B.L. Bruce's Blog, page 3

Interview with Author B. L. Bruce

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

with B. L. Bruce

Last month, I sat down virtually with Blogespresso for an author interview to discuss my latest book Measures, my writing process, and what feeds my creativity.

Can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.

My name is Bri Bruce (writing under the name B. L. Bruce), and I am a writer, award-winning poet, graphic designer, and marketing executive from Santa Cruz, California. To date, I’ve written four books, with two more in the works. I also dabble in photography and painting. I work in the solar industry as a marketing director by day, and moonlight as a graphic designer and publisher, as well as the editor-in-chief of literary magazine Humana Obscura. In my free time (very rare these days) I enjoy surfing, being outdoors, practicing yoga, and spending time with family and friends (also very rare these days).

What were the key challenges you faced while writing Measures?

I wrote the majority of Measures during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic’s shelter-in-place. I was struggling with my own mental health as well as with insomnia. The constant barrage of terrible news, both in my personal circle and of the state of the world, was weighing heavily on me. To be honest, many of the poems are a blur. I tend to go into a sort-of trance-like state when writing, and coupled with the insomnia I was experiencing, there are a number of poems in this collection that I just don’t recall having written or had forgotten about until it came time to compile the collection. Despite its challenges—of still finding creativity in such a tumultuous time in history, of being vulnerable in writing, and of shouldering through the worst period I’ve experienced—Measures was my silver lining of 2020. It gave me purpose. I’m proud of this collection.

What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

Having studied post-modern American literature with a poetry concentration in college, I was introduced to a number of poets that were part of the Beat movement. Writers like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Richard Brautigan influenced a lot of my early writing but it wasn’t until the end of my schooling and in my early adulthood years that I found my reader’s niche in nature poetry. Mary Oliver is—and will always be—at the top of my list as far as authors whose writing influence and inspire my work. I discovered and continue to enjoy the work of May Sarton, Maude Meehan, Ellen Bass, and Robert Hass. I’ve also come to enjoy the work of haikuists and short-form poets like Issa, Basho, Tu Fu, and Li Po, among others, which has me experimenting with the American haiku form, and am working on a collection at the moment that I will be releasing in the near future.

What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?

Northern California. I grew up visiting places like Mendocino and Fort Bragg once or twice a year with my family. My parents instilled in me at a young age a love for nature, and for me this region is always a reminder of that. We’d camp on the beach and go diving in the frigid waters. I hated it as a kid and was always cold, but it’s become endearing to me, invigorating even, and is a place dear enough to me to almost call home. There’s something very arresting about the remoteness and the rugged coastlines. It’s rarely sunny, so the weather lends a moodiness to the atmosphere that I revel in, especially for writing. It’s gets the emotions and the thoughts flowing. I once spent a month isolated in a very remote cabin along the coast south of Mendocino to do nothing but write. It was a difficult time for me in that I was attempting to be very disciplined and grappled with my own expectations of myself, but also enriching. I wrote two books while I was there, The Starling’s Song and 28 Days of Solitude, a memoir of my time during that month.

Is there lots to do before you dive in and start writing a book?

Diving in to write comes easy. I try not to force my writing, and instead allow myself the time and space when inspiration strikes just to get out everything I need to say. I find the hardest work is done during the editing process. Trying to make order of and polish my own work is something that I struggle with. I’m a perfectionist, and as such am very self-criticizing. Though in the end this helps me become a stronger writer (and a better editor) it can be self-destructive at times when I’m too much in my own head.

How long did it take you to write The Weight Of Snow?

I wrote The Weight of Snow over the course of a few years. Some of the earlier drafts of the poems in the collection were parts of my senior project in college where the assignment was to write a chapbook of poetry. Of course, the final poems that ended up in the collection were redlined or re-written. Lit majors in a workshop setting can be a pretentious and critical bunch. I poured my heart into this first collection, and when it was so well received and earned a number of awards, it was very re-affirming for me that this wouldn’t be my last.

On what platforms can readers find your books to buy?

My books are all currently available on Amazon. If readers are interested in getting a glimpse of my poetry, give me a follow on Twitter @the_poesis or on Instagram @thepoesis where I am regularly sharing bits of my work.

Tell us about the process of coming up with the cover and the title of your books?

The titles of my poetry books all come from either a line in the work itself or the title of a poem. In the case of my memoir, it was a little play on Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (I jokingly say my 28 days felt a little like 100 years) and May Sarton’s A Journal of a Solitude, in which Sarton explores similar tropes about writing in self-isolation and how this can be a mechanism of sorts for writers.

As for my covers, I used to work in publishing and am a graphic designer by trade, so I actually design and layout my own books, including getting them ready for print production. It’s something I enjoy, and even a service I extend to other authors looking to independently publish. I absolutely love book covers, and think a lot can be said about a cover. One of my favorite things to do is visit a bookstore and just admire the book covers.

When writing a book, how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?

Each book begins to take on a life of its own. I strive not to write about the same subjects over and over, or even use similar imagery or words in an effort to continue to stay fresh while also challenging myself to think and perceive in new and different ways. I draw on a lot of personal experiences when writing, so one way that really enriches my writing process is changing my scenery, whether its writing in a different spot in my house or visiting somewhere new in nature. Traveling is very creatively triggering for me, and you’ll never find me going on any trip without a notebook and pen.

Are there any secrets from the book (that aren’t in the blurb), you can share with your readers?

It wouldn’t be a secret if I divulged it! Get your hands on a copy if you’d like to find out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. If you don’t take my word for it, check out the rave reviews it’s receiving on Amazon or Goodreads.

Measures

By Award-Winning Author B. L. Bruce

NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINT & EBOOK FORMATS

“As its poems tread through forests, over mountains, and along the water . . . Measures captivates.” — Clarion Reviews

In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores the visual measures of time and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.

See the original post here: https://infoespresso.data.blog/2021/04/01/interview-with-author-b-l-bruce/

BlueInk Review: ‘Measures’ by B. L. Bruce

Measures B.L. Bruce

Publisher: Black Swift Press 
Pages: 134 
ISBN: 9781735707402
Reviewed: March, 2021

BUY THE BOOK ON AMAZON

Excerpt from BlueInk Review

[B.L. Bruce’s] newest poetry collection, Measures, by turns elicits tenderness and melancholy, hopefulness and heartbreak—which is to say, the gamut of the human condition.

Measures includes 58, mostly free verse poems with occasional haiku. Imagery from the natural world is often employed to further its themes.

“Dusk,” for example, takes its cues from nature as the poet conjuring a landscape and time of day with colors, textures, and scents, creating a multi-layered sensory experience: “…soot-colored/ shearwaters blurring the horizon,/ the briny air of slack tide/ on up-canyon wind,/ the parading hours of dusk/ in which you whisper, slowly,/ the voice that yields me/ as though I am clay.” The diction is precise and elegant, employing alliteration and consonance throughout, while gradually drawing readers into a glimpse of the relationship of the speaker (“I”) with a particular “you.” This relationship gains emotional depth from being depicted in context of the physical landscape and arrival of day’s end.

Many of Bruce’s images linger in the mind while also provoking strong emotion: “the rouge I smear/across my lips/when wrought/ with need”; “Dying oak/ veiled/ in moss”; “Twice this morning I stopped to listen: geese bellowing, gliding inland/ toward the marsh.”

. . . Bruce’s collection offers many accomplished and memorable moments, reflecting great potential for reaching a wide poetry-reading audience.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores the visual measures of time and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.

In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee, California poet Bri Bruce (writing as B. L. Bruce) has been called the “heiress of Mary Oliver.” With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications, including The Wayfarer Journal, Canary, The Remnant Archive, Northwind Magazine, The Soundings Review, The Monterey Poetry Review, and the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond Journal, among many others. Bruce is the recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry, as well as the author of four books: The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude, The Starling’s Song, and Measures. Her highly praised debut collection, The Weight of Snow, was the 2014 International Book Awards poetry category finalist and the 2014 USA Best Book Awards poetry category finalist. The Starling’s Song was released in February of 2016, and was selected as Honorable Mention in the Pacific Rim Book Festival. In addition to her writing pursuits, Bruce is a painter and photographer, with work that has been featured in The Sun Magazine, Near Window, and others. Follow her on Twitter @the_poesis and on Instagram @thepoesis.

The Spring/Summer 2021 Issue of ‘Humana Obscura’ is OUT NOW!

It’s officially here! The long awaited Spring/Summer 2021 issue, our second issue, of Humana Obscura is now available!

We are incredibly impressed by the quality of work in this beautiful issue, and sincerely welcome all of our contributors and new readers to this creative community we’ve built—and hope to continue to expand. Without your work, this would not be possible.

This latest issue features work from 96 new, emerging, and established contributors from around the world.

Spring/Summer 2021

Humana Obscura

The Spring/Summer 2021 issue features work from 96 new, emerging, and established contributors, including Weihui Lu, Cheriese Francoise Anderson, Janis La Couvee, Lisa Alexander Baron, J. A. Handville, Gary Young, Vian Borchert, Christopher Buckley, Sam Sharp, Benjamin Erlandson, and more.

LEARN MORE

Measures

bloggersworld

BOOK: Measures
AUTHOR: B. L. Bruce

My Review:
Measures is the latest poetry collection book written by an award winning author of The Weight of Snow and The Starling’s Song.

In this book, many poems are micropoetry and I loved them. Within just few words, author has expressed deepest emotions.

I watch you dream,
and outside it
begins to snow.

I loved the poem Winter that reminded me of Snow, dreams. With the poem Submission, I think author has expressed heart of many people. White Lillies is a gem in this anthology.

If you love to read poetry then go ahead with this collection. I enjoyed this book with a cup of coffee while sitting in my front porch. Language of the book is lucid. Even if you are not an avid poetry reader, you could follow the poems.

My Rating: 4.5/5

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Review of ‘Measures’ from Clarion Reviews

The poems of Measures embrace lyrical tendencies as they move through the seasons of a troubled relationship.

Both absence and presence haunt the pages of b. l. bruce’s poetry collection, Measures.

A one time lover and longed for friend adventures to the water, leaving their companion alone on the shore. Wrinkles appear as if grooved overnight, and the world is awash in the colors of the sky, a leaf, and the headland. Nature, the desire to be a mother, and yearning for love thread through the book, which is rich with longing.

The silence between the disappeared friend and the woman he left yawns, then collapses, then gapes again. This dynamic dominates many of the collection’s poems, which circle each other, even in memories. An early poem suggests that the departed friend committed suicide; other poems intimate his mania and depression. He and his companion move through nature in an attempt to soothe themselves.

Haiku-like poems appear with frequency, underscoring the ephemeral, cyclical nature of life and its inevitable loss. The left woman longs for a child and for a partner who wants to have one with her; her longing for something outside of herself draws her gaze to nature, too.

Poems’ short lines are staccato and constant in their sense of wonder:

In that slow undress of spring,
the honeybees go
humming and powdering
themselves elsewhere.

They embrace lyrical tendencies as they move through the seasons, paying particular attention to colors and scents. Often, the poems contain the sense that the woods, the water, and the woman’s passion for nature itself are a blind against the turmoil of the relationship at the book’s center. Silence is weaponized in this relationship, as a place to descend to, one that is used to exile the other. Only in joy does the couple escape, though it seems they can never achieve this together.

Most entries are short. Their scant lines, and imagery devoted to nature and change, become too familiar. The collection flattens as its poems make similar moves. Still, the book’s dozens of small, wrought images stand out, and the book is perhaps best met on its own terms:

Each of us our own poetry,
a language of wounds, and of dawn,
and the color blue.

As its poems tread through forests, over mountains, and along the water, showcasing “chalk-white poplars,” “sweet alpine snowmelt,” and the “glimmering / reflection of moonlight on water, / highway of light,” Measures captivates.

Reviewed by Camille-Yvette Welsch
February 27, 2021
See the original review on Clarion’s website

MEASURES

B. L. Bruce
Black Swift Press
113 pages
978-1-73570-740-2

AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON

‘White Lilies’ from New Collection MEASURES

WHITE LILIES

Love me, I ask of you.
Press your mouth to mine,
I want to say.
The contours of our limbs
are restless.

We throw ourselves from the house
at sundown, wander down the hill,
pass the milk-white folds of the lilies
yawning and rising along the fence.
I brush my body against theirs.

At once, the murmur of rainsound
like a stone skipped on the still pond,
braying of the great heron—
such a graceful
collection of angles crouching
in the sedges. 

And before I can sing
my want to slip into
mud-smell of the dark water—
we find in this a certain rapture—
you are unbuttoning your shirt.

c. B. L. Bruce
From Measures (Black Swift Press, 2021)

measures

NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores the visual measures of time and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.

Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee, California poet Bri Bruce (writing as B. L. Bruce) has been called the “heiress of Mary Oliver.” With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications, including The Wayfarer Journal, Canary, The Remnant Archive, Northwind Magazine, The Soundings Review, The Monterey Poetry Review, and the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond Journal, among many others. Bruce is the recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry, as well as the author of four books: The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude, The Starling’s Song, and Measures. Her highly praised debut collection, The Weight of Snow, was the 2014 International Book Awards poetry category finalist and the 2014 USA Best Book Awards poetry category finalist. The Starling’s Song was released in February of 2016, and was selected as Honorable Mention in the Pacific Rim Book Festival. In addition to her writing pursuits, Bruce is the Editor-in-Chief of the nature-centric literary magazine Humana Obscura , and is a painter and photographer, with work that has been featured in The Sun Magazine, Near Window, and others. Follow her on Twitter @the_poesis and on Instagram @thepoesis.

Book Trailer for B. L. Bruce’s New Poetry Collection ‘Measures’

“As its poems tread through forests, over mountains, and along the water . . . Measures captivates.”
— Clarion Reviews

“[B. L. Bruce’s] newest poetry collection, Measures, by turns elicits tenderness and melancholy, hopefulness and heartbreak–which is to say, the gamut of the human condition. . . . Bruce’s collection offers many accomplished and memorable moments.”
— BlueInk Review

“Lyrical and reflective, award-winning Bruce’s latest, a collection of poems, micropoetry, and American haiku, offers a litany of ruminations on nature, love, and self. . . . Readers seeking meditations on nature, life, love, and spiritual renewal won’t be able to put this perceptive, deeply engrossing read. This is a winner.”
—The Prairies Book Review

“Lyrical poems on the beauty of the natural world contrasted against the fragile, sometimes broken nature of the human experience.” 
— Andrea Janda, Visitant

“A bittersweet journey through nostalgic memoirs, Bruce’s poetry is the song we have all known while never having heard the words–until now.”
— Cheriese Francoise Anderson, Author of Wild Chai

In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores the visual measures of time and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee, California poet Bri Bruce (writing as B. L. Bruce) has been called the “heiress of Mary Oliver.” With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications, including The Wayfarer Journal, Canary, The Remnant Archive, Northwind Magazine, The Soundings Review, The Monterey Poetry Review, and the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond Journal, among many others. Bruce is the recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry, as well as the author of four books: The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude, The Starling’s Song, and Measures. Her highly praised debut collection, The Weight of Snow, was the 2014 International Book Awards poetry category finalist and the 2014 USA Best Book Awards poetry category finalist. The Starling’s Song was released in February of 2016, and was selected as Honorable Mention in the Pacific Rim Book Festival. In addition to her writing pursuits, Bruce is the Editor-in-Chief of the nature-centric literary magazine Humana Obscura , and is a painter and photographer, with work that has been featured in The Sun Magazine, Near Window, and others. Follow her on Twitter @the_poesis and on Instagram @thepoesis.

Review of ‘Measures’ by B. L. Bruce from The Prairies Book Review

Luminous and piercing…

Lyrical and reflective, award-winning Bruce’s latest, a collection of poems, micropoetry, and American haiku, offers a litany of ruminations on nature, love, and self. “Full Moon at Albion River” is a meditation on the wonders of nature. With her knack for creating intricate emotional textures, Bruce infuses mourning and grief with tangible chaos of today’s pandemic-ridden, calamitous world in “Locust,” as she visualizes the bleak space that remains after the death of a beloved: “In the days after/ you took your own life/ it rained without end/ as though, too, / the world mourned. / And it did. / The floodwater rose, / and the earth was being buried/ under feet and feet of water, / and then it was burning.” Bruce’s sharp observations makes “Rhythm” intimate and arresting.  She finds courage, wonder, wisdom, and cheer in nature in “Channel,” “North” and “Alpine Poems.” Readers seeking meditations on nature, life, love, and spiritual renewal won’t be able to put down this perceptive, deeply engrossing read. This is a winner.

See the original post here.

BUY THE BOOK

Available in print and digital formats
on Amazon.

NEW RELEASE: Measures by B. L. Bruce (Poetry)

In February of 2014, my debut collection of poetry, The Weight of Snow, was published. Now, seven years later, my latest collection, Measures, is here. Now available on Amazon in print and eBook format.

In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores grief, loss, the visual measures of time, and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse.

In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the lyricism and rich imagery that readers have come to praise.

NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON IN PRINT & DIGITAL

“As its poems tread through forests, over mountains, and along the water . . . Measures captivates.”  — Clarion Reviews

“[B. L. Bruce’s] newest poetry collection, Measures, by turns elicits tenderness and melancholy, hopefulness and heartbreak—which is to say, the gamut of the human condition. . . . Bruce’s collection offers many accomplished and memorable moments.”  — BlueInk Review

“Lyrical and reflective, award-winning Bruce’s latest, a collection of poems, micropoetry, and American haiku, offers a litany of ruminations on nature, love, and self. . . . Readers seeking meditations on nature, life, love, and spiritual renewal won’t be able to put [down] this perceptive, deeply engrossing read. This is a winner.” — The Prairies Book Review

“Lyrical poems on the beauty of the natural world contrasted against the fragile, sometimes broken nature of the human experience.” — Andrea Janda, Visitant

“Lyrical poems on the beauty of the natural world contrasted against the fragile, sometimes broken nature of the human experience.” — Cheriese Francoise Anderson, Author of Wild Chai

BUY NOW

Award-winning author and Pushcart Prize nominee, California poet Bri Bruce (writing as B. L. Bruce) has been called the “heiress of Mary Oliver.” With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in dozens of anthologies, magazines, and literary publications, including The Wayfarer Journal, Canary, The Remnant Archive, Northwind Magazine, The Soundings Review, The Monterey Poetry Review, and the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond Journal, among many others. Bruce is the recipient of the Ina Coolbrith Memorial Poetry Prize and the PushPen Press Pendant Prize for Poetry, as well as the author of four books: The Weight of Snow, 28 Days of Solitude, The Starling’s Song, and Measures. Her highly praised debut collection, The Weight of Snow, was the 2014 International Book Awards poetry category finalist and the 2014 USA Best Book Awards poetry category finalist. The Starling’s Song was released in February of 2016, and was selected as Honorable Mention in the Pacific Rim Book Festival. In addition to her writing pursuits, Bruce is the Editor-in-Chief of the nature-centric literary magazine Humana Obscura , and is a painter and photographer, with work that has been featured in The Sun Magazine, Near Window, and others. Follow her on Twitter @the_poesis and on Instagram @thepoesis.

“Cachagua Road” Published in Feral’s “Love” Issue

Cachagua Road

From the low bridge over the river you spoke,
blue lupines rising silently beneath the oaks,
weighed with the damp of evening.
Your words were carried away downstream,
lost to me. I felt a sadness,
heavy as stones.

I listen—bending of water
over rocks, wind in the arms
of the trees. I’ve learned the voices
of the robin, the towhee,
thrasher—useless except for
the way I decipher
what sounds escape from you,
which ones signal displeasure.

It’s not enough to go cursing into the forest,
hope you’ll come for me, then waiting—
for dusk, for signs of your tenderness,
for some bright corner
in the room of your body.

What was it you said?
Louder still, your silence hangs
over the water.

And all the while, the brown thrasher
among the sagebrush, singing.

c. B. L. Bruce, from upcoming collection Measures (Black Swift Press, 2021)

See it in the issue: https://feralpoetry.net/cachagua-road-by-b-l-bruce/

B. L. Bruce is a Pushcart Prize nominee and award-winning poet from Santa Cruz, California. With a bachelor’s degree in literature and creative writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Bruce is the editor-in-chief of the nature-themed literary magazine Humana Obscura, and the author of three books: The Weight of Snow, The Starling’s Song, and 28 Days of Solitude. Her work has appeared most recently in The Remnant Archive, Emerge Literary Journal, the American Haiku Society’s Frogpond Journal, Le Merle, Visitant, and Blood Moon, among others. Instagram: @thepoesis Twitter: @the_poesis.