The weekend: a long poem, a writing contest, weaving and 'Swan Thieves'

The following headline on the NPR website caught my attention: 'Crossing State Lines': 54 Writers, One American Poem

This is collaborative poetry--a relay, so to speak, for National Poetry Month. Each poet writes ten lines in two days, and then the next person on the list takes over. It will be interesting to see how the "renga" poem turns out.

If you like writing contests, consider the Black Warrior Review's annual competition. I posted about it HERE on Writer's Notebook. Deadline is September 1 for three poems, a short story or a work of nonfiction.

As I work on my novel Sarabande this weekend, I'm focused a lot on weaving, both as a traditional "women's work task" and a metaphor for the creation of oneself or the world. If you're drawn to the subject, see my post "Women, Weaving and Storytelling."

I continue to read and enjoy Elizabeth Kostova's The Swan Thieves, advancing from page 123 to page 180 where the story jumps for a second time back into the 1870s. So far, Kostova hasn't divulged just how a young woman (who's an artist) in this time period figures into to our present day story. The lack of a more-obvious tie-in makes for a somewhat disruptive side-trip at this point, but the primary focus of the novel is strong enough to keep me reading.

Meanwhile, after reading Lee Libro's review of Bella Pollen's "The Summer of the Bear," (due out in June), I now have another novel to add to my TBR list. Thanks Lee.

Happy reading and writing this weekend.

--Malcolm