Virtual Tour of Other Writers’ Blogs

This should be a cool way to introduce my readers to other Writers’ Blogs. I was invited to participate by Bruce Niedt in this virtual blog tour. Basically, I tell you a bit about him, answer 4 questions, and then introduce 3 other people you may or may not have heard of. So here goes!

Bruce W. Niedt is a “beneficent bureaucrat” from southern NJ whose poetry has appeared in numerous print and online journals, including Writers Digest, Writers Journal, The Lyric, Lucid Rhythms, US 1 Worksheets, Spitball, Chantarelle’s Notebook, and Edison Literary Review.  His awards include the ByLine Short Fiction and Poetry Prize, first prize for poetry at the Philadelphia Writers Conference, and two nominations each for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He has workshopped with Jane Hirshfield, Marge Piercy, Molly Peacock, and Stephen Dunn, and is looking forward to working with Billy Collins in January 2015. His latest chapbook is Twenty-four by Fourteen, a collection of sonnets and other short poems, published by Maverick Duck Press.

I met Bruce on the SJ poetry scene, and for a long time we were both members of the Quick & Dirty Poets, a co-operative founded by myself and Rachel Bunting, and now run by Kendall Bell. Something you may not know about Bruce is that for the last few years he has been a generous host to international exchange students. Bruce blogs at bniedt.blogspot.com.

1.What am I currently working on?

My book, Sisters & Courtesans, came out in June, and I have been busy promoting it rather than writing. However I do want at some stage to do a follow up of male persona poems, maybe not sonnets this time, called something like Scholars & Scoundrels.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Hmm…well…many formal poets are on the conservative side not only of the political arena but also in terms of their subject matter. I’m way liberal and write sonnets with a noticeably sexual content. 🙂

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

Can’t help it. I leak sonnets. Cut me, and I bleed them too.

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

I do like the routine at Artists Residencies. Sisters & Courtesans was drafted almost entirely at the wonderful Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, where I was able to be at my desk writing by 8 a.m., and typically wrote three sonnets before breaking for yoga and/or lake-swimming at 5 p.m. Here at home it’s a bit more haphazard!

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First to respond to my own invitation was April Lindner. April and I read together at a well-attended poetry reading in Pennsylvania in 2010 and have bumped into each other a few times since then. April has my deep admiration because she is a novelist AND a poet AND a mom! You can find April’s blog at aprillindnerwrites.blogspot.com.

April Lindner is the author of two poetry collections, This Bed Our Bodies Shaped from Able Muse Press and Skin from Texas Tech University Press.  She also has written three young adult novels—Jane, Catherine, and the forthcoming Love, Lucy, all published by Poppy. With R. S. Gwynn, she co-edited Contemporary American Poetry, in Longman’s  Penguin Academics series.  A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, she lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania with her husband and sons.

Back when I was running The Barefoot Muse print journal, I bravely emailed Annie Finch and asked if she would be our featured poet. Since then we have become friends, particularly at the most recent West Chester poetry conference. Annie’s blog is anniefinch.com.

Annie Finch is the author of more than twenty books of poetry, plays, translation, literary essays, textbooks and anthologies, most recently Spells: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 2013). Her work has been reprinted in anthologies such as The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, and The Norton Anthology of World Poetry. Annie is known for her mesmerizing performances and has read and performed her work across the U.S. and in Canada, Europe, and Africa.  Author of numerous books on poetic form and craft, most recently A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide toMaking and Sharing Your Poetry (University of Michigan Press, 2012), she teaches poetic craft at Poetcraftcircles.com.

In January 2010 I spent a magical two weeks at the MacDowell artists colony along with Young Adult author Nova Ren Suma, who has since published two Young Adult novels which I keep planning to read! Her blog is at distraction99.com.

 is the author of the YA novels Imaginary Girls (Penguin/ Dutton, 2011) and 17 & Gone (Penguin/ Dutton, 2013), which were both named as 2014 Outstanding Books for the College Bound by YALSA. Her new novel, The Walls Around Us, is forthcoming in Spring 2015 from Algonquin YR. She will have a short story in the YA horror anthology Slasher Girls & Monster Boys, coming from Dial/Penguin in Fall 2015.

Well, as Jon Stewart says, that’s our show! Please do check out these wonderful writers’ blogs and their works!