November 8, 2016

Reflections on Reading Literature in a Foreign Language

By Simran P. Gupta The author Jhumpa Lahiri is an inspiration to me, particularly with her latest memoir, In Other Words. In this work, she chronicles her journey with learning to write exclusively (as well as read and speak) in Italian. As a South Asian learning a language that is not from that subcontinent, her thoughts resonated strongly with me, and led to some reflection of my own. I am not by any means embarking on a mission to write exclusively in French yet, but thanks to my French major I have been reading more and more French and Francophone literature. I have quickly realized that this literature is not the same beast as the film or literature I study for my English major. French literature takes me almost twice as long to read, is…

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November 6, 2016

Featured Fiction: “Paper Cranes” by Emily Rodriguez

Posted by Mike Rochester in Member Writing & Art

Editor’s Note: In “Paper Cranes,” our second featured short story of November, Emily Rodriguez brings us a story about love in modern times with a little twist of the ancient art of paper folding. Curl up with a mug of a mellow brew and enjoy this story. * * * Paper Cranes by Emily Rodriguez In a weird way it’s like I actually have a use for algebra. It’s always been a game of figures and numbers. Nine steps total, thirty-seven exact creases, ten presses, approximately six pinches and a single tug. But first I need to form x. I fold the square sheet of paper corner-to corner until there’s a perfect x-shaped crease at the very center of the square. But I never solve for x. I fold the factor in on itself. Diagonal….

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November 4, 2016

Sophie Vincent’s Winsome Ceramics

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Fine Art

In the French village of Dourdan, the sculptor Sophie Vincent carries on a tradition of making ceramics which dates back to the first century BCE, a period when France was known as Gaul and part of the Roman Empire. It was a time when clay kitchen and tableware changed from being purely utilitarian to becoming more expressive and decorative shapes and figurines – in a word, art. And thus Sophie, working in her studio in Dourdan, just south of Paris, brings this ancient Dourdan tradition into the twenty-first century. Here is a sampling of her work, with titles in their original French. Please click on the images for a gallery view. * Sophie says, “After four years of training and nice meetings with other artists, I opened my own ceramics studio in Dourdan. Since then, I spend most of my…

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November 2, 2016

Featured Short Story: “Disaster of the Will” by Richard Craven

Posted by Mike Rochester in Member Writing & Art

Editor’s Note: Our first Featured Short Story for November features a narrator whose cockney British accent and spellings may sound a bit off (think Brad Pitt in Snatch), but rest assured, it’s all part of Mr. Craven’s master plan. * * * Disaster of the Will by Richard Craven A filmy substance welds shut my eyes. I free an arm from the embrace of the twisted mildewed blankets that I have grown to know and hate, prise apart my eyelids, accustom vile jellies to gloaming. The evidence of my desuetude: mounds of unlaundry, overflowing ashtrays. Crushed cans of Horst Wessell Marching lager littering the pitifully cramped floorspace. Once again I have slept in my clothes. I peel a corner of the orange curtain and peer outside. The mountainside, muddy, denuded of grass by ramblers’ boots….

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November 1, 2016

Three Poems by Nina Brav

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Member Writing & Art

Silly or Young How silly I was then, Or maybe too young To see that the darkness on the wall Was just myself Reflected. The wooden night-light That carved the image of a withered tree Standing, still in moonlight That’s what made it bigger That’s why I was afraid. So I cowered under covers, Silly to think my blanket Could shield me from my monster Too young to know I’d never really Escape it. *** The Nights Are the Hardest “The nights are the hardest,” she’d said. She was right. Night came. So did total destruction. Dark winds howled, pushed me, dragged me off my perch, down with a thud. Clay skin cracked, pieces of me spread across cold cement floors. Then came the winged creatures. They tore at me, scratching…

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October 31, 2016

November Submissions – Ready for NaNoWriMo?

Posted by Mike Rochester in News

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is the portmanteau for National Novel Writing Month, a social initiative to encourage writers – from amateur to seasoned – to take that leap from “I’ve got an idea for a story” to “Hey, I’m pretty far along on the novel I’m writing.” While it’s certainly not for everyone, it is an interesting, well-thought-out guide to helping people write and finish a first draft of a novel with the help of other writers and support via social media. On the other hand, the very thought of finishing a novel, even just a draft, in a month seems preposterous to some, especially with setting a deadline by which to finish it and a word-count goal for each day. So, NaNoWriMo: Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments section below….

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October 30, 2016

Podcast: Radio Stories for Halloween

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Happy? Creepy? Horrific? Halloween! Take your pick, All Hallow’s Eve is for all of us and different for all of us, especially in these days when it’s moved around to accommodate marketing promotions and convenient times to trick ‘n’ treat. But no such concerns here: You can listen to these great old-time radio Halloween stories any time you like! Here we present three for your listening – ah – pleasure. They’re really old, from the 1940s and 1950s, and yet they’re ageless as well. Our first ghoulish tale is Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat,” starring one of the greatest actors of the horror genre, Peter Lorre, who was also host of Mystery in the Air. Lorre’s German accent gave his characterizations an intense dash of the macabre. Please click the arrow below to listen. …

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October 30, 2016

Little Red Riding Hood’s Halloween

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Fine Art

The folk tale of Little Red Riding Hood has a long and varied history in its telling, which does nothing to diminish the charm of the following photographs, which have a distinctive mood and charm all their own. Thanks to our friend J. Stirling for sharing these images. Enjoy. Please click on the images to enlarge them. If you go off to the woods… Be sure you take some lunch with you… My apple was delicious! I’m so glad I brought some along. The woods are a wonderful place for memories and secrets… But now it’s growing dark. Time to go home before the Big Bad Wolf finds me. Besides, I’m getting tired and I miss mommy and daddy!

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October 28, 2016

Podcast: “Homer the Hobo and Ulysses the Goat”

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Audio Arts, Podcasts

Submitted for your appreciation, a third children’s story written and read by Michael Larrain for his young daughter, Wilder Kathleen The Rage of Pais Larrain. While the first two were focused mostly on Wilder’s magic loom, in this podcast we meet two new characters named after the poet Homer and his character Ulysses in “The Odyssey.” Some pretty famous ancient Greeks. Will they live up to their namesakes? Will they drink the lemonade? Will Ulysses take off wandering again? All these questions will be charmingly answered in the story which follows. If you haven’t listened to the preceding stories, they are here and here. We’re really quite pleased to be extending the definition and boundaries of the podcast with these readings. The fourth and last will appear next Friday. Please click on the arrow below to…

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October 26, 2016

Is “The Death of Books” Eminent? Nope!

Posted by Jack B. Rochester in Book Reviews, News

We often hear that people aren’t reading much these days. Is the death of books eminent? New research by the Pew Center points out that people are still reading paperback and even hardcover books – in fact, often preferring them to e-books. It startled me into recalling a conference I attended while still a book editor in publishing – I seem to recall 1981 as the year – entitled “The Death of Books.” Hah. People read books and e-books. More people are listening to audiobooks. We have many more choices in how we consume the stories between book covers, even as we discover more and more sophisticated ways to acquire information. Here’s an interesting article about how reading real books is still pervasive. And here’s another about the growing interest in audiobooks, which is why we podcast for…

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