Countdown to Publication
My second collection of poetry, Sisterhood, will publish officially on November 12, 2013. (There are advance copies out though – and a luscious photo of these copies is here. If you want to order an advance copy, go here or here. The second link will get you a signed copy shipped directly by me!) I am doing a number of things in preparation for this book to be out in the world. First, and most importantly, I am working like crazy on new poems and editing the next book of poetry. Why is that most important? Well, I learned during the publishing process of my first book that focusing on the new work, the next work, was incredibly affirming and nurturing while the new book was making its way in the world. Poets and all writers have anxiety about books being published. Will people like it? Will people review it? Will anyone buy it? Will it be noticed in ways that are meaningful? These are all good and important questions, but they are difficult and anxiety provoking. I found that I thought less about them if I was thinking more about generating new work and thinking about the next book alongside doing all of the requisite promotional work on the first book. So I am continuing that practice with the second book. I have been working away on what I think is the third book, including getting feedback from fellow poets (including the author of this phenomenal book), and generating some new work, most of which is so new and so delicate that it is just sitting in my journals at the moment, unable to even survive the world of being typed up and printed. So that is one thing that I am busy with as I prepare for publication.
I also have solicited blurbs for the back cover of the book. I was thrilled to get lovely and generous words from two poets I admire enormously. Alicia Ostriker, author of the forthcoming new collection of poetry, The Old Woman, the Tulip and the Dog, said of Sisterhood:
If we ever forgot that sisterhood is powerful, Julie R. Enszer’s poetry reminds us–with frank wit, grief, compassion, and a clear sense of the joy and burden of love. Enszer is a poet of the body, of family, of “the sighs and bellows of the heart,” of music, of travel, of breast cancer, of the plague of AIDS, of black stockings worn to funerals.
As the elegist of her lost sister, Enszer writes, “She should be telling this story./ she was more descriptive than I.” As celebrant of the revolution that opened our society to the pleasures and realities of queerness, she writes of “the look of defiance in our eyes” and remembers “Once we were the match/ Once we were the flames.” Sisterhood gives off a good heat.
Minnie Bruce Pratt, author of most recently, Inside the Money Machine, said:
Julie R. Enszer returns to the dream of sisterhood and explores its far reaches–from moments of domestic intimacy with her wife, to the death and estrangement of her blood sisters, to solidarity with Jewish revolutionary Ethel Rosenberg and Palestinian women longing for a homeland. Journey with a sister poet through these her forthright conversations with the 21st century.
These words of praise thrilled me!
This week, I am working on a Reader’s Guide for Sisterhood. I’ll have some reflections about that process next week. Meanwhile, keep an ear to the ground for Sisterhood. I am excited to share it with you!
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: lesbian poetry, poetry, publishing, Sisterhood
