Marly Youmans's Blog, page 61

June 28, 2014

The glittering fall

The Ferrol Sams AwardSilver, ForeWord Book of the Year in fictionBooks and Culture Favorite Books of 2012

     Alden kept whispering in the dark, but Pip was emptied out and unable to speak. The jag of glee had depleted him, and he felt as if he had been gulping at some fine mist of drowsiness. Perhaps it was the Sandman's crystals, flung by the handful into the air. For a long time he lay
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Published on June 28, 2014 05:09

June 27, 2014

Update

to the Glimmerglass page! Please go here.
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Published on June 27, 2014 14:52

June 26, 2014

Morning thoughts: on making

Interior decoration by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
for Glimmerglass, out in September.
A lion, a leaf, and a crown--surely they are
nothing if not realistic. And yet, put them together...

AB OVO

Often I'm startled by my own absurd temerity in saying anything about books. What do I know? Why don't I stick to my own narrative and lyric frolics and words and keep my mouth fast shut otherwise? A writer
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Published on June 26, 2014 05:24

June 25, 2014

Smidge of power and magic

Thanks to Nicki of Fyrefly's Book Blog for my part in a review of Sharyn November's third Firebird anthology, Firebirds Soaring (Penguin / Firebird.) I always like to see late reviews because they show a book is still being read and introduce it to new readers. They are one of the good things about the internet. Some day I'll have to gather up my stories about teens for a collection.

“Power
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Published on June 25, 2014 05:13

June 24, 2014

The Book of the Phoenix, 1: 1-40: The Prophet Fed by a Raven

Clive Hicks-Jenkins has posted a piece I wrote for his big, beautiful monograph, a knockout book with chapters by Simon Callow, Andrew Green, Rex Harley, Kathy Koja, Anita Mills, Montserrat Prat, Jacqueline Thalmann, Damian Walford Davies, and me.






Lund Humphries monograph


This fragment from my chapter is channeling the modes and techniques of biblical poetry. It is a kind of reply to
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Published on June 24, 2014 10:34

June 23, 2014

A jacket for Glimmerglass--

Art for  Glimmerglass. Here is the jacket with art by Clive Hicks-Jenkins and design by Burt and Burt. Isn't it wondrous? Clive is not a literalist with book art and decoration but a magician of atmosphere. Click on the image to see a bigger version, in which you may see beauties! Text for back and flaps to come...
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Published on June 23, 2014 10:20

June 21, 2014

The longing for depth and wholeness--

One of the vignettes by Clive Hicks-Jenkins
for Thaliad (Phoenicia Publishing, 2012)

Recently I wrote some sketches about fans and paparazzi as part of my current series of tiny stories, since I'm still too busy to start a novel. I've never been much interested in the idea of celebrity or celebrities, but I accidentally bumped into a fan site for Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson (the way
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Published on June 21, 2014 08:55

June 18, 2014

A note from the Young Crones Club

Image via http://mahan.wonkwang.ac.kr/
Rare: an image of a medieval woman artist at work.

The glorious thing about being in the Young Crones Club is that suddenly you know well people of all ages. Of course, everybody knows about the down sides (like an over-cut diamond, growing older has many sides. I also think knowing a lot of people of many ages comes from living in a village setting,
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Published on June 18, 2014 07:45

June 17, 2014

News from poetry land--

Cover art and design by Elizabeth Adams

Logan, revising the world

Occasionally I read an article that seems so congruent with my own thoughts that I am naturally--human nature being the naughty thing it is--drawn to think it marvelous. This morning I'm feeling very pleased with William Logan's Poetry: Who Needs It? (Hat tip to Prufrock News.) Although the thought of poet William Logan with
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Published on June 17, 2014 08:07

June 16, 2014

Letter to a young artist

Interior collage vignette by Clive Hicks-Jenkins for Thaliad


I've been thinking about you and your aspirations as you drift into the world, slipping into a job, finding the time to make your art without someone at your shoulder. You ask for advice, yet always I fear being polonial,* and so needing a good stabbing as I stand behind the arras. And though you must discover your own path and make
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Published on June 16, 2014 07:39