Stephani Maari Booker's Blog, page 5

My poem won a contest!

I am one of six winners of the Environmental (In)justice in Mni Sóta Maḳoce (Minnesota) Storytelling Contest presented by the University of St. Thomas Sustainable Communities Partnership and the Saint Paul Almanac. The contest sought submissions of poetry, nonfiction and fiction prose, visual art and/or video/audio work “that speak to the harsh realities of environmental injustice as well as ones that imagine an environmentally just future.”

My winning work is a new poem titled “Children of Michigan.” The poem and the works of the other five winners will be published on the Saint Paul Almanac and Sustainable Communities Partnership websites. The win also comes with a cash prize! This is the first time I’ve won a writing-based contest since I was a kid. I don’t enter many contests because most have entry fees. Those costs pile up, so I have to be very selective about any contests I enter; this one had no fee.

As soon as the poem is published, I’ll be posting about it in my blog with links.

Spring’s trying to be sprung

This is the first flower bloom of the season at my home, a crocus. These plants are often the earliest to bloom; they’re known to even flower while there’s still snow on the ground. I’m glad I planted these years ago because living in the frozen north-lands I need flowers as soon as I can get them. Unfortunately, weather forecasts are predicting a return to temperatures around freezing, so this may be the last garden bloom I see for a while. I’m thankful, though, that it’s the first bloom. Maybe I’ll write a poem about it.

Once the real spring weather finally stays, I’ll be posting more flowering from my garden on this blog.

I see fire…

I’ve been missing in action for so long because I couldn’t bring myself to blog after another innocent Black man’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. I’m working on a poem based on this crime that keeps happening over and over again. I’ll be adding it to my group of “Apocalypse Minneapolis” poetry about these years of fire, plague and wrath that I’ve been submitting to journals. I’m also working on a trio of poems related to environmental justice, racism and classism to submit to a local contest for creative writing on that topic.

Meanwhile, here’s a picture of me holding my contributor’s copy of Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Vol. 6. Like everything else, my receipt of this book was late due to supply chain issues suffered by the editor and publisher. I have to thank Sinclair Sexsmith again for including my story in this anthology; it’s a high point in my writing career.

I keep running in the ground a cover version of Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire” from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug by German metal band Feuerschwanz, playing it to death on YouTube, my smartphone and my car stereo. Look up the lyrics of this song, and you’ll see where my head is these days with my fears for the city I’ve called home for over two decades and my people who are trying to survive this smoldering place and time.

“Poll: Which one of these erotica stories would you most want to read?”

I am emerging from my sabbatical from social media and serious online activity to post about this great article and fun poll on the blog of Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Vol. 6 editor Sinclair Sexsmith. In an effort to teach about what makes great erotic writing, Sexsmith picked first sentences from 10 stories published in three anthologies they have edited, Best Lesbian Erotica volumes 4, 5 and 6; and Say Please: Lesbian BDSM Erotica. They asked readers to pick which set of sentences makes them want to read the rest of the story it came from the most.

One of those sets of sentences is from my story, “Magic Is Coming.” I’m not going to ask you to vote for the first sentences of my story because the intent of my first lines were to quickly establish the central conflict in the story. The other first sentences in the poll were definitely intended to pull the reader immediately into an sexy moment or scene, so they automatically are going to attract more potential readers. Both because of this, and to be fair, I didn’t vote for my own story!

However, Sexsmith said about all the sets of first sentences, “…These are all examples of first lines that shine — none of them are examples of what not to do.” Therefore, I feel honored to be included in their poll as a great writing example out of all the stories in all the anthologies Sexsmith has edited.

Also included in this poll is the first lines of a story by Xan West, the late, great erotica and romance writer and my pen pal and comrade in arms in the struggle to write and live by one’s own truth. They would have been thrilled for me getting published in BLE 6; it hurts me that they are not here to see my success.

Postscript: Today is my maternal grandmother’s birthday, whom I never had the fortune of meeting. However, through my mother’s stories, the late, great Tommie Alma Wilborn Mitchell means everything to me. This is also known as Groundhog Day, which means nothing but disappointment to me and the rest of us who live in the hinterland of Minnesota.

Wishing I could celebrate…

…my latest publication on Melissa Fondakowski’s blog Unfit to Print, but I’m still hurting over the death of my longtime colleague from the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, editor-journalist-activist Mel Reeves. Still, I’m grateful for the publication and for Melissa heaping such great praise upon me.

Essay: “An Immodest Proposal” [CONTENT ADVISORY]

CONTENT ADVISORY: Discussions of sexual assault, gun violence, domestic violence, physical child abuse, child homicide and violence against peaceful protesters.

One of my first graduate school compositions, “An Immodest Proposal” is another rant with a lot of truth. Obviously, it’s patterned after Johnathan Swift’s famous satirical essay. Gender-neutral corrections to the statistics cited are at the end of the essay.

Article: “I Am a Victim of a Harmful Algorithm”

My photo from the table of contents in Vol. 38, No. 1 of Minnesota Women’s Press
Photo by Sarah Whiting

In the latest issue of Minnesota Women’s Press, I have an article about how I’ve been victimized by the kind of biased algorithms exposed and condemned in the documentary Coded Bias. I’ve written about bigotry in algorithms, artificial intelligence and other technologies before. However, I never expected this issue to hit me at home in such a personal and invasive manner. By the way, the theme of this issue of the feminist journal is “Fear.”

My End-of-the-Year book sale

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For the past four years, Athena Persephoni Publications has participated in Smashwords' End of Year Sale. Cultural Etiquette: a Guide for the Well-Intentioned by Amoja Three Rivers will be 50 percent off its regular price and my own Secret Insurrection: Stories from a Novel of a Future Time will be free on Smashwords from December 18 through January 1.

This year, in addition to participating in the Smashwords ebook sale, I’ll be putting the print versions of both books on sale starting December 21. Both books will be offered at a discount depending on what part of the world you’re buying it from, and the discount will show on all selling platforms. This sale, like the Smashwords sale, will end after January 1.

My star day

DJ Daddy Rox (right) and me (left) at KRSM-FM studio during “The T” show

Tuesday, December 7, 2021, was my star day. After making up my face, wrapping my head in a sparkly green and black scarf, and dressing in a beautiful blue, red, black and green wax print top that once belonged to my late friend Amoja Three Rivers, my day of celebrity started with a session with a photographer from the Minnesota Women’s Press. The session was for producing an illustration for an upcoming article of mine in the feminist journal. The photographer, Sarah, and I planned to do the session in front of NorthPoint Health & Wellness Center, a background appropriate for the subject of my article. However, Mother Nature put the kibosh on that plan with a sudden snow and big temperature drop. While Sarah was on her way to my home, I called two other institutions local to my neighborhood begging for a last-minute indoor place for the photo shoot. Both said they would call me back with their decision.

Meanwhile, once Sarah arrived with her equipment, we took a tour of my house for background locations since it looked like we’d be stuck there for the session. We decided to use my wood-paneled enclosed front porch that is used as a library; my wife fell in love with that room when she first saw our house for sale online. As Sarah was setting up for the shoot in my library, I got a phone call. The second institution I called, my local public library, was on the phone. They told me that because I’m a local writer, they were allowing me to use a meeting room in their building and to take off my protective mask once in it for my photo shoot.

With that news, Sarah and I rushed out of my house and headed to Sumner Library, where the librarian on duty showed us to the meeting room, told us we could move around any furniture we need to do the photo shoot, and then asked me — since I’m a local writer — if I had a book. I told her about Secret Insurrection: Stories from a Novel of a Future Time and gave her the spelling of my full name. She said she would start the ball rolling to get my book into the library’s collection! Sumner Library has a special collection of African American books and materials, so it’s not just a boost to my vanity to have a book I wrote in this library — it’s an honor.

So with a whole meeting room to ourselves, including a great accent wall covered with quotes from luminaries such as Anne Frank and Malcolm X, Sarah and I did our photo shoot. After getting great shots pretty quickly, Sarah said, “Let’s go back to the library at your house.” She, too, had fallen in love with my front porch library and wanted to get a photo with a different background for the journal’s table of contents.

Therefore, after saying many thank-yous to the librarian and her supervisor who approved the use of the meeting room, Sarah and I rushed back to my home to take more photos in my library. When we were done, Sarah told me I was one of the best subjects she’s had as a Minnesota Women’s Press photographer. Many women, thanks to sexism and other ‘isms, are not confident with their physical image or being photographed, so it takes a long session to get a good photo of them. She praised my confidence, my patience, and my looks — she said that I’m “gorgeous!” She also confided that she’s having a hard time in her personal life and that our photo session made her day. That was the best compliment of all.

Later that day, I made plans to catch a bus to the studio of KRSM 98.9 FM, a South Minneapolis low-power community radio station where I was scheduled to star on my friend DJ Daddy Rox’s weekly talk and music show “The T.” I texted Rox to confirm the location of the studio, letting them know that I was busing it there because my wife had our car. Rox offered to pay for a Lyft ride for me there and back home! I accepted their offer, and off I was to the studio in a warm and comfortable car.

On “The T,” Rox and I discussed my writing and publishing career and my recent success at getting a story into Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Volume 6. The radio show was video streamed on Facebook Live; click here to see the show.

My star day ended with my free Lyft ride back home to my loving wife, who was watching me on “The T” with her laptop.

Finally made it into Best Lesbian Erotica!

I have a story in the upcoming Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year 6!

This was my fourth attempt at trying to get into BLE. I’ve also been unsuccessful when submitting to Best Women’s Erotica. I wasn’t even going to bother submitting this time, but editor Sinclair Sexsmith emailed me personally asking me to submit after reading my story in a Black lesbian erotica anthology and seeing I had previously submitted to BLE. I have to thank Sinclair for obviously going the extra mile to create probably the most identity-wise diverse lesbian erotica collection I’ve ever known. I am honored to be part of that.

I’ve already submitted another story to BLE 7. Even if that one doesn’t make it, I’m still happy as a lark. The only bittersweet part is that my late pen pal friend, erotica and romance writer Xan West, is not here to see my good news.