyptic poem in blank verse, Thaliad, forthcoming from Phoenicia Publishing in Montreal) as conceived by Clive Hicks-Jenkins. Clearly this is a foliate girl to go with the leafy man of The Foliate Head (a collection of poems forthcoming from Stanza Press in the UK.) Go here for Clive's account of his sources.

American quilts,

New review and more--

Thank you to The Hollins Critic (Vol. XLIX, No. 3 Hollins University, Virginia  June 2012) and novelist Amanda Cockrell for a lovely, thoughtful review of my new novel. Here's the conclusion:

A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage is a historical novel, a mystery novel, a coming of age tale, a picaresque adventure, a character study of what we might now call Asperger's Syndrome, all woven into

Thaliad dreaming...

Yesterday I received a batch of drawings in the mail from Clive Hicks-Jenkins, cover dreams for the upcoming Thaliad, an epic poem from Phoenicia Publishing in Montreal that will follow the publication of The Foliate Head (UK: Stanza Press) this fall. I feel quite lucky to have gotten to play with such interesting artists, and especially with Clive, who is a regular art-partner of mine. We each